We got back from Mallorca yesterday afternoon, Manchester welcoming us back with some biting April cold. Funnily, when we arrived in Mallorca on Monday morning and got to our hotel at Palma Nova it was both cold and windy, the palm trees being blown around all over the place by the strong wind coming in off the sea. The weather got better as the week went on and on Thursday we all got sunburnt sitting/ lying by the pool and on the beach. The break was just what the three of us needed, some time away from here and away from everything that has been going on since Isaac died last November. Not that we didn't take it with us- one of the rules of travel is wherever you go, you're still you- but we were able to unwind and relax. Some of the physical symptoms of grief lessened while we were away, a fact brought home to me when we were in the taxi from Manchester airport yesterday, driving up one of the main roads back to Sale, and some of those physical symptoms suddenly re- appeared. 'Hello darkness my old friend', as Paul Simon put it.
It was very good to be away though and Mallorca has got a lot going for it- a beautiful island, with beaches and mountains, that magical Balearic feel, and a wonderful capital city in Palma. It also has some superb 1960s concrete modernism in its hotels, constructed for the arrival of mass tourism in the 1960s. They pepper the coastline all the way from Palma down the coast to Palma Nova and Magaluf. The bars, restaurants and hotels were only just re- opening after the winter, the season not fully started yet with plenty of places still closed or in the process of getting ready for the summer. We haven't been anywhere since summer 2019 and I'm sure we'd have been happy to be anywhere but Palma Nova and its surrounding areas were very much exactly where we needed to be for a few days.
This is the theme from Top Boy, the inner London crime drama that started on Channel 4 and was then reprised by Netflix. Brian Eno's theme works just as well as a piece of semi- ambient, instrumental music as the theme to a gritty crime drama.
4 comments:
My step-sister lives there. When my Dad passed away my step-mother was alone in her house but because of how it (used to be) easy and cheap to fly to and from MCR, she regularly visited. Just like you it helped.
I've said she should move there permanently but Mother doesn't want to leave her home. That I can understand because of the memories there.
If possible, I know finances might not allow, you should do a return visit every few-ish months.
Thanks Peelie, it's good advice. We've definitely seen the benefit.
Never been to Majorca, and to be honest, the concept of 'Shagaluf' as talked about by so many of the young teams over the years, has always put me off.
Maybe time to reconsider...especially, as you say, when it's not quite hit full season. Looks a fascinating place.
JC- if you go to Magaluf in July or August I'm sure you'd see the full Shagaluf experience. The Magaluf strip looked exactly as you'd imagine. Out of season though- lovely.
Post a Comment