Field notes from then to now
[All between September 25 and November 05, 2026, a humid Thursday]
[Recommendation for the background is Where is my mind which is the original with a delicious twist]
Data
Days at home: 17
On travel and homecoming
I write this at sunset... and I have a melody humming...
I think... I think most about nature, of what I miss in my eyeline. I think of the hills in Lake District and climbing one with day 1 of periods. I think about the forests I ventured into, every bone in my body curious and afraid. There is a lot I can do in agony when motivated by nature, I learnt this. I saw this. I think about sheep. I think about driving aimlessly, the absence of potholes. I think about the breakfasts I had.
I forgot... I forgot my notepad with a friend in her fanny pack. I forgot a pack of button chocolates in an Airbnb. I forgot budgeting. I lost two film rolls in a crowd.
I collected... I cried out loud when I found my favourite Vivaldi's composition by Max Richter in a CD. The CDs I am collecting as another ill-advised "artifact" gathering for the museum of my life. I collected and wrote on postcards. I collected perfumes.
I felt... curious. I was charming, I was aloof. I was cold. I got a flu once. I bawled my eyes watching Midnight Mass. I smiled at all cats I saw.
I am learning... How I like a place I visit becomes determined by two factors: (1) how different it is in stress factors from home (2) how costly is the standard of living. I learnt that reading is not a continual pass time for me. It takes a effort to sit and read every time, it feeling big or small is directionally proportionate to how rotten my brain is from other media. I learnt my life could pass by in this beautiful mundane, and I am conditioned to complain but I feel no harm in it. I learnt I love the people in my life, in all their capacities. I learnt I like to be capable of hate, to transform it into a great indifference.
I drove and drove and drove till the road thinned out and I found it wiser to turn back. I drove and drove till sunset and turned to catch the light falling in the other direction.
I walked more than I ever did in my life before. I drank more beer than I ever did in my life before. I got tired, more than I ever did in my life before.
I had curd rice. I told a girl I crushed on that I am a "stew girl". I cringed. I missed home.
I do not like listing travel as a hobby or an interest area. It is a bit top level, because there are things that are hobbies and interests within the act of traveling. Seeing as to how ghastly I am at packing (I do not know how to travel light) and how I do the exact same hobbies on the "road", treating travel as a separate category seems ill fitting. Bragging about it, even more so. Ru and I are just cherry picking our wants, leaning into every impulse, and gathering memories of note of our 30s before we slip into middle age.
Somewhere between losing our suitcase and celebrating our anniversay in an airport, to being gourd vegetable-like in a riyad, Ru and I established that as fun as this chunk of travel was, we missed home. So I write this from home, it is sunset. I am seeing a pink sky. I started writing this when it was brighter, and just now, Ru walked in to turn my lamp on. I finished my Coke float before I finished the first 4 sentences.
From the road
- I went to Galway. Within a day I saw all the sights they "suggest", and I had rest of the week there to wander the same roads and suffer the weather.
- In Galway, it got so windy that walking took a new kind of strength. I had to dig deep into my spine to find that.
- I started calling myself an "aspiring artist" in Galway.
- I rented a car to wander the Irish countryside for a day, and was spellbound at all I saw. It was only on the drive day that I came to like Ireland.
- We lost our luggage to Aer Lingus. What arrived was one bag intact and another broken. No compensation.
- A beef and Guinness stew can sustain me. I admired it eternally.
- All my CD purchases are from Dublin.
- I went to the Guinness factory and returned with shot glasses and an admiration for brewing.
- I took rides on the tram.
- I had average matcha. South East matcha is still supreme.
- I had three hot chocolates in a week. The weather was unbearable otherwise.
- I walked so far out in Dublin on a day where exhaustion finally caught up, along with cramps, that it was the only day in this journey where I took a taxi back home.
- I drank beautiful and perfect flat white coffees.
- I can do without fish and chips for the rest of my life.
- I ate a lot of sausage.
- I was judged more harshly than Ru at the immigration desk in Morocco.
- I got lost in both the medinas of Essaouira and Marrakech.
- I barely did any sight seeing in Morocco.
- I explored Morocco subReddits and discussed controversial topics with staff at the hotel.
- I ate the best crepe of my life in Morocco. I am a savoury crepe person.
- I did not buy a tajine and I am not too happy about it.
- I ate too much of almond butter in Marrakech. It is cocaine.
Home coming has been delightful. I spent 10 days stuck at home due to package deliveries. Many things have been replaced in my house, as Rhea's move here has instigated sisterly-theft on her end. I have closed that leg of home chores too. Starting Monday, a new season can begin. It will.
That's all folks.
November regards,
Nats