Amazing, you would think you would get used to 180 degree turns in life in a blink of an eye, but you don’t. Especially when they are not voluntary.
My career is over with Ross engineering. A Monday morning i wake up , looking forward to the last working week of the year and to a well earned week off between Xmas and old year. Meaning, sitting in a pool with my favourite drink. Do i have a pool? Yep , i do. I got the chance to house sitting for the coming three weeks. But after the toolbox meeting that Monday morning, i was called for a private meeting. They had to let me go , was there explanation. A fancy way to say you are fucking fired. The company is struggling with hard times, and the casual people are the first one on the black list they look for. They cost nothing to kick them out. And i was one of them. So my ten years of building up a career, reputation and a higher payslip are down to the drain. After wishing them a really fucking x-mas , i walked for the last time to the gate of a ten years life.
Straight to the pool, to re memorises what just happened. It was not that i was fired , but the realty that becomes dreams again that hurt the most. I just had a good plan for the next 5 years and had made peace with it.
Being threw away couldn’t come to me at a better time. X-mas and a invoice to insulate the farm far far away were coming my way. Finding a job in those happy times where a mayor priority. Luckily i was in a small outback time, and work is always available. The second place i went to would let me start in two weeks. The new place i would go to work to was NT-link, on the outer skirts of the town. One thing less to worry about. Xmas and old year just slowly went by. A swimming pool, three dogs . two lizards and a TV screen the size of a window and netflix made sure of that. 2018, a new start , a hike with the bike for 40 minutes to go to work, and back another 50 minutes after a work day in 43 degrees. But being cast away a few times in life you learn to deal with situations and hang on to the positive side of things. The ride with the bike was the first thing i had to try to cast away myself. Luckily i started working with a company specialised in demountables and they had a few empty ones in the yard. So two weeks after, i moved in one of them. 40 minutes where reduced to 45 seconds. One problem solved. The next problem would be a bit harder. Starting again at the bottom of the financial ladder is not a problem you solve overnight Financial plans , calculations where the only thing on my mind. The good thing about working at my previous work was the financial aspect, the dream to be able to finish my little farm from the other side of the globe. That financial luxury gone , i had to reconsider all my priorities.
And the magic 50 was coming nearby and surely i felt this in every bone in my body. My mind was able somehow to stop ageing when i was 29 , but i didnt’ found the trick to do the same with my body. Working around 60 a 70 hours a week in a heat wave around 40 degrees and above is not ideal to keep the body moving in a comfortable way. Not talking about the social aspects involved of those many hours and always being in a male environment. I ‘m starting to wonder how a woman looks like, and i will certainly not talk about how a woman would feel like, and the hope to be abducted by an alien ship full of desperate woman who’s world was abandoned by male species, is a dream i let go a few years back. Definitely the scale of existence changed that day i walked into that office on that Monday morning. Another good thing that happened during those festival times was, my farm was getting insulated on the outside, and daily i could follow up the progress of the work.Trying not to think about the invoice that would follow shortly afterwards. The house was completely protected against the harsh environment of the country side in the marginal triangle of Limburg.
I’m a few weeks further now in my new life, new job and new sleeping place but what i noticed was that my mind struggles with the peak of 50. Days seems to be longer and rest less, but in reality it was the way around. Painkillers were a must in my bush kit and the heat was taking me out more then it used to be. And the urge to settle down , having an easy 40 hour week, coming home and having a play with the dog, doing a little bit of garden work, having on occasion a night out in my favourite club, or a weekend seeing my godchild annoying his mother are feeling more and more like heaven to me. But i’m determent not to make any plans now, or to think to far ahead.
Who knows which news i will be receiving after another toolbox meeting .
