pommepal

Decisions…

I’d rather be…. What???

Well I have been pondering this question since first thing this morning when I checked this weeks photo challenge.

It continued to niggle and bother my brain as I sat in the medical centres waiting room. I was there for my annual health review. Do you know the one? Spell world backwards, recite sentences, draw geometric diagrams, get blood tests, be weighed and measured, answer a series of questions about diet, mental health and so on and on. Do you have that in your part of the world? It is preventative Medicare and I was declared fit and well, scoring top marks.

I looked around as I waited and the other people did not look very well. Most were overweight, one very big bloke was coughing explosively.

I thought I will turn that phrase around, because there really is nothing I would rather be than declared that I am healthy and able to do anything I would like.

So instead it is “I like to be…” here and now…

I live in the moment. This is the third age of my life. In the past I have travelled extensively and though I do still get the stirrings of desire to see more of the world I am now content and realistic enough to know that travel is so much harder as you get older and now I armchair travel in the virtual world of Word press. I avidly follow Lignum Draco on his adventures through Cuba, his photos take me there. Last September I walked the Camino Track with Jill and husband John a determined couple from New Zealand. There are many more.

So now I enjoy gardening, drawing and painting and walks along our local beach and sitting on the back deck with a glass of wine appreciating the cooler weather of Autumn (27C) and being thankful I can watch a glorious sunset.sunset 011_4000x3000

 

44 comments

  1. Amen! I am more content to be closer to home, but still want to venture out a bit further. Your neck of the woods is on my Bucket List, but time waits for no woman or man. I may never get there so I am loving your posts and thankful you share here on WP so I can see your world. xx

    I’m happy you got a great report from the Dr. I always get my back up at those physical evaluations. They’re so intrusive! I’m never comfortable with giving up all my privacy to have medical insurance and coverage.

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    • Thank you Deborah. I will still do the occasional trip to satisfy my gypsy cravings, but they will, possibly, be closer to home now. But who knows what the future will bring… 🤔

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  2. I like your words Pauline,my association, I’d rather be … a hammer than a nail, words of El Condor Pasa, I love the melody but you should have written the words. You would have written about eagles. 😎🐨

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  6. I love your serenity and contentment, Pauline. And yes, a lesson, to simply enjoy all that we have. I’m going to the funeral of another old friend tomorrow, and you can’t help but think that life is precious, no matter how much the wind howls outside. 🙂 🙂

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  7. Life passes so quickly now. But I am also content not to stray too far these days. The act of travelling has lost its appeal. I just need them to hurry up with instant transportation methods! Do you pay into Medicare then like a private health insurance? Or is it similar to the NHS where health care is free.

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  8. I do a great deal of armchair travel as well. I thoroughly enjoyed Lignum Draco’s New Zealand series, and have just started following his Cuban exploits.

    I think your day sounds dreamy and just how I would love to spend mine!

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  11. Glad to hear you are completely fit! We have a health care system similar to yours, I think. But I have never had a check-up until this year. And then they will do it again in 5 years. A privilege I do believe. I wonder how many countries have that?

    I have just attended a funeral for an old friend as well. I have lost some of them these last years, and I try to think, that when my time is up, I must be content to have lived this long and a (mostly) good life. So many people haven’t…and so many people die young. My husband’s best friend died at the age of 29. I was 23 then, and found it very hard to see this fit and well trained young man dwindle and leave. Somehow that experience set the pace for our traveling life. Life might end any day, any moment. I don’t travel that extensively anymore either. I admire you and your husband’s ability to settle down and relax, to walk and to sketch and feel your garden grow. I am there now, ready to sit down, but my husband is not. That is why he travels mostly alone. I only join in when there is a place I have always wanted to see, or when it is only for a week or a couple of days…

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  14. ll of your posts are wonderful, full of ‘you’ but this one was especially nice1 Jack’s comments to you are always endearing and add a sweetness to the finale comment section of the post! I hope that the weather is better there – I’ve been reading/watching via offline options, but wow, you’ve had a lot of serious weather and waves, etc…. now that the equinox is ‘over’ perhaps things will get calm….

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    • Lovely to hear from you,thank you Lisa that is such a lovely comment. The weather is still very unstable at the moment 3 cyclones are swirling around the country. Fortunately for us they are mainly up north and we just get the tail end of them creating huge swells in the ocean and plenty of rain. The rain is always a bonus for my garden, but in other parts of the country it causes bad floods. Yes it should calm down soon, but who knows there is no “usual” about weather anymore.

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  15. Such a thoughtful, personal post Pauline. Glad to hear your health is good but you’re probably not the sort to give in easily to the natural aches and pains of aging. My husband is older than I am and I’m determined that we travel while he/we can although our trips are a little less adventurous these days. I have a close woman friend and do some more energetic travel with her – so privileged to have these choices. Living in the moment too with a glass of wine appreciating the sunset – I’m with you!

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    • Lovely to hear from you and yes you sound like us, cut your cloth and all that… We now do closer to home trips. How is Romy? I hope he is fully recovered. Have you had much snow where you live?

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      • It’s been a terrible winter Pauline and it still won’t give up although it’s officially supposed to be ‘spring’! Romy is doing really well and should be ready for riding by May – needless to say I’m very excited – him probably less so since his vacation will be over:-) Warm wishes to you both.

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