May 2024
It's time for an update isn’t it? I started writing this two weeks ago, and so much has happened since. Arillas is gorgeous now, warm breezes, mid twenties temps, greenness in the landscape, watery-light nights and I’m loving going back to the same places with different people time after time. The walk to the shrine past Akirotiri, Porto Timoni, Saturday night discourse at beautiful Buddha Hall, Ina’s is open again, the jaw-dropping views at Panorama and Anafoufou. My sister, Annie Bayliss, came to stay, so did my friend who offered the loan that saved the day and my 87-year-old mum came too…seeing the house they’ve heard so much of at last, having lunch together in the garden that none of us might have imagined was very precious. We did a big shop with yoga mats and more stripy colourful carpets, blue towels, chopping boards and who knows what else - my little car boot was full and I’m grateful for efficient shopping.
Sometimes it's a whirl of activity, other times peace descends. There’s an art to collective living, of looking after each other, folding laundry, slutty washing up, cooking eggs, having a kitty, clearing the compost and chucking water on the garden. An art not to be bossy, to each being aware of our limits, of taking quiet time and not forgetting to eat. The long table is installed in the olive press, and Aingeala De Búrca and I went back to 29 mins of writing. We have coffee in new blue cups and Zoe Belton is colouring things beautiful in the courtyard as the big old brown kitchen table and repurposed shelves turn blue. Artemisia de Vine is coaching & communing with the spirits of the land, driving the squeaky bends like a slow pro. Zoe chopping beautiful salads, besides being a set designer, Aingeala practising violin scales and me getting distracted from reading Sex Bod reports by weeding. It’s the art of timing work with collective contribution and enjoyment of each other, while taking space to create and keep life & biz going.
Shumba Colin Rubin and I offered our first event together in the olive press, Connect and Consent, an interesting collaboration of tantra teacher & tantric heretic, with a meshing of consent, Ruby May's Connection Game, violin music, and candlelight. It’s the first time I’ve shared my work in Arillas, and as ever, it’s an experiment. When I remember I have a decade here, the pressure to discover what I’m here to do falls away. I’m pretty sure it’s not laundry, though clean sheets are a vital part of the ecstasy.
And then a group arrived with Greg Muller, stress testing the house, filling it with colour, purpose, life and learning, walking each day to prep for the camino, a cacao ceremony, dinners and beach time. It was going smoothly till a fuse box melted, and the septic tank guy wouldn’t come. A tricky 24 hrs of tension was resolved by the magician electrician in the group, Christian Gaffney, and paying water bills from 5 years ago to get a code to clear the pooh. Ah, such magical glamour is evidently how we roll. Before the group came, I had a moment of ‘never again’ with the pressure to get things ready. Yet being part of it and being grateful for how it came together allows me to trust more. With the calming presence of Claudia van de Kamp housekeeping & painting the therapy space alongside Rebecca Von Der Mühlen's superpowers of persuasion and breakfasts, this time feels like a gift. Of having friends visit and the house beautifully piecing together.
Wise Madhuri, who knows a thing or two about Human Design, once told me that everything for me should always be friends or friends of friends. I like that. Besides saving me time trying to impress strangers on Instagram, I love the warmth of the connections and the spaces between decisions.
Maybe one day I’m going to have to make a mailing list but that’s another can kicked a little further down the road. There’s quite a heap of cans and slowly I pick them up. They’re alongside the plates and business plans I drop.
Doing less is appealing, so is drinking more Campari at sunset with Sian Johnson & Paul Sperring. Makes mental note to self.
Next stop is Berlin for some relaxation and The Sex Lectures is the geeky spot at the magical picnic of wonders that is TabooFest. Then back for Evolve the gathering, Anne K. Scott and Taylor Roark are here. And so we roll on in the gap year of discovery of edges, and exploration of fifty shades of blue possibilities.
