unemployed

Well, strictly speaking I won't be unemployed until the 1st January 2013, but that's the general vibe of this post, and this blog.

I seem to like a 3 year hiatus from writing blogs - can't believe that my last post to misunderstood second wife was 3 years ago.  Anyway, I need to get back into the writing habit, which is mostly what this blog is about, but not entirely - am also going to use this blog to help me think things through as I decide what I want to 'be' next.

I'm currently on garden leave from my job as an operations director for a global risk and insurance firm where I worked for 15 years.  As I hadn't been enjoying my job for a while and I've been working solidly for 30 years, I decided it was time for a change - if you don't like something, don't keep doing it, right?

Actually, I've been working since I was 11 when I got my first paper round, so that's 36 years of work.  I moved on to washing up in a local restaurant in the Yorkshire village where I grew up and then to breakfast waitressing at the local hotel.

I've understood the basics of work for a long time - you work, you get paid, you can buy the things you want - clothes, food for your pony, cars, booze, fags, freedom!  From there, you can start to add some other good stuff: job satisfaction, getting to spend most of your waking hours with some people you really like (and some you really don't) and genuine personal fulfilment when you're enjoying what you're doing.

What I'm learning now is that I can have a lot of that good stuff without work.  However, you can't have the money part without actual work, which is a bit of a bummer...

When I was a kid and was asked what I wanted to be, I generally gave one of two answers: a writer or a vet but I did neither as it turned out.  Now I need to work out what the 47 year old me wants to be and it is slightly scary to realise that I don't have even one answer yet.  For now,  I reckon I'll just 'be' me and do what I enjoy until I work out what comes next.