Return to normality?

Sitting in the M5 parking lot, heading towards Canberra. Back to work today, back to life without Betty and Bob by our side. Henry feels so empty without the energy and laughter of the Catalans in the back seat.

It's more than that though, I feel like a fragile shell of myself. Perhaps it's the exhaustion of over 300km on the weekend and 150 odd km in the five days leading up to WEMBO. The past week involved as many kms as any of the mega STRAVA weeks in August, and yet...riding bikes was only a small part of what took place.

My take on WEMBO can wait for another day. Right now it is time to write something of what has actually occurred during the last nine days.

We have shared some amazing and very personal moments over the past week. We have endeavoured to expose Bob and Betty to a representative taste of Australia, Canberra and our Single Speed culture. They have met some of our closest friends, seen some of our favourite places and consumed some of our favourite beer and food.

And as I am writing this, I have received a text from our friend Sarah asking us to say goodbye to them on her behalf. You see, they have this ability to touch people and have a profound impact. ¡Es fuerte!

When we first met in Finale, something inside me knew that they were people that it was important to make an effort with: exchange contact details, stay in touch etc. This was reinforced by an amazing couple of days with them in Catalonia, and somehow I knew I needed to encourage them to come to Australia. Now they have and it seems like this is only the beginning of something. What that something is, I'm not quite sure. What I do know is that a week with Betty and Bob has had a profound impact on me and the way I see things.

I have led tour groups to some of the wonders of the world. I have shared insights with educated tourists at the foot of the Pyramids, on mountain tops overlooking Machu Picchu, in the prayer hall of the Mezquita in Cordoba and at the top of the Temple of the Sun in Teotihuacan. Yet somehow, the insights of two Catalans when visiting towns and cities just a couple of hundred years old (or less!) have had a greater impact on me than any of these prior experiences. I am stunned by the different way in which they see things and I have had the great privilege of seeing things through their eyes.

It is a strangely humbling experience for an archaeologist to discover that two Single Speed friends from the other side of the world automatically use the same sorts of intellectual tools as I, and instead of applying them to the ruins of a dead society, they apply them to a young growing nation and ask questions that I hadn't thought to ask.

¿En fin? No, the end is only the beginning repeating. 

The past week has been like a whirlwind. I thought I knew where I was going and which path I would be taking once WEMBO was over. But the truth is, I'm not the same person I was a week ago. The change is subtle and most people won't notice it. The path I now follow goes in just a slightly different direction, and as with the rules of Chaos Maths, small changes can have enormous impacts. Slight corrections to navigation result in enormous differences in the final destination.

As a friend of mine said just two weeks ago "Bec, the Iberian Peninsula hasn't finished with you yet, there is more that you need to do there".

So now? There is no return to "normality". There is no "normal". There is no need to conform to normas.

I have much to contemplate and a few big decisions of my own that I can't ignore. I just can't help wondering how Bob and Betty will feel when they arrive home...they might be the ones who have travelled across the planet this time, but I don't think the universe will ever be quite the same again for any of us.

Fort? Sinó molt fort! Clar que yes!!!