I took myself out of bed and out of our apartment, down the stone steps of shining white. Down to the square where men and women sat facing the cathedral drinking coffee. Out to the right and down more shining stone steps.

The footpath is modest on the shore of clear sea water. Small boats moored like parked cars to my left as I walk to where I know the beach is. To my right is a terrace bar upstairs where the night before we celebrated a night of good music. The music now is Sunday’s voices and the boats.

I could be in a novel here. It is the kind of place that evens out your thinking and could give you that holiday of a lifetime. I approached a headland and noticed men cycling towards me. Up ahead I noticed more men, swim-suited running towards their bikes. It became apparent I was against the tide of an iron man type triathlon. Further on I sat to watch the bustle and noticed a mother and daughter helping dad change into his cycling gear. That moved me. I could imagine them together later that evening infused with the taste of an exciting day shared. Simple love expressed.

The beach is stony and small. The stones are pink for the most part, or coral. The water is clear and feels so good on the skin. This is not Greece but it gives me the feeling of the tone of sea-side life as it might and has always been in places like this. Šibenik is up the coast from Greece.

We could not even pay for a cup of coffee here such was the generosity of our hosts. Mira laughed and her laughter reflected the sea and the shining stones that make the town. Once again I am living the dream!

I returned to where the men and women were drinking coffee and ordered myself one and let my gaze move with the people as they come and go. People I have become acquainted with. A man who had driven us to our show the night before and a piano maestro sit next to me. The driver had also just finished putting together the life’s work of Sibelius as a twenty year project. He shrugged and said ‘ it is good’.