Why aren't I Mediterranean?

I should definitely have been born in the Mediterranean.

For a start, I hate the English weather. "Oh, but it's so beautiful and green" afficionados will say, "So lovely to see the seasons change". Well I don't subscribe to that view. I hate being cold, and I hate being wet, and I seem to have been nothing but both of those things for the last month. I don't really like green as a colour, although a garden in full bloom in the summer with striped green grass is, I grant you, a lovely sight. But I much prefer the hard, brilliant landscape of much of the Med with its golden rocks, duck egg blue sky and fierce light. And as far as landscape goes, give me the harsh Yorkshire Moors or Dartmoor over the Dales every time. Rolling green fields are boring. And I won't miss seasons which are cold, wet and dismal most of the time. Permanent summer would suit me fine.

Secondly, I love Mediterranean food. Yes, I like pies and pastries as much as the next girl (and my waistline proves it) but I love peppers, tomatoes and garlic sliced straight from the vines, warm from the sun and dished up as a light lunch with a dressing of olive oil and fresh herbs . I love eating al fresco from the barbeque, beautiful grilled fish and seafood with no adornment apart from oil and herbs and none of the cloying French sauces which show off the chef's technique but are often used to disguise mediocre protein or inadequate amounts of it. I love fresh fruit in season - peaches, lemons, figs, pomegranates to name just a few - and drinking the local wine made in a little winery just down the road.

Thirdly, I like the lifestyle and it suits my body clock. I am always tired because I have to get up early, work all day at a demanding job with a relentless pace and then because I want a life, I am often out until late in the evening for my hobbies. There is no break and no rest and therefore little pleasure. I could quite happily get up early and be out late if I could rest during the day, and there is nothing nicer when on holiday than being able to indulge my preference for a siesta. Also, I dislike eating when I get up, preferring to eat about 10am which a lot of Mediterranean cultures do, then I like to eat mid afternoon like they do when they stop work at 2pm, then eat dinner late as they do (to take advantage of the climate and because they often then go back to work from 5pm until 9pm). Our UK timetable means that isn't possible, and we eat at routine UK times because we must.

Fourthly, my health is better in warmer, drier climates. I suffer dreadfully from bronchial complaints, although these have been much better in recent years as I have started having flu jabs each autumn. When I am away, my sinuses are clear and I don't have to use the steroid spray I use every day in the UK, and my skin is better as it is in the sun more and less inclined to be oily (as I have reached my fifties, my hormones are regressing to my teenage years and I am a mass of zits!). I drink more water, and so my digestive system behaves much better than it does at home where I forget to drink enough fluid during the day.

For now, the Med is just for holidays.  But I cannot wait for the day when I can move there permanently, coming back to the UK for holidays only. "Won't you miss things here?", people ask me and yes, of course there will be things and people I will miss. But it's not that far away (it takes less time to get back to the UK from the southern Mediterranean than it does to get from Penzance to London) and technology helps you keep in touch. And on balance, I think it is the place to be. So roll on .....