West Afloat

The snow has disappeared this week to be replaced by the wind and the rain, storm Eric I believe it is being called. Wind speeds of 50mph+ , no real drama on land unless you are caught out by flying debris or falling branches. But on the sea this is serious weather, up to a Gale Force 9 possibly Storm Force 10. My mind flips forward that in a short space of time time this could be me dancing in the rain on the sea in this type of weather learning the hard way of heavy weather sailing. Now I accept it’s all part of the learning process to become an Offshore Yachtmaster but the stomach does start to churn and the mind plays the ‘what if’ scenarios of the dangers of the sea , perhaps that commute into London every day isn’t so bad after all !. On the balance of it, I can’t wait to stop commuting in and out of London, door to desk its about 1.5hrs each way after you factor in the drive, parking, waiting , walking from the platform and thats on a good day, thanks to TFL that rarely happens ! Other than being able to read the paper on the train and having 35mins to myself, I can’t think of anymore advantages to working in London unless you want to hit the bars and pubs every night but then you still have the troubles of getting home and the risk of waking up in Banbury after missing your stop is no fun at all (I know from extensive experience!)

I want to enjoy the last few weeks working in London though, I am cutting back on my time in the office as its becoming increasingly easier and more productive to work remotely in these last few weeks of corporate employment. In parallel I am trying to build a social media ecosystem of Blog, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and be able to share my journey as it unfolds. I am learning quickly thats it harder than it looks, linking together and hash tagging everywhere. I had an idea of employing my 15 year old son as a social media manager, how the times have changed where a part time job of paper round or glass collecting at the local pub has turned into managing you Dad’s social presence, sadly he declined, not cool enough so I go it alone…the aim now is to have more followers than him…Dad revenge, nothing sweeter !

This weekend brings a homecoming back to Poole for my sister’s 40th birthday party, (had to get that in so no hiding from her real age anymore). Apart from the birthday party, the real look forward is to catch up with old school friends who we have all known each other for over 30 years now, always great fun and a memorable occasion. Apart from the further grey hairs or loss of hair, none of us have really changed and we have great fun together and I salute both Gary and Mark for the great friendship and memories we make and have created over the years. See you tonight boys, dancing in the rain !