My first experience of mainland Spain, as an eighteen year old, wasn’t good!
So bad in fact was that first visit I didn’t return for another 24 years.
I visited the Canaries and Mallorca but not the mainland.
The original ill fated visit was with a work colleague who would later play a role in my decision to make 2017 the year I realised my dream.
My return to the mainland, to Mijas Pueblo, came in the form of a girls break in 2004 and it coincided, unfortunately, with the unexpected passing of my mum.
Mum was diagnosed with terminal cancer in February of that year but was doing well as the prearranged break approached in April. On the second day of our trip she took a turn for the worse and I was unable to get a return flight until the next day. I slept badly during the night having managed to talk to her by phone in the hospital assuring her I was on my way home. I woke suddenly at 4.45 am and went out on to the balcony and as I looked down towards the sea I sensed she was gone – I felt very calm and strangely comforted by the view.
I would later learn that mum left this World, peacefully, at 3.45am UK time – 4.45am in Spain!
The amazing outcome of that experience in Mijas was that, rather than having an enduring bad association with Spain, I fell in love with the country right there on that balcony and each time I return I get the same sense of calm and comfort – Spain had claimed my soul!
I went on to spent many happy times there and The Dream grew legs and started to gain pace each time I returned.
Mijas 2014
THINK : ACT : LIVE 