As you may or may not have guessed, I am not actually out on the streets of Lisbon currently. I am stuck at home like most others. Me & Mrs B have been self-isolating all week as sick with poss/poss not Covid-19. ( mebbe 17 or 18 ;) If we do have it, luckily it is mild version & similar symptoms to Tom Hanks, no joke but the joke is that’s about all we can go on as can’t get tested. So these shots were taken on a trip last year and haven’t had a chance to go through them till now. I am also posting these in the midst of all this madness because its a way of travelling without moving.
With the current global lockdown and everyone isolated indoors it feels like virtual travel is definitely the order of the day. It feels like this is what the internet was designed for. To keep us connected when we can’t do so in the real world. And to keep us distracted. We need diversions during this indefinite period. You cannot pay attention to this shit storm all the time. It will drive you bat shit crazy. So maybe ease up on the constant drip feed of round the clock bulletins and let your mind wander elsewhere from time to time.
For what its worth I am doing daytime corona, nighttime escapism. I saw on Netflix that all the movies that were trending were virus related which to me seems crazy. That’s like watching airplane disaster movies on a plane. You need to stay informed and keep abreast of the latest developments but you also need to stay sane so make sure you give your brain a rest.
Wall to wall worry is not going to help get you through this. You need time outs so am providing shots of elsewhere in the hope that helps. Obvs if you live in Lisbon (hello Paddy, dermot, fernanda!) this might be less of an escape but at least it might let you mentally meander to a time when Corona was just a beer.
Some of my aforementioned mates were part of the Brexodus that moved to Lisbon after the referendum (remember those happy times when we just spoke about the EU) and after visiting them last year I realised it pretty much ticks every box of what I want a city to be. The vibe, the people, the architecture, the way of life, the food, the nightlife..its all top draw. And from a photographic point of view, it is superb. So many incredible faces, you can barely turn without seeing a magnificently character on ever corner. The light is stunning, noticeably so, I don’t know why, but its truly breathtaking as it makes all the colours of all the buildings and the crystal blue sky pop like HDTV. (yes, fraid these shots are in bnw as still on my colour strike as I was depressed about the world before the film Contagion became a reality show!)
I have a feeling CoronaWorld ain’t going anywhere anytime soon so we might have to get used to not going anywhere for a while which is why digi-travel is the solution. This virus has brought the globe to a standstill and maybe that is not such a terrible thing. We go round and round and we never stop for long enough to work out what the fuck we are doing or where we are going. Both as individuals and as a species.
I feel life is relentless and I always wished that it would be possible for everything to just stop. To freeze everything. Just to get a time out. Just to have a breather. Just long enough to stop chasing your tail. They say be careful what you wish for…
I hope this enforced time out will give us time to reflect and realise that what we need to as a species is put the brakes on everything we were doing anyway. I hope we will learn from this and not just go back to normal after this has blown over and not learn from the experience and just return to the round and round…maybe the positive is that Corona will show us how we can live without relentless consumption & travel and put us on a regenerative path towards sustainable living. We must not let this opportunity go to waste.
I will be posting more shots of Lisbon up next week as I want to continue to ride the magic carpet of virtual travel…because I am housebound but also because once again I dream of Europe where they are doing whatever is necessary to put the safety of their people first which involves a total lockdown. Why aren’t we? No-one fucking knows. We are currently run by an arrogant, uncaring imbecile – a terrible combo at the best of times.
Stay safe out there people…and stay strong. Stubborn optimism is the order of the day. Don’t let this shit get you down. It shall pass. And meantime…all aboard the pixel plane!