Tag: Work

It’s just noon

It’s noon.
I have done 2.5 hours of deep, productive work.
I have run 5 miles.
I have showered, and had lunch.
I have spent half an hour hugging the boy on the sofa.

I am back at the work table for the second session.
It’s just noon.

This is turning out to be a good day. Yesterday was a good day too. Perhaps the March sadness really is behind me :)

Continue reading It’s just noon

Walk the dog…

I wake up early, make a coffee, and start working straight away. So, by 9 or 10 AM, I’ve got in 2-3 hours of work, and need a break. The dog and I go for a walk.

We return, we have breakfast, and I head up to work again. He sleeps.

After another couple of hours of focussed work, I’m in need of a break again by noon/1PM. So, unless R has already claimed it, the dog and I go for another walk.

We return, have lunch, and watch TV for a bit. Then I return to work upstairs, and he goes back to doing what he does best – sleep.

By around 6 or 7 in the evening, my head is screaming for a break again. Literally screaming – tinnitus has been getting quite bad lately. So we do whatever helps. A.k.a. the dog and I go for a walk, again.

I have always loved walking. I went for lone walks after fights with parents as a teenager. I enjoyed going for lone walks in Delhi in my early 20s – it helped living so close to Siri fort forest. I loved walking around the campus in Calcutta, and at the sea front in Bombay.

I occasionally enjoy company on my walks. I go for a daily walk with Dad when I’m in Karnal. I also enjoyed walking around with a few friends in Bombay and Calcutta. Once in a while I even enjoy having R come along for a walk.

More often, I prefer to be alone. Walks are my time to let the mind wander, or focus, or rest. Let the mind do what it wants while the legs, the lungs, and the heart get some loosening. After all most of the non-walking time is just the opposite – mind at work, everything else resting. Having company on a walk means the mind has to engage – converse, debate, listen (to remember). Not rest. Not recover.

Walking with Chewie isn’t the same. He doesn’t tax my mind too much, yet keeps my heart entertained. He loves all the tracks – muddy, sandy, gravely, boggy – that I keep exploring. He loves hills as much as I do. He enjoys exploring smells in the woods. He loves rivers and the sea. He enjoys being out and about, likely more than even me.

So, when I hit a mental road block with work, I look at him, and he’s up for it. We go for a walk.

When I’m anxious or tense, he takes me for a walk.

When I need to clear my head, or escape tension in the house, he indulges me with another walk.

I’m grateful to have him, always, on the walk.

Sometimes when I’m deep in work, when it’s -4°C and horizontal rain outside, when my body is still aching from the previous run/ride/swim/yoga, he comes and nudges my arm away from the keyboard with his nose. He wants to go for a walk.

I coddle him, delay him, curse him, plead with him. Then he wins. We go for a walk.

Continue reading Walk the dog…

Anthony Bourdain

Anthony Bourdain - on life vs lazy
Anthony Bourdain – on life vs lazy

Some people leave a mark.

I have never met Anthony. I have never seen any of his TV shows. I have just read one of his books – Kitchen Confidential. I gave it 3 stars.

And yet, I’ve found him hard to forget since I finished the book. He has a way, with words, and a personality that makes him hard to forget. He should not be likeable, it’s hard to sympathise for him, he’s often an asshole, and very much proud of it. Yet, he’s also appealing, and often, surprisingly, likeable.

I guess his charm comes from embodying the hard bits of our lives – the grime, the slime, the hard knocks, the sweat, the wrong calls – and taking them on the chin (or dishing them out), casually. Like most of us do, yet refuse to accept that we do.

There were parts of his book where I wanted to punch him in the face, and ask him to shut his hole, and write something useful. There were other parts that I didn’t want to end. And then there were a few that I bookmarked for frequent return.

He seems my kind of screwed up guy. A guy I would love to know. A guy I would even love to hate to work with.

Continue reading Anthony Bourdain

Definition: Flexible working hours

What does it mean when the job description says “flexible working hours”?

Old definition:

We, the firm, are flexible on the hours you want to work. You choose the hours you want to work, we just want the work done.

New definition1:

We want you to be flexible, to work the hours that we want. Don’t expect fixed, or predictable hours. Be ready to work when we say, for how long we say.

  1. Mostly seen in the startup and on-demand (Uber/Deliveroo) sectors. ↩

Work days, workout days, both & neither

There are days when all I want to do is workout – swim, run, ride, walk. Whatever it takes to burn some energy, and get me away from staring at the screen.

There are days when all I want to do is work – just sit in front of the screen, and crack on. Something that also gives me an excuse not to go workout.

Today is one of the latter kind of days.

Continue reading Work days, workout days, both & neither

It’s 2 minutes past midnight, and everyone has already been asleep for a while. Except me.

I had a productive day. Say down to work after breakfast, and except for a late lunch, and to pick up lil R from the station, didn’t move till dinner.

Gorda and Chewie had a good day though. They went for what looked like a happy walk in the sunshine. He got to play with his neighbourhood friend, Soham, in the evening. She got to do stuff she likes to do -clean and arrange stuff, and then chat with lil R.

I was in front of a monitor almost all this time.

Now all three are deep asleep, while I plot tomorrow’s actions. Tail runner at the Guildford parkrun in the morning. Hopefully, some Eggs Benedict for breakfast later, then a few hours of work, and maybe another run in the evening.

Given that Gorda let me work in peace all day today, it seems quite likely that I’ll get none of the above tomorrow, other than the park run. Wouldn’t be a bad day either way ☺

P.S.: just about a week remaining to Brighton Marathon, for which I’m woefully under prepared. Trying to drown myself in work, love, fights and TV to keep my mind off it 😦