Streetwalker

I don’t really have hobbies.

I dive and I write.

That’s it for activities I can think of as interesting. The only other sports I’ve ever found remotely interesting are fencing - I don’t know of an abundance of nearby epee parnters - and cycling - but I’m damn sure not riding up and down 307 until I get smeared across the road.

So when left to my own devices, it’s diving or writing for me.

I wish I had hobbies. Or even a hobby.

Closest thing… I like walking around.

Not like a hiker, although I sorta like very mild hikes where, within an hour you get to a place where you can say “Ooooooo, pretty!” and then be back in time for lunch (and you don’t have to carry a pack, because fuck that).

I’m more of an urban hiker. That is, I like walking around cities. Ducking into museums. Finding offbeat, independent shops. Chance stumbles across memorials for the truly great, or simply beloved family members. Looking at architecture. Listening to snatches of conversation. Generally just riding the thrum and the Om of this or that city’s core being.

Being vegan helps. Having a unique restaurant in mind to try gives me (and Nelly, who shares a joy in perambulatory “exploration”) a target for our semi-randomized rambling.

Pick a spot on a map and head generally in that direction, zig-zagging your way there and seeing whatever you happen to see along the way. Our walks around cities are the very model of “it’s the journey, not the destination.”

Nelly suggested the other day that may be part of my eyewear obsession.

Sure, long-COVID turned the dial on my already lifelong light sensitivity up to 11. But do I really NEED more than a single pair of reliable sunglasses?

I’m sure you know (or may be) the sort of person who has a favorite meal. Something they could have for lunch and dinner every day for the rest of their lives and be perfectly happy. I am not that person. My tastes and ideas are wildly vast and frequently chaotic. I thrive on variety. So I need lots of different meals. And sunglasses.

But as Nelly points out.. the sunnies might also just be part excuse to walk the city as well. High-end opticians being the same sorts of loose targets to meander vaguely towards as vegan restaurants.

And I can’t disagree.

Anyway, after trying on something like 100 different pairs in four different shops over several days, I bought a new pair of sunglasses yesterday. A pair of Cutler & Gross (a British brand you don’t see in Mexico generally) for less than if I had gotten them in the US or even the UK due to weird exchange rates with the AUD.

Golf would probably be a cheaper hobby than collecting baubles like a bowerbird.

But then I’d need to think up some other semi-plausible reason to be capriciously roaming the streets.

And I don’t think hitting golf balls up Fifth Ave would play out that well for anyone.