Long Bus Journeys

Long road journeys tend to induce a bit of mental woolliness. They're not exactly pleasant while they're in progress but I enjoy them mightily in retrospect as viewed through the brain wool. I don't like to fly, so in the past I've spent incredibly long periods of time - twenty four to thirty six hours per trip - crawling across the face of the Earth to places like Bratislava and Barcelona and it helps fight the time lag.

Some people can travel and adjust really quickly, but I'm not one of them. I even have problems adjusting to daylight savings time! I've said before that living in Hungary was a constant source of timezone lag and my temporal inflexibility is still there. How strange it to be alive, full of quirks that strive.

Of course the magic of long bus journeys is that you appreciate the distances journeyed. Psychologically it allows you to understand you've travelled, and if that doesn't add magic for you then imagine how thirty six hours without sleep will make everything magical! The only things better are long ship voyages and train journeys, both of which are more expensive than buses, with trains being far more involved as an offset against the comfort.

Moving on, it's still amazing to me that the dolphins turned up over Aberystwyth Carnival. It's almost as if it's a sign, a warm goodbye or a sign of grateful acceptance and welcome. The environment gathers up its intangible energies and touches you, as if there's a greater over-soul to it all. Hence there were dolphins and a glorious drizzly early Sunday morning on Constitution Hill with never a soul in sight, where an hour could be soaked up into meditative thought. It was lovely.

On a second unrelated topic, we posted the Film Bin commentary for 'Fish Story' today, completing the cycle that was begun by my stumbling onto the film after Adam Quigley recommended it on the Slashfilmcast, and continued by my blog on the film. The circle is closed. It's an awesome film. There's been enough movie talk now, it's time to get back to books! And Greek learning...

O.