This time last year, we were getting ready to fly to Baja for a couple of weeks. We spent 10 days on the Pacific side and 6 days on the Sea of Cortez. I loved (almost) everything about that time. Every morning in Cerritos, I swam in the pool. I was usually the only person in the water. I swam, hummingbirds darted in and out of the Palo de Arco flowers and a couple of feral cats watched me with disdain. In La Paz, there was also a pool and I swam there too but the best swim of that part of the trip was when we went for a day’s jaunt on a boat that took us to a sea lion colony on Los Isolotes off the tip of Isla Espíritu Santo, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. After the sea lions, after looking at nesting colonies of blue-footed boobies, magnificent frigatebirds, brown pelicans, and others, we went ashore on this beach for a picnic and a swim for those who wanted to.
This year we thought about a return to Mexico, maybe to Guanajuato, and we thought about a few other places (warm! Good swimming!) and then we talked to our family in Ontario* about getting together in Portugal. They have a week, with a weekend at one end, and we have all the time in the world so we decided to fly first to London, see some plays and concerts, do a few things we haven’t done, though we’ve been to London many times, and then we’ll join our family in Porto. We were going to explore a few other cities after they leave–Lisbon, which we know a little; and Coimbra, which we don’t– but then we received an invitation to Granada, in Spain, to do a reading and presentation at the University. I’ve never been to Granada and I look forward to exploring the Alhambra, eating some delicious tapas, drinking some crisp wine, and reconnecting with the friend who invited us to Spain.
This is my last day as a 68 year old. I’m feeling Time’s winged chariot behind me as I write. There won’t be a cake with 69 candles or sparklers but I think there will be prawns for dinner, and the soft light of a lamp turned down. When I turned 60, John arranged a series of surprises in Vancouver over two days and one of them led in a strange way back to 1976, a birthday in France, and an unexpected telephone conversation with Samuel Beckett. I don’t think there will be a comparable moment this year. But whatever happens will be welcome. Coffee in bed, a collection of presents, the warmth of a fire when I come downstairs, the voices of my family as they call to sing Happy Birthday, something my parents always did and we continue the tradition.
When I swam my slow kilometre this morning, I began the process of thinking my way through a new essay. I thought to myself that I spend so much time in the water I should be writing about it, what it means to me, and later today I’ll put my thinking down on paper. A beginning, as this year is beginning.
*actually, they’re now our Quebec family, having moved across the river…
...Theresa Kishkan 
Your travel plans sound delicious. Happy day-before-your-birthday, Theresa. I hope you know how much your words and reflections are valued and enjoyed.
This is so nice of you, Leslie. I hope you have a good winter — and after that, spring! (Bulbs are up here, which is a bit ominous.)
I look forward to that essay.
Happy Birthday, Theresa!
Also, what Leslie said.
Thanks so much, Carin.
I hope you had or are having a joyful birthday, Theresa. Portugal is on my list too; someone left a guidebook to Porto in my Little Free Library, so it’s now in my travel bookshelf. Maybe next year. Those shots of Mexico made me drool; it’s so cold and grey here. Oh Canadians have to be tough.
Thanks, Beth. A quiet birthday after a busy holiday season: exactly right. We went to Portugal in 2015 and loved it — John had been many years ago, in the 1970s and always wanted to return. We particularly loved Evora, a small city in the Alentejo area. I’m looking forward to exploring Porto in the company of grandsons. We aren’t going until late February though. Still have January’s chill to get through…
Congratulations Theresa on reaching the big 69 plus a day. Your planned holiday sounds wonderful. I enjoyed a great holiday in Porto and the Douro Valley, and this year had a week in Portugal’s Azores, which I highly recommend. And how nice to get an invitation to Granada. Made me wonder if some of your writings have been translated? John
Thanks, John! I had a lovely birthday. And I’m looking forward to a return to Portugal. My first trip abroad, age 29, landed me briefly in Spain, but I didn’t travel to Granada so this will be so interesting. As for translation, my novella Patrin appeared in French as Courtepoint. Individual essays and poems were translated to French, Czech, and Hebrew.
Portugal sounds wonderful! Happy belated birthday. Another friend of mine just turned 69 today (the 7th) and to be honest, I’m shocked—seems only yesterday you were both turning 65. Then I remembered that later this year I will turn 64! How does that happen? The pandemic years seem to have functioned as a bit of a black hole to my sense of time passing. 🙂
Thanks, Joe. It’s certainly a riddle, the enigma of time. I watch children and grandchildren gather years and yet they seem still as I first knew them. How can that be???
Happy birthday. I think I’m late in wishing you but I hope you had a wonderful day. Granada!! I was there in November, visited The Alhambra and it is simply magnificent! Lucky you! I love Spain.
Thanks for your good wishes, Pearl. I’m looking forward to visiting Granada. Have been to Spain, long ago, but not to Andalusia.
Happy Belated Birthday and I’m glad you have such fine memories to carry with you through these 2024 days, birth-days and other-days. I wonder if those feral cats give EVERYone in the pool the same look…when I think about it, I can see where they’d think it rightly foolish to get into the water when there’s a perfectly good sunny stone spot to be instead. (Also, Samuel Beckett? Well.)
The cats were out there every morning, sleek and arrogant. There was a little palapa at one end of the pool that was a bar, I think, and maybe served food too, not open first thing in the morning! So maybe mice, maybe even rats? And gringo swimmers to sneer at…