#TOURISTS

Before we embarked on this trip (over 8 months ago!) my blog featured a bit of everything from car crashes and sunrises, to absurd cheesecake recipes, to fancy balls and outback rodeos, to asking what you had for breakfast (a weirdly popular post!). Nowadays it’s mostly a travel diary in which I try to convey how amazing our trip is. I’m very conscious of not sounding like I’m writing for the kind of diary your teacher made you keep in primary school, starting with “On the weekend I…”. So I try to keep it interesting!

But obviously we aren’t exploring amazing castles or visiting beautiful beaches 24 hours a day. We do have a lot of down time in between sightseeing. The other day I was wondering what on earth we actually do when we aren’t moving from place to place or being tourists. Here’s what I came up with.

I read a lot  

I think I’m onto my 7th book since Christmas Day! I’m always looking for a good book so please hit me up with recommendations, I’ll read pretty much anything except fantasy novels. After reading The Girl on the Train last year I’ve read quite a few thrillers, hoping to find something similar. I’ve read The Good Girl by Mary Kubica, The Good Neighbour by AJ Banner and Pretty Girls by Mary Slaughter. Pretty Girls was horrific. I’ve never read anything which such graphic violence, I just had to speed read it to get it over with.

I’ve also read Man at the Helm by Nina Stibbe which was excellent; funny, sad and very well written. I’ve read some trashy Zoe Foster chick lit novels which aren’t worth mentioning, The Mothers Group by Fiona Higgins (much more interesting than it sounds!) and all of Liane Moriarty’s books. I also very much enjoyed The Vacationers by Emma Straub and We are all completely beside ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler (DID NOT see that twist coming!).

What are you reading?

I imagine my future home

Will it be as cute as my last house? Doubt it!

This is a really frustrating pastime. Where will I live? Where will I work? How will I get there? What kind of table will I eat at? What kind of sheets will I have? Which photos will I actually print out and put on the walls? Going home is terrifying because it means completely starting over again, but in the same way it is also hugely exciting. I don’t want to go home now and I’m not homesick, but I feel like all of the new and exciting things will probably quash the post travel blues pretty well. Imaginary decorating (with no budget!) can be pretty fun.

The worst part of Christmas was seeing everyone’s beautifully decorated homes and trees and their wonderfully set tables, knowing I would be eating god knows what off a fugly plastic plate. Have you ever heard a more obnoxious first world problem?! Oh and not seeing my family was bad too 😉

Remember my silver centre piece on 2014’s Christmas table? Magic

I exhaust the internet

If there’s wifi, I’m on it. Endlessly scrolling through instagram, watching everyone’s Snap Chat stories, keeping up to date with facebook, cackling at fail compilation videos… It’s rare that I get bored if I have an internet connection.

I also read a lot of blogs. The ones I check religiously at the moment are A Cup of Jo, Love Taza (she’s in Australia at the moment!) and Faux Fuchsia. Plus most of the ones in my blog roll. Blog recommendations are also appreciated!

I get sad about how unfit I’ve become

Sigh

It’s impossible to stick to a routine while travelling. Well, not impossible, but very difficult and very difficult things aren’t fun. In America at least we were hiking pretty regularly and trying to use the 7 Minute Workout app as much as possible (easier to do outdoors!). Moving around from cramped dorm room to cramped dorm room makes it hard to do those workouts, also the food here is not as fresh and amazing. There is also the trap of thinking ‘YOLO! I’m on holidays, I can eat what I want!’. But we aren’t on a holiday. This is how we’ve been living for 8 months. Put the donut down.

So I often get sad about the state of my poor body, especially my knees, which without constant spin classes have become weak and wobbly and at constant risk of dislocation.

There are also self esteem implications with not exercising. I won’t go too far into this but rest assured most of the photos of me on this trip have either been deleted or heavily scrutinised before being made public. Lame I know.

I never thought I’d be craving spin classes…

More active times in Utah!

So that’s pretty much it! I tried to think of everything, but really most days we are sightseeing or walking around or on the beach or meeting new people or doing stuff.

What do you do when you’re not doing what you mostly do (working, travelling, parenting etc)?