Although the writing challenge has got off to a reasonably good start I think it's still reasonably important that my blog follows what's going on in my life, at least to some extent. I was chatting with Leila about how this whole challenge might work last night, in a little bit more detail than the original plan we came up with. I think it'll work out pretty well, and we have the opportunity to explore some interesting blog post topics. I know that coming up with an idea about what to write about can be tricky at times, but that will be hopefully overcome by the fact that half the time I won't need to be the one coming up with the idea, and the other half of the time I can think more along the lines of what I'd be interested in Leila writing about than what I'd be interested in writing about myself, and the fact that I'll need to write a post on the same topic will be fairly inconsequential. I suppose that our plan is fairly could work with more people than just the two of us, but you have to be committed to writing on each topic that comes up, and also you have to come up with a topic yourself when it's your turn. Obviously, topics need to be acceptable for blogging about.

Anyhow, this post is actually supposed to be about stuff other than the writing challenge.

As of this week Leila and I have actually been back in New Zealand longer than we were in Europe. It is starting to feel like I had one crazily long dream a few weeks ago, and strangely while the four weeks we spent there felt like ages at the time, it now seems like a mere flash in my life. I suppose that's because there's much more continuity between my life back in New Zealand before and after the trip, than there is between the trip and New Zealand (if that makes sense). Even when I was in Europe I'd find myself waking up at night, realising I wasn't dreaming as I was actually awake, but then thinking about the fact that we were on the other side of the world to our normal lives, on a journey that was so utterly removed from normality that it almost seemed like I was still dreaming to some extent. In a half-joking manner, I'd have to remind myself about the big long flight we'd been on to get to London in the first place, so that my sub-conscious was satisfied I wasn't just going to wake up back in my bed in Auckland.

What seems to have enhanced the 'dream-like' place that our holiday holds in my mind, is the way in which normal life in New Zealand has seemed so incredibly utterly normal recently. I guess that it being mid-winter doesn't exactly help things by making it easy to do fun stuff in the evenings or at the weekend (it seems to have rained every single weekend since I got back). I feel like I want to write about all the things I've been up to throughout the past few weeks, but yet my list seems so incredibly short. This return to normality was rather depressing in the first couple of weeks after returning to New Zealand, as I really really felt like I wasn't "supposed" to be back here. I'd found cities in Europe that were just so much more exciting to be in, and I imagine to live in. Obviously it being mid-summer in Europe helped a lot, as I imagine London in January isn't quite so nice, but the vibrancy and hugeness of the places we visited (especially London) felt like it matched with me so much more than the overgrown town that is Auckland. Travelling is incredibly addictive, as I have experienced before pretty much whenever I've gone overseas, and I remember saying to my Dad a day or so after we arrived home that "it's been great to catch up with everyone, can I head off on part 2 of the trip now?"

I think the holiday has changed things quite a lot for me. In terms of how I see Auckland working, I now have a much better idea about what the alternatives could be. In terms of knowing about art stuff, I feel like I've been spoilt so much by the great galleries of Europe I won't truly appreciate it until realising what a song and dance art communities here make about a Picasso exhibition in Brisbane. It's like "but there was a whole room full of his stuff at the Pompidou, and a whole museum dedicated to him in Barcelona...." I think the trip has changed a few long-term goals for both Leila and I, modifying how we see things happening over the next few years of our lives.

Although the "come-down" has been a bit depressing, any future holidays I have throughout my life are going to have to be impossibly good to beat that one as the best ever.