Every day is a gift, that’s why we call it the present.

More of gifts and presents later dear reader! Firstly I want to say “ Salut et bienvenue à nos amis françaises Josiane et Didier – j’espère que vous avez cherché ce blog et maintenant vous le lisez!!”

Now I’m sure you are thinking we have a linguist here – and I can assure you this is me, not Google translate! I would never ( that should be both underlined and in bold type – capitals to top it off) have considered myself in any shape or form, a linguist . French at school was a disaster – I remember from class“ Je vais au marché et j’achète……from whence would commence a list of individual items one might buy in a market from each class attendee – pamplemousse was a favourite, as were pomme and the inevitable pomme de terre! Then of course I remember “ Zut alors , dix escargots” – however neither of the above were of much use when forty years on, travelling through France, I wanted to converse with the people around me, or ask for a beer, glass of wine, ham sandwich . Strangely whenever I met someone I was neither on my way to the market, nor close to ten snails! So , surprisingly perhaps for you, as I like to be able to communicate with people around me, I decided to start again with French. My cousin was learning Spanish using a system called Duolingo on her i phone. Dear reader , the rest is history – daily lessons and I can now communicate ( after a fashion) with our French friends . My problem is that Spanish is my natural second language so I do find speaking French requires a lot of thought and effort – but I can do it! What would my French teacher from back in the day say – probably “Zut alors Jane!!”However I should be honest and tell you that when the Dearly Beloved and I are with our friends , the language spoken is Frengish ( or a combination of Spanish, English and French) as the DB struggles with Spanish and French- give him German any day!

There I go again – I find when I’m writing and I get distracted ( after all I was only welcoming friends to my blog!), it’s like going upstairs to get something, and when you get there you can’t remember what you went for!!! What am I talking about I hear you say …….you mean it hasn’t happened to you! Well, wait and see because it will happen to you sooner or later!!!

Now back to where I started – with the gift and present theme ( oh this may be a tissue warning by the way …)

So the other day the DB and I went shopping to a nearby mall – we were looking for a bathroom towel rail . Yes I know, we know how to live! I also took the opportunity to have a wander to my favourite shop in the mall – and the DB went off on the auspices of looking for a particular bottle of wine that we had shared with our friends in Andorra.

Now, I thought no more about it – visited in peace and tranquillity the places I wanted to go to, and then went to the appointed meeting place which was a cafe next to the supermarket where the DB had reportedly been.

Now this cafe was opposite a shop that stocked amongst other glittering objects, Pandora jewellery and herein lies the tale…..( and we are going to go back in time now!)

In February 2014, I had surgery for breast cancer. The day before the operation we ( the DB and I) were treated to a luxury 4 D scan of my eldest son’s first baby. I’d had no idea where we were going or what we were going to do – however having seen a beautiful baby boy, we then went to meet up with the rest of the family not far away. Only Emma, the eldest, was missing. Then I was presented with a Pandora bag from all of them ( it’s alright I haven’t lost it, I know where I’m going with this one!!) – and Emma was FaceTimed. What’s this I remember thinking? Well it was a beautiful bangle with four charms – a heart with Mum written in all its forms, a charm with family holding hands interspersed with gold hearts, a charm full of lovely faces with love and family written in it and a charm with a map of the world. Now dear reader the last one stumped me I must admit – but I have never forgotten Emma’s words when I seemed puzzled – “ It’s because you mean the world to us, Jane.” ( Don’t say I didn’t warn you!) If I tell you that bracelet comes off my wrist at night and goes back on in the morning every day, you can perhaps understand why!

The observant amongst you however will have noticed that there was someone missing in all this – you’ve got it, the DB ! None of the children had told him about this because they didn’t want me to know ( and as one of my daughters in law says if she wants something keeping quiet, “ Don’t tell Nick alias the DB – he can’t hold water!”) So he was equally in the dark but clearly felt a little left out – so disappeared later , returning with a charm of a kennel to add to the bracelet from Millie Dog.

So now we return over five years later to the shopping mall and the jewellery store. The DB had asked me several weeks ago if there were any Pandora shops near us – “Oh yes” I’d replied “in Portal la Marina”, but thought no more about it.

It transpires that the search for the wine was a distraction dear reader! However in his endeavour to find what he wanted from Pandora and surprise me, he had been unable to even find the store, let alone what he was looking for, and had traversed two floors and the whole mall in his search, only to find me sitting opposite it waiting for him!!!

So the element of surprise evaporated but he knew what he wanted, and I now have a beautiful silver entwined heart charm added to my precious bracelet. This was when I decided on the title of this blog! I can hear you all going “Aaaaah” now – and indeed it is warranted, but wait for another blog on the DB’s present buying ………….He is famous ( some may say infamous!) in that department – and not always for the right reasons !!!!!!!

Now for more lighthearted news! We went to the beach yesterday – well you can see what the weather is like! As soon as we got there I was taken back in time – this particular beach in the afternoon is known for the wind and attracts numerous kite surfers. However yesterday there were none – instead there was this-

Yes a windsurfer! We certainly don’t see many of them on this beach now. I don’t know whether any of you have attempted this sport……..but yes you guessed it, I have! On a holiday to Fuertaventura ( long ago and in a previous life!) with our friends Linda and Mike( an avid and experienced windsurfer) I decided that I would like to learn how to glide effortlessly across the water with the aid of a sail – so signed up for 5 lessons from who other than Jesus! Well what can I say – I could stand on the board and even move forward ( not difficult over there, wind is in plentiful supply), however, despite his namesake, he couldn’t work miracles . I could not turn the windsurfer – so short of taking a cheap wind propelled trip to Africa , I decided it possibly wasn’t for me! However,I remember when windsurfing was the “IT” sport- and it was at the time I moved to the “North” ( via Watford Gap and upwards!- contrary to popular belief, no passport required)

I worked at a large hospital in a northern town. I remember the junior doctors all coming to work with their VW Golfs – and strapped on the top by way of a roof rack were……you’ve got it ……their windsurfers. After work they’d go off to the local reservoir and show off their bodies and their skills. It was a real “who’s who” in the car park – probably all hoping to be the strongest “babe magnet” Then one day in the doctor’s carpark, amongst the melee of windsurfers, lythe bodies and top of the range VW Golfs there appeared a most peculiar site – a basic Citroen with an ironing board on top strapped on with rope……………talk about iron …..y!!!! Needless to say, the owner of the Citroen wasn’t lythe bodied, nor interested in the sport, nor could he be described as a babe magnet but a more lovely guy you couldn’t hope to meet. Dave, I salute you! (Oh don’t think he liked ironing much either ….)

Well dear reader, the end is nigh – thank goodness I hear you say! I’m going to leave you with something I saw on a tee shirt which touched me – so until the next instalment –

“ In a world where you can be anything- be kind”