It’s about time for another post isn’t it?
I’ve been wanting to post or podcast for a while, but things have been changing so rapidly that I felt like whatever I wrote/said would become out of date almost immediately, perhaps even by the time I finished the post!
Let’s deal with the practical stuff first. I’m back at Northolt right now, gradually working on repainting the narrowboat and cleaning her interior. The gas work that I thought was going to be expensive didn’t need to be done in the end. The problem was found and the boat safety certificate was issued. So now she’s all ship-shape except for general grubbiness. It’s still rather frustrating how long this is all taking, but at least we’re coming to the final straight I think. It remains to be seen what price level I can sell her at – one broker insists the market is 20% down on two years ago in line with house prices, another says that’s ridiculous and prices haven’t been in any way affected by the housing market. Who knows.
In terms of making money to sustain life away from the Big Evil City, three items of good news there:-
Firstly, Dave just passed his theory exam to become a Driving Instructor, so now he can move on to learning the practical side of things – how to teach people to parallel park etc – slightly ironic since of course he never had to do that himself when he learned to drive!
Secondly, I’ve had a provisional job offer for a working-from-home IT gig, doing product development for a Sharepoint software house. It’s a startup firm, but the CEO comes personally recommended by a guy I used to work for in the late 90s, for whom I feel a high degree of trust. The salary will be low, but I’ll be sharing in the profit from product sales, and there’ll be share options, so there’s enough entrepreneurial excitement to make things very interesting. First though, I need to learn Sharepoint and pass one of those multi-guess Microsoft exams!
Thirdly, I’ve signed up for a part time course in Counselling offered by Chrysalis. This is a relatively cheap course taking an eclectic approach to counselling and psychotherapy. It’s a subject that really does fascinate me, and increasingly so since I’ve been away from the money-making City rat race. I’ve no idea what the quality of the training will be like, but it’s cheap enough so that I don’t feel like I’m selling my soul (c.f. the £24k cost of my MBA, which did indeed leave me the Master of Bugger All).
I’ve been away from Wales for a couple of weeks now, so no doubt the garden is just more bonkers than ever. Dave’s been there to keep things under control. Last I heard, the broadbeans were cropping, the runner beans were rocketing off the top of the long bamboo climber poles I’d put in for them, and the spinach was all ready for cutting. The tomatoes I think are suffering a bit from overcrowding and lack of light, but there’s not a lot I can do about the latter. Besides, it’s all good experience. This first year I just want to see what happens. I can worry about ‘getting it right’ later, which I suspect is going to involve a lot of tree culling.
That’s the practical side. The other things that’s been going on for me is philosophical. I’ve discovered that not working full time has sent my mind into a full-on introspection that I haven’t really experienced … well, ever. I’ve always been introspective, but at every other point in my life I’ve been so distracted by more immediate concerns that I never really got at the heart of things, like, what are my values, really, and where did they come from? That’ll be the focus of my next post.