Life has it’s magical times, but how often have you forgotten about the best bits? I haven’t been particularly thorough about writing them down, but I think it’s a good practice to pick out those special moments – to help the memory, but also to help reflection on just what is important in life. Often those moments are worth months of otherwise forgettable activity. Here are my notes from a Word document I haven’t modified since 2007…

Snoozing at Saltway house after the Chedworth 10km cross-country race. Lying next to each other on the grass. Warm summer day. Sense of fatigue born of achievement.

Riding through Romanian villages in the back of a pick-up truck.

Beside Lake Kivu receiving a text saying I’d got into Oxford.

A-level results day. Top of the year, straight As.

Getting a perfect score (70/70) in my first A-level Maths modular exam. Receiving a letter from the examining board asking me to consider a career in maths.

Watching the sunset over dinner beside the castle in Assisi in the summer of 2000. Hitch-hiking around, wandering through Assisi, buying a simple meal of fresh bread, olives, ham and cheese and sitting on the grass with all the plain below us and the rolling hills behind us. Thomas Berger.

Breakfast with Thomas at the Kipfer’s near Bern. Fresh yogurts. Overlooking the valley. Blissful. We’d hitchhiked there.

Drinking unpasteurised milk by the pint as we collapse on completing the 190 mile coast-to-coast walk in 11.5 days. Aged 16.

Hostile environments training day five.

Winning blades with the college first boat in Torpids 2006. Intensive week, so much time together. Snatching victory from defeat.

High Table at St Antony’s college after winning rowing blades in Torpids.

Back in England I come across certain items at the family home or things I see in the neighbourhood where I grew up which bring back a flood of memories. But sometimes I realise that my memory is hazy about everything before 2006, which is when I joined Facebook (then restricted to university email addresses) and started taking digital photos more seriously. There are so many chapters of my life before then, so many good friends…but because it wasn’t captured digitally or shared on social networks it feels like it was almost a different life or was back in the mists of time. Moving to Congo at the end of 2006 marks such a severe break in my life that I feel I need to fight again to reconnect former parts of my life with the present.

I’ve been a long time getting around to it, but last night I finally shot my first time lapse in Dubai. I have a great location (my apartment) so there’s not really an excuse. I picked up a cheap tripod a few months back on a second hand site, so I’ve got all I need. So here’s the first attempt…

TL Arch tower1

There’s definitely lots of room for improvement – the night scenes have noise, the shutter should be dragged (to blur the car lines and get that feel of movement), there’s plenty of flicker (because the camera is on automatic). But hopefully with each attempt I’ll get the hang of things. My goal is to have a collection of time lapse shots in a video by the end of the year, ideally with a piece of music composed by myself.

I’ve been blogging elsewhere for several years, but it’s time for a fresh start. This will be more personnel than what I’ve written before, and more eclectic. Common themes will be Ivory Coast/Cote d’Ivoire, lifestyle strategies, random personal thoughts. Hope you enjoy, and I hope it doesn’t get too narcissistic.

A bit about me – I’m a journalist in my early 30s with strong links to Ivory Coast, among other countries. I currently live in Dubai.