And what I love to do is ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.

Mind you, not everyone has an appetite for idleness. My own boyfriend has said that, if he had my lifestyle, he would kill himself. And that’s why he is working and I am at the beach. Weekends alone are a nightmare for him.

And while a lot of people have said that they would love to do nothing, not everyone has the talent or imagination for it. I am rarely bored. I am so busy doing nothing that I hardly have time for anything else!

Which is my way of excusing myself for the ten-day delay in updating this blog. It would have only been a nine-day delay, and I swear to every god there is that I tried – I finally took out my laptop and sat at the beach cafe in front of our resort in Arambol, Goa, sunnies (℅ Evita Peroni, thank you very much) and serious face firmly on, but the following happened:

• Several ladies came by, so I had to look at the sarongs they were selling.
• Alan came and sat with me.
• On my way back to our hotel room to use the bathroom, I ran into a German owner of a resort in Vagator who was waiting for a friend staying at our hotel. I invited him to join us at our table while he waited.
• As soon as he and his friend left, a French graphic designer/photographer/documentary filmmaker and his Dutch partner joined us at our table.
• And then it was time for dinner.
• And then it was bedtime.

The only reason that this is finally getting done is because I started at 6 AM, while it is still dark outside. If I don’t finish this before the sun comes up, it will have to wait while I attend to the serious business of tanning.

This is also my way of explaining to my friends why the articles they have asked me to write for their magazines will, most likely, never happen. I did give them very noncommittal maybes, but even that was way too foolishly optimistic for me. The one about Iran for Zee Lifestyle never materialized – and I didn’t even have a deadline for that. The one about Batanes for a business magazine could have happened and could very well still – since my deadline isn’t till the end of March but, by the way things are going, I’ve already sent my regrets.

Anyway, this was what my last two weeks in February looked like:

I am now in Arambol, where I am assisting my teacher in her last massage course for the tourist season in Goa. Alan has returned from San Francisco to join me, and we will be traipsing around India till the end of the month, after which we part ways and Nicolas joins me for his first time in India, which I am really looking forward to.

I have not attended a single yoga class, but I walk quite a lot. I usually reach the number-of-steps goal that Garmin Vivosmart has set for me before midday. (I walk to Mandrem in the mornings where I like to do my tanning because it’s a lot less crowded than Armabol.) And Alan and I are trying to be pescetarians while we’re in Goa. We spend a lot of time disturbing the peace at vegan cafes.

The hippies at Magic Park, a vegan cafe at Arambol, North Goa. Photo ℅ Alan Montelbano’s Instagram.

And now the sun is slowly coming up… Forget the spell-check and editing, I’m outta here!