Here’s something a little bit different for you all today!

This morning we woke up to hear the water unexpectedly gushing in full force along the acequia channel on the terrace below our wee hoose and as we didn’t get any water last week at our allotted time, we… REALLY, REALLY REALLY wanted that water to fill up our deposit.  When you know there’s not going to be any water over the summer months, you kind of get twitchy at the thought of running out and every drop counts. 

So we sent off a furtive WhatsApp through Google translate to the water manager for our area and we were delighted with a superquick replay saying “Cojela.”  What?  We were expecting a simple “Sí or No” back.  We were a bit thrown.  Thankfully Google translate, our much appreciated Spanish best friend, said it meant “Catch her!” “Take it!” or something along those lines.  We didn’t need to be told twice.

We were a go!

This morning was absolutely gorgeous… the grey clouds had lifted and there was a clear blue sky and sun was already super bright by 8.30am.  Being outside in nature was calling so I decided to go help My Gorgeous Man… and by help, I actually mean accompany… as he the one that opens the gates, clears the debris and muck from the channels as the water flows… and I basically cheer on from the sidelines and oversee.  Again, oversee is an exaggeration of my importance in the process.  

But then I had a better idea. 

Let’s livestream it!

Last month I was invited to join an online Feminine Business Mastermind Group of six amazing women who all run their own businesses to varying degrees of awesomeness in their own corner of the world.  It’s a way for us self employed, heart based entrepreneurs, to not go loopyloo trying to do it all on our own.  It means we all have support, inspiration, accountability and get a gentle kick up the butt or huge virtual hug when we need it.  So when I was talking about writing the Namaste This book, on the last call,  Katie had said that she would love to know more about our life and actually see what off grid looked like in real terms. 

Some of the most basic things that My Gorgeous Man and I have got used to and take for granted, are actually not normal at all.  So the seed was sown and I was inspired to get Namaste This Blog on Instagram and Facebook into the world of livestreaming and bring a slightly nervous, livestream-shy MGM with me.  Because let’s face it… he’s the REAL star of the show as he’s the one that makes this whole off grid thing work!  I couldn’t do it without him.  Nope.  Truth Bomb.  Mic Drop.

So this morning turned into our first LIVESTREAM appearance!  

We trudged the half mile or so up to where we divert the water down our channel and then hit the blue button to GO LIVE… and that was that!

 

We may still be in lockdown but our doors are now open and if you want to catch our lives then come on over and ‘Like’ our Facebook page and hit that all important ‘Notifcations On’ button.  We would really appreciate that!  It turns out that having a solid social media platform is really beneficial to getting a book deal.   I know, I mentioned the book again.

THANK YOU for  Liking our page and following us on Instagram where I post daily!

Elsewhere in the world of Namaste This, there’s been a whole lot of ‘wood chopping’ and stacking of the olive tree branches that were pruned in December during our first olive harvest… but I’ll save those stories and photos for next time.  There’s a lot more to it than you’d think!

Wishing you all a fabulous day and until next time… it’s Hasta Luego from us at Namaste This!

Love,

 

 

 

 

So…. here’s a summary of my journey over the last 5 weeks… or so.. because really I haven’t got a clue what day it is… and now I’m not sure that I even want to know… take it with a pinch of salt, a good few grains of truth and a dose of dark humour… because sometimes we just have to laugh our way through these exciting, crazy, challenging and transformational times on earth…

Spain locks down… and they mean it… initial selfish horror at not being allowed to go out… what about my coffee and donuts… what about my sanity saving yoga classes… what about my summer fun at the Orgiva Tea Gardens… what about getting to the laundrette because we don’t have a washing machine… what am I going to do all day?… I’m going to go mad… I hate being told what to do… I hate being limited… nobody can tell me what to do… I won’t be locked up (says the drama queen living like a hermit on the side of a mountain)… online local and international fabulous community kicks in… we’ve got this… we’re in this together… we’ve got the internet… we’ve got each other… we’ve got zoom and Whatsapp… we got the miracles and evils of Facebook…. calm returns… acceptance comes in…. Netflix is turned on… pizza is eaten…. and el cheapo cava is drunk…  inspired action flies in… art… writing… artycrafty things… amazing kids’ projects (I don’t have kids but wow… some of these parents are superbly creatively and inventively awesome)….  we’ve deffo got this!… what a gift this home time is…. we can breathe… we can just be… we don’t have to DO… Oh My God… I can slow down…. I don’t have to run around doing… wow… this is great… I love my fluffy daytime pjs… I feel amazing powerful positive energy… we are healing the world… we are holding our high vibe lane… I know it’s challenging but this is the catalyst for a new world!…  being out on the mountain and breathing in freedom and feeling the world shift through love and connection… all is well…. all is more than well…. I’m loving this…. OMG…. I am absolutely loving this…. Oh Shit… people are unsubscribing… shit… I’m losing work… shit…. I’m losing what little income we have… My Gorgeous Man has lost potential work… what are we going to live off… the fear spiral begins…. thank goodness el cheap cava is only €2 a bottle…. get a grip… calm down… you’re ok Sally… breathe…. drum…. drum harder… drum some more… you can’t control this… you’ll be ok…. Ashtanga yoga on Youtube… I imagine myself looking like that gorgeous slim bendy body as I pull back the rugs to lay out my fluorescent yellow mat….  I happily tie myself in knots and dream of my heels touching the down dog floor…. in front of the cooker….  while Sir Maxelot and My Gorgeous Man look on in fascinated disbelief… we live in one room so there’s no escape… it feels good… it calms… it opens and balances my body… is it wrong to be so content to be in your pjs the whole day?…the grey clouds cover the mountain tops and the rain comes in… being outside in nature isn’t much of a comfortable option anymore…. but the snow capped mountains are admittedly stunning… so… more falsely comforting el cheapo cava… more Netflix… home baked scones become a fascination… and challenge… MGM makes rock cakes… and we eat them… just because…. third time lucky with baking powder… yum… I’m getting fat… let’s make more scones…. oooooh… there’s a rave dance party on Facebook… headphones in… sports bra on… wild dancing… hopping… waving… jigging… reliving my younger rave years… music… oh my god I love music…. blasting out my headphones… Armin Ban Burren is da man!…. blissful in the beats and a dancing nutter to all outsiders…. uplifted… exhausted… and in need of more cava… but mostly bed… wake up next morning and my menopausal joints are f*cked… can hardly walk… ooops…. shit…. move less… calm the F down… more drumming on the mountains… creating drumming video clips… inspired healings… new energy and light language flows…. the energy is shifting and deepening… but oh shit… more work lost… panic… terror… despondency… and big black rabbit holes…. what’s the point… how are we going to survive… tears…. lots of tears… more tears…. self pity… drama… oh poor me… I can’t do this anymore… more el cheapo cava and soothing Netflix crime drama…. desperate messages to friends who pick me up and kick my ever increasingly wobbly ass… find gratitude… focus on the positive… get a grip… feel what you feel but don’t attach… come on… it’s not that bad… el cheapo is only €2… eat more crisps…. make more scones… follow your flow… don’t force… don’t push… don’t panic… inspired action… follow your heart…. I offer special discounted offers on my offerings and oh how wonderful… some subscriptions come in… breathe…. gratitude… gratitude… gratitude… oh my God… thank you…. think about juicing to reduce the rapidly increasing middle aged spread… supermarket runs looking like a highway man… doing the distance trolley dance while searching for self raising flour…. incredible, cloudy atmospheric sunsets… oh how I love these mountains… yoga impossible… walking allowed… knees… still pretty fucked… sneaky illegal but socially distant and compliant visit to my beloved naturopath… tissue salts… homeopathic magic… understanding… compassion… and ‘stop pissing about Sally and look after your body’…. ok… I hear you…. more thoughts about juicing and alkalising… but when it’s rainy and cold I just want pizza… and crisps… salt’n’vinegar crisps… and bags full of veggies for juicing for just me… means extra costs…. so more self denial and sabotage… but it’s ok because I’ll juice before lockdown ends… I know I will… I definitely will… I’ll emerge like a slender toned butterfly… no one will ever know the inner torture of my spare tyres… except if they read this… and realise that I’m only human and we’re all in the same boat… acceptance…. let go… surrender… allow…. energy picks up… healings shared…. channellings empowered…. the Star Beings ramp it up… and my little membership group feels the energy shift… we’re a go again… tears of joy… tears of love… tears of gratitude… yay!… more el cheapo cava…. seeing the good… stepping back from social media… it’s too busy… too pressured… too much forced trying… too much forced positivity… too much conditioned fear and social programming…. too much disempowering drama… too many conspiracy theories… just too much all round…. but I still read…. I learn… I feel…. and I follow what is right for me…. nope… don’t want to play there just now… peace… stillness.. quiet…. breathe with Mother Earth… my power comes from presence, not participating and following the crowd… bucks fizz for breakfast… naps in the afternoon…. listen to the birds…. the bee eaters and swallows have returned for the summer… bird song fills the air… when the rain stops… seriously grateful for the rain… even though wood for our wood burner stove is costing a weekly fortune… but comfort is our priority… I want to write…. yes… I want to write… it’s time for the book to be born… Namaste This… our story…. our adventures… our leaps of faith and WTF truths… mornings on the roof (when it’s dry) with the laptop… words come… I write…. words don’t come… I go for a gentle wander… nature… Mother Earth is my friend… my sister… my mother… my soul mate… part of me… I look to the heavens and say ‘WTF’…. and then notice an ant on the track just getting on with life… get out of your head Sally and back into your heart… and breathe…. write… channel… drum…. follow your joy… follow the good stuff…. listen to your intuition… listen your body…. yes… juicing definitely starts tomorrow… do what’s right for you… just one more glass of el cheapo cava then…. and maybe another batch of scones this afternoon 💜

We’ve got this… 

Love,

 

 

 

 

It’s been 151 days since my last confession – erhem – blog.   And you may well be asking (or not) “Just what on earth has been going on up in those Spanish mountains to warrant such a gap in our entertainment?”   Well, I always said I’d bear it all here… so the truth is that it’s been a bit of a rocky road… there’s been some soft and squishy marshmallow bits but more of life’s hard crunchy bits.

There was however, a super duper major high point around Christmas when we were gifted the funds to be able to buy a new fridge.  Yup… a really tall, shiny silver fridge with… get this… freezer drawers! 

WHOOOHOOO!
I can’t tell you how this has transformed our experience of living off grid! 

First of all, huge amounts of research was done into which fridge would be the most compatible with solar power… then there was the size thing too… because at the end of the day our kitchen, is our living room, is our bedroom and we sure as hell didn’t want to be kept awake at night with the ‘hummmmmming’… of a ‘spaceship’  just a couple of meters away from our bed.

You all know by now, that My Gorgeous Man is THE absolute ace at online research, with tech details,  price and delivery comparisons… and we eventually bought one down at our local shop Expert in Órgiva… mainly because they had a great offer and could deliver it down our rather awkward track.  We also really wanted to support our local community rather than a faceless conglomerate and run the gaunlet of a grumpy courier scraping their van around the tight rocky corners.

 And I tell you what.  After living for over a year with a small ancient gas bottle fridge, where the shelves kept falling out and it either froze everything or the door just wouldn’t stay shut and everything was ruined… we felt like frikking millionaires as the silver ‘UFO of a fridge’ was gently eased down the steps and into our wee home.

Our life was complete.

And there was even more to celebrate.

To make space for our fridge (because essentially we’re a one room studio flat on the side of a mountain) something had to go.  And that ‘something’ was the old sofa bed that we had inherited with the property… aka… Sir Maxelot’s sofa.  This initially caused us a lot of humming and hawing… and guilt, but we reassured ourselves that because over the last few months, he hadn’t been able to get up on his sofa, and had spent 90% of his time on his gigantic memory foam, furry throne of a bed on the floor…  with the remaining 10% trying to take over our sofa… we guessed that he might not actually notice. 

We hoped. 
And we were right. 

As you can see, he was hugely non plussed with all the gleeful moving around of bits, bobs, fridges and sofas.

 

So hey presto… we moved the old sofa up onto the roof and suddenly we had an outdoor living room with the best view in the whole wide world!  Our stunning view obviously needed to be immediately christened with el cheapo cava sundowners at less than €2 a bottle… and we were truly blessed with an interlude of wonderful warm weather to make the most of it.

 

Of course… it’s now under a tarpaulin waiting for the return of the Spanish spring sun… laden and held down with bricks on the top because of the crazy winds that roar up our little ‘burranco’ … valley.  But we know it’s there… just waiting for us.  Not long now.

And I don’t want to labour on about how much of a morale boost, having a wonderful modern fridge is… but it really was… and it really, really continues to be so!  

 

 

And it’s just as well we had that boost, because…. and here’s where I’m going to be radically honest….  I spent the majority of December and January in a bit of  a dark hole… mostly brought on by just being well and truly exhausted from trying to make ends meet, being online so much and becoming a bit disheartened with myself… and add in the mega dose of menopausal hormonal shite… and I really wasn’t that much fun to be around.

The roof became the safe zone.

But I’m never one to stay down for long… and the upshot of it was that the black clouds did in lift in February… with help from my fellow healer wuwu witchy friend and a whole new range of tissue salts and homeopathic remedies.  It turns out these major delves into the depths of despair are a common experience for women of my era… except nobody talks about it enough and you think you’re the only one going loopyloo and down the plughole, never to resurface again.  Seriously… you’ve no idea till you’ve been there!

The Universe got everything aligned and I came back to ‘me’ just in time to head off on my Irish tour,  to share my long planned, in person Channelling Love Healing Circles, Universal Reflexology workshop and Rising Visionary day in Belfast and Galway.

And what a trip that was!  It was ah-mah-zing! 

The Healing Circles sold out, the reflexology weekend was transformational and the Rising Visionary day co-hosted with Jo Beth Young was incredible.  

Being in Ireland was medicine for my spirit and soul…. and staying with Jo, also opened the door to new creative wild wuwu ventures… but more about that another time. 

If you have a mo… delve into the montage below of my  time in Ireland… to feel the love… share the magic… and reassure you that even if you’re having a tough time… there are good times around the corner.  I promise you.

 

 

It wasn’t long after getting back from Ireland that the global shit really hit the fan with COVID 19 and Lockdown came into force in Spain.  I have never, ever been so grateful for living where we live… already isolated with nothing around us but nature.  I’m going to write about our first month in lockdown next week… because yes… I’m committing to a weekly blog as well as getting the Namaste This book all sorted, published and made into a Hollywood blockbuster by the time we’re set free at the end of April 2020. 

I do love a bit of positive thinking, envisioning and manifesting.

And to help me on my way to ‘authordom’  today is the first day of  #The100dayproject that I signed up to.  It’s a free event and it’s a way of keeping yourself accountable to spending time on your project every day for the next 100 days… and we tag and post an image on instagram to show how we’re doing every day. 

My special tag is #100daysofwritingthenamastethisbook  so no surprise that my project is the Namaste This book.  What else would it be?  And I even pulled the Self Mastery card from Cher Lyn’s Mystic Medicine Art deck this morning… so I think I’m all set mentally, emotionally and energetically for mastering myself through this process and making this book dream, come true.

Until next week then my lovelies… Hasta Luego!

Love,