I’m back in the digital world after a two week break. I can’t pretend my life has been completely digital-free, but I have enjoyed my break. I’ve been reading books instead of blogs, playing tapes in my car instead of skipping through play-lists on my ipod, and sipping tea and writing in notebooks instead of Twittering and writing blog posts.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m still most certainly a digital, Twitter-loving, blogging geek, but I have enjoyed my days back in the analogue world. I’ve been reminded of the excitement of playing the same tape over and over again, enjoying the way one song follows on from another in the that lovely linear fashion that only seems to happen in the analogue world. New meanings and connections happen when one thing follows on from another in the same way every time, and you find yourself listening to things that the wonders of digital technology would let you skip past with a quick press on a touch screen.

It’s the same with writing longhand, or reading from the printed page. There’s no options to scroll down, or easily skip forward, editing the written world is a beautifully messy thing that leaves a little bit of oneself in the ink stains and crossing out. You by and large have to experience it all, a step at a time, and that feels like a good metaphor for living a life (or at least a good way to spend a holiday).