This morning is the primary at dwelling for simply over per week. That is as a result of we have been in Pembrokeshire final week. That implies that the 42 posts that got here out over eight have been all revealed after I was on vacation. And it was an excellent vacation too.

Most days concerned a few good walks – though rain stopped play a couple of times.

The ocean was comparatively heat, as was the world round us, though totally zipped up anoraks and even scarves appeared the order of the day for most individuals, after we hardly ever wanted greater than a T-shirt.

The birding was good. Waders all the time enchantment to us, and the River Nevern’s estuary was stuffed with them.

On Friday afternoon, my slight panic at seeing what I believed was a physique floating within the sea become delight when the 2 curious seals appeared to need to come as shut as they might to get nearly as good a have a look at us as we wished of them.

I really feel rested and recovered.

And a number of writing was finished. I’ve come again with extra potential video scripts than I had. The quantum essays have been thought up.

We talked quite a bit, learn quite a bit, and noticed the world. A good quantity of espresso was drunk. And while away we travelled a large 7km by automobile: the remaining was on foot. The vacation spot in query was visited by automobile solely as a result of the Pembrokeshire coast path seemed like a poor concept when there was a extreme wind warning out.

That’s our sort of vacation. On this context, I used to be then intrigued, amused, and to a point even baffled by this remark supplied in good religion after options about future content material on this weblog:

On a separate notice, I’d like to know that you just’re checking issues off your bucket record, visiting international locations you did not have the time for whereas working and many others. The world is getting extra unstable, much less tolerant and we by no means know when our capability to journey or see individuals goes away. I actually am doing this simply in case I haven’t got as a lot time left as I would like.

This offered us with a lot to debate on the way in which dwelling (a six-hour drive, and extra with breaks). There are for 2 causes.

First, way back, we each agreed we had no ‘bucket record,’ however did have what the late Sean Lock referred to as a ‘fuckit record.’ If a bucket record supposedly particulars these belongings you nonetheless need to do, then a fuckit record particulars these belongings you both don’t need to do once more, or by no means want to do.

Concerning the bucket record, there aren’t any international locations outdoors the British Isles and Eire that we now need to go to.

Now we have each travelled, each earlier than and after we met. In my case, I’ve visited greater than 25 international locations, plus each county within the UK and Eire. And admittedly, if I by no means see an airport ever once more, I will probably be delighted.

We agree that it’s not journey that broadens our horizons, however that it’s as an alternative observing these locations we go to in additional element and over the seasons that does that.

Greater than that, although, simply as we love watching wildlife intimately and in repeated places round the place we dwell, understanding another elements of the UK fairly properly lets us do the identical there, and when you really do that, you’ll know that no day is ever the identical, and that’s the pleasure in doing this.

So, our plan is, at most, to revisit locations we already know in East Anglia, northern England, Scotland, Wales and Eire. It is not an absence of ambition that drives this.  It is the liberation in understanding this that’s really what makes it thrilling: observing the modifications we see is really rewarding. And what we all know is that if we by no means go anyplace new, these locations will present greater than sufficient to entertain us, nevertheless lengthy we dwell now.

As for brand spanking new experiences, neither of us believes within the ghastly neoliberal advertising idea of  ‘making reminiscences’. Nor have we ever wanted greater than a ebook, a backpack, an iPad, a espresso store, a pair of binoculars, perhaps a digital camera, strolling footwear and a cagoule (simply in case) to have a great day trip. Now we have no plan to vary any of that. There isn’t any expertise that doesn’t contain these issues that we’re very all in favour of. We’re most positively not pushed by FOMO (the ‘worry of lacking out’). As an alternative, we frequently speak about JOMO (‘the enjoyment of lacking out’ on issues we would actually quite not do). The record of issues now we have JOMO about is lengthy.

After which there are materials possessions. Many just lately retired individuals appear to ‘splash the money’ in a fairly extraordinary style. New automobiles, retirement properties, second properties, and indulgent consumption appear to be the order of the day. We mentioned this at size on the way in which dwelling and basically did not provide you with something we actually wanted, and that isn’t as a result of we dwell to extra. We do not. It is simply that materials gadgets aren’t that vital to us. The automobile has 122,000 miles on the clock, however it will likely be stored for so long as potential. And other than some new frying pans, we struggled with discovering a lot else to think about shopping for, besides maybe my want to fill some gaps in my railway historical past library, which has been constructed up over greater than 50 years, and my want to complete a mannequin railway, already overlong within the making. But it surely’s not affectation to say we may consider nothing extra. We take residing pretty merely critically. Once more, for us, that’s liberating, and perhaps displays the Quaker pondering we each share on this challenge, the place simplicity is a path willingly chosen.

Nor, after we moved on from these points, is there a lot in the way in which of leisure we’re in search of. We have been by no means massive live performance goers. I admit we used to eat out quite a bit. Now we get pleasure from cooking extra, and we like understanding what we’re consuming, in addition to understanding that the meals on supply has not simply been reheated in a microwave, which appears to occur far too typically in lots of locations today. The cinema is an occasional go to. We watch Nationwide Theatre Dwell extra typically than we are going to ever go to the precise theatre, however I do admit that the odd steam railway is visited alongside the way in which. That mentioned, the fact is, that is all pretty on a regular basis stuff, though we admire with the ability to get pleasure from all of them.

In different phrases, there isn’t any bucket record. We will not discover one, and we aren’t worrying about it. We’re lucky sufficient to need what now we have and may afford.

So what’s on the fuckit record? Strive these, as examples (there are lots of extra):

• Cruises
• Golf
• Worldwide journey
• Style
• Tech for the sake of it
• Extra

So what can we do?

• We predict.
• We learn
• We (properly, I) write.
• We discuss, debate, observe, after which begin yet again.
• And we stroll, watch birds, have espresso, and do all of the above while doing these issues too.

You would possibly name that mundane. Or repetitious. And even odd. And who is aware of, perhaps it’s. However we do not actually care. That’s what we do. And that is why Jacqueline actually doesn’t thoughts that, while we have been on vacation final week, I additionally revealed 42 blogs, just a few of them written earlier than we went.

So, do I would like a bucket record? In brief, no. However I did resolve there have been some issues so as to add to my fuckit record. These embody:

I wish to be rid of them. Reaching that does then, in a very (quantum) entangled method, change into my bucket record. And I’m proud of that. And that is why I write, even when on vacation. It is simply what I do. I am unable to think about doing the rest, as long as I’m in a position.