testmeat photoblog

after my week of work and recovery in calangute i moved to arambol in goa and spent ten days staying at a place on the beach. i still had work i needed to do, but i made it a point to swim in the ocean every morning, the warm water and (mild) exercise was a great way to wake up. the only exception to this routine was on the first wednesday in december, arsenal had played the night before with a kick off which was far too late in my indian time zone. i avoided looking at my phone when i woke up and tried to download the game to watch in full, however the patchy internet meant the download kept failing. after careful searching and avoiding of spoilers i eventually found a stream of the match. it was a pretty frustrating watch though, both with arsenal not making the most of their dominance and the stop-start viewing experience as my internet kept cutting in and out. there was one moment in the second half when our 2-1 lead had been overturned to 3-2 and the internet stopped for a good 30 minutes. i spent the whole time staring at an image of the ball in the back of our net contemplating what the hell i was doing with my life. when the stream restarted we scored an equaliser but time was running out and it looked for all the world like i had wasted a whole day to watch a disappointing draw. but then... when all hope was lost... with only seconds remaining... declan rice rose in the box and headed in a last minute winner. in an instant all that frustrating effort was worth it and i was so glad that i avoided the spoilers and didn't just watch the highlights, it made it feel even more special.

all of this is to say that it was quite late in the afternoon when i eventually made it out for my dip into the arabian sea. the sun was getting low and bathing everything in a golden hue, which synced up beautifully with my mood. so much so that it inspired me to cut short my swim, pick up my camera for the first time in a couple of weeks and take these photographs.

here's another sunset cricket shot i took in the golden light