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Nicola Shares Stories Of Starting Over At Sixty

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21 June 2019 By Nicola Cairncross Leave a Comment

Why Do We Do It?

I used to be a workaholic, but I realised that I needed a reason to close my computer.

Filed Under: Greek Tales

2 June 2019 By Nicola Cairncross Leave a Comment

Playing Catch-Up!

I was lying on a sunbed on Stoupa Beach today when I discovered that I’d let the domain name lapse for SwaggerAndSoul.com! While all my domains are usually on auto-renew, I had some problems with my bank in the early part of the year (very long complicated story!) and my card had declined.

This was not because of a lack of cash, but because the account had been closed summarily after a mix-up with companies house and my accountant. Told you it was a long, complicated story. With many annoying ramifications.

Having sorted the domain name (cost me $112 in all, very helpful lady at Namecheap.com, well done!) I thought I had better bring things up to date with a new blog post.

First of all, I’m feeling much, much better.

Three years on from Steve’s sudden demise on Saturday 12 March 2016 and while I still miss him and think about him every single day, the roaring, terrifying, debilitating emotional pain has gone.

“They” say grief starts to ease at around eighteen months and they didn’t lie.

I remember the very day things started to improve.

I sat on a sunbed, feet digging into warm sand, sun shining brightly out of the bright blue sky overhead, listening to the wash of little waves on the sand and the cry of happy children. I realised to my surprise, that I was happy. Just for that moment, sure, but it was the first time for years. It was the first such moment but not the last.

But it’s a bit like being ill, you don’t really realise how bad it was till it’s totally gone. I look at photos of me from that time and imagine that I can see the awful pain in my eyes, because I can still remember how it felt.

I’m not sure I’ll ever forget how it felt. I’m sure to experience it again in life, but at least it won’t be a first time. It won’t be such a shock.

This year I started travelling again for work. I’ve been to Australia, to Sydney and the Gold Coast. Then I went to Las Vegas for the most amazing week ever. Expect blog posts about those trips very soon.

For now, I’m off to cook dinner and find the final of Britain’s Got Talent. It’s a Sunday, after all.

I’ll leave you with this picture of a recent Stoupa sunset.

Stoupa Sunset

Filed Under: Greek Tales

13 October 2018 By Nicola Cairncross Leave a Comment

Stoupa Morning

Sun trips over mountain

Sparrows chatter nonsense

Naked mulberry trees

Claw hands to the sky

A drunk tilted lifeguard tower

Propped by shining pole

The barking dog on cliff roof

Drowns out squawking bird

Blue glittered sea reflects

Storm clouds over mountains

© Nicola Cairncross 2018

Filed Under: Poetry

13 October 2018 By Nicola Cairncross Leave a Comment

Playing Hookey! A Birthday Roadtrip To Areopoli…

One of the things I love most about being self-employed is having total control over my own diary.

My brother Alex arrived from Australia for a few weeks, having just been made redundant from his high flying corporate job after 18 years at the same company.  He’s already enjoying job and consultancy offers already, but after months of waiting for the axe to fall, he needed a change of scene.

On discovering it was my birthday, he found out my favourite thing to do is go to Takis’ Fish Taverna in Limeni Village, on the way to Areapolis.  He booked a night in the hotel there for the three of us so we could enjoy a leisurely drive down, lunch at Takis’, a night in Areopolis and dinner at the restaurant Rick Stein ate in, in the Venice to Istanbul tv series (episode 5.

However, just on the very day we were supposed to go, the “medicane” hit, this is a Mediterranean hurricane and we had to move the booking to the following week.

Just one of the amazing things we saw that trip was a live turtle, swimming around in the sea off Taki’s, enjoying some of the squid trimmings as the fisherman cleaned that day’s catch.

 

 

And here are some of the pictures from that day.  Such a beautiful place to spend most of my time.

Filed Under: Memoirs

8 October 2018 By Nicola Cairncross Leave a Comment

Write Club The Podcast | It’s Mental Health Week

It’s Mental Health Awareness Week and we discuss writers who suffered, as well as how mental health is dealt with in novels. Steph tells us about the research she did for “Lacking Grace” and we update each other on how our writing lives are going. Heather reads from her WIP and Nicola and Jackie Smith share what is currently on their bedside tables.

Write Club The Podcast is a weekly show for aspiring writers, published authors and readers everywhere. Join Stephanie Rouse, Theresa Stoker, Heather Worsley, Linda Jackim Werlein, Pat Woolfe & Nicola Cairncross each week where they’ll share celebrity guest author readings and interviews, along with what they’re reading, what they’re writing and what it’s really like to be a writer. You can join in the weekly “Name the Novel” quiz and find out “What’s On The Bedside Table?”.

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Filed Under: Podcast, Write Club

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