Gratitude

Day 3: What I didn’t have a year ago. Photo by Nik Shuliahin on Unsplash ** A year ago, I was in the middle of waiting to get confirmation of the offer of this job, which has led to me being out here now. Between then and now there have been dark days, thanks to the pandemic and all, but overall a year on, I’m out here, largely settled in and have the six-month milestone coming up in a month’s time. Being an expat was something on my bucket list many years ago, so finally getting to do that properly is something I am grateful for.

Day 2: A simple pleasure I am grateful for. Photo by NeONBRAND on Unsplash. \\\* Getting to attend a virtual meeting in which I had a presentation to give and it being very well received brought to mind the pleasures I have gotten in the past of being the purveyor of esoteric knowledge at times. Small but welcome pleasures.

Something I am looking forward to: By the time I finally upped sticks and headed out to SA by way of Dubai, I felt fed up to my ears with the corner of Surrey in which I had spent the past three months, looking forward to the journey that lay ahead of me. Now that I have spent four months and counting without being able to go anywhere really, the attractiveness of that place shines through and through. I am grateful to be able to call that city home. For that I am grateful, and look forward to a return there at some stage.

Day 5 of the Better Man in 30 days challenge – Cultivate Your Gratitude --- Quite a few things to be thankful for, in no particular order: Friends who consistently come through. Needing to make a significant wire transfer earlier this week, a quick call to a couple of old chums resulted in a speedy resolution. Top lads C and O. Family - warts and all. And mine, myself included, do have warts! J whose patience with my stuttering, complicated self is a refreshing breath of air; Work - and the opportunities it has presented over the last ten years and counting. A certain stint somewhere in my past still keeps opening doors. Grateful. The internet and how easily it provides solutions - stumbled on an excel tutorial on spark-lines which might have saved a side project I am working on. Not one of the things I miss about those heady Eket days it must be said. (Not so) Little children, particularly F, my friend O’s precocious daughter. Hanging with her gives me hope for the future. I am not too damaged to make a half decent dad. Success in one more exam, no lengthy post nominals to append to my name unfortunately but small steps in the right direction I think. Health - no new major scares (as far as I know). Great work conversations - currently talking an old work friend through a weighty decision. That she and I are still in contact nearly five years after we last worked together is so much more reassuring given my current work situation. And Nandos – ’nuff said.