April 13, 2007

For When Life Fits LIIIIKKKKEEE A GLOVE….

Seriously not earning a penny of my pay at the moment - spending all day on msn with everyone, Hanh on yahoo, Lauren on Skype..... messing about with I-tunes and searching about the super dooper highway electronic communication device for new music.

The other day I did some running round with Nicole for the shop after a long lunch at cool little restaurant called Red Pepper that makes the best Piri Piri Chicken on the planet.

A bold statement - but I stand by it.

Day before I drifted off and went shopping, paid my sat.DSTV, got my car checked out, went to travel agents, filled up on petrol, got money sorted, called in at the post office, went camera hunting.... generally just took care of the little things in life rather than actually spending any time in the office earning the actual money to take care of all those little things in life.... 

Really have lost the will to work for tea and my mind is only on the future at the lake.

Last Easter Wknd was massive - think we had 150-200 people at Gecko at one point - played all night long - knocked it out the park - compared to the other places up there on the shore, we fucking owned Easter - every track played hit it’s mark and the bar and restaurant ran at full steam the whole night through without too many fuck ups.

Smiling faces everywhere.

Could of been the various cocktails of mood embellishing substances in the blood stream though.

Most importantly this time we took a hell of a lot of money over the bar - with the tabs tallied and the food & chalets taken into consideration, it was probably a 500’000kw day of things - around $3500 - for a bar in Africa that’s some serious money.

Looking around the day after I was just thinking of the future and how I want it all to start as soon as possible - and I’ve been putting a lot of thought into how soon that could be.

Original plan was December - but we have so much cooking at the moment - so much I want to get started on - so many big plans.... ahhhhh but....

I do respect the fact my current company has given me a great deal though - I won’t just hand a months notice and disappear - I’ll assist with the new guy and his training and I’ll make sure they are in a position that isn’t too stretched when I finally bail - three months notice and then extend if they need me to..... but man that is going to be a hard conversation to have - the one where I say I’m leaving after 10 years and all this experience, travel, training and trust..... however I can see clearly what the next 5 years look like and they resemble a 9-5 office based struggle with cash in a Western world and no real desire or responsibility on the job front.

Going through the motions on the conveyor belt of everyday existence.

Although I do taste tea for a living and that seems like it isn’t exactly an everyday type of job, at the end of the day it’s a commodity and bought and sold in the same kind of way as everything else - sitting in an office writing emails and making calls - many of which amount to nothing. This job comes alive when you are in the countries of origin and you have a bit of responsibility to make your own decisions - but the admin end is just as soul sucking as it is in any other walk of life.

Hell, I’ve been on auto pilot since leaving Vietnam I think.

2004.

That was the last time I felt driven and enthusiastic about the work I was doing - I recognise the same feeling inside when I think about what I’m going to do at the lake - which is how I know it is the right thing for me now.

It feels like a very long time since Vietnam and the last time I’ve felt like that.

3 or 4 years of drifting since then.

3 or 4 years of drinking seriously too.

hmmmm..... that’s another one to look at soon perhaps - the drink is flowing a little to freely at the moment - expensive tastes as well..... all the relevant whiskey I can get my grubby little hands on .... but then again, to be fair the cricket world cup is on and I have found a new love in my life - and with that comes celebration.

I think that beforehand I dismissed the sport as simply being too long drawn out and too damn fucking complicated - all those numbers and % everywhere across the bottom of the screen - no idea who is who and why they are doing what they’re doing. However now it has all opened up - it’s like I speak another language - what was once gibberish now makes perfect sense - run rates, overs, batting averages, boundaries, fours and sixes..... the game that turned me was England vs Sri Lanka - that was better than any football match I’ve seen for about 5 years or so - for it all to end on the final ball and then to find later that they only bowled 5 balls in an over instead of 6 and..... I won’t go into this too much as I am aware of the fact the majority reading are like me before I turned - cricket = boringasseddon’tgiveaflyingfuckmate.

Anyways - I love cricket now.

Although Australia do seem to take the fun out of it by being virtually indestructible and battering everyone who steps to the crease.

Hmmmm...... spoke to Lauren most of the afternoon on Skype - seems as if there was an earthquake tremor near the lake and the city of Lilongwe - Malawi being the tail end of the East African rift valley then these things happen every so often - villagers running around wailing and screaming like the sky was going to fall down apparently.

Just a tremor and a bit of shakey-shakey though.

Yuni would not be impressed after the proper real deals of Jakarta in comparison.

Merely a murmur she’d say.

Not heard from her all week - guess she’s mulling over the last mail where I mapped out the whole plan of pay and costs - what we’re going to do up at the lake if she comes - how we’ll live, what we’ll be responsible for, she wanted to know all about the little things like tv phones internet etc - what the day to day would be.

Truth is that before I just kind of looked on it like if she came it would be califragfuckinglistic, if not then it wouldn’t be the end of the world - I do appreciate her family situation over there so I knew it was no easy answer - but now we’ve made all these extra plans about the development of the business - the expansion of the bar to incorporate two more ventures, the shop and the water project taking off just now… plus a few other ideas we have cooked up - I’m really going to need her to manage to take all this on.

Hmmmm...... I think I need to call her tmw.... see how she feels about it all.

Right - home and rest - no lake, no 6am Tuska seeing the dawn in shindig, definitely no little green tablets.… and in fact no drinking this wknd.

Well, no heavy drinking this wknd.

I mean it is FA Cup Semi Final day on Sunday after all.

Spo | April 13, 2007

Spo
Location:Gecko Lounge, Cape Maclear, Malawi.

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