After last week’s somewhat depressing post, I promised to find a more cheerful subject for this week. I have mined my memories for the most pure moments of happiness that I can recall, and one of them prompted me to select these swimming goggles for you today.

When I was a child, our family; mum, dad, and little brother, would spend many summers in the same little costal town in Italy. We drove down through Europe with our caravan until we reached a small and rather primitive camping ground, which boasted of few toilets and a very limited supply of warm water, a small shop, a ping-pong table for the kids, and the most amazing location you could ever imagine. Indeed, as I got out of bed in the morning and stepped out of the caravan, all I had to do was climb over some rocks and I could plunge into the Mediterranean. With my flippers on my feet, fishing net in hand (I might come across an octopus or two), and my swimming goggles on, I would venture out, often accompanied by my brother, to seek adventure in the shallows. And this is where we arrive at one of these pure moments of happiness. I remember quite clearly paddling along, feeling the sunshine on my back, looking down on the marine life darting around below me and thinking “this is Paradise. And I am in the middle of it”.

So, as I try to cheer myself up after last week’s blog post, I will look at these fantastic goggles, and think of long days spent paddling around, catching fish, crabs, and octopuses (and releasing them after I had a good look at them). And hope that I will have more such moments in the future.

The goggles were collected on the Solomon Islands in 1975, and are in fact homemade. They were made by a fisherman out of a pocket mirror and used when he went spear fishing.

//Sophie Seebach