Emplacement stratégique

After what I understood, now you are an English teacher ? I studied philology (the branch of knowledge that deals with the structure, historical development, and relationships of languages) and I worked in an export department of a slaughterhouse!! Not really for which I thought to be predestined either ;-)))

Alll very interestng, Christa!
When I left uni I took a year off and went to France to stay with friends and to work (different jobs, tiling in the South of France, and various farm jobs including grape picking in Bordeaux and Charente (cognac).
Before I left England I had a job offer from a distant cousin whom I had recently met at a funeral. He worked in the field of life insurance, pensions, investments, etc. Anyway, I ran out of money in France and thought I'd better return to the UK. So I rang my cousin and he said 'Where have you been? I've been waiting fo you!' So i returned and started work in his small firm. I stayed in the same job for 30 years! When that eventually went pear-shaped in the recession of 2008 I lost everything and went to live with my parents for a year whilst looking for something else.
My sister rang me from Spain and suggested I teach English there. I've always liked the study of languages anyway and thought it was a good idea so I did a teacher training course in Cornwall and went to Madrid where I was able to stay with my sister for the first year as she had a spare bedroom as my niece was studying medicine in Florence on a one year Erasmus course. I also borrowed my niece's car for that year. I enjoy teaching and regretted that I hadn't made such a career move decades earlier!
That was in 2010 and I've lived in various flats in Madrid since then, acquired a wonderful girlfriend and, were it not for a serious bout of Covid 19 last year would sill be living in the centre of Madrid and still be teaching.
However I had to leave my flat and my job and am now reciving income support as I can no longer teach. My vocal cords were badly affected and you do need to talk rather a lot, especially when teaching online is all that I could do as walking any great distance, especially uphill, is not possible. Fortunately my sister had recently bought a large house some way out of Madrid where there is room enough for her incapacitated older brother!
I am still interested in linguistics and philology and remain fascinated by the history of language.
Sorry, that was the long answer! The short answer is that I too spent years working in an area unrelated to my branch of study!!.
All best wishes,
Andy

A marvellous set of images of this Cathar fortress. I must admit I know little about them, but what I do know is fascinating.

What an amazing life, Andy, you should write a book with your autobiography. I guess it's not easy to be dependent on your sister, but on the other hand, you are lucky to have her.