alwaystheocean

Have you done any recent fun travel?" asked by cesy

And the answer is: always!

I love travelling, and I love finally being at a point in my life where I can afford to do it without scrimping or help that usually has strings attached.

Last year I was in NZ for January and February for sad reasons (my mum died November 2023 and I went out there to look after her and then sort out her affairs) but tacked onto the end best flatmate usuallyhats came out to meet me and we had a couple of weeks' holiday in NZ together and it's honestly one of the best travel experiences of my life. It was lovely to try holidaying just the two of us, it was wonderful to get to show New Zealand off to someone, it was wonderful that that someone was said usuallyhats, one of the top people I'd most want to show NZ off to. And so much aligned, we had some absolutely perfect weather when we went to the South Island, we found some really magical places to stay, we ate some lovely food, went on lots of lovely walks, it was just gorgeous. We're hoping to go back.

On the way back we stopped over in San Francisco for long enough to go peep at the Golden Gate Bridge, at which point J's flight called her back to the airport but I popped down to I forget where but near the water where I saw a bunch of sea lions and ate a truly delicious clam chowder bread bowl that I still think about a lot.

Other fun travel last year included road trips with best C's and J to Wales, a house party at friend I's parents' house near Liverpool, the annual trip to the Lake District where I finally tried sailing and windsurfing, and multiple trips to Spain to visit cardamomtoast and family, where I finally tried sea kayaking, which was even more amazing than I'd been lead to believe.

Also not mentioned: the time I spent in Melbourne with cardamomtoast and fam. Admittedly that was a pretty chaotic time for lots of reasons but it had lots of cool bits, and will always be remembered fondly for, if nothing else, all the progress all three of her kiddos made with swimming. <3 (They came out to NZ to support me for a bunch of December and January, and it was so helpful having them there, and I loved showing them bits of NZ, and exploring some new bits together.)

The other big highlight also features usuallyhats and grief. We planned a trip to Fort William for the anniversary of mum's death (mid November), and it truly was an inspired life choice. It was magical, I can't quite believe it happened, and by the time the anniversary rolled round, I was so braced for it that I was vibrating out of my tree and in desperate need of a break. Scotland is really beautiful, did we know? I'm not always touched by the UK's natural beauty but so far the Lake District, Scotland, and Formby are really working for me. (Be great to find somewhere a bit closer to hand though.)

This year is mostly a few UK plans, more trips to Spain, and a trip to Portugal to see Taylor Swift (the degree to which I lost my mind procuring Eras tour tickets is a whole other post) but more may yet materialise!

I'm new!

Wait, no.

As per previous entry, I've been meaning to get back on here, I miss that there's like, a decade of my life not recorded here. Not quite as long as I was using it for prior to that, I don't think, but getting there. It was a good habit, Brent, and I'd like it back.

I'm not even going to attempt to summarise my life to date, though I will be taking questions at this time, and now here I am staring at this text box devoid of ideas of what to talk about.

Well, OK, here's something I've been enjoying considering: rewatching films.

I feel like any film that's come out since I went to uni struggles to compete with films I watched as a kid/teenager because a) I had a lot more free time then and I spent a fair chunk of it rewatching films (mostly musicals) (mostly Evita lbr) b) any new films added to the "will endlessly rewatch" list have to compete with what's already on the list, and those films have a head start, see a).

So I was surprised the other day by how many times I've seen Frozen and Frozen II, despite usuallyhats pointing out that a) I have a lot of friends who are children and I've watched it multiple times with many of them b) I watch it without children too. Which does make sense but good work Frozen and Frozen II for competing with the likes of Evita and The Secret Garden. (Ooh, DW doesn't have emojis, this is weird, it's like a whole other language. I guess it would if I typed this on my phone but no thanks.)

It's also fully wild to consider that none of my kiddo friends were born when Frozen came out and only a couple of them when Frozen II came out. We were chatting at D&D the other day about how Frozen really has honed the Disney crack witchcraft, the fact it reigns supreme with jakera.livejournal.com and H's twin girls (who are 2) ever since their first week at nursery is kind of wild really. It's also apparently the only film my friends A&P's kids, M&S will sit through.

Which obv makes the stealth aro agenda of Frozen II even better. :D

This is a post, right? This is how that works?

Ok, fine, some news.

Last time I updated here I had one (1) tattoo, the raven for prysmicdork.

This year I got, um, six (6) new ones. One of them in NZ in January, five in one day in March in London, and my biggest one to date on Monday, again, in London, same artist as the other five but at their new studio. (Which I like better than their old studio.)

I got a bunch of flowers on my left shoulder for my mum (she died November last year of the cancer diagnosis I mentioned in January last year. Last year sucked; this year wasn't much of an improvement, being the first one without my mother in it.), a picture of best beloved pup Missy, of late lamented blessed memory, curled up asleep on my left calf, where she used to sleep in life, a rainbow hummingbird and some Leonard Cohen lyrics for purplefringe, and some koi fish on my left inner arm between wrist and elbow. Those are partly for Phoebe too, partly for my aunt Ana (who also died last year, see previous statement on last year), and partly just for me as a kind of self soothing practice written on my body.

The tattoo this week is the first one just for me, and it's also the biggest (and consequently most expensive) one. I've been through a full range of emotions about spending that money on just me but ultimately I'm glad I've done it. It's a fat selkie across my right thigh. It's huge, I love it so much. I was originally considering a mermaid, but tattoo artist suggested selkie when I said I didn't feel as connected to mermaids cuz of all the connotations with conventional beauty (and I know there's a lot of excellent work being done to reclaim that, but it still feels like challenging something in a way that wasn't working for me for this tattoo) and something in my brain was just like yes. I love referring to my fat as my blubber, particularly since discovering it genuinely helps with cold water swimming!

The thing I learned at this tattoo session is I'm good at being tattooed? Which seems like a ludicrous thing to claim to be good at, but here we are! I'm good at sitting still when uncomfortable, I don't find it particularly painful (ok except by hour 6, then I get a bit "UNHAND ME" when we're going over what feels like the same spot repeatedly), I'm happy to just zone out and entertain myself, I take direction well (do with that what you will).

There's also something there about being ace and kinky I think, like how can you explore kink without sex, and I wonder if the answer isn't things like, oh, I don't know, tattoos, aerial, pointe.

And on that thought, I'm out.