Random Thoughts

REPUTATION

Through the last few posts I guess I gained a reputation as a lazy boy. I always tried to keep my working life simple and lived it through two key principles:
1- minimum effort for maximum reward
2- time often takes care of issues so it’s better to wait and see what happens.
When we add that:
– Over the last twelve months I worked for senior managers that didn’t inspire or motivate me
– I implicitly gave up my performance bonus the moment I resigned and
– the company could not…fire me
chilling out was a no brainer and the last three months at work have been great. Respect to Clara who had the energy to go through the last working days and complete all the work she promised to deliver.

MAY I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION PLEASE

If Clara sees a bee, she runs. At home, if a mosquito buzzes in her ear, she jumps off her chair and signals that i need to kill the intruder. Clara is terrified of bugs of all kinds but she is physically strong, very strong. On a few hikes, I was left behind mercilessly, and on the occasions where she waited for me I could read in her eyes: “come on lazy boy get your s**t together and keep up!”. Being challenged is good and Clara does it well. So, when I told her last week that I had a “little pain” in my left heel, I got no reaction from her but a look that said: “you better sort that out and stop being a drama queen!”. So I have been off training for more than 10 days now (so is Clara but because of crazy working hours) and let my foot sit on ice (well, an old bag of frozen spinach that is now perfectly fitting my foot) to get ready for NZ. This week I got my international driver’s license sorted out…just in case things do not turn out as planned. Oh! but anyway do we have any plans?

CHAOS

Over the last few weeks our main focus has been on getting rid of our possessions except what we will carry in our backpacks. As time passed, unnecessary things were either recycled or binned. This “lighter life” contrasts with most of my past life (before I met Clara), which was chaos. For me back then, chaos meant “organized in a disorganized way”. And so in practice while everything appeared to be stuffed in drawers and cupboards, in my head i knew where to find everything. Having fewer things after our recent clean-ups should have freed up my mind, made me sharper and speeded the search process but actually it had the opposite effect: I keep looking for stuff in the room (normally plugs and cables). Every single day I spend time digging into the recycling bags and the suitcases or lying on the floor looking under the bed and the cupboards with the head torch on. Empty drawers drive me mad because there is no hope of finding anything. While I turn the whole room upside down (we are talking of about 200 sqft here) most of the time Clara is calmly surfing the net and gives me false hope by showing me over and over again the same piece of equipment: a black cable. My last search had an unexpected outcome though. I found Clara’s mosquito net under the cupboard. The moment I saw that precious piece of equipment I could already imagine Clara screaming in the bush, going crazy from the mosquitos and saying: “give me YOUR mosquito net”. Thank god I finally got rewarded for all my past searches.

THE THREE SUITCASES

We left our apartment in May with three suitcases. At the time, casual clothes were carefully selected and we carried the bare minimum, just our favorites. With this limited supply, every weekend Clara and I have been wearing the same clothes, we are like a deja-vu to the staff at our regular cafes and the launderette. All clothes (casual and working) are now stuffed in two suitcases and here’s what they look like, awaiting their new home.

Unfortunately we still have plenty of stuff left and are now on our way to the post office (Deirdre and Mario, Christmas is coming early for you guys this year). We are SO looking forward to having only our backpacks!