Surfers' Bay and Mah Jong

Floral display in one of the neighbouring gardens,

observed on my morning stagger up and down Emerald slopes.

At last! Beginning the first blog of the new year and after an absence of a month! Back in Beloved Brugge after a three week absence in California and a further week struggling to keep awake at the right time and to sleep during the night. Oh jagged jet-lag, harsher in the later years!!

Christmas morning at Half Moon Bay

December with two thirds of my family was super; lovely Christmas Day with Californian friends, Ron, Nancy and Bob, bringing up the festive number to ten. A lovely Christmas morning walk first, above the beach at Half Moon Bay with a lively surfers’ sea below and dancing kites in the blue sky above. All greatly appreciated by the group but particularly so by Charlie the black Labrador, now a stately 12 years of age and very ‘bien dans sa peau’, plus the youngest family member channelling her pre-present-opening excitement and energy into dashing along the cliff top with a later splash-and-run in the shallows.

A fruitful corner of Filoli gardens

There were other highlights: a last day visit to San Francisco; a wine tasting at Liversdene ; a solo trip to Filoli, an American stately home nearby; a shopping excursion to an upmarket mall at Palo Alto, interesting for me and Genevieve for a short time but a hasty Uber ride after an hour allowed our escape from further bore-and-trudge. I mused on the fact that the seven year old would eventually, undoubtedly, graduate to greater shopping enjoyment while my great days lay behind me. Now I can only tolerate shopping when I need/want to buy something specific and then, an hour or so is the limit before the soul sighs with the weight of it all! However, the self-same mall did me proud at Christmas when the girls presented me with a truly gorgeous expensive scarf bought from one of the sumptuous mall shops.

That scarf has caused further shopping in the January sales here as I found a fab. reversible coat with a toffee-coloured side which is a perfect mate for the camel/black/orange neck confection!! AND at half price. Honestly, my cup runneth over as I face the new year afresh, newly coated and scarved! Can it be true that I haven’t purchased a full-length ‘proper’ coat since the beauty from Max Mara in Florence in 2005? No, I bought a luxurious one in Turkey in 2015, now I remember. Still, hardly extravagant when, as a Leo, it is my birthright to be extravagant; surely?

Prestige Patisserie, now closed alas.

And so, back to finding my Brugge routine again, and welcome it is. [And with it, the divine Belgian beer, much missed.] The little mundanities, rhythms, markers of everyday life are comforting and reassuring. A sign of the times is the number of empty or emptying, businesses in the centre; the quite recently opened Oak and Coffee house nearby has gone; Prestige, a super patisserie for coffee/breakfast/lunch, also selling excellent bread, suddenly closed in late November and remains forlorn. Several shops on Steenstraat, one of two major central shopping streets, are empty or have closing down sales advertised. It is happening everywhere in Western Europe I think but it presents an enormous challenge for city authorities and their revenues. And it is a sad sight for residents and tourists alike, never mind the personal/financial heartbreak for the owners.

Post Script.

Totally forgot to mention that a Mah Jong set was purchased in an attempt to bring old world culture to the Californian new world. To my delight I now have one daughter and two grand-daughters who love the game! There is a certain colonisation taking place here!!

A photo from August 2018 to illustrate.

My coolie sister and I playing Mah Jong on the terrace.