It's Still Light at 4pm!

 I was pondering this afternoon how everything has changed so dramatically to the better for me, thinking back to last year November when one evening I came home and just cried because customers had sucked the last bit of energy out of me, what with "Black Friday" approaching and offers being not good enough in their eyes. I had sold worth of around 10k that week on top of my normal work, and two weeks later would get a kick in the butt because one of my 'regular' customers refused -rightly- to talk to me or anyone in my office. It didn't count towards the bonus either of course. 

Sharing an old, not-well maintained flat with my son and his friend had become a disaster, and I was dreading that time when everyone is expected to be cheery. Darkness falling from around 3.30 onwards was not helping; I got to work while it was still dark and left work when it was dark already. My promise to myself of becoming a merry widow was in serious jeopardy, as there was little I found to be merry about and all I could do was to desperately hold on to knitting socks and embroidering and prettyfying pieces of fabric just to find some joy somewhere.

Now? The difference to a year ago is so stark, it's almost incomprehensible. I share a maisonette with 3 others. My room is on the top floor, together with one of the bathrooms, the washing machine, and a terrace twice the size of my room. The others are a young female Peruvian chef, a young gay Brazilian who works in IT, from home, and an Iraqi refugee who works in construction. Sure, I could find some gripes, about little miss bossy boots ("You MUST go out to the beach! It's SO good for you!" - LOL) or Mr South America's lack of cleaning the kitchen after his cooking sprees, or Mr Hussein picking my brain every minute he's at home about bettering oneself/psychic phenomena/finding a girlfriend, but seriously? Allow me to share the beauty of sharing a home with these three people:

"I'll take you to that farm on your next day off." And yes, we are going on my next day off.

"Do you have time now? Let's take the bus to Lidl, then you'll know how to get there." It was an epic shopping trip.

"Don't cook: I made enough to feed an army, and it's all vegetarian." I have no doubt army food is way inferior to what I got to eat.

"This is how you get to Malta's most beautiful beach: Take bus X, get off at Y, then turn right, cross the road and take bus Z to stop A. That way, you only have a 3-minute walk to the beach." It saved me a 20-minute walk on a main road.

The weather is still beautiful. Cooler, yes, much cooler. The high now is around 20 degrees C and the low 15. Northern England, meanwhile, has highs of 8 and lows of 2. AND when I wake up at 7am, the sun is shining, or at least it's daylight on a rainy day, and the sun is still shining at 4pm.

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