I'm blaming it on life this time. Life has just...got in the way. Incidentally, life has been mostly brilliant in that time, consisting of birthdays, festivals, holidays and more drunken nights than I would care to reveal here in case my family and friends attempt an intervention. I've managed to sell my mother's house too, a process which has proved to be startlingly significant in helping me 'move on'.
I've a genuine feeling that a new chapter has begun. Which is what has led me back to the blog.
I've looked back over most of the posts and what strikes me, other than the occasional embarrassing lapse in grammar and punctuation (why didn't you tell me?), is how detailed a record of my life this can actually be. I'm not just talking about the big events either. What got me most were the stories about the most mundane of things, like having strange dreams, driving vans, dealing with hangovers and going to the circus. As memories were instantly sparked back to life, I found myself feeling so pleased that I'd made even the smallest note of them.
However, in January I'm going to be doing something so potentially life-changing that it scares me a little every time I think about it. Actually, it scares me a lot. I've decided to take a career break and will be spending the first three months of 2011 volunteering at a vervet monkey foundation in South Africa. I'll be responsible for the care, feeding and reintroduction of baby vervets and will then get the chance to monitor and observe their behaviour in the wild. I'm scared because this will be unlike anything I have ever done before, but for that same reason it's incredibly exciting.
You know that feeling you get when you drive through a tunnel? Exciting, isn't it? Now imagine going through that tunnel and suddenly realising that Stephen Hawking is in charge of the wheel. Then, you look over your shoulder and see Hitler and Pol Pot on the back seat, playing a particularly gripping game of Travel Scrabble. That's exactly the mixture of excitement and fear I'm going through.
I've had waves of doubt about whether I'm doing the right thing, whether this is just a way of avoiding making any serious career decision for a few months, but my friends and family have done their usual amazing trick of making me see sense. This is an incredible opportunity that will eat away at me for the rest of my days should I not take it. Plus, I've already booked the flights so I'm pretty much screwed if I don't go now.
Obviously I'm going to want to write about those three months, the incredible times and the mundane, so I'm getting back in to practice. I've tidied up the blog, resigned myself to the fact that I'm simply unable to look good in a photo and, so serious am I about this, I've even tweaked the colour scheme. I know.
After five months of inactivity this frankly average post has taken it out of me, so I'm going to sign off with this video of a baby monkey riding on a pig. It's sort of relevant and also means I can practice my video embedding. Enjoy.
3 comments:
Hi Tim,
I read this, over the phone, to Ann in Cardiff yesterday.
I told her you were a bit of a whizz with words and techno stuff and would be writing regularly on here and keeping us all informed about what you are doing in South Africa with photos and videos etc. So, you HAVE to do it now because she is getting all excited about being 'in on the action' with the rest of us.
If you don't happen to speak to Ann during the course of your Radio Bristol work, perhaps you could maybe give her a call before you set off. She'd like that I'm sure.
Take Care,
Dave
P.S. Have you ever tried to describe the scene where a baby monkey rides, facing backwards, on a pig to someone over the phone? Hilarious!
I'm sorry to hear you are leaving Bristol for a while but it does sound like a wonderful thing to do. I like the Monkey on a Pig song and video. More please.
Difficult as this is to believe, I've only just witnessed the baby monkey riding on a pig. Amazing. X
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