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2. Etappe: Maine bis Georgia, 24. September - 11. November 2019

Do you ever miss everyday life?

That’s the question Rosetta asked me the week before last! I thought spontaneously: No! But I wrote her that I wanted to move the question for a while before I answered. Today I thought, a good hanger for my blog post… To be honest, the more I thought about it, I wondered what everyday life is. Somehow I also have the impression that my everyday life has somehow differed from many others in recent years anyway. 

What is everyday life at all?

Wikipedia, I get the following answer: “Everyday life is the habitual daily and weekly cycle of civilized people.
It continues: “Everyday life is characterised by repetitive patterns of work and commuting, consumption (shopping, eating and drinking), leisure, personal hygiene, social and cultural activities, visits to the doctor, sleep and much more. Everyday life is seen, among other things, as a contrast to holidays or feast days or holidays”. Which brings us back to the question of whether we are on holiday at the moment… I asked Daniel, who is at home with his family for some time after nine months in a motorhome. He says they call it travelling. I think that’s a nice description that can also apply to me. On holiday, I do not have to do anything for some time that I can do after the holiday. But at the moment we do everything that has to be done as if we hadn’t left.

Everyday life at home

In the last two decades my everyday life has been little ritualized. Fixed procedures – apart from the morning coffee ritual and the meditation that was added at some point – didn’t really exist. Food times, after-work hours and leisure activities were determined by my working hours. Work actually completely determined everyday life – it may sound hard, but it wasn’t and gave me the freedom to work without pressure. When the work was finished, I turned to other things. I didn’t experience work as something separate or split off, but as life. In the summer we often went on a bicycle tour at 8.30 p.m. after work was done. And it often happened that we made our beds at 23.00 o’clock, because then the laundry was done. Three years ago, everyday life changed with a reduction in working hours and the purchase of the chalet. Especially on Texel we often had constant processes, we cooked ourselves and gave ourselves our own structure, beyond work and once again adapted to our needs.

Everyday life on the road in the Amigo

Here on our journey the everyday life is now different again, but yes also quite present. We get up, drink a cup of coffee or tea, arrive slowly during the day, make plans or concretise them by determining routes, setting destinations, exploring the next overnight possibilities, etc. We then go on to the next day, where we will have a good time. Then we have breakfast, rinse (I rinse, Manfred dries off) and get ready. Since nothing is allowed to lie around during the trip, I’m responsible for stowing everything back in place, putting the chairs in the driving position, lowering the bed, supplying electricity, heating and pumping – just doing everything the amigo has to do. Manfred is responsible for the outside area, empties the Porta Potti, refills the water, takes care of the power supply, saddles the bicycles, etc… We shop together, take turns cooking.
I take care of the finances and the administrative stuff in general, i.e. everything relevant – even from home. All this has worked out well in the last weeks and is probably called everyday life. Thus I do not miss everyday life … What I miss is sometimes a warm shower in beautiful surroundings right next door, a little more space to live together, to be able to wash when I feel like it – everyday things to which I am so accustomed and which I don’t know any other way or which I now learn to appreciate anew. On our long bike tours and hikes I have already learned to appreciate these things.

Washington, 01.11.2019

Saradevi

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