A Year Has Gone

I've made it! One year. 365 days without a miss. I never thought I would but once you get past 100, you just have to keep going!

The best part for me is looking back and seeing how my life has changed since April 29th 2012.

2012 saw me in a very dark place. Suddenly unemployed after 30 years in teaching, no home of my own and few prospects that I could see.

But with the support of family and very good friends and an unwillingness to roll over and let life put the boot in, I determined to make a comeback.

A year ago today, I moved into my beautiful little cottage in Crunklaw, on the Scottish Borders. The landlord was a friend of a friend and waived the need for a deposit and said to pay the rent when I could. I never missed a due date.

I managed to get a job working in "Paradise", otherwise known as Currys in Berwick to tide me over while I tried to make my plans for the future. The management and staff there were real mates and made me feel valued once more, even if I was a fish out of water for a while!

I tried for a few teaching jobs in the area, but to teach in Scotland is impossible without the appropriate registration and I didn't get very far.

Then one day in November, something made me take a look at the Times Educational Supplement on-line. It was completely the wrong time of year for teaching positions and I don't know why I did it. But out of the screen jumped a position teaching Physics at an International School on the Costa del Sol, ten minutes down the road from where my mother has been living for 25 years.

I applied and a couple of weeks later, I received a call from the Principal while I was in Paradise. We chatted and after a Skype interview later that day, I was appointed and had to start a week later.

So here I am. My career has been rebooted, I live in a lovely apartment overlooking the deep blue waters of the Med and to top it all off, in early January I met Jacqui, the icing on this wonderful cake.

And it all happened in a year. I may not feel quite the pressure to blip every single day from now on, but it serves as a great way to write a journal of one's life. It doesn't need to be a portfolio of great photos, but I hope it is occasionally interesting.

As always, my heartfelt appreciation to those who return time and again to see what's occurring on the Costa and also to the new visitors who pop by from time to time.

Onwards and upwards!