Dateline: 24th October 2015. It’s a cold, wet and quite miserable Saturday in what passes for autumn in North Wales; actually, not only here but across the UK generally the weather outlook is no better,
In fact, yesterday a storm warning was in place for this weekend and into next week and, although nothing at all like the scale of Hurricane Patricia, meteorologists were predicting winds of up to 60mph, heavy rain and, in mountainous areas, snow at higher levels. Today, though, the forecasts have become less extreme but still very wet and cold.
Still the spirit in our home is really upbeat, despite what the weather is doing outside, as we are spending our last weekend here before setting sail on Tuesday to cross the Atlantic aboard Royal Caribbean’s luxurious cruise line Anthem of the Seas.
Following a week at sea, we will view the New York City skyline and then see the city grow larger as we approach before docking in Port Liberty. Actually, I wonder if you realise that the Statue of Liberty on Liberty Island is not in New York at all. In fact, geographically, it’s in the neighbouring state of New Jersey.
Anyway, once we leave the ship, Lisa and I are spending nearly 10 days touring the north-eastern states of Massachusetts, New York (the state, not the city this time), Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Being born and growing up in the city, in the Bronx to be exact, Lisa has an everlasting attachment to it and she can hardly wait to show me more of the area. We started my tour last December when we stopped off in New York City on the way back from our trip to Hawaii, now it’s time for part 2.
This time, of course, apart from a brief visit to the UK to collect Pooka and Prissy from the cattery and then wish them bon voyage on their overland journey, we will be flying to Spain to start the newest chapter in our lives in our new home.
And the weather here today just redoubles the feeling that we have made the correct decision when choosing to move to be close, well just a 10 minute drive, to the Mediterranean. The area has an average 320 days of sunshine a year. Actually, neither during the crossing of the Atlantic nor on our NE America holiday, do we expect to enjoy the best of weather conditions. It won’t be until we reach Spain exactly three weeks tomorrow, on Sunday 15th November, that we expect to see reasonable weather.
Some people have asked about how the sunny weather will affect my MS. It is true that both hot and cold do have an effect but we are all different. Some people cannot take the heat, some find the cold difficult and others don’t like either but just feel happier somewhere in the middle. I have found that it is the changing temperatures that have the most negative effects for me. When we visited Spain in April and May, I found that my condition improved a little. Longer sunshine means more vitamin D, which is something else that’s good for fighting MS.
I’ll keep you up to date on developments.
50shadesofsun 