In the paradise of mass tourism

What is your favourite holiday during the winter? If it is to lie on a sunny beach when it is freezing cold at home, this post is for you. 
The holiday destination is Tenerife. 
 
The main reason for choosing it is the convenient proximity of Bournemouth airport.
 
From the moment Adrian and I enter its terminal the capable and unattractive face of the mass tourism welcome us.
Our departure is early morning on a Saturday. Long queues for check-in are already formed in the airport hall which resembles a huge tent. 
 
Three young officers take their places at the check-in stations. Their bodies and minds appear sleepy, suffering to be at work. Yet, they are very efficient. They perform their tasks quickly, methodically and professionally. In no time the long check-in queues are transformed into queues for the security checks, then for breakfast and later for boarding the plane. 
 
The aircraft is basic and cold, but it takes off on time and lands on time at the Reina Sofia Airport. The journey feels like being on a conveyor belt – in, out, job done. 
 
The Tenerife sun congratulates us. It smiles through the clouds and lightens the azure sea. 
20 mins later we are delivered to the hotel by a petite, delicate female driver who lifts our suitcases like Arnold Schwarzenegger. 
 
The hotel is on the beach promenade and is huge. 
An incredible amount of people wonder around the hotel foyer, the other facilities and the strangely shaped pool outside.
A businesslike receptionist puts yellow bands on our wrists to indicate that breakfast is part of the deal.
Efficient and unpleasant. 
The island of Tenerife is volcanic.
Despite this background the island is a prime example of what business acumen can achieve. The tourism industry here is conducive to all tastes and wallets. The black sand beaches are covered with colourful sunbeds and umbrellas. 
 


Cafes, restaurants and clubs, shops and stalls offer everything the tourists could possibly wish for. 
People working in this industry speak many languages, and seem shrewd and hardworking.
Supermarkets’ shelves are full of goods including tomatoes, cucumbers and lettuces. 
Police patrols in cars and on motorcycles are often to be seen. 
 
This exuberant island grows on you. The sense of being sluggish slowly changes to a subtle inclination to step up your game. Summer in winter is not an illusion.
It is more where you find it – in the gentle sense of contentment, in the feeling of laziness, or in the compulsion to join the surfing classes or viking boat trips. 
 
You may prefer people watching  with a San Francisco con alcohol cocktail in hand – observing the parade of all shapes and colours of bodies, proudly exposing themself to their holiday peers.
 
 
Or you may seek the intense dramas in the night clubs or short-lived romances. 
All the time the Sun holds you in its warm cuddle and 
the sea invites you to celebrate vitality. 
 
Summer in winter.

Decision to be indecisive

 
According to western astrology, people born between 22nd September and 23rd October each year belong to the sign of Libra. This sign is perceived as the Hamlet of the zodiac – Libra people are often described as indecisive. Clearly, indecisiveness is painted in a negative way which brands Libra characters quite weak and undesirable to have around. 
 
Despite popular opinion, let’s look beneath and beyond the labels and stereotypes. The trait of being indecisive usually involves three states of affairs: avoiding decisions, taking an incredibly long time to make decisions and being anxious about making the right decisions. 
1. Libra takes a long time to make decisions. 
Libra is an intellectual sign, very analytical, capable of objectively seeing and assessing all sides of the situation/problem. 
Libra knows that decisions have consequences (sometimes beyond their control), therefore they are determined to make smart decisions. This is impossible without collecting all the facts and listening to all the parties which requires time.
In this era of instant gratification, if you are annoyed with the time Libra takes to reach the verdict just agree on a reasonable deadline – the decision will be delivered on time by Libra.
 
2. Libra avoids making decisions. 
Do not be fooled – Libra is a cardinal sign, a sign of initiative, of moving forward. Libra people boldly and confidently make important, life-changing decisions. 
 
Still, they know that mental energy is limited. Frequent usage of the restricted reservoir of cognitive vitality for small, trivial decisions depletes it. Libra people steer clear of decision fatigue and apply the principle of  “choosing your battles”. 
 
They gracefully and charmingly will leave you to make every-day resolutions such as where to eat, how to shop, what movies to see. They are masters of discrimination. 
3. Libra worries about making the right decision. 
One thing needs to be clear here – Libras do not worry about arriving at the right conclusions because they are perfectionists. This is the realm of the Virgo zodiac sign.
 
Libra is the sign of justice and fairness. Libras want to reach a settlement that is fair to everyone involved because they posses amazing ingenuity to build relationships and import peace. 
All that sounds excellent, yet you are not convinced that it is Libra’s decision to be indecisive. You have experienced the suffering of the stuck-in-the-indecision Libras and the tiring wait for their decisions. I have a magical tip for you (the original idea is not mine) that works without fail. 
 
 
Libra is a sign of harmony who strives for happiness and balance.  So, invite “indecisive “Libras to flip a coin in order to resolve a situation. 
 
As crazy as it sounds Libras will do it. 
 
Their  motivation lies in the realisation that decisions and the changes that come with them lead to satisfaction as opposed to the discontent of decision-procrastinating and evasion.
 
Psychological studies have confirmed this and you already know Libra checks all the facts before deciding. 
 

The Greek myth of Icarus or what to do the next three years

We are naturally curious about the future. We want to know what is going to happen in order to navigate successfully through the complexities and challenges of life.
 
Astrology could give us a glimpse of the future (it is 
okay if you do not believe, read the post for fun) 
and could help us work beneficially with some
cosmic energies and vibrations.
 
A major shift will happen in the universe at the beginning of March 2023.  Saturn, the planet of mastery, the strict teacher, is moving into the romantic, dreamy and creative realm of Pisces and will stay there until 2026.
For me, the two most significant Saturn-in-Pisces impacts could be defined as:
1. Life is what you make of it 
2. Let it go
1. Life is what you make of it or the Greek myth of Icarus and his father Daedalus.
In essence, Deadalus  was a skilled craftsman, engineer and innovator. At some point in his life he was living with his son Icarus on the island of Crete. King Minos of Crete employed Deadalus to build a labyrinth where the cannibalistic monster Minotaur could be imprisoned. Dreadalus accomplished the project but later his relationship with the dictator declined and the King threw both him and his son in the labyrinth. 
 
Deadalus knew that eventually the Minotaur would find them in the maze so his inventive mind found the solution – he decided to escape by flying as a bird. A master plan was put in place and the hard work began – father and son diligently collected fallen feathers, carefully designed them into wings and glued them with wax. When the two pairs of wings were ready the father warned his son not to fly too high in the sky as the heat from the sun would melt the wax and ruin the wings. 
 
The plan was executed beautifully and the two man escaped from the labyrinth. However, Icarus was full of adrenaline and the ecstasy of flying. He forgot his father’s words and reached for the sun. The wax on the wings melted, Icarus fell into the sea and drown. Only Deadalus survived. 
 
 
 
 
In the Saturn-in-Pisces light, the lesson of the story could be defined as the”defiance of limitations” or the “desire to transgress human boundaries”. 
My interpretation is that hard work and controlled passion (as opposite of being controlled by passion) pay off in the end. If you have a dream which you want to fulfil or an idea you want to pursue, or a project you want to achieve, the next three years are yours to make it happen. It will be hard, it will require effort, time and sweat but if you are consistent and do not give up, the reward will be yours. Life is what we make of it.
2. “Let it go” or the Ponte Morandi collapse
In 2018 the beautiful Morandi bridge, built in Genoa in the 1960s, partially collapsed. The investigation revealed a “construction defect” and negligent maintenance as the reasons for the disaster. The bridge was completely demolished in June 2019 and the new Genoa-Saint George Bridge was built in 2020. 
 
How does this extreme example relate to Saturn in Pisces theme?  
The moral is that the structures in our lives  – habits, daily routines, personal and professional relationships, education etc will be tested in the next three years. 
The solid constructions will stay  and the outdated, fragile, defective and outgrown forms will collapse. The crumbling could bring sorrow, pain and tears but in the longer term it is good. 
We may miss the old designs but we will not want them back.
Challenging! Exciting! Let’s meet in three years and share the Saturn-in-Pisces experience.  

Love story or a story of imperfection

On 3rd February my ballet buddy Catherine and I attended the Swan Lake performance by the Birmingham Royal Ballet at the Mayflower theatre in Southampton. 
 
The nearby car park was full. A long, but fast-moving queue led us to the theatre entrance and another to the desk to buy a programme. The foyer was packed with people chatting happily. I spotted many opera coats, silk dresses and velvet jackets and trousers. 
 
Catherine and I were breathing this air of exciting anticipation. People like love stories and ballerinas, but for me I love the music of Tchaikovsky above everything else. Its amazing ingenuity and divine flow is out of this world. 
 
 
The original libretto of Swan Lake presented a romantic story with a tragic end. 
 
The young Prince Siegfield went hunting and saw a beautiful swan near a mystical lake which transformed into a stunning girl at midnight. That was Princess Odette. She was cursed by the evil sorcerer Baron von Rothbart and became a swan along with her companions. The Prince fell in love with the innocent Princess and declared his forever love to her. 
 
But the sun was rising and the cursed Princess had to change back to a swan and fly. 
 
The Prince was truly in love, yet the evil did not sleep. Baron von Rothbart presented his daughter Odile, disguised as Odette, to the Prince at the ball in the castle. The black swan Odile tempted and passionately seduced the Prince. 
 
This was a game-changer because the curse upon Odette could only be broken if the Prince was faithfully in love with only her. When the Prince realised what he had done, he and Odette jumped into the lake and drowned. 
 
 
 
 
The audience did not like this ending so the libretto was changed and different shows offer different endings. 
 
 
The Birmingham ballet chose the tragic exit. The Prince was forgiven by Odette and they both disappeared into the lake. Their unconditional love lifted the spell from the swans.
 
The audience in the Mayflower theatre was so captivated by the show that at the crucial moments of the ballet the only sound I could hear was my own breath and the tapping of ballet shoes on the stage.
Swan Lake was performed for the first time by the Imperial Ballet of the Bolshoi Theatre in the 19th century during the era of romanticism. Looking at the narrative through the glasses of the 21st century I feel that this beautiful story is about acceptance. 
Self-acceptance and a true acceptance of people we love. We love to love with pure, devoted and innocent love but we also want to experience passionate, adventurous seduction.
Baron Rothbart is not the external evil, he is actually the inner complexity of Prince Siegfried’s soul and it is up to him to find a way to deal with it. But the first steps are self-awareness and self-acceptance.
 
We all have light and darkness inside, impulses of destruction and renewal and dealing with these forces is part of human nature. It seems to me that 
 
The white Odette and the dark Odile live all the time inside our lovers and even though we find it difficult to believe they make the person whole. 
 
 
 
 
As hard as it is, when we accept that human nature is far from perfect, love becomes invincible and a fact of life.