Some 8s

8 (ocho) in Spanish is a good number, it stands for luck and eternity. As yesterday was the 8th October and I arrived in Ibiza on the 8th February, it was my 8 months anniversary. I celebrated by pondering about my time here so far....

So, I think by general standards I'm doing pretty well! Bearing in mind I turned up here not knowing anyone, without work and not speaking the language, I've been pretty fortunate. It's not entirely true that I didn't know anyone here. A very old friend James has been on the island for about 5 years and although we had very little contact for about 16 years (something to do with going out and him breaking my heart), we'd resumed contact over the last few years. But if truth be told, our friendship tended to be wobbly - it was very hot and cold from his part. I'd never know if he'd act like I was his best friend or someone he barely knew. After a few weeks of this (and some very strange behaviour on his part), I decided to ditch him as a friend because he was pretty useless as friends go and I thought I'd be better off without him. Other island-residents I'd met when I was here last year also tended to be a bit flakey so I scrubbed my slate clean and started afresh!

This meant I pretty much started off my time here without any friends. That was really hard for me, as I've always been surrounded by lovely people. Even when I moved away to America and France, I made some very special friends very quickly. I struggled with missing my friends back in London and there was a time that I wasn't sure I wanted to do this. My time here seems to fall into quarters and the second quarter was tough. During this time, I'd met some lovely people like Ruby and Jenna but it takes time for acquaintances to become friends. Plus I tend to be more reserved when I'm feeling wobbly (a bit like a hermit hiding in a cave really). I think the fact that nothing concrete seemed to be happening on the work front didn't help matters much. If I'd been mad-busy, I'd have had less time to think about how much I was missing my friends and my old life in London. I think the one thing that kept me focussed and sane at this time was the kittens - they made their appearance at the end of the first quarter and Simba and Tykey were with me until the end of the second quarter. 

This was when I left for London and once back, made the decision that yes, I wanted to live in Ibiza but needed to touch base with friends a little more to stop me from missing everyone. Once this decision was made, it was just a case of getting back to the island and securing work that would keep me here. Some people will do anything to live on the island but I've never felt it like that. For me to stay, I'd need to feel that I was still moving forwards in what I was doing, that I was still using my previous experience in whatever I did here. I didn't know if that possibility existed but at least I had some idea as to what I was looking for. 

Once back, everything happened all at once. Dealing with the death of Simba and Tyke, moving house, being offered full-time work with Alberto. It feels like my life has changed completely in those two months, ever since I got back. I've gone back to living with luxuries like electricity and hot water and no longer need to troop off to the swimming pool to shower and use my hair dryer. Although my lovely friends Ruby and Jenna have gone back to London, I know that I made some great friends here and in some ways I felt more connected with them than I did with other friends who were here visiting. Maybe it's just that when people come on holiday, they're in holiday-mode and I'm in work-mode and the two worlds just don't seem to mix too well. It's something I'd like to make work better next year. 

Work has turned out to be the challenge that I need. Alberto asked me to run the shop KSAR and I accepted. It's full of the most beautiful treasures but it's never been busy since it opened last November. There aren't any systems in place so everything is unorganised and chaotic and just not working as well as it could! So it's up to me to make it work. I've got to put much-needed systems in place and raise the profile of the shop across the island to get it busy. I've seen people's reactions when they come in and see the collections - no other shop on the island has the same things we do and everything is truly beautiful - we just need to spread the word far and wide. It feels a bit like the Society when I was running that, it was up to me to pull everything together and push it forwards to make it succeed. I've had moments of panic where I've thought "I don't know if I can do this, I don't know if I can make it succeed" but that's pretty normal for me. I remember when I first started at the Society, having moments of panic in the early days, wondering if I could do what was required - and that all turned out okay in the end. 

In addition to the shop, I'm also Director of Sales and Marketing for their boutique hotel in Marrakech, the Ryad Dyor and may be involved with the boutique hotel they've got opening in Bali in a few months. The Ryad Dyor is a little bit like the shop, breathtakingly beautiful but just not as busy as it should be. Having looked at the competiton, our riad is a world apart because of the unique stylishness of Alberto and Yvonne but once again, we need to do all we can to raise the profile of the riad and get it full all year round! This role means regular trips to Marrakech, with the first one planned for November and I can't wait!

The role also means that I have to establish contact with agents that look after boutique luxury hotels and once again, I find myself doing one of the things I do best - going outside, meeting people to work with, building a rapport and using this to help us get to where we want to get to. It was one of the things I enjoyed the most about the Society and I'm pretty happy to find it here too. Finally, Alberto and Yvonne are a joy to work with. Amazingly creative with an eye for style that I've never seen before. The way they put things together is really inspiring, at times I find myself wondering if I'll ever be as good as them but even if I don't have quite the eye they do, I know that I'm bringing other much-needed skills to make the whole thing work. 

In a nutshell, where work is concerned, I think I may have found something that gives me as much as the Society did and that's really something. Yvonne I don't see so often but I work closely with Alberto and he is as much a joy to work with as Richard was at the Society. I think I'm very lucky in that I always seem to find amazing people to work with and once again, it seems to have happened! 

Now that work and home-life are more settled, I find myself looking to put a bit more order into areas of my life that got a bit chaotic. I've realised that I need to do regular exercise (my daily swimming had disappeared over the summer) and eat well. Without these two things, I find myself getting grumpy, particularly if I'm sat in front of the computer all day. I've embarked on a new regime that I'm easing myself gently into - it involves swimming three times a week, going running, cycling (when I've got a cycle) and getting back into my ashtanga yoga practice. I went from doing ashtanga two or three times a week in London to doing nothing here. I looked around for classes or teachers but didn't find anything. But I tried doing the primary series to a DVD and it was just like being in a class again, with the teacher guiding you through the series. So that's been earmarked as a regular thing to get in to!

I'm also going to make a bit more effort with my Spanish classes. When I was studying by myself, the course made you learn vocabulary and continually test yourself until you knew all the words. I'd be learning about a 100 new words each week. Now, although I go to classes twice a week, I'm not making the effort to learn the words in the same way and it's starting to get on my nerves. I'm finishing chapters in the book but if you asked me anything about a past chapter, I'd struggle to remember anything. So, more effort on the Spanish front! I have actually made progress in the time I've been here and can understand quite a lot. But inevitably I get frustrated if I don't feel I'm doing as well as I should be and so time to change that.

So, eight months in, things are going well, really well. I'm over my bout of homesickness and busy and settled in my life, challenged by the work I'm doing. I've made friends and have lots of new people to hang out and forge friendships with over the winter months. I haven't met my future husband yet which is a shame as it would be pretty cool for that to happen but there seems to be so much going on in my life at the moment, that perhaps the timing is just not quite right!