Getting to grips with the ordinary
Sophia Cheng /
3 min read /
Uncategorised
28 October 2015
Not everyday is high adventure
I should say outright, I am no a country bumpkin, I am a suburban girl and more recently a city one. So living out in a national park is certainly the most remote I have ever lived.
Washing clothes
The evenings are cold here in North Slovenia. With the early nights setting in it does not make ideal clothes drying conditions. Luckily the wood burner comes into its own here. Last night was a surreal evening of circulating socks and pants from in front of the wood burner, to on top of the wood burner, to the chimney (the hottest part) and back round again. Watching the steam rise off the clothes. It’s highly likely they would have dried normally next to the fire on the clothes horse overnight. But where is the fun in that! Maybe our London preoccupation with getting things done fast drove the risking speed drying strategy. With conveyor belt precision, with capella group the single singles, it made for a rather novel evening. And beautifully dry clothes.
The evenings are cold here in North Slovenia. With the early nights setting in it does not make ideal clothes drying conditions. Luckily the wood burner comes into its own here. Last night was a surreal evening of circulating socks and pants from in front of the wood burner, to on top of the wood burner, to the chimney (the hottest part) and back round again. Watching the steam rise off the clothes. It’s highly likely they would have dried normally next to the fire on the clothes horse overnight. But where is the fun in that! Maybe our London preoccupation with getting things done fast drove the risking speed drying strategy. With conveyor belt precision, with capella group the single singles, it made for a rather novel evening. And beautifully dry clothes.
Going to the shops
The local shop here is convenient but quite pricey. After a week we decided to take on a larger food store, stock up and save some cash. In order for it to not take all day we started in the morning. Our journey looked something like this; up at 6.15, our the door by 7 am. 30 minute walk to bus stop, 15 bus ride. A restricted amount of time shopping before we were able to catch one of the sporadic buses back. A long, slow, walk back with more carbs on us than you could throw a stick it. Back to the flat for 10 am. Might not sound much but it felt epic. Probably saved about €100 through this effort. And I found the best soya sauce and chilli sauce. Yes, a walking stereotype me.
The local shop here is convenient but quite pricey. After a week we decided to take on a larger food store, stock up and save some cash. In order for it to not take all day we started in the morning. Our journey looked something like this; up at 6.15, our the door by 7 am. 30 minute walk to bus stop, 15 bus ride. A restricted amount of time shopping before we were able to catch one of the sporadic buses back. A long, slow, walk back with more carbs on us than you could throw a stick it. Back to the flat for 10 am. Might not sound much but it felt epic. Probably saved about €100 through this effort. And I found the best soya sauce and chilli sauce. Yes, a walking stereotype me.
Recycling
No weekly pick up, recycling (and there’s lots of it) is all centralised in the village. To tackle this weekly chore I threw on my trainers and made and midday jog out of it. I do love a 2 birds, 1 stone kinda job.
No weekly pick up, recycling (and there’s lots of it) is all centralised in the village. To tackle this weekly chore I threw on my trainers and made and midday jog out of it. I do love a 2 birds, 1 stone kinda job.
Waking up
Sounds simple enough but with the clocks changing last week it now gets dark at 5. To combat SAD, I’m attempting to fall in line with the sun’s movements, so the alarm is set for 6 now each morning. With little distraction in the evening that’ll mean bed at 10pm for me. Rock. And. Roll.
Sounds simple enough but with the clocks changing last week it now gets dark at 5. To combat SAD, I’m attempting to fall in line with the sun’s movements, so the alarm is set for 6 now each morning. With little distraction in the evening that’ll mean bed at 10pm for me. Rock. And. Roll.
So at the novelty factor begins to wane there are all sorts of little adjustments that still need to be made. I don’t think I’d ever given such mundane things much thought before.
Sophia Cheng
With a decade of communications experience across the for profit and nonprofit sectors, agency and in-house, Sophia has made a habit of making ‘the hard stuff’ more accessible. Since 2018, she has reorientated her life around the climate crisis. She has forged her decade of communications experience into offering workshops, mentoring, blogging, and more, on the biggest issues of our time.
View all posts
More from Sophia Cheng
Related posts
