Long journey, quizzes and mushrooms picking

Sunday, 23rd of October 2022

Have you ever tried listening to the radio and television all at the same time? Well, that’s exactly how I feel the past 3 days.

My nan is already 88 and she can barely hear or comprehend what has been said to her. So she talks to me about something from years ago, then she asks me what my name is, while my auntie also talks to me and it’s those 2 unrelated streams of information coming at me from both directions at all times.

Truth be told, I enjoyed getting a little lost in the forest yesterday. A small moment of silence at last! It didn’t last long, as I could hear my auntie calling me, so I had to shout back and rush in her direction as to not make her worried.

My journey to get here started on Thursday at 8pm. I arrived at ferry port in Dover soon after 11pm and once I was on the ferry, enjoying my last smoke, I took a picture of the port and posted it on new noise.app. I asked my followers if they can guess where I was. I did exactly the same trip last year and I was documenting it on noise and read, so I was hoping someone might remember where I get on the ferry.

There were many comments, many more than my usual posts get, but everyone was shouting Poland! Yes, I mentioned that I’m going to Poland and there is a port in Poland too, but I’ve never been there in my life 😅

I waited a little longer, as I was eager to give away $0.10 for the winner, but there were none. As I was driving through Europe I took a few more pictures and decided to make a part 2 of the quiz. This time I posted a few pictures of German signs by the motorway and asked again where was I, hoping someone will quickly guess Germany. My readers probably thought it was meant to be a tricky question and tried to guess the town I was.

It was all very entertaining and in the end, I decided to give away two $0.1 prizes, because both - Sunnylife and Cryptozeug knew the answer and were even running a conversation with each other in my post. I haven’t done any kind of quizzes or competitions for a while and I kind of forgot how much fun it was when many people get involved. Back in a tsu days I used to run #MomoGames and people loved participating, so maybe I will start doing these again at some point. It’s fun!

Back to my journey though. I arrived at my nan’s around 2pm on Friday. The whole journey including ferry sail and toilet stops took me 17 hours (1h time change). I paid extra for the lounge where I can sleep more comfortably, but I wasn’t all that sleepy, so I slept maybe 15 minutes and by the time I got to my nan’s I was really tired. I was hoping for a little nap, but with the two of them keep talking at me, sleeping was impossible.

I was also a little shocked at my nan’s state. She was happy to see me, but she had no idea who I was! She was guessing all the names of my cousins, but not mine’s. I gave her a box of chocolates I brought her from England and only then she realised I came from abroad, but still struggled to guess my name. I covered it all in jokes and laughs, but it’s really heartbreaking to see this. I had many plans of how to spend my remaining 2 weeks of holiday - Ibiza, Philippines maybe? In the end I felt a strong urge to go home and I think it was a good choice. My nan, as I said is already 88 years old and who knows how long she will still be with us. It’s best if I take any opportunity to spend some time with her while I can.

Of course I was also eager to visit the forests that I spent my childhood in. Already on Friday we went for a little forage. Barely 2 hours, because it started raining and my shoes were getting wet very fast. Still, we managed to pick quite a few mushrooms for a midnight snack. Well, it wasn’t midnight, rather 10pm and my eyes were already closing while sitting with auntie in the kitchen.

The plan was to get up and go to forest, but I slept till 1pm! Good 14h sleep for the night that I missed while traveling. All worked out well though, as it was raining till around midday and when we were ready to go around 4pm, the sun came out and it was a lovely walk. We found many mushrooms, but sadly most were either soaked or eaten by some creatures.

On our way back the forest became more foggy and mysterious. We rushed home cause the scenery reminded us that of horror movies.

Today is Sunday and the weather is sunny, so after the dinner we will go for one last forest trip and another auntie will come, so I can take auntie Teresa back home and then embark on the last 3 hours of journey to my parents home.

For now I will enjoy this day with my nan and auntie, while I can. Have an amazing Sunday lovely people 💙

Until next time 💙