Endings - and beginnings

I resigned unexpectedly from my job today.

My intention had been to go part-time from October until December (while training others to take over and also establishing a fairly steady flow of freelance editing work) and leave at the end of the year. But when I spoke to the boss about it after lunch, it turned out it wasn't that simple to create a part-time post or to find funding for another person in a post that was already occupied. And it was difficult for him to figure out a way forward until he had my decision in writing, whatever it might be. So the obvious thing seemed to be to resign (it being month-end and all, there wasn't much time to faff around).

As I drafted my notice, with a weird sense of detached calm, the cautious headvoices started trilling and yodelling that I shouldn't be too hasty. And yet I have so much freelance work piling up right now, and so little spare time after work, that it seemed irresponsible not to free up my time to meet those commitments. Wish I could do that sooner, as the tightest deadlines are looming right now, but a month's notice is required.

Reason (peering through his dark-rimmed glasses) says I'm in no position to give up the security of a full-time job at this point... but when I was praying though the idea of dropping to part-time over the past few days, my sense was that I could take the leap into the unknown and trust that I would be held and carried. And that this was not a time for calculating what might or might not be coming in in the next year or so. (The present freelance jobs are for September and October, with one possibly extending to November. Hardly a guarantee of financial security!)

Anyway, I duly handed over my letter to my somewhat surprised CEO and later went off to a party for five colleagues who all had birthdays this month. I returned home to find an email asking whether I might be interested in helping to develop some resource materials for a faith-based environmental organisation. Wow - would I! And how's that for timing! Nothing definite yet, but it looks like the kind of work I might have dreamt up if I'd allowed myself to dream. And with people I like. Yessss!
So I'm glad I took that somewhat scary leap today, because 'underneath are the everlasting arms'.

I'm grateful and excited - and must now get to work as I have several seriously heavy pages of over-writing to plough through. Deadline tomorrow!

Scooting

About thirty years ago, in those long-distant student days, I had a light blue Lambretta scooter with a large yellow delivery box on the back. It took me (and my friend Paul, usually) from the youth centre we stayed at to campus and back twice a day, and occasionally down to Durban (from Pietermaritzburg) or up to the Drakensberg (to Winterton, which was home).

That scooter gave up the ghost when I brought it down to Cape Town (by train) in 1980, and was later replaced by a Honda CG125, which served me well for quite a few years (though it did manage to dislocate and chip my kneecap once...) The Honda was passed on to a friend in the early 90s, after which I stuck with four-wheelers, pedal-power, public transport or feet.

Now the Venerable Beetle (a 1974 model with a spreading lurgy of rust) has more or less breathed its last, and would have cost twice as much to fix as I paid for it some five or six years ago. So in view of the current fuel costs and in line with my general green-consciousness (OK, and budgetary considerations too), it was time to downshift from a 1600 engine to a 110 cc motor on a Vuka scuta - bright yellow and fresh from the boat, still trailing shreds of clingwrap.

My colleagues were rather astonished to discover that I was indeed licenced to ride a motorcycle. A yellow Vuka is a pretty alternative form of "menoporsche" - but a pretty cool hemicentury present to self, I figure.

So far so good. I'm getting the feel of it again, though still a bit wobbly at times - and it takes me a while to get organised, especially when it's raining, what with rain suit, gloves, helmet, spare shoes (if trainers aren't appropriate for the occasion) and hair-dryer, if necessary. Fortunately we do have showers at work so I can sort out the 'helmet head' before important meetings!

I took it to Pinelands at lunch-time today, staying off the freeway - the yellow peril is still running in and is not meant to go faster than 50km/h for the next while. So far I've done about 50 km in total (30 of which today).
BTW, "Yellow peril" is NOT the name she'll go by; suggestions are welcome. With the big black top box on the back, The Bumblebean may work - expecially if I paint yellow stripes on the box and helmet...

Am looking forward to undertaking longer trips to the surrounding villages at weekends once work allows. Right now I'm being squeezed in a pincer-movement of deadlines (which is probably why I ran away to blog for a moment).

Viva spring, viva! And now to work.

Wordling away

I've just discovered Wordle and wordled some text from one of our office websites. So now this is an experiment to see whether I can figure out how to paste the code into a blog... here goes:

A new start

In the deep midwinter... I took a fortnight off work to "sort out my life". This includes the chaos of paperwork in my home office, a long list of minor maintenance jobs at home (sometime I may record the tale of the locksmith who stole my security gate lock...), car maintenance (more like resuscitation, truth be told - the Venerable Beetle is 34 years old and threatening to gasp her last fumes at any minute), long-postponed alterations to my favourite jeans, some furniture renovation, major decluttering & sell-off of stuff ... and general reorganisation.

Now that I've had a bit of breathing space to gain perspective, I'm horrified by the accumulated effects of too many late nights and weekends of work, and am determined not to slip back into that routine once this leave is over. And if that means changing jobs, so be it. I'm quite tempted to go back to freelance editing, with some Internet marketing to cover the gaps and provide increasing residual income. I've dabbled in more ebiz programmes than I care to remember over the past five years or so, and paid my dues in time, money and 'putting it down to experience'. But now and then one finds integrity - businesses that actually work if one puts in the necessary effort. I have one business site that has been running low-key for a few years and brings in small but welcome cheques; now I've come across a simple, sturdy venture that looks promising and is refreshingly free of hype. So that's where I've decided to invest a few hours a week as from today. Will keep you posted once I know more.

What this blog will ultimately be about, I'm not sure ... we'll see. Could be about the environment - sustainable building and agriculture are what I'd be doing if I had the wherewithall; science? (I was a physicist in my distant youth); the English language and its misuse; personal development (I'm a bit of a junkie when it comes to courses); spirituality ... or the art of decluttering. Even that sentence could do with a bit less clutter.

Anyway, enough for now - I just wanted to establish the Flagondry. (A cousin of the Flutterby.)