A Long List Of Excuses

I guess I could title this list “topics you should not contemplate in public after launching your own business“, but most people do know me well enough to understand that I occasionally take off on an philosophical tangent… and that this does not stop me from working hard. I’d say that it’s just a coincident though you could argue that things usually do happen for a reason… it’s just that recently I came across a few stories of people travelling the world and particularly one couple from Argentina who went on travelling for more than 17 years in a Graham Paige from 1928 and had 4 children on the way. In their book they describe that started the journey with little preparation and only the desire to make their dream come true.

Before you ask, I’d love to travel the world and see all those marvellous places, meet people, eat street food everywhere. But their dream was their dream and my dream is my dream and it’s different. Yet, what stops me from getting me, Ana and Gabriel in the car, turn the key and set off into the sunrise?

• The obvious one: The car doesn’t drive. There’s some issue with the clutch and the engine hasn’t turned in the last 10 years. Oh, and the wiring isn’t all connected…
• 
  Another obvious one: The car has no roof and no doors. It’s just 3 metres long. It also has only 2 seats!
• 
  Here’s another classic: I don’t have enough money. You can only start an adventure like this if you have a generous financial cushion.
• 
  I have too much furniture. I like my sofa. And our lovely chest of drawers. And the rocking chair (which admittedly is in storage at the moment)
• 
  I have lots of stuff that I really grew attached to. Lots of books for example. It’s true that dropping ballast is quite liberating, but there are limits.
• 
  I have a thing about hanging pictures on the wall. It makes me feel at home.
• 
  At my age there’s comfort in getting a bit settled.
• 
  Youth hostels aren’t my thing and hotels might blow the budget. And anyway, who wants to live in hotels?
• 
  My back isn’t overly fond of camping.
• 
  Ana isn’t really fond of camping either.
• 
  We actually like cooking. I’m not talking about heating up a can of beans on a camping gas cooker, I mean properly.
• 
  I also like baking bread, it’s therapeutic. Baking bread might stretch the capabilities of a gas cooker ever so slightly.
• 
  Trecking sandals are not my style. Enough said.
• 
  No day without shower.
• 
  Gabriel is 3 years old now, so school isn’t on the agenda for 2 more years. But kindergarten is. He has been fine with Papa and Mamai so far, but give it another 6 months and he’ll have his own social agenda.
• 
  Talking about ‘social’…. in times of social media, is travelling around the world really the same as it was? Is it still the great adventure, is there still some amazing secret place to discover that isn’t overrun by instagrammers?
• 
  On the other side, the world has clearly become a more dangerous place. Just watch the news! If it’s not war or civil war it’s crime. And if it’s not crime it’s terrorism….
• 
  I’m not the biggest fan of bureaucracy and paperwork. It’s complex enough if you live a ‘normal’ life when tax returns, car registration and home content insurance are fairly straight forward. But try anything out of the ordinary, and you’ll end up inundated with forms to fill you never knew existed. How does health insurance work in this case? Car insurance? Roadside assistance? Visas?
• 
  The big ‘what if?’….What if somebody get’s sick? The wallet gets stolen? An accident happens? The oil pump breaks? The crankshaft bearing ceases?

Last but not least, I love what I’m doing. I can’t switch off my creativity. I love the industry I’m working in and I enjoy working with the people I meet through my profession, be it clients, project managers, suppliers, other designers. I enjoy the direct interaction, even in stuffy meeting rooms and with bad coffee. In our day and age, can I do my job remotely, balancing my Macbook on my knees, fast internet connection provided, sitting on a beach on the other side of the world? Forgetting about the ins and outs of video conferences, technically that shouldn’t be a problem. But seriously? No thanks.