The
truth is true – I am a car owner. And today I discovered that until
today, whenever I've been on the roads (driving or being driven) I've
been there as a tourist. Today, I was there as part of a large chunk
of the country who own a car, drive it and see it as a normal, every
day part of the world. And I have to say – it was a rather new
experience.
Life
for me, to date, has often been one “outside the mainstream” - in
fact, I'd say my approach, even if mainly psychological, to most
things I've engaged with has been “outside the mainstream”. It's
suited me and my temperament but I do recognise that things are
mainstream for a reason – because a lot of people do them. And
that doesn't necessarily make them the right thing to do, but it
makes them interesting simply because so many
other people do them.
In
particular, driving along (and most of it was motorway driving) I was
very well aware that, lots of chunks of metal moving at speeds
generally exceeding 60 miles per hour would normally be a receipe for
disaster – and yet everyone driving knew the rules to keep
themselves, and everyone else safe, and abided by them. Somehow I
found a sense of community in that – and was rather taken with this
collective safety attitude. That was make take, anyway.
But
really, my foray into car ownership seems somehow to symbolise me
taking a step “into” the mainstream. I'm still me, I'll still do
things in my own sweet way, but there's a level of mellowing so I
won't just resist something “mainstream” simply because it is
mainstream. Which isn't to say that's how I've lived my life to date,
but it feels somehow like there's “less to prove”, or that I'm
less concerned about proving it to anyone outside of me, now.
Interesting vehicular musings...
But the reason for ALL of this is because I'm on holiday! It's my
first real holiday in what feels like a very long time (probably
because it is) and it started brilliantly with a stop over with an old (and
awesome) friend last night before I continued my journey south and
west this morning. I'd merrily stopped off at a service station to
stretch legs and the like when I received a call which made it less
of a holiday-day and more of a “this really
needs to get sorted out” day. That said, said issue DID get sorted
out before sunset and I'm now merrily ensconsed in a large settee
type thing in the hotel lounge / bar area. Somewhat disappointing
that their free wifi seems to be an utter dead loss but that simply
means I'll have plenty of time to do a spot of reading. The rest of
the group I'm going to be spending the weekend with are en route down
from London (eta some time around 11pm - turned out to be 2am) but as I'm sharing a room
with one of them (at the moment I've got a surname and nothing else)
curling up in a small ball and sleeping isn't necessarily the best
option. Definitely feeling like I'm winding down for a holiday
weekend, tho'. And being all gizmo-ed up for the drive I even had
some (phone call) company for chunks of the drive which was rather
nice. Gizmos are a little unnerving at times, but rather brilliant
all the same.
And
so that's it for today – I wrote the first sentence of this before
The Issue kicked in while I was at the service station and, given the
wifi status at present, it may well be some days before it actually
gets posted BUT posted it shall be!
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