Wednesday, January 12, 2011

better

For reasons I'm not entirely sure of – nostalgia, self-loathing, boredom, the search for the Holy Grail – I went through some of my older posts, pre-London mostly. I was surprised. The character of this blog has really changed. The posts used to deal with what happened to me, immediately and direct. With eyes of curiosity, I walked through life and noticed a ton of interesting little things that I thought worth sharing, little snippets of five hundred words at most. Now, most posts deal with what's happening around me, stories related from a safe distance. Plus, everything is drawn out beyond anyone's patience.

I don't know what's going on, but I want to get back. This, or I'm going to close shop to refocus my attention or reprioritize my life. So far, I'm undecided, which is a situation that's not exactly foreign to me. To fill the void until the dice fall one way or another and to sprinkle the spice of contrast onto a blog that's getting duller by the minute, here is (painfully incongruously) my list of ten things that make life better:

  1. a good book on a bad day.
  2. a European passport, which opens many doors, but not those into Algeria.
  3. a USB stick, preferably with a copy of said passport on it, just in case.
  4. a card that opens ATMs wherever one find oneself penniless in the world.
  5. speaking in tongues and pretending to speak in tongues, the latter being by far more challenging.
  6. a Gore-Tex jacket in inclement weather.
  7. a Rocky Mountain on a rocky mountain (or in a dusty desert or on a muddy slope).
  8. having a drink outside on a warm evening, just after the sun has set, legs still soft from riding.
  9. sitting no matter where in the world, capturing moments in a Moleskine, a traveler's most faithful companion.
  10. electric blue hair, providing there is hair.

Anything to add? What do you think?

2 comments:

Stacy said...

11. Camping by a fire, preferably under the stars.

And, do you need me to bring you some hair dye?!

Andreas Förster said...

Yes, camping is special too.

Before I need dye, I need hair first ;-)