Crisps, Mountains and Happy Spanish Landings.

Finally parking up the car...

The Arrival

As I write this… I am living proof that we arrived, amazingly in one piece, at our new home in Spain.  My silence here over the past couple of weeks is because we promptly slept and drank and ate and slept some more.  Not even my laptop had the usual pull of a heroin fix… not that I know what a heroin fix feels like… but you get my drift.  We were absolutely frazzled, fried and wiped out emotionally, mentally and physically.

But here’s what happened before we landed.

We’d left the sanctuary of our friends in Mid-Pyrenean France with heavy hearts.  There was a part of me in denial, which believed we’d be arriving in Spain that afternoon… but the reality was, Orgiva was another 2 days drive away.  A time travel, ‘Dr Who tardis type machine thing’ would have been very, very welcome that morning.

But driving was the only option… so drive we did.

I’ve shared enough driving stories over my last few posts and to be honest, there were no real dramas on these last two sectors. Thank God.

Welcome to Spain!
Welcome to España!

So this is what the Spanish border looked like as we drove across the line …. and here’s how shattered and knackered we were by the time we reached our overnight pitstop near Valencia.  

We’d been on the road for almost 8 hours and I was crabby beyond crabby… My Gorgeous Man had totally glazed over with motorway tunnel vision… and we had a very fed-up and knackered dog in the boot.

There was only one choice… a great big, motorway service station creative crisp picnic in our budget Ibis bunk beds.

Loving Living the Ibis Dream!
Loving Living the Ibis Dream!

Max took up most of the floor… because the room really was that small.  MGM took the double bed… because Sir Maxelot would no doubt try to get in beside him later in the night… and MGM is his favourite.  And I had the bliss of the top bunk all to myself.  OMG… it was so comfy! 

It was most definitely time for a great big, comfort eating pig out and some much needed uplifting, healing, Strictly Come Dancing on i-player.  We could almost have still been in Edinburgh… not.

None of us slept that well… the room was a boiling hot, stuffy sauna and there was an annoying security bolt to prevent the window from properly opening… it drives me mad that we’re not credited with the responsibility of opening a window these days… but we did feel a whole lot better than we had the night before.   

Better enough to even pull some Fairy cards before setting off on our last day on the road.

A card for Max… a card for MGM… and a card for Me!

Fairy oracle cards for sharing our magical messages.
Faerie cards for weary travellers…

Max – Miracle Healing 
He’d made friends with another non-greyhound dog!  Bliddy miracle!

MGM – Laughter
After a dismal couple of years in Scotland where not even funny jokes were funny… a life filled with more fun, joy and laughter was awaiting in Spain!

Me – Positive Expectations Woohoo!!  Keep visions strong, high and clear for the ‘bestest’ most wonderful of outcomes!  I really felt this was for My work and Channelling Love’s Spanish Retreats in 2018!

So with the fairies at our back we all dragged our weary asses back into the car. 

Only 5 hours to go!

And boy… did those 5 hours…… D  R   A    A    A    A     G.

Not much to share on that front either!

But after about 4 hours, as we arrived on the edge of the Sierra Nevada,  my dream of living up in snow capped mountains suddenly became a real, reality.

My heart soared as the views unfolded before us. I got butterflies in my stomach… and… OMG… we really were moving to the Alpujarras!

It was stunning to see the mountains… with their sprinkling of snow and their immense size and ancient earth wisdom, looming ever closer towards us.

The Spanish Sierra Nevada
The Spanish Sierra Nevada…

We had a quick pee pitstop for Max and I followed the urge to get on Livestream… and found myself going all ‘gushy & gratitudey’ …  I mean… We Were Almost There! 

Sir Maxelot had had enough though and he upstaged my gushing with his grumps…. but WE WERE ALMOST THERE!

Then we arrived on the outskirts of Granada…. (we passed a great big shopping centre and made mental notes to explore it in the months to come!)… not too long after that, we drove through the village of Lanjaron where My Gorgeous Man and I had stayed in June and this whole new life had been born… then 9.3km further down the stunning windy mountain road we arrived in Orgiva… over the narrow bridge… stopped at the traffic lights… went up past the church… onto the cobbled road into the town square… past Rogelio’s (the agent who found us our new home)… and past the bakery with the frozen lattes to die for… past Baraka with the hummus and carrot cake to die for…. turning off onto a single concrete track out the other side of town… we crawled past the dead end sign and around the blind corner… past the gated house with 6 dogs peering out at the strange foreign car with a box on the roof and a strange, leggy creature in the boot… past the terraces of olives trees looking out onto the mountain opposite…and finally… we pulled up at our entrance gate.

I jumped out to slide back the entrance gate to the group of private, secluded cortijos… past more orange trees… past more olive trees… past yet more orange trees and around a couple of very tight bends and up steep inclines…. and we finally pulled up and parked in front of our new home.

Our new home!
Our new home!

WE HAD ARRIVED!!!

It was all a bit surreal…. and I felt like everything moved into slow motion.

Our dear friend Jo was waiting for us and she appeared like an angel out of the front door all radiant and smiling… and welcoming us home with open arms and a wonderful hand made, heart shaped sign on the door! 

And after lots and lots of hugs all round… it was definitely bubbles o’clock.

After a week’s worth of travelling, miracles, grumps, bumps, trust and everything else we’d been through in the run up to our new life in Spain…  we had finally made it.

Happy Landings in our new Spanish Home!
We made it!!

In a weird way… I could hardly believe it.

It didn’t seem real… and then in the same moment, massive waves of

OH MY GOD….WE HAD DONE IT!

WE HAD MOVED TO SPAIN!

OMG… We really HAD done it!!

Another bottle of bubbles was very quickly guzzled… sun drenched photos were taken under the olive and orange trees in our garden… and Sir Maxelot settled right into his new domain as if he’d never lived anywhere else.

Sir Maxelot immediately at home in his new garden!
Sir Maxelot at home in his new garden!

Shellshocked and more than a little bit pished because the booze went straight to our frazzled heads, we collapsed onto the sofa and let the reality sink in.

Well done my handsome MGM. 

You drove your family all 1800 miles to a whole new life in Southern Spain.  Well done Sir Maxelot for trusting us and coping so well with the journey.  And well done me… for… never giving up on the dream… and making us all move in the first place!

Over my next instalments I will be sharing the realities of our first few weeks in The Alpujarras… which involved MGM having to return to Scotland for family reasons… learning that windy days actually mean donning a smoke hood… learning where the strongest phone signal is in the garden… channelling challenges… a wild boar crossing… an emergency run to a vet in Spanglish… new found soul friends… wood and water runs… adjusting to mountain energies… being told that we’d have to move out of our new home by the end of March (yup)…. and most definitely accepting the fact that I needed more sleeeeeeeeep.

There’s never a dull moment when you follow your heart…

Love,

 

 

 

 

PS.
Did you know that gratitude is one of the quickest ways to turn your life around?  Being consciously grateful for what you already have in your life, shifts your energy out of lack and into abundance… which makes it a whole lot easier for the Universe to bring you the good stuff.

Try this exercise…
When you wake up… immediately write or say 5 things that you’re grateful for.  It can be as simple as the bed you’re in… the job you have… the breakfast that awaits… your friends etc

If you’re finding life a struggle… this may feel this is really difficult to start with… but the more you do it, the easier it becomes… the more you shift your energy… the more you realise you are blessed… and so the better life becomes… and the more the Universe confirms this by bringing more good stuff.

It’s a bit like dominoes… start the flow and it’ll pick up pace!

Don’t give up if you don’t feel like Wonder Woman or Super Man by day 2… keep going… really feel the emotion of what you’re grateful for… and keep going!  You’ll soon have a massive list of gratitude rather than just five forced starting points… and you’ll be feeling a whole lot better about yourself and your life!

And here’s my gushy gratitude as we approached THE ARRIVAL at our new home.

One Dented Car and Sir Maxelot’s Miracle

The Mid Pyrennees miracle setting...

You never know what’s round the corner… literally.  As I signed off on the last post… the sun was setting over the rolling hills of the Mid Pyrenees and we had about an hour of driving left to arrive with our friends near Brassac.

So what could possibly go wrong??

A sunset is beautiful no matter where you are...
French motorway sunset…

I put my laptop away as My Gorgeous Man turned off the motorway and started out on the country roads.  It was slow going after having been whizzing along at an illegal rate of knots with a couple of speed cameras flashing their disapproval at us. 

My inner rebel had secretly loved it.

It soon became very obvious that our headlights were hugely… not very bright at all.  We’d been very good European citizens and applied the very sticky headlamp stickers to our headlights so that our Right Hand drive car, now in a Left Hand drive country, didn’t blind any on-comers… but jeez… something else must have been up because we could hardly see a frikking thing. 

Putting the lights on full beam we crawled along the country roads, peering over the dashboard as if those extra centimetres would help… and we became more and more frustrated with the Google Be-atch who kept taking us past signs for Lauzerte… the first one said 10km…. then after 15 minutes… 9km… and then we had a full on WTF moment when the last sign we passed said 11km. 

If felt like we were going round in circles and we were rapidly losing our sense of humour.  It was made all the more frustrating because having spent a good few weeks with our friends a couple of years ago after we Left Hong Kong … we would actually have known where we were if we could just have seen where the heck we were going.

BANG!

Shit!

WTF?!?

Something had slammed into my side of the car… but all I’d seen was a fleeting shadow out the corner of my eye.

My Gorgeous Man and I were mortified and terrified into stunned silence

MGM… said “It’s ok… it’s got up and run off the road”….

I felt sick to my stomach and my heart began to break for whatever poor animal had somehow found the side of our car.  We hadn’t run it over, it had literally run out from the surrounding black and ‘bounced’ off the side.  Thank God we’d been going so slowly.

We’ve no idea whether it was a dog, fox or maybe even a small deer… but the impact was enough to make us stop… take a deep breath… and check out the car.  And try not to cry.  Whatever it was, had already disappeared back into the pitch black of the French countryside.

Where you share love, so you share healing.
Love is Healing…

I didn’t actually care two hoots about the car… as all I’d felt was the full shock and impact through my body.  How on earth  could it survive… and if it had got up and run off, surely it would be severely stunned, have internal bleeding, concussion and who knows what else.  My eyes filled with tears and my stomach churned.  I am a huge animal lover and abhor the pain, cruelty and suffering that comes at the hand of man… and yet, this was exactly what we had caused… albeit inadvertently.

MGM cautiously got out of the car to come round my side and see if there was any evidence of the impact. Thankfully there was no blood.  But there was a big dent in the wing…. and when I tried to open my door… it was jammed.  The dent was stopping the door from opening. 

Shit… that was a big impact. 
We were both shaky and very upset… but probably nothing compared to what that poor animal was feeling.

All I could do was send Reiki.  I didn’t want to feel into how the poor creature was… but I begged the angels to take care of it and if it was its time to pass, then please make it peaceful, quick and as pain free as possible… and surround it with comfort and LOVE.

My Gorgeous Man and I were so upset….

We started back driving in silence and crawled through the dark, having to fully handover trust to the Google Be-atch, to lead us to our friend’s home.  But the joy and excitement had been somewhat thwarted.

About a half hour later we came to the turn off and crawled even more slowly down the track to their gorgeous barn conversion.   We literally could have walked faster.

There's nothing quite as wonderful as being reunited with great friends after far too long a time!
Happy Friends!

And what a lovely welcome we received!
We were instantly uplifted and ….Damn it was great to see them again!  Huge hugs all round and massive glasses of wine were thrust into our hands as we all collapsed onto our respective sofas… with our respective dogs.

Now, admittedly there was a fair bit of tension in the air because of Sir Maxelot’s unpredictable and reactive history around other dogs… and sitting not far away from him was the massive gorgeousness of Tanzi, their 7 month old Ridgeback puppy… who was already almost the same size as Max.  And she was absolutely desperate to meet him.

With Max’s history of lashing out… we had to keep him on his muzzle and lead.  And as Sir Maxelot totally and obviously tried to blank Tanzi… and Tanzi pulled and whined and showed no signs of settling until she got to see her new ‘friend,’ we all tried to carry on our excited catch up conversations.

The wine helped hugely.

Dinner was soon ready and we thought it would be better to give Sir Maxelot some space and peace in our room with his own familiar bed and blankets while we all ate… and Tanzi could roam her home again.

About an hour later Scott went down to check on Max. 

And it was a sorry sight that greeted him. 
Our beloved Sir Maxelot had freaked out and destroyed about a third of his new memory foam bed… and it looked like he’d also peed on his blankets.

Our hearts went out to him.

We realised that he’d probably felt as if he was being abandoned again… and we felt sh*te.  His history as a rescued ex-racer with several unsuccessful attempts at re-homing, remained deep in his psyche and heart.  He’s such a sensitive soul.  So, seeing as we were so knackered and spaced out from the drive and dramas… we called it an early night and went to join Sir Maxelot and reassure him with all our hearts.

Max slept great that night.  On our bed.  He did a doggie starfish and stretched out his long, spindly  legs… while MGM and I clung onto the opposite edges of the bed and tried to sleep.  Having your dog on your bed leaves no room for romance in your relationship… but at that point we didn’t care.  Our little family was together… and we were half way to our new life in Spain.

The next morning we were very tired and achy from our contorted sleeping positions around Sir Maxelot… and we were admittedly anxious over how we were going to manage ‘the dog’ situation.

But… it turned out the Universe had it all figured out.

Long story short… we witnessed a miracle healing.

After an intense, nerve wracking up close meeting of much barking and canine behavioural boundary setting… Sir Maxelot and Tanzi settled into companionship. 

We couldn’t believe our eyes.

Our beloved Sir Maxelot sharing a window view with his latest fan... Tanzi.
The Miracle…

Tanzi followed Max around besottedly asking him to play… and Sir Maxelot, totally tolerated her.  So much so, off came his muzzle.  We were soooo happy, delighted, relieved.  It’s pretty stressful to have a reactive dog, as you are continually on high alert for potential encounters… even though you know the best way to help them is to drop your own fear and radiate calm, confidence and security.

But it was pure heaven for us to just him let go and witness a happy, muzzle free Sir Maxelot make himself quite at home.   And he scored a huge amount of extra delicious treats… and Tanzi’s leftovers.  Way to go Max!

What a gift.  A lot of the healing shift was down to our dear friends and their wonderful energy, trust and dog savvy experience.

THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!

But as the saying goes, all good things come to an end, and after a couple of days of relaxed fun, peace, laughter and far too much wine… it was time to hit the road again. 

My Gorgeous Man and My Friend’s Gorgeous Man had managed to un-dent the car wing so that the passenger door opened again… and new headlight lamps had been fitted at the local garage in the neighbouring village.  It had been boy bonding time at its best while us girls guzzled more wine and reminisced over our days flying the skies with BA.  With over 20 years of friendship we’d shared a ‘whole lotta life’s laughter, tears, challenges and crazy happy times.

So, from dog healing miracles and friends reunited… España was still calling… and our new life was waiting on the other side of another 2 days driving. 

There are gifts in every moment of this crazy life upon earth… and miracles are very much a part of it.

In my next post… we finally arrive at our new home!

Love,

 

 

 

PS.

Do you believe in miracles?
If not… then prepare to change your mind!

This is the story of Linda Pollock’s instantaneous healing from just one session of Channelling Love combined with Bio-energy healing.  Linda asked myself and Jo Beth Young for help when she was mysteriously struck down with 17 severe neurological stroke like symptoms, with a very poor prognosis for recovery.

Grab a cuppa and meet  Linda as we chat about her miracle healing and how it has totally transformed her life.

If you’d like to know more about working with myself and Jo Beth Young for one-off healing sessions or personal transformational programmes… click here… or post a reply below… or just email me!