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Off to Turkey 03-13 January
Skiing
First assignment for Fall Line ski magazine here in the UK
Jonny Richards (no relation) writing the words, me taking the pics.
Very excited
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@majorrage said in Happiness Scale:
I was todays years old when I learned you could go ski-ing in Turkey.
Let us know what it's like. Not been to Turkey before and would love to go there to do something different.
Will do
Got the title of the feature already
Turkey, It’s Not Just For Christmas
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Having travelled at least a few times a year at least, biggest happiness impact has been the Covid on international travel. I have family in NZ, inlaws in Hong Kong and love the beaches in Asia. Sigh.
We've managed to get away to Greece (2020) and Portugal (2021 with lots of testing costs) which is keeps me sane but still ...
- Hong Kong, forget it - 3 week hotel quarantine still. Crazy
- NZ - waiting for it to open up, sometime soon
- Asia ... still Covid paranoid. Thailand is pretty closed bar Phuket "sandbox". Philippines (Bohol, Boracay etc) is closed for non-residents.
Some things you just take for granted until you can't access them. I'm vaxxed, boosted but at some point the world has to deal with Covid being a reality that's not going away
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@l_n_p Yup. Oversaes travel keeps me sane and these years we are missing were the ones I was planning to do the harder travel before I enter my dotage.
If I could I would be off tomorrow irrespective of any bloody virus. It's now coming up to three years stuck in NZ and even in 2019 only had a week in the Cooks which would not have been my choice but was a family thing
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@dogmeat Yeah, lived long-term in Asia and Europe, been based in London for over a decade now ... part of my life for almost 30 years has been travel - that you can head overseas over long-weekends (city-breaks, cheap travel), summer holiday "wherever", and break up the long/dark/cold winters here too by heading somewhere sunny over the Xmas holiday if you want
Yeah it will all return over time ... but current reality is still that "the wider world" now seems smaller and a lot more inaccessible than a few years back
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I do think that where you are in life is really impactful in how this lock down shit has been. If you're in your late teens early twenties you will be missing out on some of the rites of passage which really sucks salty balls. If you're in that winding down/coming to/at retirement, it has really fucked with some important years as well. Not just in the "what can I do" scenario but also how this has affected people's earnings, business plans, exit strategies etc. No-one has had it easy, but it has fucked over some more than others.
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im not designed for summer, hanging out be able to get back to canada or japan easily and go skiing....or just sit buy a fire drinking
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@catogrande Totally - sharing from experience as my daughter had her last school year through to September here in the UK ... not just that the 2021 teens had quite a few months of on-line teaching, but the kids missed out on lots of the normal "final year" social side stuff - normal parties, school ball later in the year etc
With all the disruption there was actually far more academic pressure here - uncertainty on how they'd be assessed, schools set internal exams, more self-assessment. And then university places were tighter as many from the 2020 year before had deferred a year. Universities had to manage the admissions chaos meaning top Unis & popular areas had fewer places to offer ... many sent out their offers weeks later than normal, and were very conservative - preferred candidates from schools with proven track records etc
So some really smart kids really missed out and of course many of these have now ALSO decided to defer a year. Either because they want to re-apply, or because Unis offered them a place but only for the following academic year. Mine got what she targetted i.e. Uni and college choice but f_ck me it was a huge stress on our whole family
I have told her to have a blast and enjoy the social life her first year at Uni ... she does seem to be taking me at my word!!
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@catogrande Yup. I would dearly like to be part of the great resignation but investment return has dropped and remains uncertain and the things I want to do are limited so might as well suck it up.
Met a mate for a few beers last weekend. Known him since 2nd year at Uni so a lifetime. Always been envious as he truly loves his job. Uni Prof acknowledged globally as expert in his field with his own company for the last 25 years that allows him to monetise his expertise as well.
We only catch up a couple of times a year. Man has Covid changed his outlook on life. He is talking about walking away from his company. Effectively just seeing out current contracts and shutting the door. I thought he would put a Manager in and milk it for life. Same with Uni - he hasn't had to teach much for the last decade 'just' writes books and goes on the lecture circuit. Figured he'd keep that up as well. Certainly that was his plan 12 months ago.
Now - he wants to cash everything up and become a beach bum. He's even adopted the surfer dude look. Covid has him questioning what is important in life and he's decided work (which he always said was fun and something he'd do even if he didn't get paid) isn't of value any more.
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@dogmeat I hear that. I pulled pin on Job last year to take a time out. Have ended up contracting back to them but have decided that I would be happy earning less salary for more me time.
Looking at a job locally currently and I must admit it excite me to be getting away from massive corporate type of role to a medium less corporatie job (if I get it)
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@hooroo said in Happiness Scale:
I pulled pin on Job last year to take a time out. Have ended up contracting back to them but have decided that I would be happy earning less salary for more me time.
When I stopped commuting to the city in favour of a job <10km from home, i realised just how much time I got back, and what it was worth. Particularly as I had young children at the time.
Now with no end in sight to WFH, I'm also thinking about The Great Resignation going on around me; I'm wondering if I'm in a position to attempt what you describe: quit job, contract back. Others I know have moved out of Sydney entirely (sea change, other cities), but kept their job.
We've been up in Nelson Bay (North of Newcastle) enjoying our first family break in over 2 years.
Today we were walking around the marina, where it was warm in the sun, but perfect in the shade, with a cool breeze off the water.
In a nice bar next to the water, enjoying a cold beer, was a guy with his laptop open, doing what looked like work.
I can do everything I need for the current job remotely. My wife has a long history in healthcare management and would be able to get a job anywhere.
If only my kids had finished school...
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@nta I started contracting young at 25 purely for the money but continued it more as I found I liked the lifestyle and flexibility. I can work at 110%+ for long periods and enjoyed it - a good project can be 18-24 months (my field is corporate IT) .
Contracting let me do this, then take off 6 months to chill and travel before looking around again
Also I've taken 6 months contracts with big-corporates where I've stayed on for around 5 or more years because it all "clicked" and they had a pipeline. Medium companies can't offer this imho
But yes, contracting works best done either before the kids are at school or after they leave!
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@dogmeat said in Happiness Scale:
Now - he wants to cash everything up and become a beach bum. He's even adopted the surfer dude look. Covid has him questioning what is important in life and he's decided work (which he always said was fun and something he'd do even if he didn't get paid) isn't of value any more.
This (aside from teh surfer look) resonated. I'm rare and lucky that I have loved my profession - done right (and it usually has been), it ticks the three big job satisfaction boxes of autonomy, mastery and a sense of purpose.
But, the last two years have really had me questioning what I want to do, and if I want to continue in the field, or even in my current role. Last year I deliberately parked it as it was an unprecedented six months ... so the next few are pretty important.
Covid's crazy though, and with no international travel what the hell does retirement even look like? I've realised I'm an active relaxer, but retiring 'from' rather than 'to' fills me with deep apprehension.
So yeah, 22 is going to be interesting. A number of my mates aer going through a similar thing - can see the horizon of kids leaving home, and wondering what happens then.
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@l_n_p said in Happiness Scale:
I started contracting young at 25 purely for the money but continued it more as I found I liked the lifestyle and flexibility. I can work at 110%+ for long periods and enjoyed it - a good project can be 18-24 months (my field is corporate IT) .
Same here - now doing everything on cloud platforms and video calls makes it even easier to be remote.
The hurdle I'd have with contracting is not thinking like an FTE any more. Worry about the deadline, not what comes after. On occasions I've had to clean up behind a few contractors whose work was more stop-gap than solution, as well.
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Work has been a big struggle for me recently. I have 8 years until I have to retire. Driving in to work every day I wonder how the hell I am going to get through the next 8 hours, let alone the next 8 years. Once upon a time I looked forward to each shift.
I know there are at least a couple of posters on here that used to do the work I do so they may understand this a little, but the job has a way of sucking the life out of you. It has a way of eating it's own. You end up going home exhausted, not wanting to do anything and not wanting to make any decisions. You start seeing the 'bad' in everything and everybody. Partners start resenting you because you are not the same person.
I am lucky because Mrs Crazy does the same job as me, but many have no one to talk to who can understand, so they turn to alcohol and engage in risk taking. I have seen way too many colleagues have relationship break downs, some have killed themselves. Others have 'over reacted' at work and have faced the social isolation that comes with internal investigations.
I think the last couple of years have been harder for me because, like others have said, travel is something that I used to keep me sane.
I am in danger of wishing my life away. I can't wait for the shift to end, I can't wait for my days off, I can't wait to retire...
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@crazy-horse have you considered regulatory work or perhaps contracting or consulting related to your job? I used to work for one of NZ's biggest regulators, and police quite often made the change successfully.
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@nta said in Happiness Scale:
@l_n_p said in Happiness Scale:
I started contracting young at 25 purely for the money but continued it more as I found I liked the lifestyle and flexibility. I can work at 110%+ for long periods and enjoyed it - a good project can be 18-24 months (my field is corporate IT) .
Same here - now doing everything on cloud platforms and video calls makes it even easier to be remote.
The hurdle I'd have with contracting is not thinking like an FTE any more. Worry about the deadline, not what comes after. On occasions I've had to clean up behind a few contractors whose work was more stop-gap than solution, as well.
1000%. I went through that experience but in reverse when I went "permie" after 15 years as a contractor ... it needs a big mentality switch
Contracting => typically very much delivery-focussed and in a far narrower area i.e. I was contracting as a project manager for say 12-18 months. But it's a single project so - total delivery focus is normally key and of course you're always expendable!
Permie => suddenly dealing with the weekly 1-2-1s, dual reporting lines, annual appraisals. A lot more emphasis on strategy & planning, relationships & politics, managing the starts & ends (project building & business-as-usual continuity) - and in parallel with multiple other things - so bandwidth is key
No right or wrong - the move is definitely doable, but yes, a mentality switch is needed either way
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@godder no I haven't seriously considered any work outside the job although I have thought about it Some friends have joined the private sector and are much happier but I haven't gotten to that stage yet. I may get to that point, I don't know. Others have found different roles within the police, so that is an option. Choosing one that interests me is the hard part.
I always wanted to do what I am doing (remember when you were a kid and people would ask what you wanted to be when you grow up - I always said I wanted to be a cop). Leaving the job (or my specific role) would be a big step for me, my self identity is wrapped up in it. Despite how I feel now and what I wrote in my previous post, I know I will be devastated (not sure that's the right word) the day I walk out of the station for the final time.
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@crazy-horse Not sure your work, but I think it can happen in any field tbh
I personally feel there's a point that can hit around 50 which is way more than a mid-life crisis. It's existential and you may already know that (deep down) swapping companies or jobs isn't the answer. I DO know the exact feeling you describe btw
It can feel hard to stay stop because we're all trained be "succesful", to know what's next and have a sure plan, or to grind things out (somehow) to retirement.? Also we may have responsibilities like kids, finances etc
Sometimes simply saying that you need an open-ended "time-out" can be the hardest thing to do in life ... just my 2 cents, and kind of where I am
So - full understanding, and I wish you the best so much
Happiness Scale
