I am now firmly staking credit for a new catchphrase that I am now directing at myself.
"I am not lost, I am merely in a unfamiliar location after travelling in a random direction from one that is!"
Lost often implies a certain amount of panic or emotional distress and it also normally assumes that the person has no clear idea of how they got there or in what direction to take to get back to familiar surroundings.
Even without a map and compass to guide me, If I chose to walk along the beach for ten minutes and then do a quick circle of the block to see what is around the next corner, I might be unsure what I will find but I am far from lost.
Considering that I have been labelled by the locals here as the only Englishman for 30 miles, and despite a bit of sunburn I am still the palest person you can find for about 60 miles I think that if anyone is lost then it is the car driver who recently pulled over to ask me directions, while speaking in Portuguese!
The beach is glorious, the sunshine brilliant and hot enough to melt my factor 30 right off my face in under an hour and the prices are so cheap as to be incomparable to those in London, but without a friendly face who can understand me and I them it is not my perfect location for heaven.
As for dangerous, well I guess that I must be extremely lucky then, as I have been here two full days and the closest I have come to being harmed was when I got too close to the beach barbeque.
I still leave my valuables in my room locked, I still only take enough money out of the bank to last a couple of days, but with the friendlyness of the people I am having a hard time keeping up my guard as the way of life is so relaxed here.
"I am not lost, I am merely in a unfamiliar location after travelling in a random direction from one that is!"
Lost often implies a certain amount of panic or emotional distress and it also normally assumes that the person has no clear idea of how they got there or in what direction to take to get back to familiar surroundings.
Even without a map and compass to guide me, If I chose to walk along the beach for ten minutes and then do a quick circle of the block to see what is around the next corner, I might be unsure what I will find but I am far from lost.
Considering that I have been labelled by the locals here as the only Englishman for 30 miles, and despite a bit of sunburn I am still the palest person you can find for about 60 miles I think that if anyone is lost then it is the car driver who recently pulled over to ask me directions, while speaking in Portuguese!
The beach is glorious, the sunshine brilliant and hot enough to melt my factor 30 right off my face in under an hour and the prices are so cheap as to be incomparable to those in London, but without a friendly face who can understand me and I them it is not my perfect location for heaven.
As for dangerous, well I guess that I must be extremely lucky then, as I have been here two full days and the closest I have come to being harmed was when I got too close to the beach barbeque.
I still leave my valuables in my room locked, I still only take enough money out of the bank to last a couple of days, but with the friendlyness of the people I am having a hard time keeping up my guard as the way of life is so relaxed here.
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