Freedom to choose

My brother is a lodge manager at Singita Grumeti Reserves in the Serengeti in Tanzania. He sent me this photo on Saturday. If you can't see it clearly, those are thousands and thousands of wildebeest. It is the view from his office, the view from his room, the view as he walks to and from his room and his office, the view when guests arrive, the view when you eat breakfast, lunch and dinner, the view from every guest room and the view when guests leave. He sees it every year and if you are there to see it, you are incredibly lucky. Singita gives people access to animal kingdom heaven. 

I decided to make my own luck and investigated flying out to visit him and the entire Serengeti gnu population this week, tomorrow. Why not? There is no reason not to go apart from needing to be back in time for my flight to Bali.  

My reasons for not going are irrelevant. The point is I had the freedom to choose, to consider it, to make it happen or not. I have the chosen to have time.

I'll start with some wine

Enough with all the introspective stuff. What have I been up to for my first few days of unemployed life? This is a photo of me after I completed the Cape Wine Academy Introduction to South African Wine course. It's a very informative and enjoyable course and I would recommend it to anyone who wants to learn wine basics (the history of wine, viticulture, how to taste wine etc.). 

You also come away with lots of new wine jargon like "the nose and legs" of a wine (who knew wine had limbs?) and phrases like, "this wine has a full bouquet" (what?). 

Energy

How does it feel?

It hit me in the face that first Sunday of this halcyon state. That day, I felt different. That day, I no longer needed conserve energy for the coming work week. I could breathe in the whole day; I could make of it what I wanted. If I wasted it, only I was to blame.

It was a shock, it was a reality check, it was a new idea of being that I haven't ever known.

It was glorious!

Friday 13 May

 

My final day at work was on Friday 13 May (great choice of date, huh). After a week of farewells, handing in my laptop, exit interviews and handovers, I drove out of the office park, access card-less and completely overwhelmed by what I was doing. Although the right one, this is the most extreme decision I have ever made. Making the decision to go to university after school? That was easy. Deciding what to study? Easy. Deciding on business school? A no brainer. Deciding where to work? Not a problem. Deciding that temporary retirement is the right thing for me to do now? Off the charts.

Carly sent me this photo when she knew that I struggling with the new reality that I had created for myself on Friday 13 May. 

That feeling

This has been a long time coming but there was one specific moment some where in the middle when I realised that something had to be done; I had to make the decision, take control and change my life. This picture shows me on the back of a motorbike in Hue, Vietnam, on Christmas Eve 2010, whizzing down narrow roads between paddy fields. I couldn't believe the photo when I saw it (Thanks Giles), because I knew it captured the exact moment when I was feeling like there was no place on Earth I would rather be and nothing else I would rather be doing. I realised that I need to strive to have those kind of moments every day.