August 2020, Tramuntana Mountains, Mallorca

One week of Best Friend Forever time with her hubby, her brother who‘s my brotherofanothermother, his wife , their five kids in total and, of course, father and grandfather Bill. Mother and grandmother Sue stayed on Formentera and is missed a lot.

Sleeping every night somewhere else, wether it‘s in the huge tent, in the pavillon, on sofa pillows on the floor, in a kid‘s bed or, at last, in a proper bed. But always waking up early with the sun rising up behind the Unesco World Heritage mountains of the Tramuntana, as the rural house is placed right in the middle of them in a beautiful valley close to the sea.

I adore my role as auntie Pameli/Pamela, depending on which child is calling me. My idea of doing bracelets out of colorful pearls brought from Berlin, on a self constructed loom with rusty nails tucked in old wooden boards, is a highly accepted leisure time activity, especially in the morning hours before even having had the first coffee. My bad left hand is forced to train fine motor skills in doing lots of tedious work, fiddling around with tiny pearls and thin thread leading into the needle‘s eye. The worst is tying little knots out of no left thread , trying to prevent the bracelets coming off from these children‘s wrists. I love it.

Otherwise, time is spent in the pool in between home office work with dripping hair on the laptop’s keyboard and switched off camera during conference calls. Kiki, my ‘sister in law’, and I both have to write quite a bit on our own projects anyway, like the others doing their jobs online aswell.

I am absolutely thrilled when going on a boat trip to snorkel around in remote places by the rough coast of the mountains, where we had done a little afternoon hiking trip the day before. Can‘t believe how lucky I am to have this amazing summer, thus Covid has shaken up everything, causing unpredictable times.

In fact, during that week, Mallorca has been proclaimed to have become a risky area. Meaning, I am obliged to do the obligatory test when entering Berlin and staying home until results arrive via mail. I don‘t mind at all, even very happy about a given Covid-19 test payed by the german government. Bad thing is that many tourists have cancelled their upcoming vacation which will cause again an enormous lack of income on an island that is depending on tourism industry.

Meanwhile Ivan, my ‘brother in law’, does a great paella and , in general, we enjoy lots of good food , ice cream and some wine. My corona belly is getting very well nourished.

I am seriously thinking about renting a place for the winter here, so is my BFF Tamsin with hubby and kids but more in the near future though. To quit the city and going back to the roots. As we all grew up together on Formentera in the country side, this idea is more than welcome in our minds. Tavis and Kiki had left London seven years ago already to come and live here and don‘t regret it a second. Good example to follow, if having the possibility to do so.

The Waltons 2.0