Every day when I wake up I remember that I must never take my good fortune for granted. Few people are blessed with having so many good friends and a lifestyle which is, for me, as good as it could be. I was reminded of this particularly this morning when I realised that I only have 28 more sleeps before I leave for my other home in New Zealand. I can no longer say, as I used to, my other life in New Zealand because the two lives have now melded into one and I simply live one life in two places. To some extent that is because the world is not a large place from the point of view of communications with cheap telecommunication, mobile phones which link us wherever we are and broadband (at The Cottage, I wish!) which enables us to communicate daily as we please without regard for the time of day or night.
I suppose I first realised the smallness of the world about 10 years ago when I was in the Australian outback and was able to speak to Mum every day just to find out how she was and reassure her that I was still in the land of the living. And I was reminded again yesterday when my God-daughter, Lou, who was at the Grand Prix in Singapore, sent me a photo from her phone of the very race that we were both watching on different sides of the globe.
So when I leave Lewis for Napier on Monday 27 October I shall be happy and sad at the same time. But I shall not be going far, just, unfortunately, too far to go to the Woodlands Centre for coffee.
So in the next day or so, in addition to Eagleton Notes, I shall start to post on my blog A Hebridean in New Zealand. I hope that you will join me there.