The Blog That Never Was 🇮🇹

My weary feet, tiptoe over the uneven, grimy, cobbled streets of Napoli. I skilfully dodge the constant stream of motorcycles, sprinting, recklessly through the narrow, twisting pathways between buildings. I don’t quite fancy losing a limb today cheers.

Today, I have decided to lose myself in the winding city streets, although how do I get lost if I don’t know where I’m going and there is no plan in the first place?

My tired brain is a jumble-jungle of thoughts and I’m lacking motivation to do anything, so I allow my feet and thoughts to wonder off. I wonder if we all need to wander off the beaten track sometimes, to remain wonderful.

Gazing up at the many high rise Neapolitan apartment buildings, I wonder what will happen if we carry on building upwards indefinitely? Will we eventually burst through the sky and hit the stars? Even so, should we build downwards instead, or will we simply end up building upwards by accident?

I pass a cool, quirky little book stall on one of the many winding roads, stacked high with an array of fiction in different languages – I wish I had the time to read them all.

There are so many important details we all miss because we’re moving too fast, but there’s just never enough time to, even though time is seemingly infinite.

Here, everyone on the buzzing streets has a hustle. Everything has a price assigned to it but holds a different value to who you ask. So many people here are begging me for change as if it’s something I can deliver.

I’m trying to find a clearing in the chaos but perhaps I should be clearing my own.

Context

Over the last couple of days in Napoli my ADHD brain has been struggling. It’s a mix of exhaustion and lack of preparation for this trip. I took a 5am flight to Naples with very little sleep after three gigs in a row and 10 hours in a car.

I enjoy being spontaneous and adventurous, but too far the other way and it’s a struggle to get myself organised. The result can be complete paralysis: even making a decision on where to sit and grab a coffee can take hours.

I was hoping to present this a one of my travel stories: a cohesive body of work, but alas, some days are frustrating as hell as I can’t concentrate for long enough to bind them together.

As part of me better managing my condition, I realise I just need to ‘roll with it’ and sometimes present these as more like a journal of ‘thought trains’. It's actually just nice to get the thoughts out of my head and onto the page.

Although I find experiences like this frustrating, I only received my diagnosis in January and am learning what works and doesn’t work for me.

Going forward I intend to make a flexible schedule for my days, with ideas of where to eat and drink in advance. A lot of this is finding places that have good vegetarian food and little spots to drink coffee and watch the world go by, that aren’t too loud or chaotic – helping me to get into the zone and not get too hyper stimulated.

Even just making a list of logical steps listed in my phone will make a huge difference, freeing me up to be my fun and carefree self.

It’s funny sometimes, you think you’re ordering a coffee and the universe brings you one, along with a big old learning opportunity. Cheers uni.

Out exploring 📸