Time In
Do you have hearth-and-home holidays?
As Easter and Anzac Day coincide, Fonnie’s taking three annual leave days for ten days off in a row.
We both sorely need this break, but we’re not going anywhere.
We’re spending our holiday at home.
How about you?
Freedom
We’re so knackered from early starts, long days, big projects and weekend work, we need every one of these days to rest.
We don’t want to waste two days travelling.
Nor do we seek punch-ups with travel agents, airport officials, resort owners or other uncaring service providers.
The money we could spend on air fares and accommodation will go to debt reduction and rare treats.
We’re going to enjoy our home, our pets, our city and our state.
- A picnic in the park.
- A special dinner.
- A visit to the hairdresser.
- The museum.
- A play.
- Long lunches.
- Sleep-ins.
- DVDs by the fire.
We can’t wait!
It’s said that the less you need, the richer you are.
So I guess you could call this a get-rich-quick scheme.
By scaling down our ambitions and enjoying what we have, we hope this will be one of our best holidays ever.
But there’s a threat.
Working Holiday
From our couch, we can clearly see all that needs to be done to the house and garden.
Painting. Weeding. Scrubbing. Maintenance. Repairs. And more.
Then there’s two PC portals to our respective work worlds.
The temptation to check in may be too great.
And if the phone rings with urgent business, how can we say no?
It’s going to be an interesting exercise.
As post-GFC domestic saving reaches new heights, I wonder if others are doing likewise.
Your Time
What are you doing this Easter?
Are you:
- Off or on?
- Here or there?
- In or out?
Tell us your plans, and what costs and benefits they’ll have to you and your work.
It’s time!
Paul Hassing, Founder & Senior Writer, The Feisty Empire
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Coming off the back of a super busy international and domestic travel schedule I completely buggered and looking forward to the break.
I’m heading to my parent’s place at Porepunkah (just outside Bright) with my family and my brothers and their families. Mum loves to cook and we drink much red wine and talk of days past and laugh a lot.
The kids ride bikes, paddle in the river and annoy grandpa.We sit in the sun and read books and enjoy open fires at night. The boys head to town and hit the pub for a good time – the three of us act 18 again.
It’s a family tradition and I’m yet to miss an Easter in this fine part of the world. I relax as soon as I get there. An added benefit is there’s no mobile or wireless internet connection at my parent’s property. A brief reprise from a busy life, guilt free.
I’m also taking a couple of extra days and looking forward to it!
Sounds real good, Malcolm. I could see the pictures as you painted them. I hope you have a ripper break. Thank you very much for sharing your vision of a good time.
I’ll be taking a leaf out of your book and staying home with my husband. We both work in small businesses which require a lot of time and energy and at this stage we are both mentally exhausted.
I intend to sleep late, run with my dog, spend time with my mum (who has recently been diagnosed with cancer) and read “fluff” instead of the huge stack of business books piling up on my bedside table.
Looking forward to it!
Thank you, Louisa, for your generous, bittersweet comment. I hope you enjoy your rest and that your mum recovers. I’ve been down that rocky road, so I empathise with your situation. Best regards, P.
Enjoy your break Paul! It’s important to step away and take a break.
That’s a beautiful area Malcolm. We’ve stayed a few times at the Buckland Studio Retreat and love the area. It’s so relaxing. Enjoy!
Jason and I are staying home and seeing family for Easter, with a wedding thrown in on Monday (not ours!).
The Small Business Owner blog will also take an Easter break… and will be back on Thursday 28 April.
Have a fabulous Easter break everyone!
Onya, Naomi; catch you on the flip!
My Easter will be spent traversing the state catching up with friends and family that I’ve been neglecting of late – this will no doubt be interspersed with email and SM checks though..
Enjoy the break Paul – if you have any accidents in the house remember to use your own doctor..
Thank you kindly, Daniel. That’s very wise advice! Have a good one!
I’m a great purporter of being a tourist on your home turf -
It always makes me laugh how while we’re saving to visit over ‘there’, they’re saving to ‘visit over ‘here’!!
Local Museums are brilliant and in Melbourne…??? *rolls eyes*
Beaches *hmmmmph*
Parks *mmmmm*
Its all you on your doorstep – What an opportunity to explore your city through the eyes of a tourist and through the lens of your camera
And if you DARE to reply to this before next Wednesday… ‘Off with his head” ROFL
I am on on on. Twitter is on for the long weekend. My weekly blog post has still to be completed and on a Thursday night I am posting on your blog.
In between the work, play with the kids and the religious events that the family will follow there will also be time for a little rest, but only a very little.
Hi, Linda. It’s the first day of my holiday and I’m up at 6.10 am.
I woke up at bang-on the usual time. Don’t you hate that?! Rather than stare into the darkness and disturb my wife, I’ve come to chat with you.
I’m hoping I’ll unwind in coming days. While I’ve got you, what are YOU doing, given you’re such a traveller?
Thanks for letting us know your plans, Arthur. I try to keep a few pre-written blog posts up my sleeve for times like this. But I find that if you write too far ahead, you become less topical. I hope you get a bit of a breather between your listed tasks. Best regards, P.
Morning Paul, I am up at 6 am too. Great time to knock a few tasks off.
Morning, Mate. Sure is quiet!
Enjoy your time in Paul. I call this essential self care.
I am having an unhurried catch up weekend. And have a one day workshop over the Easter Break.
I managed to get away last weekend to Mt Barney about 90 minutes out of Brisbane. – Absolutley glorious. I am going to run my next wellness retreat there later this year.
Great to hear from you, Ensha. Is your workshop fully booked? Or do you have a link for latecomers?
Mostly pottering, catching up with friends and (selected) family, sorting clothes and doing some gardening. I hope you don’t read this til Wednesday!
Happy Easter
hElo thIss is GraHAM pauls’ dogie. tankyu fur YOur com3ntT. G.
Our natural time-clocks can be a bit of a bain, can’t they!
I did read your post about are you a night owl or a morning lark?
I’m the night owl and my husband is the lark, to the point on occasions I’ve fallen into bed in the early hours as he’s getting up LOL
Re the break, we have visitors from Europe coming so we’ll definitely be viewing our locality through tourist eyes – enjoying the mangroves, turtles, dolphins, and a spin in the tinny, which looking at the forecast I fear may require sou’westers
But before they come, I’ll be doing some catch-up work – It feels quite different ‘working’ on public holidays, which I like!
Thank you very much for illuminating your world for us, Linda. I enjoy these snapshots and greatly appreciate your contributions.
Here is the link to the Level 1 Pellowah Workshop, it is on Monday the 25th. http://bit.ly/hVZjTp
Nice one, Ensha. Just the ticket!
What Linda said. Be a tourist in your own local area and you’ll be surprised at what is available to you.
My highest priority plans this weekend involved a massive hardware upgrade to my website hosting server. Why did it happen this weekend? Because of the holiday and the knowledge that most, if not all, of my hosted clients would actually be enjoying their time off. Even though an email message was sent mid-week notifying them of the impending down time I’d bet none of them noticed their website and email was unavailable for roughly 20 minutes.
Now I’m spending Easter Sunday ensuring the “rough edges” of the new server have been polished off. Again, because I know the server can be rebooted without any of my clients noticing the downtime. When Tuesday morning rolls around, if they hadn’t already been told, my clients wouldn’t know anything had happened to their service.
The rest of my holiday weekend will be spent unpacking boxes and settling down into our new house. My office was the first room that got ‘installed’, then the kitchen, then the bedroom. The garage, lounge, dining and misc. other areas still need to be tamed.
What a fantastic report, Zoe. I didn’t know you did the tech end to that extent. You sure sound like a person who’s really taking command of their affairs. Many thanks for your fascinating snapshot.
Paul, my pedigree is in Network and Systems Engineering and have 13 years of experience planning, implementing and supporting massive LAN/WAN’s. My (American University supplied) Bachelors in Computer Science meant nothing to Australia’s rural small businesses. Lacking employment that fully engaged me I turned what was then my hobby, website design and development, into my now thriving business. Because of my extensive technical background I provide my clients with service and expertise above and beyond their expectations as their web developer and web hosting provider.
Strike a light, Zoe! That’s a VERY impressive pedigree. No wonder your clients rave! When can we get a guest post from YOU!?
This is a fantastic blog post, Paul, and I totally agree with you. My Husband and I made the decision to NOT go on on any holidays for the next few years but instead take the time to truly get to know our wonderful State instead. We made a ‘wish list’ of things we each want to see, & are doing ‘day trips’ discovering hidden gems neither of us had even thought existed. This is great fun, saves us $, reduces our carbon footprint whilst contributing to our local economy, & we are learning more about our home town than we ever thought possible. The quality of our down time has actually improved as we aren’t rushing around, see more of our pet & house, & way more of each other!!
I’m thrilled to see you in here, Katica. Thanks very much for your thoughtful comment.
It’s great to see someone on the same page. And you make the excellent point about carbon footprints. It hadn’t occurred to me that I was being kind to the planet by staying put.
I hope you continue to enjoy your time in, and that we get to see you round these parts again soon. Best regards, P.
Dreadful stories like this make me glad I stayed home:
http://www.theage.com.au/travel/travel-news/thai-mystery-seven-tourists-die-after-falling-ill-20110426-1duee.html