· 3 min read

Aside from work, what do you do?

Whenever I hear someone asked “So aside from work, what do you do?” I cower. This question fills me with dread. Not that I get asked it that often. It is just that momentary panic. Trying to come up with two or three things I have done recently that could be interesting. In short, I spend far too much time working. Working at work, working at home, early, late and the bits between.

One of the many benefits of loving what you do is the fact the time can run away with you. All that time getting one small feature working. Thinking nothing of spending six hours of your weekend on it, and when I’m done, celebrating like a fool.

It’s great! How many people mean it when they say that they love their job. I’m not saying this is a permanent love affair. There are times that enthusiasm drops. Getting up in the morning is a little more difficult than usual but rarely is it the fault of the work. It makes life so much easier, and with my work being so versatile I often find a side project to work on once I am at home. Weekends are often spent on my various side projects that I never seem to finish. With the moments in-between either on the PS4, or launching my own Space Flights in KSP.

Yet, as much as I do work, there is life beyond the office so I’m told. So what do I want to change, if not my job? Just three things.

Lifestyle

I’m lazy. That needs to change. My diet and everything around the whole health side of life, for me, is a shambles. I’m 70% certain that my habit of a Berocca a day is the only thing keeping me upright. That needs to change. It’s not that I don’t want to improve. It is just making those small incremental changes necessary. Moving away from my current fitness status of: All the gear, no idea.

Read More

I have never been much of a bookworm. I think the idea of owning book has more of an impact on me than actually reading them. I have a pile of books that I have bought and never picked up. One book, “Thinking Fast, and Slow” which has become my book of choice for train journeys. Its heavy stuff, but I would recommend it. All about the two systems of the brain and why people react to different stimuli in different ways. Anyway, I digress. My mission, if I choose to accept it, is to try and finish a book a month. In no particular order, the titles I’ll be starting with include:

Learn a New Language

If I pull this one off I will be rather impressed with myself. I took GCSE Spanish many moons ago when I was at school but at the time, like many other things, I took it for granted. I did not appreciate it much or understood what a benefit it would be. But now I feel the need to be able to say more than “french fries” and “library”. No idea where to start with this one but will wait and see.