Updates, past events, into the future etc
A bespoke shirt in a wonderful cotton/wool mix. A bit warm for this climate, definitely only for winter months
I’m sure many of you will be wondering what happened and why I left my brainchild sitting all by itself without paying attention to it.
The short story: I’ve been busy, very very busy.
The full lowdown:
After moving to Salobrena, I spent a long time getting to know my way around here. Meeting people, setting up shop, integrating. Although Salobreña is a very small town, moving to a different country is always a challenging affair, and as such, it took me quite a while to find my niche.
To summarize, for those people who haven’t read previous posts here: After leaving a monastic life in a small monastery in the french-speaking part of Belgium, I moved back to my native Holland, and started a small company, making very fancy handmade suits. It’s a trade I completely love, and a skill that I acquired during my years as a monk. Fast forward a good year or so.
My girlfriend finishes her studies and joins me in Holland. Fairly soon we decide we want to live someplace sunnier, so we decide to move to Salobreña, in the south of Spain.
And life takes a whole new turn.
You see, it’s not just the sun. There was something in Holland that I felt was missing. Something quiet, peaceful. As I’m sure pretty much anyone who is on the internet knows, life in the modern world is hectic business, especially nowadays. (If you happen to live in the wilderness; you are not reading this. Also, I wish I was there.) Having left a place where I’d lived very peacefully for many years, I needed to have some of that back in my life. And some more sun, please. So it got to be Salobreña, but it could have been anyplace, anywhere.
The revolutionarily new thing that I experienced here was intense and multifaceted. Sure it’s nice to live in a tropical climate. I remember that during the first year or so, and nowadays still do sometimes, I would think: DUDE! I have palmtrees in my street!
Good times.
Ok, if you live in Florida, or in Asia, or anywhere tropical, chances are that you will have seen a palmtree before. But honestly, for a green and youngish ex-monk, abruptly moving to this place was nothing short of miraculous and intense.
You see, I have a theory. Probably nothing new, or indeed correct, but I theorize that the fact that living for many thousands of years in a climate like this, a population will genetically adapt to that very climate. One thing for instance that is a result of good weather, is that it makes people laugh, smile, be generally happier than if it would rain. And the sun just keeps on shining here. So my theory is that as a result, the local people have evolved into groovy cats who enjoy life, take care of eachother, are warm and generally know how to have a good time. Quality of living and all that jazz.
So yeah, I’m happy. Not only do I live in a really nice and quiet small town, just by the sea, it just happens to be in a zone where I have palmtrees in my street. Oh, did I mention that due to the micro-climate in a 10 km radius around Salobreña, this is the only place in Europe where one can grow tropical fruits such as mangos.
The people here are so nice! Everyday I meet people, new faces, friends, acquaintances. And everyone is smiling, and being friendly. It’s all so wonderful, it ought to be in a romantic movie or something. Anyway, to summarize: it was a good choice. And it caused me to forget entirely about my blog. To apologize: I’m sorry that for that time of acclimatizing, I have left my regular readers without word for so long.
Martin, enough about yourself already! What about the suits?
Yeah, about that. Not doing badly, I’m happy to say. The area is not exactly filled with great dressers, but there are, fortunately, enough people who like to wear something special.
I’ve been making more shirts than I used to, and also more ladies’ clothing. Mostly suits, blouses and of course there are always always suits and jackets for men.
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