Welcome Back...

Dear people of the World Wide Web,

DISCLAIMER: this post is largely parentheses. The mark of a terrible writer.

A few months ago I started a blog that tracked my haphazard journey across the US. There were highs (going to the US) and lows (leaving the US) but overall the experience of blog-writing was one I loved and was not ready to give up. It was, primarily, a great way of keeping friends and fam in the PG-rated loop (feel free to get in touch for the uncensored version), but also a great way for me to log my time away. I have always kept a diary, but have rarely used this to record actual events and activities; it’s more a case of “Dear Diary, woeeee is me” proceeded by a long list of boys I fancy/emotions I think I might be experiencing/ways I want to be a Better Person. In other words, should these diaries be dug up in the year 3017, they will reveal absolutely nothing of historical/social intelligence, and readers would poke their own eyes out from boredom before publishing them. Moving on.

I’ve spent 26 years looking for a hobby. The early years involved coaxing from parents, the middle years coaxing from education, and the latter years The Fear of Being Fat and Alone (i.e. If you don’t get a hobby now, Rhiannon, you will soon suffocate under a pile of Netflix subscriptions and cheese packaging). These hobbies ranged from the active (horse-riding, ballet, Zumba) to the less (collecting Grazia magazines, Zumba on a bad day). Whilst some of those things stuck longer than others, I still find myself on a quest to beat those Sunday afternoon blues. You know, the ones that come in between pretending to take out the recycling and questioning YOUR ENTIRE EXISTENCE. And so, in the name of keeping myself under 200lb and sane, I venture forth into: New Territory.

When considering this new blog venture, I passed through several stages of ‘unrealistic’. Too expensive (skydiving around Europe), too ambitious (skydiving around Europe also, now I think about it), too banal (Girl Joins Gym) etc. I also considered a food blog, but why would I, someone who drinks milk from the carton and grates cheese directly into her mouth, think anyone would want to read my gastro blog ?? Especially as I largely rotate between burrito bars and places where the menu comes in pictures. No no, this is not my calling. Instead I am keeping it simple in a bid to keep it up. Having already lived in Madrid for some time, I feel comfortable in calling it home (bearing in mind I call a lot of places ‘home’; leave me in the Post Office queue long enough and I’ll start changing my billing address). But I got into some ruts. Always eating and drinking at the same places, always looking at the same pieces of art (but also, would anyone ever get bored of The Guernica ?? If your answer is “actually, maybe...” then you are cordially dismissed. I’ll not hear a bad word said against our Pablo), always attending the same nail bars...hahaha we can pretend.

Anyway, it is my new resolution to rediscover my old home. This means sampling places I’ve never been, and would normally reject (old art, new bars), trying activities I’ve not tried before (life drawing ? Life drawing MODEL ??), including sports (have a sneaking suspicion there’s an Ultimate Frisbee champion within me, crying to get out), visiting parts of the city and beyond that I’ve been telling myself I would for years, and then always getting distracted by a Broadchurch marathon/hangover/”sleeping through my alarm”. Not this year. Nope. I’m a born again tourist, out to discover my own turf with new eyes. And I invite you, whoever and wherever you are, to come with me on this (extremely modest, crewless, shipless) voyage.