Features and blogging

I had an odd message to do with my old blog, so I popped across to check; sure enough, I was locked out. Mr Fairy helped me fix it (took him half of Sunday) and then I was back down the Partly Cloudy rabbit hole, hopping in and out of local buses, on and off boats, digging my toes into warm sands and trying to order dinner in Beijing. Honestly, I pop onto that page and time dissolves.
Why do I hold on to an old blog that’s been dormant since 2017? It costs money to maintain the hosting service, and I haven’t posted on it for three years. But regular trawls through those archives have lifted me across three static lockdowns and numerous wistful travel conversations with home-ridden friends and family. I think I’ve answered my own question right there.
What’s now a dormant travel blog – once a record of five years overseas – has been my virtual passport for all the half terms, spring breaks, summer holidays, autumn and winter trips ever since Covid confiscated my real passport.
Do you keep a record of where you’ve been, take notes, write a journal? We all have memories but to keep them preserved eternally, suspended like some magical gateway, is something for which I’ll always be grateful. And for all those times I felt silly pasting the stories across social media, when my bossy internal voice would ask: who cares where you’ve been? Well, I’m so glad my sensible voice always replied: I do.
I’ll need to actually travel at some point – we all will – but for now I’m happy to head back to the virtual beach. Don’t wait up.

Pic: me and the boy contemplating life at Lake Wakatipu, South Island, NZ, 2017.