Cherry is going to be surprised but I am going to put together a TGIF for her from material from a group email that she sent out recently. This is the kind of stuff that I can do because we are friends. Also, what makes this exceptional is that it is Friday the 13th which has a Camino connection on it’s own. It is the date that the Pope’s forces came down on the Knights Templar. Don’t ask me the details or the year but these protectors of pilgrims met their demise on a Friday the 13th and this is the reason it has a bad feel.

So here is Cherry’s quote that I am sharing with you: “Camino was the best thing I’ve ever done and thank you for making it so wonderful.

I’m in Indonesia winding down my twelve glorious months away.

Please stay in touch and thank you.

Mucho amor y buen camino,

Cherry”

Here she is wrapping up a year long trip to all sorts of wonderful places and she says, “Camino was the best thing I have ever done…” We can all relate to that Cherry. also we can think back to the Knights and thank them for the role that they have played on the Camino long ago. The Camino has lasted through all sorts of turmoil to be what it is today, for us the benefactors. Thank you Knights of Templar and Cherry for being a part of our Caminos too.

Well, off to walk, foggy and dry here. Alperfect, love, Felipe.

I have had a long day today with appointments and meetings at the hospital. Also have been working with Annie and the crew revamping the Phil’s Camino website. I’m out of gas. Aretha Franklin is singing “You Send Me” and that’s the way I feel about you. Please come back tomorrow for TGIF. And we will be together over coffee. Cafe con leche loves, Sleepy Felipe.

It’s early morning and my Rebecca’s off to a babysitting job that she does once a week. We’ve had a good breakfast and I got Soul on Pandora and am wrapped up in my Camino bag looking forward to being with you. Today is the big Mass for the sick from St. Anthony’s in Padua, Italy. I got a prayer in for myself and all cancer patients that’s on the altar. And I know that others (my pals) have placed my name there as well. I’m blessed.

Well, I am not feeling so blessed at the moment as I was trying to write to you about my very Caminoy day yesterday and my iPad has just eaten two different half hour attempts. Hmmm. OK, well, I am out of time and energy at the moment, maybe later. Frustrated loves, Felipe.

I came back from the Camino with a passion to cook. It is a way to give back to those around me and a way to celebrate being together. My Rebecca said,”Who would have thought?” True though and it has given me much satisfaction over the last how many months? Four months I count. Along the way I’ve bumped into a few things that really amazed me. So I choose four of these to talk about today.

The first really great taste that I bumped into happened in a quite planned way. My cooking tended to be in the “Spanish way” from what I remembered from the Camino. It was based on olive oil and baguettes and simple ingredients. I had learned that cooks in Spain used two grades of oil, one for cooking and one for dressing. So in exploring around on the olive oil shelves and reading labels I started learning and I came to the conclusion that I needed to get one really special to see what the good stuff tastes like. So, I bought Lucini (www Lucini.com) brand from Tuscany and fell in love. It’s flavor is of pine, rich in a almost a resin taste. Yea, don’t waste a drop.

Next is a cheese from Norway called Gjetost (www.jarlsberg.com). This stuff is equally dreamy. It is part cow and part goat cheese and is a brown color which could be a turn off if you hadn’t tasted it yet. I’m not even going to discribe the taste but it is great with slices of pear. Slice it really thin and yea, check it out and don’t waste a crumb.

OK, next is a basalmic vinegar made from or with grape must. Must is juice that includes seed and stems. This stuff is thick, pours slowly. It’s an elixir really, just a teaspoon after a meal is dreamy. The label says,”Aceto Balsamico Di Modena, Ritrovo Selections”. Website is: www.ritrovo.com .

The next one is on par with these amazing tastes and it is the blackberry jelly that we make right here at the ranch with our local wild berries. Well, my Rebecca actually makes it but I mostly pick and get all scratched up in the process. And you cannot buy this in any store, you have to come and visit to get it. So do that, will you.

OK, I have a few more chores to do before bed. This was a fun post and hope that you enjoyed it. Wild blackberry loves, Felipe.

You’ve got to love them. I’m talking about the young folk of the Pacific Crest Trail. We had dinner with our son Wiley and his girlfriend Riley, I know, yesterday. One of the things that he brought up was a geographical mistake on my part and that is that the PCT runs along the crest of the Sierra and the Cascade Mountains and not the Rocky Mountains as I had written. OK, will have to edit that post. But also he was talking about a phrase that came out of his trek which was, “smiles per hour”. Keeping track of your smiles per hour instead of your miles per hour is that switch from quanity to quality in our lives.

The movie theater was crowded to see the film about the art treasures of the Vatican. I really wasn’t expecting so many people. I guess we have an island of artists so it makes sense. I didn’t think that they would be interested in religious art but yes they were. But it put me right back in art history class were I first became enthralled with this particular art. I throughly enjoyed it and was deeply moved. Raphael, Michelangelo, Giotto, da Vinci, Caravaggio, Fontana, Van Gogh, Chagall, Dali and more were there. Check it out if it comes your way.

www.sharmillfilms.com.au/?p=3824

Well, I am off to the city today to the hospital to get a scan of my insides. My doc has moved this procedure from every two months to every three months so I take that as a sign of him relaxing somewhat with my situation. So, the results of this scan will set the course of my treatments for the next few months. People and myself praying for my cancer to be in a withering state or at least not on the move. This is the most anxious time of my health reality, these points of waiting for a glimpse inside my body to see what is happening.

But, we will continue walking for the moment just like always. Thanks for your friendship and your interest in this blog and the thoughts, hopes, wishes, thankfulness that we delve into. In the end it is all good, alperfect. Thanks for walking with me, love, Felipe.

Hi. “Smiles over miles”, is a saying that I heard the Pacific Crest Trail folks say to get across the idea that being happy was more important than how may miles you walked. I like it. And somewhere along the Camino I started saying something like, “it’s not the mileage but whether you got the message”. The message being the answers to your personal questions. So, pretty close. And I like their wording better than ours so I am going to change ours to, “message over mileage”. There, that’s way better, lighter and more concise, more backpacky. Thanks PCT guys.

Just walked three laps around Phil’s Camino. Not that far really but again we are going for smiles and answers so alperfect. I was filling bird feeders along the trail and took a few pics and I was checking out the partial flooding of the pastures. So I was kind of dinking around.

And new this week I opened up an afternoon walk on Wednesday from 4-5 PM. So, try and come and walk we us. Here is the spring schedule:
Sunday 1000-1100.
Monday 0900-1000.
Wednesday 1600-1700.
Friday 0900-1000.

In a few minutes we are off to see the movie about the art at the Vatican Museum. Can’t wait, I love this stuff, a feast for the eyes. So, have to go for now. Always great to be with you. Remember, “smiles over miles and message over mileage”, it will help out. Alperfect, love, Felipe.

This post is an exception to the rule. We had TGIF and now we have TGIS, Thank God It’s Saturday. It just so happens that two of my three Aussie Angels have shown up with material and you need to have it sooner than later. So, that is what this is about today.

Angela was with us for a few days before Leon in August in the heat and dust of the Camino Frances. Her post today is very soulful and I thank her immensely for coming forward and giving us this glimpse of her inner Camino. We all saw her outer Camino which was marked with the pain of tendinitis, which is a biggie. I didn’t have this challenge and it puts people “out of the race”. But Angela found her inner Rambo and, well she can tell you herself:

Hi Phil,

hope you are well mr!! and i would ask you if youre feeling better but i already know you are 🙂

Ok so my thoughts..Im sorry.. there is no way it can be 500 or less ahahah :

I have always told myself that I was not a good writer. When you asked me to write a few words, I slightly panicked haha thinking I had to come up with something amazing, something funny and great and this is not me. But that thought is long gone 🙂 This has always been me. Always doubting myself. Always thinking that I wasn’t enough. But the camino has definitely help change me. And I realise now that I am enough!

I can honestly say that I struggled after the camino finished. I missed the walking. The pain. The friends/family I met and made. I missed life on the camino. I really did learn a lot about myself from this crazy walk. Coming back to my life in Sydney you could probably say I was depressed. 6 months of amazing travels, an incredible experience on the camino.. now life.

It took me a good 2 months or so till I was all good again. After the feeling sorry for myself stage, I was telling myself (talking to myself like a crazy person) that it was enough. The feeling sorry for myself stage is done. I was disappointed in myself because it was as though everything I learnt about myself on the camino, everything I had gained on the camino, had gone. But I can strongly say it hasn’t. Felipe.. I am back 🙂 and my thirst for life is GINORMOUS! It took some time.. but I am definitely back. I have started to bring back into my life the way I was on the camino.. my strength.. knowing that I struggled, walking crazy amounts of km’s everyday and I accomplished it. If I can do that, I can do anything. I have pushed aside my negativity, my doubts and I have adopted a more positive way of thinking. The laws of attraction. Thinking positive and attracting positive. Which has been very foreign to me for most my life. And you know what.. 2015 has been bloody brilliant so far and I truly believe this is going to be a great year.

I finally started to look for a job 2-3 weeks ago and I went to the interviews with a different attitude to usual. I would have conversations with my father in my head before my interviews, as well as talking to God and I would tell myself that I have got this. I could feel that my dad was with me the whole time, I felt strangely calm. And the first 2 interviews went so well and even if I didn’t get the jobs, I was actually happy that it was a good experience for me. I wasn’t hard on myself. I was just appreciative of the experience and what I was getting out of practicing interviews, and it just meant that something else was waiting for me. 3 interviews later, I now have a job who is paying me what I am worth. And believe me, I settled for a lot less for almost 10 years. I walked in not settling for anything less than what I felt I deserved. I can honestly say Felipe, for the first time, I love my life. I am so thankful for the camino and what it has taught me. I am so grateful for all the connections I have in my life. I feel so blessed.

I’m nervous and excited with life. But for once, I am looking forward and am totally ready for whatever is coming my way.

MUCH LOVE TO YOU FELIPE! Sending you a trillion massive bear hugs!

Ange

I’ve hopped over to Indonesia for the sun, surf and easy going island life. I spent the first week in a place called Kuta, Lombok. I slept in these gorgeous rustic bamboo bungalows. I rented a scooter for the week and rode out in search of the best beaches and breathtaking views of which there was an abundance. I learnt to surf, stood up and rode many waves. I caught a boat out to the perfect surf spot where the rush of riding a long wave was like no other experience ever. To feel at one with the ocean and to be carried away with it is a wonderful natural high.

The last week I’ve been on a wee island called Gili Trawangan. Every day I walk or half jog around the island, some 5 miles in radius. I’ve treated myself to a fancy resort with all the trimmings including pool, mini bar and overly attentive staff who smile and laugh and truly love their job. The food is so good too that I can hardly bring myself to eat elsewhere. The island held a full moon beach party on Tuesday night, I couldn’t resist. Fireworks, fire twirling, clear sky full of stars and blazing full moon. I joined the hundreds of locals and tourists dancing to anthems old and new till nearly 5am.

It all feels like the perfect finish to a year of everything. I’ve been attending a meditation workshop which perfectly partners my mood and my new found philosophy of living in the now. I think I’ve held this belief for years, but only now have I truly understood what it means and how to live it. It is such a freeing feeling being present and aware. I truly am living the dream. Love to you all.