photo credit: James Temple
I don’t go away places often. Flying to Toronto in 2006 was the first time I’d been on a plane in about ten years (that said, on years in between I had taken a ferry over to France now and again).
But since college life began seven years or more, I haven’t gone away many places. While good friends decided to sample the delights of Thailand, Australia, America, South Korea and more – some of them still are – I decided to stay in Kilkenny and work for myself.
Working one job is enough for some people but when the design started, soon too did the music, and the theatre. When one phone switches off at 5pm, two more go on and the world continues as normal.
I don’t take holidays, and I don’t take sick days (some companies would love that in an employee). I do enough things with my day that there isn’t time to be sick, unless of course I’m on holiday (touch wood).
When I got to Toronto in 2006 I had spent the previous fifteen months working close on seven days a week, something you’ve got to do when you’re working for yourself, or something you find yourself doing rather quickly more to the point. From December 2006 to now it’s been exactly the same, almost two years flat out in the office, with gigs and the theatre, the latter growing into something I’ve become extremely proud of for the work we do as a team.
So getting to give the whole lot up for ten or eleven days will be a shock to the system.
Not only that, but I get to try some indoor skiing, catch a glimpse of the QE2 (or so I’m told), track down some camel racing and generally disengage myself from my working life.
Sure, long weekends away are great (though 9/10 times involve some kind of work) but to get out of the country and disconnect from phones, work, music and everything else is a blessing.
I leave this Sunday and I’ll see all y’all in December.