May Thoughts

1. Travel is expensive. Am I fortunate to know both my departure and arrival countries so well that I am okay with travelling from a choice of five and arriving into a choice of three airports? Or is this just complicating things, really?

2. It’s time to finally deal with the garden. It will be expensive, but I suspect getting professionals in will be worth the cost.

3. My change in profession has wrought some havoc on my dental hygiene routines and I hereby pledge to get back on the straight and narrow. 2 x 2 minutes a day, and I’ve been prescribed some high fluoride toothpaste. Floss. Then mouthwash in between, during the day. I will report back next time on how it is going.

4. My birthday is around the corner. I have landed in that birthdays are for taking a step back to look at the big picture. As it is, I feel that I am doing okay, big-picture wise. I may not be thinking the same if I was not doing so well, by my own standards… But I have also found that the older I get, the easier I find it to dig in and make changes if I do not like what I see [in the big picture].

5. Will it get as hot as it was last year as we inch into summer? My concern is the temperature of my classroom. I plan to ask for/bring in an electric fan to help circulate air. I may also purchase liquid satin fabric to block out the sun in the afternoons. The windows along my room come in three tiers, so I will open the top and bottom for maximum convection, and I will try to get in early in the mornings to make use of the (relatively) cool air then. What else can I do?

6. The Chinese supermarkets are getting very expensive and this is upsetting. Whinge over.

Hope you are keeping well! Take care not to get ill in the ever-changing late-spring weather.

August

Does it feel like the pandemic has started to properly affect the global climate? At least the end of August gave us a couple of lovely days. Not a single one neighbour put out their garden bin two days ago however. I’m glad we stand united in no-gardening-in-the-rain.

I went to a place in the North Pennines on a very silly errand: I had a £20 fuel voucher for a specific chain of petrol stations, and my closest branch is located just over an hour’s drive away, in the middle of the North Pennines AONB. The voucher expires today, and I went yesterday. And I felt like I had to share the road with every motorcycle gang in Cumbria.

But you know what, it was rather lovely. If I didn’t think it would be lovely I’d have sent the voucher to a friend to use. While there, I also patroned a small tea shop. And then I came back.

A dose of local geography…

… and of local history.

One from the road…

… and arriving home to this sky. Not bad.

November

This month was planned as half rest. Ish. Here is one of the actually restful tidbits.

I may return with the more fretful parts later. For now, please enjoy a patch of Stockholm in the winter sun.

Notes from the Road

Remember last month when I said that I was about to head off abroad? Well, I scribbled in my notes every day just so the experiences would not simply breeze by. Here are the notes in reverse order, Memento-style.

Read on to make sense of some of these pictures…

Pilot on the flight home: “Hello boys and girls!” “It’s a typical summer’s day in Newcastle – it’s raining!”

Notes on departure: came across my first “Catalan republic” march in Plaça Catalunya as I am on my way to the Aerobus. On a different note, I am met with a “non-European passports this way please” at the airport.

The last day, I have managed to buy fabric, but should probably have gone there on day 1 to kick start my Spanish (they didn’t speak English), but we managed to learn some new words from each other, so that’s good? I also feel like I’ve become less the charming solo traveller on the last day, and I actually feel like it’s time to go home, which I guess is about right?

So far I’ve done two of these trips. For each one, I’ve felt that I want to come back again, with company. Don’t know if it’s because

1. there is a lack of company,

2. travelling solo elevates the enjoyment and makes me want to visit again,

3. solo/group travel gives such different experiences that it’s worth doing again?

Guy playing Chiquitita on “panflöjt” on the underground. Woman with scary-looking sunburns on same train.

The only people who are letting me have a go at Spanish are people who look Far Eastern.

Second hand shops smell the same as back home.

Funny thing is that I may be using both my hands and feet to make sure I don’t slip on rocks, but my phone was charging via the power bank the whole time. Technology! (NB The reason why I am climbing up rocks is in the next bit.)

It’s my birthday! I am continuing to spend each birthday in a, for me, brand new place, and preferably high up. So I am clunking up Montserrat outside Barcelona.

Came face to face with my would-be pickpocket. Managed to wrestle my belongings back.

Chinese tourists tried to speak Spanish to me (much like I’m trying to speak Spanish as best I can) because they were not sure if I was Chinese or from another SE/Far Eastern Asian country.

Tourist fashion trends, a selection: “I am made of ice and therefore wearing a puffer jacket”, denim diapers and crop tops, “el classico” featuring at least one chino item, Super Fancy (I have seen some very pretty dresses up in Montjuic castle).

Got asked whether I was under 30 and had to think about it. Got asked where I was from and had to think about that too.

Always bring the midi skirt.

Water (tap) does taste chlorinated. But in a toss-up I’d probably also choose free-from pathogens over taste. Sadly have not yet tasted water (sea).

Miles of walking in the city does not add up to fewer miles compared to walking in the country. Why am I still surprised that I am tired in the mid-afternoon after a day of walking around town?

I live on the tapas street?! (Goes to show that even though I love food, I am drawn to seeking out other things on holiday and miss crucial details…) Will obviously have to check this out later.

If you are ardent with your spf 50 but miss a spot, it will be really obvious where that spot is.

Tour guide notes:

“CNT = anarchist trade union;

in Catalonia we say ‘Merci, si us plau, and bom dia'”

Was wrestling with my suitcase in the overhead bins when I suddenly realised I was crowding the man sitting underneath. I apologised, and he didn’t seem too cross. I genuinely thought I was leaning against the seat-back and not him, but decided not to tell him that, lest I would *make* him cross by informing him he had the same texture as an airplane seat.

Take-off -1 week

Print list:

Flight confirmations

Hotel confirmations

Markets in Barcelona

Directions to hotel

(NB I didn’t actually print any of these things.)

More pictures to come next time. Including the food diary!

When Home is Everywhere

It has been a while now, since I tied myself down to a regular job with regular hours and regular limits on holidays. Mind you, I was always in two minds about all of those working holidays that were mixed up with conference duties and event management. Then again, I was in a state of academentia when all of that was part of my daily life. Nowadays, I have rediscovered the joys of (more light-hearted and lower-stakes, yet simply “better”) research for smaller engagement projects, and the ten-point list of requirements to acquire a Chinese visa feels that much more conquerable.

It is of course here that we meet a new dilemma. While I was able to move freely back then, work came with me or hunted me down when I did not want to see it. I also felt like I constantly owed the funding bodies to show my face on campus and talk about my research all the time, even when I perhaps should have simply taken a proper break. In retrospect, I think I was trying to perform the behaviour of those around me. It made me very tired because that was not really I am.

Now I feel up for the challenge of making as much as possible out of the time I can give to my family and friends in China – my itinerary has seven steps so far – and my funds are my own. But while I have holidays saved up, I find myself limited even in something so simple as that holidays longer than two weeks need to be authorised by somebody further up from my line manager. This is understandable, but we are yet again reminded that, for one reason or another, we are only (easily?) permitted two out of time, energy, and money.

Maybe not everybody in every workplace has family and friends scattered around the world. But hopefully whoever gets to decide whether or not I can have the holiday I planned has some sympathy for those for whom “going home” cannot be fitted into a weekend.

Hope everybody is having a good daylight-savings day (if you do that stuff), and are not feeling too winded.