I’d like to think that over many years of wasting my life on social media I have come to understand the difference between simply updating a waiting world on my activities and showing off about it. I rarely bother with the ‘memories’ section of Facebook, for example, because I find that it curls my toes. Some appear to me as “Look at me, I’m somewhere great and you aren’t. Here’s my dinner” and it’s not a good look. Yet the whole point of social media in general and Facebook in particular is to share parts of your life, or in some cases all of it. As a blogger with several million followers (is this right? – ed), I’m writing even more about me, what I’m doing and where I am and now, you will note, I now have a new section on this blog; Travels. (Many thanks to my technical department for setting it up.)
I’m doing a fair bit of travelling in the coming months, particularly September, and obviously I want to write about it. As ever with my style of writing, it won’t be “after a glorious dish of octopus and marshmallows we visited the ancient church of Al Fresco and admired the Neolithic structures of Nempnett Thrubwell” type thing because, as my long-suffering partner pointed out, I am a philistine of the lowest order. Show me an ancient palace, like the Diocletian’s in Split, and I’ll find a roadside bar to enjoy a cool one while my partner embraces the culture. Other writers and bloggers can do that kind of writing far better than I ever could, so I’ll give my own unique take on what I see and what I find.
The twin shocks of Covid and the loss of dear family members in recent years has concentrated my mind in recent years and I understand I must see as much of the world as possible while I remain relatively fit and able. If I reach old age – and that’s a very big if – I doubt that I will be able to travel any further than the TV room in my care home where I can become part of the demographic that watches This Morning with Holly Willoughby so it’s now, and if not now, soon, or never.
The next journey is scheduled to begin on Wednesday of next week so that would be a good time to snooze me on Facebook for 30 days because you will be able to avoid the bulk of this year’s travel. I hope you’ll stick with me, though, because although I will carry on writing if no one is reading, I’d welcome the company. And if you’re really good, I’ll share a few photos of my dinner along the way.
