As we pack the few items we are taking home, and prepare ourselves, and the boys, for our departure from Penamacor tomorrow (Monday) morning, it seems like a good idea to try to get this week’s post written tonight, before tomorrow’s long day. We plan to leave the house at 12 noon, and are scheduled to land in Israel at 2:30AM on Tuesday, which means we will probably turn up at Esther’s flat in Zichron around 5:30–6:00, which will seem to us like 3:30–4:00. Just what part of this seemed like a good idea when we planned it escapes me for the moment, but I’m sure it makes sense in some universe or other.
I thought I would start this week by responding to the one or two of you who have asked me how the kids’ business, their bodyweight gym, is going. I’m pleased to say that after a slow start it has, over the weeks we have been here, just started to gather a little momentum. They have acquired about fifteen regular customers. Tslil has attracted more students to her yoga classes, and has added a new pilates class, while Micha’el, in addition to having new members training in the gym, is planning to introduce two new classes: in martial arts and an introduction to bodyweight training.
Having started by concentrating their publicity on social media, they soon realised that this was not sufficiently focused. While their campaign generated a fair bit of interest, some of those who responded were based in Lisbon or other similarly far-flung locations. Since the kids started a poster and flyer campaign that is much more locally focussed, their results have been starting to translate into actual feet walking through the door.
They are, of course, in the middle of a learning process, and, with each new customer, indeed with each new prospect, they realise more about what their target customers need to be, and how best to reach them and attract them. This understanding can then help to inform their promotional materials. Each new advertising initiative is producing more useful results.
There are advantages to being based in a small community. First, there is no local competition. Gymacor is the only game in town. In addition, in a small place like Penamacor, where everybody knows everybody else, one satisfied customer is likely to generate more interest from among his or her circle. For example, the high-school student who contacted them this week might easily represent a way into a new market segment.
I don’t want to give the wrong impression. The kids are still very much at the beginning of their journey, and they have a long way to go before they can say that their idea is viable. However, they have, in the last few weeks, seen enough positive signs to make even an old Eeyorean sceptic like me believe that they may well be able to build their idea into a business. We do hope so, because they have certainly invested considerable effort in getting to this point, and they both firmly believe in the quality and importance of the service that they can offer.
Beyond that, there really isn’t much to report. The major feature of the last week has been the weather. After a mild and dry first two and a half weeks of this trip, the last week or so has been very wet and fairly cold. We have not, yet, experienced the threatened thunder storms. They did reach Portugal, but seem to have hit Lisbon and the Algarve worst, and not to have travelled as far inland as Penamacor. However, the rain has been more or less constant: presenting a rich, and unrelenting variety of precipitation. We have had days of soft rain and days of driving rain. Low, swirling cloud, and cutting wind; dank mist and a quiet stillness.
Lua, who, as a local breed, should be well used to this weather, was very unnerved by the change in atmospheric pressure that preceded the change in the weather. However, the actual rain, however fierce, does not bother her at all. So, I have been very grateful for the good hooded raincoat that I have out here…and I have made a note to myself to dig out the wellington boots that I never wear in Israel and bring them out next time. Fortunately, the kids have a tumble dryer, which means that I can get through a day that is punctuated by two rain-soaked walks on two pairs of jeans and two pairs of shoes.
One plus, for us, of the colder weather, has been the magic of a wood-burning stove. I have, finally, mastered the art of starting a fire, and the evenings are much cheerier basking in the radiated heat of eucalyptus logs. The new load of wood that the kids took delivery of a week or so ago is from a supplier they have not used before. He, thankfully, cuts his logs shorter than their previous supplier, so there is no longer a struggle to wedge logs into the stove. There are also more thinner logs, which are useful when starting the fire. Now, if only there were underground access to the woodshed, so that bringing in an evening’s supply of logs did not necessitate braving the elements, life would be close to ideal.
Today has seen the start of our preparations to leave. I have left loaves and chocolate ice-cream in the freezer, and there is a good supply of my granola in the kitchen. Nan made scones for Shabbat and for teatime today, with cream and jam. We did our last supermarket shop today, leaving the house well-stocked. The empty gas bottle has been exchanged for a spare full one. Both Grandpa and Nana read the bedtime stories this evening. One of our carry-on trolleys is packed inside one of the cases, and the few things we are taking back are packed in the other. The last big laundry has been washed, dried, folded, and put away for next time.
And so, another trip has come and, before we know it, gone. The boys are still young enough for us to see some change even within one visit, and certainly from one visit to the next. Early childhood is such a fleeting time. We are lucky to be able to catch as much of it as we do.