Picture this. A balmy evening. Surrounded by the beautiful smell of mimosa. The sound of the ocean in the distance.
I am sitting outside in the garden of some dear friends in Portugal.
One of them is running a business walking dogs whose owners do not have the time to walk them. So he walks them and charges for this.
It is bringing him lots of joy as this is a new venture, and not only is it profitable but he is learning to love dogs and understand how they behave.
He is also walking more than 20,000 steps a day! Way above the tipping point for health and happiness.
My other friend works as a personal assistant to an entrepreneur who runs a publishing business. She is loving her work and it is really appreciated by her employer. And the product that she oversees is very popular and sought after among the Portuguese community in Lisbon.
All in all a happy couple enjoying life.
And here I am enjoying their hospitality and friendship and just about to take up their offer of being served a beautiful meal and a glass of vinho verde.
What is happening to me? I seem to be falling. I seem to be enveloped by hardwood. I am being hit on the head and in the face. Panic is rising in me. And now I am laughing. I am laughing a lot. And my friends’ faces have turned from worry and alarm to glee and mirth. What has just happened to me?
Their garden furniture, they proudly announced a few weeks ago, had been bought at low cost, from a vendor who had mysteriously closed shop after having been operating for only a week. It now seems that he has left Portugal and returned to Brazil. And left behind a lot of upset people, a lot of debt and a lot of confusion.
You might be asking what has that got to do with the flailing person in this story?
Well, the vendor of the chair on which I was sitting is the vendor now sitting somewhere in Brazil. And the chair I was sitting on ( and now collapsed ) was one of a consignment sold at reduced rates to my dear friends, and their friends and acquaintances and family members. Quickly assembled, and made of low-quality materials, the provenance of the materials being unknown and most probably illegally sourced. And the fittings are cheap and not able to take my weight, even though I am not of a heavy-built disposition.
So is there a learning curve in this story! Enjoy your work. Enjoy your leisure time. Enjoy good food. Enjoy the smell of mimosa. Enjoy vinho verde. But please make sure you buy quality garden furniture wherever it is that you choose to live! You do not want to lose friends through collapsing seating arrangements!