Fifteen weeks more or less

A tapas night with Louise and Emma

I have been living here for fifteen weeks and today is my birthday so it's time for one of those "status update" posts. I spent my last birthday in Malaga with three great friends and we drank cava and toasted my future. I knew I would be in Spain for this birthday but at that stage I didn't know when, where and how I was going to do it. I knew that I wanted to try the training programme to become a Vaughan teacher and I knew that I wanted to take a sabbatical from RNIB and spend a winter in the sunshine. I went back to London with a determination that never waned but the task of sorting out when to come and what to do about my flat and all my belongings proved to be a big one and not one that was going to be easy during the winter months. In fact it was not until May 2009 that I finally started my sabbatical and by then I found the perfect person to live in my flat, had my training week booked and I was ready to go.

I came here on 13 June and started training on the Monday and within a few hours I knew that it was not going to work out. I was so glad I had my TEFL under my belt and some money in the bank as I was going to need it. I was lucky that I had somewhere to live with people that I liked - thanks, guys! By the end of the week of training, I was so relieved that I had tried it and that I was able to go my own way. I knew that my style of teaching was not the Vaughan way and I while I was scared, I was also excited at the prospect of seeing what else was out there.

A week of CV crafting and advert posting and I was soon teaching some teenage girls and loving it. It was the end of the school year and there was little work around but I was happy to have enough to cover my living costs while I settled in and adjusted to the heat. Summer in Madrid is an amazing experience as it really does get very hot and everything closes down little by little. I was glad not to be working though anxious about my swindling funds. Two weeks in London at the end of August was a great way to prepare for the start of the new teaching year and I came back to Madrid optimistic and more than a little homesick. It was no bad thing to realise how much I love and miss my city of London and friends and family. I now know that London will always be my "home" wherever else I might be in the world.

September has been a time of stress and anxiety as I realised that the promised teaching hours were not coming my way - or at least not straight away. The weather turned nasty here for a few days and I was cold, miserable and seriously thinking of going home. This was not how it was meant to be. Then I got active and started contacting everyone I could find who might give me teaching work. More interviews and more promises. If everyone I have registered with gave me work I would have a nice problem! Within a week I had students who wanted conversation classes and I had company classes coming my way. I had also done some proof reading and was feeling optimistic of finding more of that work.

I gave myself until the end of September to make a decision about my future. Should I stay or should I go? I am pleased to say that I am staying and the sun is shining on my birthday.

So as it is my birthday, I am going to say thank you to a few folk who I owe a lot.

To Emma for being there whenever I have needed you and for being such a great mate, to Francis for taking on my flat and for giving it some much needed TLC, to Louise for telling it how it is right from the first day I met you and for being such a generous friend with time and belongings, to Jane for being so supportive and excited about all that I do, to Yolanda for coming to spend a week with me in this hot and expensive city, to Raul for showing me a Madrid I would never have known and for being a true friend, to Pedro for the room in the strangest flat I have ever lived in, to Pilar for teaching me Spanish when I am meant to be teaching you English.

Sundays at Casa de Campo

A tiny creature - not a leech - we met near the pool in the cool green grass

My new swimming pool is next to the metro at Lago and I love it! It is actually three pools but I stick to the big pool with terraces designed for adults. The pool is two metres sixty centimetres of deep blue water and surrounded by mature trees. Floating in the centre on my back with the sun on my face is bliss! There are leafy glades around the pools where families spend the best part of the day and where we find tiny insects amongst the blades of grass. It is a municipal pool so the changing facilities are basic and the showers are cold - and there are no lockers! The "peg bag clothes" hanger is filled and handed in to the cloakroom and valuables are left at home. There is a cafeteria here and also an open air public lending library!

The swimming pool is a great place to meet people. They are soon drawn to my English voice and I chat as I float and kick. I have met a Guatamalean head hunter and an Argentinian actress in this way! I swim until the sun goes down and they have to chase me out. The pool closes at 9 and after dressing, it's picnic-time.

Here we have the lakeside where the empty cafes and restaurants are desperate for trade in this crisis-hit summer. I love the lake and watching the people who go by. This is a busy area for couple-dom! There are gay guys cruising, young people are entwined on the grass, transvestite prostitutes patrol the avenue from the metro, families take supper and waiters serve ice-clinking drinks.

The first time we were here, we tucked into our homemade tortilla, fresh salads, fruit and bread and never had food tasted so good. As we ate, fireworks exploded overhead and across the city like a scene in a movie.

Later, there was a commotion at the metro. The police were out in force and there was broken beer bottle glass on the ground. We had missed the weekly sparring of people from Ecquador who come here to drink and fight. Now they are standing in family groups and it is quiet. Nearby I saw the gay man with the tartan shopping trolley who services the park people at night with I know not what. Possibily condoms or illegal booze. We talk to a young woman who works as a security guard at the station and she tells us about what happens here. She is frank with us, describing how she can use her baton to contain violence and which parts of the body she is allowed to hit - no bones and no head! She is matter of fact in that way of people who have seen it all before. I wonder if she goes home to a nice partner who hugs her. I hope so.