 |
| Hogueras de San Juan, Alicante |
Hello dear reader. It's been a while since I sat down and thought about writing a blog post. Katie and I have had a crazy summer, and I'm using crazy in the frat party kind of way and not in the mental disturbance kind of way (the amount of this has remained reliably constant). We've had a pretty excellent time with lots of travels, including the following:
- We drove south from Valencia to Alicante and spent time with Katie's uncle Graeme - a lovely chap who has started his new “life in flip-flops” in Spain. I love the sentiment but I frankly find flip-flops too uncomfortable to be spending my life in them.
- We spent a wonderful ten days in Norway with midnight sun, stunning landscapes, and a family reunion in a beautiful rural village.
- We had a lovely week in the Lake District in the UK celebrating Katie's Massi (aunt) turning 50!
- We did a four week roadtrip around northern Spain (plus Andorra and a bit of France) exploring and capturing this wonderful part of the world in 360.
- And while we were in London we filmed a 360 3D short film, Living in Sim, that is hopefully coming to a film festival near you.
We started the blog in 2011 as a way of
keeping our family and friends informed of what we were up to in Korea. It soon
became our attempt at chronicling our adventures for our future selves, as well
as providing hopefully useful information to other travellers. These
(hopefully) funny and curious blogs lost something when they became an addition
to the 360 travel vlogs we are making. I felt forced into writing a weekly post
and keeping it on the topic of travel. This blog has always been a place for me
to work out and communicate ideas. Thinking and writing something publicly,
even if only five people read it, means I take more care in forming my
thoughts. In a world where a tweet from eight years ago can be brought back to
ruin a career, writing regular posts about things you are trying to understand
is more dangerous than beneficial.
We live in strange times and I want to
continue to blog, despite the blogosphere being a shadow of its former self.
It's for selfish reasons mainly, as the Morning Calm Blog Book is one of my
most prized possessions. In an ever changing world full of technology, endless
outrage, and higher living standards than ever before, I want to use this blog
to clarify my thoughts and point out the absurdities and contradictions of
culture at home, on the web, and on our travels. I’ll continue to try and be
humorous when pointing out things and I want future Dave to look back at
present Dave's stupidity and laugh.
The blog posts will still be based around
travel and we have a lot to talk about, as we have been exploring and learning
about Spain at a rate that can only be done by young people with limited work
commitments. This privileged life is something worth writing about. And hopefully
worth reading about too.
