When you move to a new place, whether it be house, city or country, it usually takes time to settle. To learn what the strange noises are, what is getting the olfactory sense going and the general geography of the place. After my last entry I had the most wondrous idea of writing my blog in my tent, loading it up at work and having some strange juxtaposing rants about old vs modern, nature vs computers but guess what? They don't have an ap for it! So i went old school. Even older than pen and paper, older than chalk and rock, I went back to the future and just thought and wrote about it in my head! Very little in my life would I class as pure genius moments. I have had some. It's an amazing moment of pure crystalline clarity, which yields a result that feels like you've been graced to succeed, in the task you solve, with said essence of genii. This wasn't such a moment!
At 25 I lacked the sponge like absorbency of a younger mind. While I push into new decades I recede great thoughts to blank stares of wonderment. When passing into a dream like state, in my tent, having written in my head, with afore mentioned crystalline clarity, words of such magnitude they could stop evolution, it pains me in the morning when all that's left is an arbitrary mingling of confusing anecdotes. But then I'm like 'Wise up Norval! You've got a blog that's full of that stuff. Just palm it off on them.'
Last time I wrote I was commenting on the glorious amusements of the Scottish summer arriving in April. How living under canvass was the highlight of it all and 5 months would be a quick and enjoyable summer jaunt. I nostradamus-ed myself by mentioning rain, it finally came. However, it yielded much thought on my part.
The first night I closed my eyes the rain sounded like an epic fireworks display. Some drops sounded like multi-stage, high flying, ooers. While others were long drawn out aaaaaahhhhers. My brain joined in with my ears and created a light and noise show to herald the coming of a new era. Soon enough I was conducting my own fireworks display in a technicolour paradise in my head. While it was an enjoyable adventure for a short period, after an hour of no sleep and with no way to switch the fireworks off, I began worrying. Sleep eventually came and there were no dreams of explosions or bombs, which I thought may have followed.
The night after was a strange one. It started of dry but I could smell the rain coming. Sure enough I was in my sleeping bag for twenty minutes and then the first pop came, then the next, a couple more and then it got more frequent. I lay there in my sleeping bag thinking i was in a giant microwave bag of popcorn. It's just how it sounded. It didn't take long for me to imagine myself spinning round in the microwave, warming up and getting close to exploding. Luckily, when i popped it was off to the land of nod!
The next night the rain was pounding it out to a different beat. Tonight it felt like there were twenty kids outside my tent with a barrage of water bombs. My tent was shaking feebly under the onslaught. I was inside unsure of how to broach the subject and stay dry at the same time. Sleep came slowly that night too. After that I was blessed by a starry and moon lit sky. It was quite beautiful on my stroll to bed. The massive cat/dog/beast/four legged animal from the deep being projected by the moon, through the hedge, onto my tent was slightly unnerving till I called it Biggles and decided it was actually my guard beast.
Unfortunately, Biggles got eaten the following night by the dark skies, which brought back the rain. This time it was like I had an army of marching ants swarming my tent. The 6 legs of each one pitter pattering over my tent. However, that evenings ant attack was short lived and my new wild style of living meant i was more mentally prepared. Today my new fear is a branch getting blown off one of the trees and spearing me in my sleep. An odd way to go but i'm not ready to bow out so soon. (If you get the joke on the last sentence you're my friend.)
Overall, tent life suits me. It's a conversation starter and stopper, it allows me a personal amount of space, which yields a musing ground for blogs, it puts off the wrong sort of people and attracts the best. People think I'm a little bit crazy, which is better than them knowing I'm actually a whole lot more. But I feel settled, which is the main thing. So i'll go back to a blustery, canvass covered, rain hallucinating sleepy life tomorrow and report back shortly.
Ramble on..............
No comments:
Post a Comment