Unpredictability - Good for your health

Our modern life is based on organising an environment free from the unexpected. The house needs to be as stable and reliable as possible. The job as safe as possible. Nothing should break down. Nothing but what we predict, should occur.
This is the life of the zoo animal. Let's explore the life of the Nomad. Let's live the life of the Nomad.

Thursday 24 May 2018

2018 Mid Year Update

It is a fine thing to maintain a blog.  To record events and thoughts and to journal the generally changing landscape of a life lived in our modern times.

And it does take some energy to do this.  It takes time to put to the written word the summary of a new trip, or a new engagement or a new job or a new thought.  Social Media is a different thing.

I discovered social media recently.  It is true that I discovered it a decade after everyone else.  Strange I guess, given that I am an IT professional. But this is how it is and I can say there is some good in it all.  I can post a picture of an event and it takes minutes.  And online friends can click on a like or put in a comment.  And all these actions are recorded and become part of the narrative of a news feed.  To join a social media site is to make a claim in a world that traverses the virtual and the historical and the present reality of your network of people.  Whoever would have thought it would come to this all those years ago, when cutting edge was a personal computer with no sound and 1 KB or RAM!!!

There is a relatively new way of working now called Working From Home (WFH).  It has been possible to do this for a while now but employers have been weary of allowing their paid ones the freedom of self supervision.  But it is taking on and for very good reasons.

1) It frees up expensive office space.
2) It offers employees and especially couples flexibility in a time where both partners are expected to be working and looking after the children.
3) It is envirnonmentally much better - no more long trips in cars burning up fossil fuels.
4) It can offer a distraction free working environment.  If you have an office in the garden or if you live alone - you can be assured of a disruption
free work experience in most cases.
5) It can become a politics free place to work.

There are some challenges and dangers in this way of working as well.

1) You can feel isolated.
2) You require a self discipline, and any deficiency here will quickly reveal itself in terms of work performance.
3) Your home costs can increase - especially in winter when you need ot keep yourself warm.  Rarely are energy bills chargeable to your employer.
4) Your working times become blurred.  In the office you can start at 9.00 and finish at 5.00 and outside of those hours you will not be expected to contribute, generally.  When working from home there is an expectation that these working hours are negotiable and overtime charges don't apply - after all you are saving time spent travelling to work and back each day.



I started a new job and travel was a big expectation.  But my first engagement was for a bank and I was allowed to work from home.  So I didn't travel all that much for a year and a bit.  I did do some travel though.  Once a month I would travel to a place called Banbury - a market town in Oxfordshire.  This little village was important during the English civil war. Oliver Cromwell planned the Battle of Edge Hill in this pub now called Ye Olde Reine Deer Inn.



It has been different this year.  I have been working in Derby and I am thankful for advancements in vehicle design over the recent years.  My new Ford Kuga is a very comfortable driving experience.  I bought it almost brand new.  It has on board computers, and a flashy interior and travels along the road as if floating on a cushion of air - a hovercraft like experience.




The four hour drive to Derby in this superb car is more a pleasure than a chore.


My two daughters never did like my rusty old Ford Transit van but they were certainly charmed when I took them into Brighton in this classy car.  Unfortunately I am pretty much estranged from my daughters - a dilemma that is all too common to the absent parent of a divided family.  Perhaps this will change in time or maybe it won't.  It might be that one day these ladies will read this blog and know their father loved and loves them and wishes them well in life.


Well I think that is enough for now.  I will summon some more energy I am sure, to write again - and this time I won't leave it so long.


Peace To All

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