I did my wardrobe cull (the pile in the photo being a charity pile that is now in a local British Heart Foundation charity shop), went for coffee, tidied my utensils drawers, then wrote another chapter, 25, before even writing a blog.
Chapter 24 was about a mango dessert I had in Manila with my friend Paula. It was the beginning of my association with travel and food and it was the first time I understood why people can love mangoes. Thinking about that amazing dessert, and I can’t even remember what it was other than the smooth texture and the incredible mango taste of the mango, unlike any mango I had ever eaten before. The chapter ended up being more about my adventures in the Philippines than the dessert at a Cuban café in Manila, but I enjoyed reminiscing about that brilliant holiday.
Chapter 25 was about my first small notebook, which I wrote notes in from 2000 to 2013. My notebooks now last two to three years and the content has changed. The earlier entries in the book consisted of newspaper cuttings of job adverts I applied for, all requiring postal applications. There are sketches, written and drawn directions, scribbles from information relayed over the phone, addresses of places to stay in Paris, New Zealand and Singapore, various addresses and phone numbers of people I met along the way, a few of whom I am still in touch with now, resolution lists and lots of ideas for novels and stories. I thoroughly enjoyed reading through most of the notebook again. I was reminded of a lot of events, details from a holiday in the Lake District in 2003 and even a recipe I regularly recreate but which I have discovered has a few other ingredients that I had forgotten about.