Tonight I find myself in a very different environment to those of the past few months; in the sterile and yet liberating space of a hotel. I could be in any country in the world, these spaces are all the same. White sheets, white towels, white walls, white shiny bathroom with enticing little shampoos and a beckoning bath. The bedroom has some form of outlook over nothing in particular but claims such titles as “water facing” (distant) or “city views” (past Tescos and deserted fields). It’s nice actually, the food is overpriced but otherwise this little limbo is a very much planned escape from the reality of everything colourful that has been my last four months and everything not-yet-coloured-in which is yet to be, with my fast-approaching return to Australia.
I am admittedly a little overwhelmed when thinking about going back to Sydney. It took so much of my energy to come here and to then wring every last drop of life out of every stolen European moment, that I left very little headspace for thinking about my return. Now I come to it and find myself not quite ready, so I have created this space, these few hours of pure white nothing in a nondescript hotel (in Ireland, no less) entirely on my own – the first country I have travelled to in Europe where I know no one. I am here to process what I need to process emotionally, photographically, descriptively, logistically etc from my amazing past few months and then to prepare my headspace and arrangements for the new challenge in front of me – to take all this passion and experience and learning and find a way to weave it into my Sydney life in such a manner that I can continue to live as a cohesive, full being. Or something like that.
Just a few hours. Tomorrow Dublin is mine for the taking. For tonight only, I am peacing out and catching up on myself. Time alone.
I’m such a kaleidoscope of emotions at the moment that only a white room could adequately contain me.
When I think about the past few months there are so many different scenes and sensations that even with my camera, my words, my mind and my heart it is hard to hold it all together as one experience. When I think about it, I see so many different faces, locations, events, projects, sounds, I see the smiles of friends I adore, both new and old, hear their voices, I recall the taste of drops of different local alcohols and foods, the culinary delights of France, the sharp tang of Swiss schapps, I hear the sound of base booming at apres-ski, can smell the smoke of the fire burning and see the apricot sunset on the Swiss Alps, that sunset I will always hold in my heart. I see my friends in the UK, their warm homes and the homes in France and Switzerland and Spain which have welcomed me and given me the best of themselves and their cultures for short but significant pockets of time. I see my workmates in Geneva, I feel my concentration and connection with ideas and topics growing through shared discourse and discovery.
It has been an emotional arrival landing in Geneva and already an emotional farewell. Following one day exploring Ireland, I return to Geneva for one day and then onward to Singapore and then back to Sydney.
I have this theory I try to live by, that Good Life Design is much like good website design, in that it relies on the appropriate and generous use of “white space”. This nothingness should be applied liberally and purposefully. There are no set rules about it except that we should be aware of giving ourselves ample space and be sure to incorporate it for effective emphasis of the actual content.
When my life and my diary become a blur of colour, adding some blank space is the perfect antidote.
Steeling myself; I close the curtains of the hotel room and let the feeling of nothingness, just rest and white space seep into my physical body and my consciousness, calming my mind. I roll into the huge bed under the white sheets.
Tomorrow I will explore again.
