Sunday, February 27, 2005
I know I went somewhere and did some stuff.
"And when we do return, it shall not be like other travellers, without being able to give one accurate idea of any thing. We will know where we have gone - we will recollect what we have seen. Lakes, mountains, and rivers, shall not be jumbled together in our imaginations; nor, when we attempt to describe any particular scene, will we begin quarrelling about its relative situation. Let our first effusions be less insupportable than those of the generality of travellers."
Quoting Elizabeth Bennet in Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen
One of the hardest things about coming back from travelling has been the rush and confusion of images and impressions and sense memories from the last six weeks, all jostling against each other in a grand gridlock of sights and sounds.
This means that when someone asks me what I enjoyed? what did I see? where was the coolest place? did I have fun? one of the memory cars has to attempt a really cramped three point turn, avoiding other traffic, cutting through lanes, driver leaning out the window shouting incoherent abuse at stunned passengers, to get to the visualisation centre of my brain to allow me to answer. And more often than not, it's two or three random cars that take off, swapping doors and paintjobs and passengers, becoming a complete mishmash, and the answer I rattle off is along the lines of "Turquoise, mountains, mudpools, penguins, friendly, ferry, albatross, fucking huge, Wellington, tattoo, museums, paintings of Canterbury, Fruju mmmm."
I'm hoping that as I get the photos developed (I'm auctioning off my kidneys to finance the printing) my memories will unjumble and I will be able to remember the trip with clarity and not have to waste my time going "In Dunedin....no wait a second it might have...was it Wellington? Or that museum in...well, anyway, there was this really cool thing that I saw that was a thing and it was really cool and yeah totally."
Quoting Elizabeth Bennet in Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen
One of the hardest things about coming back from travelling has been the rush and confusion of images and impressions and sense memories from the last six weeks, all jostling against each other in a grand gridlock of sights and sounds.
This means that when someone asks me what I enjoyed? what did I see? where was the coolest place? did I have fun? one of the memory cars has to attempt a really cramped three point turn, avoiding other traffic, cutting through lanes, driver leaning out the window shouting incoherent abuse at stunned passengers, to get to the visualisation centre of my brain to allow me to answer. And more often than not, it's two or three random cars that take off, swapping doors and paintjobs and passengers, becoming a complete mishmash, and the answer I rattle off is along the lines of "Turquoise, mountains, mudpools, penguins, friendly, ferry, albatross, fucking huge, Wellington, tattoo, museums, paintings of Canterbury, Fruju mmmm."
I'm hoping that as I get the photos developed (I'm auctioning off my kidneys to finance the printing) my memories will unjumble and I will be able to remember the trip with clarity and not have to waste my time going "In Dunedin....no wait a second it might have...was it Wellington? Or that museum in...well, anyway, there was this really cool thing that I saw that was a thing and it was really cool and yeah totally."
