Un Ouf De Soulagement

Whew! That’s what ouf de soulagement means, a sigh of relief. Finally, and not a moment too soon for we leave in the morning, the packing gods have been appeased. Each of us has one suitcase under 50 pounds and one large carry-on, to last us for the next three months. Three months of clothes that will take us from Casablanca to Colmar, the first sunny and warm next week, the second most likely snowy when we get there at the end of November.

Saturday will find us, by the purest coincidence and a post on Facebook, having lunch in Barcelona with Arne and Janine, who are there now from Vancouver, B.C. We don’t get to see them often, even though we live just three hours apart, so what’s the chance that we’d all be in Barcelona at the same time? And what’s the chance that I’d even see their Facebook post saying so, given how random and perverse the site has become? But we are and I did, and so the beautiful Barcelona will be enhanced by having a welcoming committee, friends with whom to go to a tapas bar and share some of that delicious Spanish food and locally-made vermouth.

But before that we’ll have to spend quite a long time up in the sky, and then afterwards we’ll be on a ship for a week, from which I will attempt to stay in touch here, but Internet at sea is even less reliable than Facebook, and I’m not promising anything. So until then, whenever then may be, wish us fair skies and smooth sailing, and hasta la vista.