Just how many new beginnings or fresh starts do we manage, or allowed to have in life?
I’ve been fortunate to be able to have a few. At the time I might not have been thinking I was so lucky but now looking back over time I’ve realised that things happen and sometimes things happen for good reasons from bad situations.
I’m not sure if new beginnings is the right title, sometimes its about adaptation. Maybe metamorphosis is a better word for such occasions? The change of a person into something new, whether it’s the surroundings or the person themselves.
We don’t quite give our species enough credit for the way we change and adapt to small and large scale issues without our lives. From that, we also don’t also emphasise how much we should be accountable for the impact we create on others, and the environment around us. For every change, new beginning or metamorphosis we go through... It always has an impact elsewhere. We’re all hardy little buggers, we take the hits as they come and we move with it. Ok, it can impact our mental health, our relationships, our capability to take on the world etc, but somehow we muddle through.
So why am I writing this? Things are about to change for us. When I say us, I mean both Dan and I. After nearly five years of living on the Red Sea (Ten years for Dan!) ... it’s time for us to move. This is massive, and I’m still not sure it’s happening or that it’s real. I’ve become so accustomed to living here that I’m not exactly sure how I’m going to feel once it’s happened. We’re heading back to the UK, and Europe. It’s a long and complex story and I’m not going into detail just yet as a few bits aren’t confirmed and I don’t want to jinx it. Regardless of the details.. the next 3/4 months.. it’s happening. It’s going to be a huge adjustment in so many ways.
(Photo was taken at the airport the day I moved to Egypt to be with Dan, Feb 2016)
I love Egypt, I always have and always will. It has a piece of me that I cannot actually put into words. I started coming here in 2004 and to quote The Eagles “You can check out anytime but you can never leave”, except.. you don’t want to. I would use every excuse in the world to come back on holiday as much as I could. I developed long standing friendships here that will last a lifetime. Living abroad you make your own little family. El Gouna will always be so very special to us, it’s the place we grew a full relationship, a marriage and a long term love in. We found our animals and created our own family here.
However, since Dan joined NATO, we’ve both been yearning for more. Things that, sadly, we’re unable to get here. We also want to be closer to our families. After watching sickness, and injuries and passing from afar, we want to be able to be closer to them all, rather than having to plan everything to the smallest detail in able to get a holiday. Coronavirus brought this home when we realised just how everything suddenly became so much more difficult again.
In all honesty, Gouna isn’t losing much from our leaving. People come and go from this place often, its changed so much since we arrived in 2016 and I’ve very sure it’ll change a lot more in the oncoming years. What with Dan being away so much and me becoming a recluse it’s not exactly like we’ll be missed.
I’m very worried what impact this will have on El Gouna Stars, specifically the cat side. We barely have any volunteers and me leaving creates a void which I know is going to cause an issue. But sadly, no matter what I do this void would happen. All I can do is try and get as much done before I leave and pray to every damn god in the world that the balance continues. (Anxiety level just went up a notch writing this).
So that’s it! That’s the gossip. I’m sure I’ll be singing from the proverbial (twitter) rooftops as and when things start moving. I’m excited, so very excited to start new things. So many good things are sitting there and waiting and it’s now my time to go out and grab them.
As for the animals... Cervantes has got the OK to travel, I’m just waiting on Ghosty and Sasha’s rabies tests to come back and then I can start planning. In the meantime, does anyone have any spare suitcases that they don’t need???
Ciao for now.