Agent of Distraction

i done gone to the canaries y'all!

(Just a few, so no one's eyes or browsers explode or anything)

And the roads stretch on before you, and flow on and on and on... (On the far left of the picture is the peak of Teide, the volcano that vomited up Tenerife)

"The woods are lovely, dark and deep. But I have promises to keep/ and miles to go before I sleep." (Tenerife contained some of the worst signposting, and the loveliest and hairiest driving I had ever witnessed. The road up towards the peak of the volcano would eventually lead its winding way above the clouds to a landscape as austerely beautiful and barren as the moon. But on the way up and down we would pass through a wooded landscape, drifty with the scent of pine and mist.)

Sunset on a nudist beach. Not that there were any naked people in evidence because it was cold, and windy, and everyone was fleeced up to their eyebrows. Well, except for some hipppies that is, who would periodically climb down from a lean-to on the rocks, get their kit off, dip themselves into the sea, dress, climb up and proceed to try and wrest some mournful, tuneless musical notes from a couple of plastic bottles filled with seawater. But still, he made my sunset experience all the more memorable, and for that, I thank him.

And so, to bed. (The last of the day's light)

in which I take time out to recover from naboplomo and life

I didn't expect my Post-NaBloPoMo silence to last this long but Things Happened.

Things like Z's thrity-third birthday. And mad industrious insanity at work whereby I supported clients and colleagues alike, while planning four Christmas Parties for communities we work with (while by a stroke of genius managing to be on annual leave for three of them; days off have never tasted sweeter). And lying about on the bed whimpering in pain because my joints hurt and life was unfair blah blah blah. And finally going off to Tenerife for a week for the Most Needed Holiday Of The Year, or Possibly This Lifetime, My God.

In our absence, the Handsome Administrator from work agreed to come sit on my home and my cats and on our return we discovered that lo! not only were the critters present and correct, but also that the house hadn't burned down although it was cleaner than we had ever made it. I want the Handsome Administrator to come live with me forever, for obviously his are the ways of righteousness.

Tenerife was wonderful. Z and I trotted out our pidgin Spanish, and stuffed our extremeties with as much food, and drink and sleep and sightseeing as the shackles of humanity would allow. I experienced some of the most beautiful things ever (dolphins and whales swimming in the wild, mist-cloaked woods that offered up pathways and begged us to follow, a sky strewn with a million zillion burning stars) and also one of the most frightening (of which more later).

We came, we saw, we photographed (sweet gods, did we ever) and we flew home today on the arms of a spectacular sunset that seemed to stretch into infinity.

(Pictures are forthcoming, as soon as I sort out more sleep, and a FlickPro account).