Tuesday 5 October 2010

I love mondays



In my old life Mondays were something to dread. I would drag myself out of bed, be forced to deal with the issues of hair and makeup, quickly drink some coffee and then out the door into the concrete jungle to the office. More often that not I would be in a foul mood, not having enough coffee and the thought of sitting at a desk doing paperwork for several hours really made me cheerful.


But not anymore. Yesterday was a Monday and how different my Mondays are these days. We have been sleeping until 10.00 am, drinking coffee until midday etc. Yesterday was one of those days when the weather was 17 degrees c and sunny so we went and sat on the beach until 5.00 pm and just read and watched the magnificent waves. The north Devon coastline is so dramatic. There are few people here and we were the only ones on the beach.



I think that my mind is starting to slow down. In my former job I had to be organised I had to plan, plan and plan again. As a litigator you have to be 20 steps in front, always trying to anticipate the next move of your opponent, living by diaries and court appointment dates and other deadlines for fear of missing something and worse still being negligent. The constant fear of being negligent used to keep me awake at night sometimes.


It is so good to have freedom, before to get any time off I had to go through an arm twisting exercise to take annual leave. Of course the boss would not deny me my statutory rights, he would not decline my request for leave but it was almost as if he went out of his way to make it as difficult as possible for my leave requests to be authorised, and that became extremely wearing.


However, I do have thoughts of doubt, sometimes I think that we were mad to give up the money that we were earning, could we have done another year? Anyway too late now. I am learning to quieten the organising part of my brain and just take each day as it comes.

7 comments:

Alice said...

*sigh* BRAVO. It sounds as though you are finally starting to try and let your body/mind/soul 'still' a little. It takes time to go from one extreme to the other, but I believe the lessons you will learn from this period will last forever and who knows where you will be on a Monday in a few years? WHO KNOWS!!! I doubt back at the desk belonging to a greater force - despite the money ;-)

Enjoy such a beautiful part of England. I'm really glad that you are already seeing it through new eyes. God, it took us well over a year before we even started to consider that maybe we loved the UK afterall!!!!!!

Looking forward to more updates xxx

Anna said...

You must be even more relieved than you relaise - I bet your health will be on the up. Working to impossible deadlines is the *worst* thing in life - as an HE lecturer I was doing that for a few years: I can't begin to imagine the stress levels of a lawyer. Well done for eschewing that awful regime - another year's pay might have brought ill-health...
What accommodation are you in?

Frank C. said...

Hold a grain of sand up to the night sky on your fingertip at arm's length. That tiny speck is blocking your view of thousands and thousands of galaxies.

Then consider the millions of stars that are in just one of those galaxies. Then consider the number of planets, moons, and asteroids in just one of those star systems.

Considering all that, it's really more of a stretch that life "only" exists here on Earth.

Buy a telescope and view the night sky it's very "relaxing".

Dreamer said...

Alice, its a lovely area, but honestly where else is there to go to live if you want a temperate climate, english speaking and no immigration issues? I cant think of anywhere. xxx

Anna I know, we are renting a holiday lodge in Devon on the border with east cornwell in the Bude area, there are some good deals to be had this time of year on line like cottages direct.co.uk.

Frank - Gotcha!

Anonymous said...

OOoh you are making me homesick. Photos like that one are not allowed ;0)

Are you in Devon now??

Anonymous said...

Hi frugal trenches, no just left en route to south wales now!

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