After listening to which song for the first time, did you feel you would never be the same again? — Even though I have lived in Andalucia in the south of Spain for over nine years, I’m not sure I’ll ever get used to the fact. It’s 11.30 AM on a Tuesday morning, and I’m having a coffee in a typical bar in Granada. ‘Forbidden Colours’ by David Sylvian and…

Can we really enjoy the sweetness of doing nothing? — Today’s my birthday. ‘Happy birthday’ you say. Well thank you. That’s very kind of you. But what am I doing on this ‘special’ day you may ask? Well, I have taken the day off work and my only plan is to meet my wife for lunch later. …

Three of my favourite things in my favourite city. — After a busy few weeks at work, Mrs Departures and I took last Friday afternoon off to visit the Alhambra and the Generalife gardens. …

I still find it difficult to believe that I live here… — Wandering around cities, but especially Granada, is one of my favourite things to do. As an early riser, I’ve always found the morning from 7–8.30 particularly interesting. Whichever city is, you see it slowly waking up and there’s a lovely tranquility that soon disappears once people start work and the…

A multicultural marvel and my new favourite city! — We went to Copenhagen in June 2022 and as seems to be the norm, it’s taken me a while to get round to writing the post about the trip (it’s been a year this time!), …

What lets you know you’re done? — How do you know that a lyric, song, story, painting or book is finished? Have you said what you needed to say? How do you know? Have you hit the target number of words for your book? Have you found a colour and shape in your artwork that fills your…

Why espresso is the omelette of coffee — We’ve had the coldest snap for many years in Granada and after seven years living in Almeria, one of the hottest places in Europe, it’s been a bit of a culture shock, so today I thought I’d pop into town for some good coffee and city-ness. I took the bus…

How Depeche Mode and living in Spain reminded me to live more in the present — I’ve just got the bus to the metro stop and am now on the tram on the way into town. Granada. Where I live now. Again. I first lived here for two years when I came to Spain in 2014 after living in London. …

What a wonderful surprise… — Our first trip to Scandinavia was to Norway in March 2022 — read my post New Adventures In Norway — and the second part of this trip in April 2022, which I have finally got around to writing about nearly a year later, was to Finland. I knew next to…