Oh my Dears… I have no ideas where the last 6 months went? How did time fly by so fast? One day it was cold and wintery, the next day Spring had vanished and Summer was here. July is coming to an end and I have no idea what has happened during the last 6 months!
Let’s try to recap?
Partly, my life is now timed like a well oil machine… almost!
For the past 6 months, I’ve been going to see my dad every 3 weeks.
In my last update report, (which was over 6 months ago! I know!!) I was explaining I had been home for a whooping 4 weeks and was so happy! I was about to go back to see my dad, and when I arrived, I realized that my monthly visits were not enough anymore. He is doing good but once a month did not seem to do the trick to cheer him up. For now, every 3 weeks is better.
Since I go for long week-ends, this leaves me with 15 to 16 days between 2 trips. Between work emergencies, home related things, RTatW and life in general, those 15 days disappear faster than I can blink!
Every now & then I try to have a life of my own! During the last 6 months, I went a couple times to Paris to visit my family and friends, for example. By the time I was back from such trips, it was time to leave again.
My suitcase is always half ready and some clothes go straight back in after being washed. It ‘s a new process I have that just saves time! Every now and then, I change a thing or 2, but now I pretty much wear the same clothes wherever I go. No fashion statements is made on my various trips!
I’m not going to lie. As mentioned before, I am 1000% thankful to be able to manage my time in such a way. Being independent has been and continues to be a blessing. But to be honest, it is taking a toll on me.
If part of my life seems to be well organized, the other part feels like a total mess!
It’s not that I would want a normal 9 to 5. I’ve been independent for almost 6 years now so going back to a regular job would probably kill me. But, I’ve given some thoughts to this before writing it and I think what I would truly like is less uncertainty. There is a certain routine now, with my work obligations, but I never really know when there is going to be something big coming which will require 2 full days of intense work.
When you count on your flexibility, this lack of medium term vision means that it is hard to plan anything. You may have read this before if you are a regular reader of my update reports: a lot of my plans get cancelled. Whether it’s travel plans or anything that I want to focus on. At the end, rather than following my plans or my inspirations, I end up having to squeeze things in.
Anyway, this is getting harder and harder but I would not change my professional situation for the World!
What’s new on RTatW?
So what’s new on RTatW? Well I did manage to post a few things but not quite as much as I hoped / should. Of course, I didn’t manage the map I promised nor have I worked on my extended mini guides. Of course!
My to do list doesn’t seem to shrink at all!
On the other hand, since I go see my dad so regularly, we’ve made significant progress on the Indian and although the task ahead is still huge, the progress are real. I published a few piece on the progress, that good!
Don’t know what I’m talking about? Check out the main Indian page to understand.
You’ve seen engine parts here and there, haven’t you? That’s my bike, the one I will take on a road trip soon. Well soonish… I thought I would take my first motorcycle road trip, this summer. Then I thought “ok, maybe October”. Now, I’m more: “Well, Spring 2020 sounds good”!!
But it is a fascinating process!
Somehow it feels like it was ages ago, but in April, Notre Dame de Paris caught on fire and that was devastating. I wrote a piece on the aftermath which I think is still a useful read, especially if you are facing people who insist on saying there was no spire before Viollet Le Duc!
Something else, that feels like it was ages ago, is the joy I felt when I saw my drawings in this book! Oh, I should check because I have something else that should get published!
Lastly, I now recall that Mr A and I explored locally quite a few places and went back to some of our favorite places. The Malbrouck Castle was one of them. We had been several times before and it is still as amazing. The Sierck castle we had never been, so I’m really glad we finally did! And I must also tell you about Trier!
Amongst other places…
What’s coming on RTatW?
At this point, I feel like I should just scratch this section of my update reports!
I am truly sorry to be unable to deliver on my promises. Partially, I write this section as a pep talk to myself, a priority guide. And then?… Life gets messy. I don’t manage half of what I plan and fail myself and you, my fellow road trippers. For this I’m truly sorry.
Having said that, if I had to guess what’s coming, then I would anticipate the following:
- Since I did manage to go for a little while to Berlin (yeah! something I wanted to do and happened!!), I do want to share a few things with you in the near future. This time I didn’t walk this much. I used the Deezer bikes everywhere and it was fantastic!
- Some incredibly beautiful Portuguese sites! Mr. A and I had an unexpected trip to Portugal which turned out to become a formal road trip when it was not supposed to be at all! I do want to add some of the amazing places we went to, to the Portugal destination page of RTatW.
- Yes, I’m still working on my next map!
Other news?
During our trip to Portugal, Mr. A & I, visited 5 UNESCO World Heritage sites. Yep yep! Some were already on the Road trip map I had created for a road trip around Lisbon but we had not managed to see them. Now we have!
Meanwhile, as it is this time of the year, the UNESCO was adding 29 new sites to the list which now has 1121 sites in 167 different countries !! 😂 I’ll never catch up!
Oh, it was my Birthday! And RTatW Birthday! And this year, there was no celebration for either of those!
In terms of RTatW looks, I hope, by now, most behind the scene updates are working and things run pretty smooth when you visit. I know there are still lots of improvements & further updates I can make, but at this point I just can’t focus on this.
If you encounter serious problems, do let me know. (MissCocoTravel @gmail . com). You can just say Hi as well!
Well, that’s it for now, I think. Not much of an update, but I needed to do it anyway to kick myself in the *** to do better!
Happy summer road trips!
