I had a week off work last week, and much needed it was too. Not that I do a stressful job or anything - far from it in fact - it's just that we've been a bit short handed lately and with the knowledge that I have to get some spreadsheets in place later in the summer it felt like I wasn't moving forward.
Anyway, it was a nice break, in some ways nicer because by fiancee was feeling unwell and as such we didn't really do much. It was a week of reading books, listening to the radio and marking the time of day with meals, with a brief excursion to the registry office to register our intent to get married.
After somewhat withdrawing from the world for a few days you get to realise that you don't miss it at all. One of the hardest things as a human being at the moment is reconciling your own personal life and all the things that matter to you with the world as a whole and how that may or may not affect someone in a small village on Kiribati. And what is hardest is knowing how little control you have over it.
For all our democracy we still only have a faint say in who even runs the country, and how they then act afterwards is completely beyond our control for five years, until we get a faint say again. So by the time their actions, combined with the actions of other leaders and other countries, affects that person on Kiribati we have lost all control and influence. But then the media portray that it's all our fault, and if we just buy a different shampoo then it'll all be well.
Well, maybe I'm being a bit over the top, but you get the point.
What I'm trying to say really is that when you get away from all the 'stuff' that floats around in the world, you begin to realise what is actually important; It's the people you care about, a roof over your head and some good food in your belly. It just gets you wishing for an isolated cottage somewhere with a bit of land to grow vegetables, a fruit tree, a handful of chickens and a couple of sheep; At least it does in my dream world.
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