Day 18 - Normality

The novelty of life in the tipi is giving way to routine and there are some details I love which I will use this space to remember.

• The warmth of sunrise. The tipi points east, I step through the door and the first thing I feel is the sun creeping over the horizon. It cuts long shadows through the trees.
• The freshness of washing my face in the stream, and being able to share that with my washing up as I carry it out of the tipi in a metal bucket and give it a scrub.
• The sights and smells as I walk to uni through the woods and the fields and the sheep.
• The swipe-swipe noise of the security card as I enter the engineering department at uni. This, to me, is the transition between the ways of life.
• The excitement of getting home. I’m usually tired after a long day, but when I see the tipi everything about the day is forgotten. It turns from 'what should I do' to 'what must I do'. The first thing to do is start a fire – which is always loads of fun and I get to use the axe.
• The smoothness of the rolling door: when I get the fire going, I punch the top of the rolled up door from the inside. It immediately rolls downwards and shuts on its own - unbelievably slick. I half expect the firewood pile to magically swivel round into a bar, and the sleeping bag to flip over into a double bed with maybe some slow lovin music cranking up.
• Unity when my mates come round and we chat into the fire.
• Sometimes I have to go outside to adjust the smoke flaps when the fire’s going. The feeling of warmth from the fire as I come back into the toasty tipi from the cold is amazing. It feels like home. It properly is.