A few weeks ago, whilst on a train journey to Leeds, I found myself thinking, “I’m a bit tired of travelling” – a thought I instantly banished in horror! Could I really be falling out of love with travel? Was I getting too old?? It wasn’t until I saw this months travel linkup pop up on twitter that it all made sense. Like every relationship, there are ups and downs, I was simply having a travel blogger rough patch. I simply had to list the problems out, face the situation, all would be right with the world and I could go back to enjoying the beautiful countryside views from the train window.
So like every good blogger (and obsessive organiser) I made a list, of all the wrongs that I needed to work through:
1. Conquering clothes mountain
Since March Mo and I have been taking it in turns to live out of our carry on suitcase. As a consequence, our spare room became the dumping ground for the contents of said carry on suitcase. The piles got bigger. They multiplied. They dominated.
I mean there was work clothes, travelling outfits, exercise wear, outdoor gear… the piles became out of control. They started spreading. Edging themselves into other rooms. I started finding clothes I hadn’t seen in years just to avoid having to face it. And every time we attempted to scale down, clothes mountain retaliated. I even considered going out and simply buying new clothes, that was the moment I knew things were bad. I absolutely hate going shopping for clothes so to have that thought, must have meant things were getting desperate.
And then one magical, sunny day I came home to find my very own live-in adventurer had done it. Tackled it head on and triumphed. Crisis averted! (Thanks hubby ☺️).
2. Dealing with wild animals
When you’re constantly in and out of the house, every day, you’re bound to upset someone. That someone in our household, is our cat Hugo. He gets mad when we’re late to feed him. When we’re late home and when we’re not available at all hours of the day to be his personal butler.
When we are home he finds ways to punish us. Like, he wakes us up at strange hours of the night. He spits his food out whilst he’s eating. Purposely sits away from us, but stays close enough to maintain eye contact so he can still throw us that death stare cats are so good at.
My favourite cat-blogger problem is when I’m in the middle of really sinking my teeth into writing, and up he comes straight onto the desk. But he doesn’t want to stand on all the free space around the computer, or sit neatly on window sill beside me. Oh no, he wants to position his front paws on my touch mouse and balance his back ones on my keyboard. Looking at me as if it to say if you even try to move me… I could make things worse. I’m pretty sure every other cat owner has the same problem.
The only way to win this battle, was to shower him with bucket loads of attention. Which I did, constantly. Every time I saw him. So much so he started to appreciate the moments of peace when I was out. Perfect balance was restored.
3. Having to forage for food
Another downside to having a full time job, being a blogger and trying to fit in a social life… is you kind of run out of time to do the normal things. Like shop for food. I don’t know about you but I’ve had my fair share of moments when I come home from work and I’m deciding between a can of tinned tomatoes and a can of tinned tomatoes? When you look in a cupboard, the fridge, freezer, fruit bowl, egg bucket… you even check that secret tub where you stash the 2minute noodles, but nothing.
I suppose there is a plus side to this, my cooking experimentation has improved. The kitchen discoveries I’ve made have been mind blowing! (Last week I found adding a couple of teaspoons of caramelised onion chutney to a tuna mayo jacket potato was a game changer!) In all honesty coming home after a long, hard day at work and then to come home and think about to what to cook is one of my least favourite things. And when you’re light on supplies, it’s definitely much worse.
We’ve become wiser with age on this one, realised that no matter how busy we may get, there are a few staples that must always be in the house for those emergency situations.
4. The constant migration
One of my favourite parts of travelling is the journey itself. I love gazing out the windows, watching the world go by. Oh and sleeping. I looooove sleeping on anything that moves. Trains, planes, cars, anything! But with all the back and forth I’ve been doing some of these usually glorious experiences have been disasters.
First of all, I commute to work which means at least 2 hours of my day is spent sat in my vehicle, where I have to pay attention and resist the urge to fall asleep. A hard task which is why I always get excited when I have train rides coming up. However I didn’t realise when you are sat in an aisle, on a busy train, with nowhere to keep your luggage, lots of people walking up and down… that blissful journey slowly turns into one where I am counting down the minutes till I can step off.
My last trip to the Middle East was also quite a testing one on the travel front, I mean I’ve already spilled the beans on our dramas at Jeddah airport. We travelled non stop on that holiday – plane to plane to car to plane etc.
5. A strong desire to hibernate
When everything becomes so busy and so hectic, in a good way, I often find myself struggling to keep up. I have so many ideas, projects, lists… oh the lists!! They’re endless!! My general rule is to cross out one and add two so I’m never bored, so much so I now have a dedicated to-do notebook (thats right, I’m that person).
As much as I can’t stand to do nothing, I’ve found when theres to much going on, my body starts to possess a strong desire to curl up under the covers and not wake till the sun comes out (for us brits that could be a looooong time).
Solutions:
- Have a good family and friends support network, don’t forget about them!
- Make time to prioritise the important things in life, like food shopping
- Don’t neglect the furry friends, they might take some time to get used to your travelling ways but their love is unconditional
- Use travel time wisely, write notes, make friends, take some music… don’t just rely on getting that perfect window seat with a charger socket
- Schedule in serious physical and mental rest time. Nobody wants to get to the point where you have to hideaway.
Feel much better getting that off my chest.
What are your travel blogger problems??
Travel blogger problems.
You know the type, those hilarious little habits, thoughts and actions that make our #friends, families and occasionally #pets raise their #everlovin’ brows. What are you #guilty of?
How to link up your post
Just pop your post up over the first week of the month (the 1st – 7th May 2016), add it to the link up widget found on Emma, Angie‘s, Jessi‘s or our topic suggesting co-host Lauren‘s blog from the 1st.
As ever there are no real rules – basically all we ask is that you;
- Check out some of the other cool bloggers that are involved in that months travel link up
- Tweet a few of the posts out to your followers that you think they will love
- Make a few comments here and there
It’s such a great way to meet some new travel bloggers and share some blogging joy!
