Vila do Conde, Portugal
A rainy few days it has been. So much so I dare not venture out. Choosing to eat in the restaurant in my abode. Tiago the owner, made the observation that it would be a day, where there would be no photos to be taken.
I have not had such a day, and this day was not to be without picturing, for as I sat and watched through the window glazed in raindrops and condensations, I was reminded of another rainy day, that brought some, pain, and gain.
I was in Macedonia, at the Church of Saint Naum (Sveti Naum) of the creator of the Slavic Cyrilic alphabet, on the shores of Lake Ohrid, one of the oldest fresh water lakes in the world. It had been a nice day, but God must have determined there was a need for more fresh water in the lake. With this, as I was taking pictures of the Church, the skies opened and wet, warm rain, lashed down upon us. The Church enraptured us, under its arches, some here, some there. Leaving us in thought, as we waited for the rains to abate.
Within the arch, where I took cover under, were two ladies, a child and a couple about my age, a cousin of my family, who was safe behind the sales window, as his station in life was to sell the religious icons of this Macedonian Orthodox Church.
With a captured audience, I talked with the ladies and child. It was a physical conversation in that one of the Serbian, ladies Selena is a Physics professor and her friend with child, Dragana, a Physical Therapist. These were two good subjects for me to discuss as we waited out the rains. Especially the physical therapy part, since I had dislocated my shoulder chasing the full moon in Ireland a few months prior, with no time for physical rehab. The rains subsided, we exchanged contact information. And offers of future discussions of physics and therapy were offered. I am not one to say, good-bye, so I said, as I almost always say, ‘See you Later’.
A few months later and some fender benders, as I travelled across the Balkan’s with my head on neck that could not turn, leaving a blind spot, as I backed and bumped into things on my way. I found myself headed to Serbia, home of the Physical ladies, and enquired, of a meet per chance. As chance would have it, they remembered me, and their promise of physical therapy. Dragana was able to meet me, Salena, not, family issues had gotten in the way of the physics of two solid objects meeting to share the same space, at the same time.
As fate would have it, I had another non-head turning fender bender in Beograd the day I was to meet Dragana, for therapy. We did meet, Dragana, looked at my well worn body and went to work, working out the kinks in my neck, and helping me by making a video of what I needed to do, to get my body functioning again. Dragana had just opened her business a few days before my arrival, naming it Carpe Diem, very appropriate for me, since by seizing that day with her, I have not had anymore fender benders and my head moves with greater ease.
With the body work done on my body, but not the dents on the body of my car, I said, ‘See you later’ as I went on for a bit more travel leaving the car at a body shop, to get its dents and kinks removed.
