Morning time travel on the beach

   

Santander, 2005

     Nothing has been happening on my blog lately, as you can see for yourself. Days got blurred, it’s just every day the same: some exercises in the morning, then sending CVs, applications, calling, then a walk and then watching TV series to turn off (or just to take the edge of) worrying and then I fall asleep. There is a shower and two meals somewhere between those.

     I’m frustrated. I know that eventually something will come up, but since I have literally no income and no savings at the moment, the waiting is a bit tough. Also, because I’ve just arrived, I don’t have friends to talk to or cry on their shoulder like a real man;)

    Yesterday I went to the beach in Crosby. I like the open water, I grew up in the mountains so I hadn’t seen the sea until I was maybe fourteen or fifteen. I got myself a surprisingly good apple cake (from “Everything under 99p”), and I ate it, looking at the sea and trying not to look at the jellyfish rotting all over the place. I got bit nostalgic. I tried to remember all the beaches we traversed together with Tatiana. 

     - Polish beach at Wladyslawowo, thirteen years ago, when we were selling oil paintings and it didn’t go well, so we were broke and sad, but we knew everything will be good (eventually). So young, so hopeful. Oh, and when a dog pissed on our paintings on a very hot day, and it was stinking so much that people were avoiding our stall like it was a leprosy colony. I love those two lovely guys (...ehem - us) when I look at them now:)

     - Santander beach in Spain. Two times. First in 2001. We took a break from living in a rural community near Madrid. We had enough of petty politics, gossip, power games, etc. So we just showed everyone finger and left. It was so nice to be free and aloof from all that, and being able to plunge our feet in the hot sand, holding hands and being young. The second time it was... let me think... 2005? I got that crazy job in a vegetarian restaurant. Six days a week, almost a whole day cooking and the boss’ wife didn’t like me (it was a mutual feeling). Sunday was our only day we could chill out with Tania. Usually we just walked through the beach few miles to get to the peninsula with the Palacio de la Magdalena, and then for few hours we talked, read, drew, write. The secret was to pretend that the tomorrow didn’t exist.

     - Beach in Bray (Ireland). 2005. We had just moved from Denmark and we were still not sure if it was the right decision. I worked as a vegetarian chef in Dublin, Tatiana was a care assistant in a nursing home. We both worked hard, then I lost my job, so everything was on Tatiana’s shoulders. Poor thing, she worked twelve hours shifts on the Alzheimer’s floor so usually at end of the day she was exhausted. On our days off we liked to have long walks (we always do), and sometimes we walked through that cold and windy beach. We never swam there, though I remember one time, late at night, when we were coming drank home from a pub with my friend, we took our cloths and intended to jump to the water, but Tatiana (and his wife too) gave us such a bollocking that we gave up.

     - Moncofa (Valencia), 2001. That was just a short visit. We cooked food for a black metal festival in the area. One day we decided to take a rest and we went to the beach. The water was soooo warm. The only problem was that we both are lame swimmers, and the waves were high and the deep water started just two meters off the shore. We bought a small air mattress, but then we got scared so we didn’t use it. We just enjoyed the sun and freedom. I remember also enjoying all those topless girls. Tania didn’t mind, we laughed and freely commented on the sizes, colors and shapes.

     - Copenhagen, 2004. I think we went to the beach only once. Usually the weather was shitty, the wind wanted to tear your head off, but that day was a real scorcher. We went together with Artur, our best friend, who eventually ended up in Orlando, Florida. I can’t remember much about that day. Just the feeling of being relaxed, happy, laughing, joking. Soon afterwards we left for Ireland, Artur for America, and things got a bit rougher, both for him and for us.

     I can’t remember more. We used to live in Bristol. Have we never gone to the beach there? I can’t recall. Maybe not.

     Ok, time for the morning fitness.

Tatiana and me in Santander, Spain, 2005, one of our Sundays