No, this is not about the Donald!  He may wish so but it’s my blog not his tweet.

It’s fairly late, I feel tired, I have been suffering from a trapped nerve in my neck for several weeks now, just cleaned up a dead lizard killed by my blind cat, then washed the patio tiles and I thought how lucky I am.

It’s a Monday night, but that makes little difference as I am retired.  There is a good Trade wind blowing, which together with the Saharan Dust, it feels cooler and fresher tonight.  The stars are not so clear as the sky is a bit hazy.  Oh yeah, my last remaining Wisdom tooth is pushing through again.  So all in all, mixed signals to have a rush of positivity.

But reflecting back a year, almost to the day, I got an offer, that if I had accepted, would have forced me off the island.  At the time I had considered returning to live in Germany, my home for the previous 18 years, and a country, I both love and respect. Of course, 3 months later, the British electorate, in my not so very bloody humble opinion, exercised their democratic right in saying let’s leave the EU and deny him the chance to settle there.

That was probably the only upside of Brexit.  What would have happened if I had returned?  My level of German, despite protestations from learned colleagues, is sub optimal.  However, I have good friends there and so, with their help would have probably ended up negotiating a rental contract for a small flat in the Frankfurt region, slightly ahead of the predicted influx of British Bankers.

So apart from avoiding the Newbies or telling war stories of how I singlehandedly solved the financial crisis for the Euro (well you do exaggerate with a couple of beers), living in a small box, going 150 metres to the local supermarket, waiting until my old work colleagues had finished work.   Then being the old bore with only old stories to tell.  I am also not so good with the long dark winters and could get fairly depressed.

I think you start to see where I am going! It would be so wrong for me to go back to Europe, although, given a chance I would still fight for a European Passport rather than the, more Trumpish becoming style, British one.  Not the Ivanka with rhinestones!

For a number of years before I retired, I had an app on my iPhone that told me how many days to retirement. I was committed both to work and retirement. My health suffered from my work commitment and I cheated on the leaving date, getting out early with a little extra.  My retirement app was quite famous with people asking me “How many days?” on a very regular basis.

My dream has very much changed as well.  Before it was having a circle of friends, probably similar expats, having dinner parties around the pool or their pool, eating out, in or at someone else’s house on a rotation.  But as you know things have changed.  The tightened circumstances, together with a significant period of anguish, some realisation and an emergence, have brought out new levels of satisfaction and expectations.

I can’t afford posh restaurants except as a treat.  Treats have to be counted with famine. Wine bottle reserves have shrunk to less than 3 on a good day.  There has to be a balance, bank balance.  What I want is strictly measured with the former.  So I build wish lists or just forget as it is a luxury and I don’t need it.  Pool time is now beach time!

So what makes me so positive?  The invitation of a 3 year old to her 4th birthday party. Absolutely yes! Because I know her parents, because I know her Opa. Opa is a very laid back, ex teacher, here for almost 30 years. He sails, plays golf, bicycles, still teaches and can stand one legged like a flamingo. What an inspirational friend.

A lot of this centres around my girlfriend.  She has lived on this island for a very long time and she has so many friends of all varieties. Her friends, and also the friends I had expected to have made, have made my life so rich.  My poor wages, for doing nothing, don’t exceed hers for being a guide to the youth, who pass under her watch, to  understanding and wisdom. She provokes, an old guy like me, to find energy and purpose.  She shares with me, her unbounding and constant love, for the island we live on.  An island that the sun shines on every day.

So live in a box that you feel is your own or live in a beautiful world with some uncertainty for the future?

I feel Brexit in a warped way could learn from me.  But I am busy being happy in love!