April 2025
The wonder of Spain and making stuff happen and power outages and pleasure. If you’d told me I’d be going to Spain to offer The Sex Lecs in a small yet v cool community centre near Nathalie Dewalhens, I’d believe you. We met online in the pandemic ( she was reading poetry in nuns outfit) and have created a few gatherings together over the years. If you’d said half the speakers would come from Uk and a photographer, former theatre director and gay sex coach would join us, I’d have been delighted. And so it came to pass. 4 tickets sold, we gathered at La Lolaina, we set up tech together, and then a few more folx showed up and we whispered secrets, and heard about why this work matters when the world is on fire, how intimacy is how much we allow in beautiful casual encounters, we heard about states of bliss, sensual revolution and saw photos of red pomegranates, cultivating our inner sensual worlds with aliveness and kindness. And ate chocolate mousse and talked and danced.
We went to the beach together, making new friends, being naked and then during the power outage in Malaga we swapped kinky stories and confessions over tapas and then walked around deserted silent streets in the dark, enjoying the quiet night then the stunning uplight of the cathedral. That was after the hours of will we/won’t we get into the air BnB and a miracle random encounter on the stairs that finally gave us access. I’m so grateful to Nath, Adam, Lizzie, Heidi, Mark, Alex, Firdoz for the incredible support, coming together to create, feel relaxed safety and communicate clearly. It’s not been profitable but it has been pleasurable.
I had a birthday just before I left … a strange ‘I want to be alone’ birthday. Martin Atkinson saved me from myself, so did dancing, coffee and space and sunshine on Agios Giorgios beach did the trick. And being pulled into sunset sociability by Leena Horner at the reopened Akrotiri cafe.
I’m grateful for the many messages I didn’t yet have time to respond to, and to feel the love even when I didn’t quite feel myself. I feel blessed and looked after in so many ways in the collective care and protection of Mandala. I’ve now made it back to Corfu after flight cancellations and a long overnight journey home to a house full of sunshine and colour. It’s good to revisit favourite places as they open up amidst scrubbing up of the house after the winter, with Archan’s white washing and Claudia’s pink painting. I mainly do weeding and geraniums and delegate, and Claudia and I make plans for an art space. Let the season begin, let creativity and friendly gatherings happen.
