Drifting further away from the connected world. Island time approaching.
Posted on November 12, 2010 | 4 Comments
Swimming in the cold, sulphurous water of the blue hole of Espiritu Santo, Vanuatu. A freshwater hole leading to the centre of the earth, Jules Verne style.
‘Island time’ is starting to take hold. It’s been almost three weeks since leaving my work desk in the UK and I finally feel like I am coming back down to earth. I feel like I haven’t had a proper break in a long time and I’ve been working non stop, literally falling asleep at my laptop night after night for what seems like months, not healthy. I’m the first to admit I’m always connected/addicted/obsessed with the wonderful Internet, and with the laptop, iPad and iPhone never far away it’s difficult to disconnect. I always feel there is something I need to be doing, I think being self employed does that to you – the feeling that if I don’t do it now, it’ll never get done, and if I spend just another hour working right this second, it will pay off in the long term. Many peanuts fill many sacks.
A head full of loose ends
It’s been a while since I had a ‘paid for’ 9-5 job, I’ve forgotten what it feels like to just finish at 5pm, forget work on the walk home – then get on with an evening of relaxing. Knowing that our 6 month adventure was approaching, constant thoughts in my head of getting things ’sorted’ before the off were of even more importance; tidy up my websites, tidy my blogs, sort the blogs, sort out my image archives, sort the stock photography sites out, get the licensing up to date, get the printers ready to be able to ship and fulfil orders for me without being there, etc etc. Oh and plan the trip.
Around the world in 180 days
We only booked the round the world tickets 3 weeks before we left and we had only worked out a rough itinerary a week before that. Not forgetting that we got married less than a month ago too. Good job I have an awesome wife to hold it all together. Phew.
A roller-coaster few months for sure, but we are here now – sitting in our little hotel room in the sleepy town of Luganville, Vanuatu. No ‘always connected’ internet except at the occasional internet cafe, fortunately not too far from our hotel. Close enough to ease into the island lifestyle of learning to distance myself from ‘always on’, but far enough away that my brain is starting to finally slow down.
Jules Verne & I.
I am enjoying reading fiction again, I love having the time to just read without the constant pangs of work ‘guilt’ hanging over me. Jules Verne to start proceedings, ‘Around the world in 80 days’, ‘Journey to the centre of the earth’ and ‘20,000 leagues under the sea’ have just been absorbed and loved in the last couple of weeks. Wonderful writing, and if you haven’t read them you’re truly missing out.
I forget quite how important it is to sit and reflect about your business/future plans with no distractions. I have always come up with my best ideas sitting with my feet up in a relaxed position – I just seem to forget this when back in the office. Things must change!
I’m looking forward to just working almost entirely on my travel photography, and writing content for my blog. I’m the first to admit I wasn’t born to write, but I hope some of my photography makes up for it. We are also constantly updating our personal travel blog which can be found here if you are interested – don’t worry, my wife Siobhán is writing it, so it’s much more eloquently written!
Like always, I love to hear from you, please use the comment form below. It’s much appreciated.
Further information:
Camera: Panasonic Lumix LX5, Aquapac waterproof housing.
EXIF: 24mm f/2.8 1/250th ISO 800
Location: Espiritu Santo, Vanuatu, South Pacific.
Current track: Aphex Twin, Blue Calx. Fitting!
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4 Responses to “Drifting further away from the connected world. Island time approaching.”
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Tags: blue hole - espiritu santo - south pacific - travel blog - travel photography - vanuatu
November 13th, 2010 @ 5:28 pm
Dear person type boy man thing. It’s great that you are at last relaxing into your well earned vacation in the sun. I know you love your techno, so it was probably difficult at first to not being hooked up all the time. At least you camera works without being wired to the grid, so you can spend months taking lots of fabulous pictures and honing you skills.
November 17th, 2010 @ 7:56 am
Hi Willzers! Thanks for stopping by, always appreciated
We had great fun in the wilderness, taking lots of pics – will be uploading soon hopefully.
Hope all is well with you and you are looking forward to your forthcoming travels too!
See you soon old chum,
Chris
November 18th, 2010 @ 5:39 pm
Fantastic shot and it sounds like you’re going to have a very exciting and different next few months…
November 18th, 2010 @ 10:20 pm
Thank you very much, having a great time!