Barred From Expeditions 21 August, 2024

I haven’t been in a proper photography expedition since Aylesbury, and the reason is quite embarrassing, but I’ll say it upfront; I haven’t had hot water in my house for over TWO WEEKS. Fortunately it’s summer, but that also means no hot showers. I like to wake up super early (before morning rush hour) and then travel to do my expeditions, which involves hours of long exploratory walks; I can’t do that with no showers. And my family is a little bit too far away to use theirs. I’ve never been kind of those people are extremely anxious about BO and layer themselves with deodorant, but this is just impossible. There are no more expeditions unless my landlord gets their shit together and fixes it. I can’t believe I’m being robbed of these finest summer months because of it.

As a result, I’ve been a stinky recluse. And it’s affecting my mental health. Previous problems have already persisted, causing a lull in my blog update status. But now that I can’t even escape the chaos of the digital maelstrom - the internet, the news, etc - and have some time to myself in the great English outdoors is causing me to ruminate into hopelessness; it feels like circa 2020-21. I know that the rubbish on the inside is nothing compared to the opportunities out the outside, but how can I tell when I can’t go outside..?

The best I can do is a short cold shower and a trip to the library where I can continue my work in a slightly more extroverted environment, but it’s no proper substitute.