Month: May 2017

Festivals and illness

At some point I’m sure I’ll manage a week away from work without coming down with some sort of illness – this is not that week though. Yesterday started with a visit to see the festivities associated with the local holiday to celebrate the Canary Islands. There were stalls, singing and dancing, and far more people than I’m usually comfortable with. It was OK, but by the end I was starting to feel like I was coming down with some sort of head cold (although I did manage to wander around and take some photographs). This feeling continued throughout the day, and the evening ended up involving little more than watching a film (Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children – which I actually found quite entertaining) and then going to bed fairly early. I then woke up in the middle of the night with a really sore throat, and this morning I’ve got most of the symptoms of a heavy cold, although my energy levels suggest I’ll be fine to do something today so I’m not going to let it stop me.

I’ve been here a few days now, and I’m really enjoying the weather, the pace of life, and the fact that it’s possible to spend a whole day moving between different cafes and bars, drinking reasonably priced coffee and wine in a visually impressive environment. I don’t think I could live like this, but I certainly plan on coming back here in the future to see all the things I’m not going to get round to on this trip (not least the volcano, which I really would like to stand at the top of at some point). It looks like we’re going to have family here for the foreseeable future, so I don’t mind too much if illness or the relatively short duration of the trip leads me to not doing everything that there is to do. There will be time, and I do not plan on knocking myself out on this trip as I’ve got another week of (business) travel straight afterwards.

Settling in

The second day in any new place is generally when I start to settle in. Yesterday was no exception, and included a trip to two supermarkets and several shops, an evening in a lovely outside bar, and then the first film of the holiday (Dr Strange, which I actually enjoyed a lot more than I thought I would). Everything here seems reasonably priced, with even quite decent wine significantly cheaper than the U.K.

I also did a little research into some of the interesting sights from yesterday, and found that the odd juxtaposition of iconography I noted in yesterday’s blog was actually due to the monument being created long after any of the historical periods it referenced. There are a lot of older things here (including churches and a ruined castle), but there certainly don’t seem to be any historical or mythological treasure maps that I can find at present.

It’s a holiday here today (Día de Canarias), so shops will be shut and the streets will be full of celebrations. I suspect we may go and join them at some point later, before planning further excursions for the rest of the week.

First impressions of Tenerife

Getting up at 3am was a bit of a culture shock. I usually get up at 6, so early mornings are a thing I’m used to, but even so I found it quite hard. We got to the airport just after 4, and grabbed breakfast at the airport. The food was slow to arrive, and slightly cold by the time it did, but was still very welcome. Coffee was also achieved, following which there was a painfully slow crawl from the gate to the plane, which ended up taking off about 20 minutes late due to what was described as “carnage” at the airport, but which just looked like mild disorganisation.

I’ve never flown with Monarch before, and I was pleasantly surprised. the seats were comfortable, there was a handy slot for my iPad in the back of the seat in front, and I largely managed to escape into four hours of familiar music (Belle & Sebastian and Cardiacs), as well as taking a few photographs through the window as we were landing. The landing was quite bumpy, but it wasn’t long before we were out of the plane, had collected our baggage, and were standing in the Tenerife sunshine waiting to get a bus to Santa Cruz.

We drove along a coastal road for around 50 minutes, with the sea to our right and a series of impressive looking scenery to our left. One day I will come back to this island for a waking and climbing holiday, but this is not that trip. As we headed north the scenery changed from arid and water starved earth to something lush and greener, and soon we were pulling into Santa Cruz, which I later learned was the capital of Tenerife.

Staying with family always makes for a different sort of holiday, with the differences in this case being reliable internet, a large black cat, and having people around who can show us the sights from the perspective of a local. That quite useful for me, as I usually treat holidays as an opportunity to try and live in a new place for a week, and to make a judgement as to whether it is a place I would want to live for a longer period of time at some point in the future. The jury is still out on Tenerife, but it’s good to know I’m getting better quality data than I manage in a lot of places.

Our first wander around Santa Cruz involved looking at a couple of interesting old buildings, and some statues and sculptures that seemed to combine standard Catholic iconography with something more nautical (as I would expect for an island). There is more history on display here that I had expected, and plenty of things I want to read up on either while I am here or once I get back home. There are also plenty of small cafes and bars to grab a relatively inexpensive coffee or glass of wine, and we grabbed one of each before calling it a night relatively early (getting up at 3am will do that).

I was awake before dawn, and have in fact learned that dawn happens much later than in the U.K. at this time of year. if this is the pattern the week is going to follow then I should have chance to sit and write for an hour or so before the hustle and bustle of the day begins, which should be plenty of time to keep my blog up to date rather than posting a big long essay at the end of the holiday as I’ve done on previous trips abroad.

Why I like being centre stage

I’d rather be on the stage than in the crowd.

But why?

People often assume I’d much rather be in a crowd (at the back, where no-one can see me) than on a stage (at the front, with everyone looking). It’s not the case though, and never has been for as long as I can remember.

If I’m centre stage then I’m there because I’ve been asked to be, or because I’ve assumed a role that needs doing and that no-one else has stepped up to do. In both cases it suggests I’m there to do something I’m probably quite good at, and doing things that I know I’m good at gives me confidence and relaxes me. Also, if I’m on a stage then I have control over what I’m there to do – I can start when I’m ready and influence how long I’m up there.

I dislike crowds because they are full of people I don’t know; with indiscriminate connections to each other that I don’t always understand. Crowds are best encountered from a position slightly to the outside (like on the stage), and they are quite hard to escape from once I’m in the middle of one. I find unexpected physical contact quite jarring, and the thought of there being people in between me and my escape route is one of my main anxiety triggers, which makes situations where I’m surrounded by people quite hard sometimes.

Crowds are scary. Give me a stage any day.

Losing the battle to win the war

There is a lot of talk of politics right now. I think it’s inevitable, and it’s a good thing that people are talking (and thinking) about ways to make the world a better place.

It’s not that easy though, is it? Scrolling through my social media feeds over the last few weeks it’s becoming clear that there are a number of different opinions, some of which I agree with and some of which I don’t. That’s not a problem either though, because it’s good that I know people that have opinions sufficiently different to my own to make me think about what I believe in, and consider alternatives before making decisions. That’s the world I want to live in, and long may it prevail.

What I’m less keen on is when opinions are presented as facts, and anyone who doesn’t share those opinions is denounced as being wrong (or stupid, or any other negative word). That’s what I don’t want any part in, and why I don’t engage in politics to a greater degree. For every strong opinion there is (by the very nature of opinions) and equally strong counter-opinion, which is believed (at least as) passionately by another group of people. It doesn’t make them wrong, or make them bad people, it just means there is more than one viewpoint to consider (which to me is what makes them opinions, rather than facts).

Personally I’m all for trying to judge people on the intent of their words and actions rather than the unwitting impact they may have had on others (which is hard sometimes). And what comes out loud and clear about pretty much everyone I know is that they care about this world and want to make it a better place. How that manifests itself might be different, but the core motivation seems the same. And what’s more, I don’t think that core motivation is too different from most politicians and other public figures who speak out about these things.

Strong opinions and strong words are required to enact change, but not at the cost of our relationships with those closest to us. That’s where I draw the line, and if I walk away from something it’s generally because I’m prepared to lose the argument to save the relationship, or lose the battle to win the war.

A blog about blogging

I think I’m getting better at showing people things I’ve written. I used to be terrible at this; and at one point must have had hundreds of pages of writing that I had never shared with another person.

This is largely not the case now. There are things I’ve written all over the internet, I have three pieces of writing about to be published on a new MBTI themed website due soon, and I’m a lot more comfortable with showing people things I’ve written; including things I’ve had kicking around in some form or another for years.

There’s only really one way to become a writer, and that’s to write. And part of writing is showing your writing to other people, listening to feedback, and taking that feedback on board to become a better writer.

I’m hoping to have time to sit down and write something for this blog while I’m overseas next week, but in the meantime, I’ll dig out a couple of things I’ve written over the last few weeks that I’ve not yet got around to posting.

My travel setup

My travel kit (for non-work travel) now consists of:

If I’m working I’ll also have my Surface Pro 4 with me, but apart from that I rarely travel with a laptop these days.