Greetings from the edge
I have returned to Blighty with a hold full of exotic liquor and chattels from far-off lands. My journeys to foreign parts were brief but deeply fulfilling.
I can safely say that, if you are considering seeing other parts of the world, a cruise is a bloody good deal. As someone who has been known to get travel sick on a rocking horse, I was naturally trepidatious about setting foot on a huge ship and sailing into the Bay of Biscay, known for its… interesting weather and rough seas.
But it was amazing.
Even at its worst, the ship only ever moved enough to make me feel pleasantly drunk.
We went from France to Spain and back again, with a few days at sea. We got to see a total eclipse, which was magical, eerie, and graceful all at the same time. I made very good use of the drinks package, which is a polite way of saying I made a spirited attempt to pickle myself. We also saw some brilliant sights and met some wonderful people.
During the eclipse, the captain played a blinder. There was a thick blanket of cloud covering the Sun, kilometres long, but he put his foot down and, with moments to spare, we saw the Sun break through the cloud cover and got to see the cosmic ballet unfurl in front of us.
As the moon slowly started to slip in front of the Sun, a ragged cry went up from everyone on the ship.
There is nothing like the sound of a thousand pissed-up Englishmen all cheering the sky.
I sat with a dude who had worked for Google at breakfast one morning, and geeking out over the minutiae of various ad-blockers was the closest I got to even thinking about work while I was away.
Then, because the universe hates a clean landing, I got home and immediately dropped £300 on a pair of glasses that, in theory, turn your phone into a home cinema. In fact, I paid a big chunk of change for a set of ugly-ass Ray-Ban ripoffs that wouldn’t even power on. But I got them from Amazon, so short of being a pain in the arse, I won’t have lost out on the deal once they get the kit back.
Now that I’m back on terra firma, I can start up with running the site again. Incidentally, thank you to everyone who kept visiting and reading while the site was on hiatus.
I have a couple of articles on the boil at the moment, and a few back-of-the-napkin pitches that I can flesh out into more substantial work.
For now, I shall re-shackle myself to my keyboard and, just as importantly, start work in earnest on my novella.
See you in the margins,
Leave a Reply