Hey! Horizon! Come here!

Constantly changing. Cliches aside, it's time for a change, again.

Sorry for the lack of updates, I hope this entry will suffice. Tomorrow I set off for Cape Town in the Scooby, with a flu. Maybe I should start at the beginning.

How bad work can kill

Remember Shaun the flashy-international-traveller, and Shaun the hotshot-UI-goon? Well, he's gone for now. With all the excellent opportunities overseas, there came a price I didn't really want to pay: The Soul Destruction Tax.

I hear you asking: "Surely, when you're travelling, you enrich your soul?", and I'd have to nod and agree but that wasn't the case. When you're spending 6 out of 7 days working, and the seventh you're resting, it's hardly soul-enriching. My office had just been teleported to some fucked up island on the other side of the world. I was the solution to a problem I didn't really have the desire to solve. I was far from home, in a selfish and uncaring country feeling so lonely it even showed in my work. Most would bury themselves in their work, but I rebelled instead.

"I want to go home, I've had enough of this!"

"OK Shaun, we'll see what we can do."

2 weeks pass - nothing. A month passes, I'm finally back home. A well-deserved holiday in Cape Town, sprinkled with more work - whilst on holiday. Back to the UK. Rinse-repeat. No Bleach.

It eventually came down to me playing truant. I was sick and tired of meeting the demands of a pompous hive-watcher and his cohort of relentless beareaucrats. So I started skipping work. Not the most tactful thing to do, I admit. My bosses back home didn't really care either, as long as I was raking in the dosh, they were happy. When the dosh was missing and reputation had been thrown down the well, alarm bells rang.

One well-deserved disciplinary warning later, I was set on a new course on a new local project. But something was wrong. It was the same old shit, just back home in SA. My attitude, discipline and outlook had been riddled with bullets, Care was a wounded soldier in an unneccesary war.

I think I need some time off. And that is really starting tomorrow. Enough of this MMO crack and Same-Old-Routine™, I need big skies and fresh air.

[VNW] Where to?

A weekend in Cape Town to see Mom and Mike and possibly even go mountain biking in Stellenbosch. Then I'm back in the Scooby on Monday to find Middleburg in the Eastern Cape.

There, the co-ordinator for the Blue Cranes research project (funded by the Endangered Wildlife Trust) is waiting for me. I'm to spend 1-3 months in the Karoo, chasing Blue Cranes over farmland and grassland. Inspecting habitant and possibly even doing something about it. Meet the farmers, promote conservation efforts.

My first week will be spent inspecting and evaluating the effect of power-lines on the Cranes' habitat. After that, it's down to raw census and flock identification. You see, the Eastern Cape is like the Mecca for Blue Cranes.

Inbetween all this, I'll be staying with the Co-ordinator, Bradley and his family. I think it's an excellent opportunity to crack open the writing pad, watch the stars whizz by or just go for a spin on the Mountain Bike through farmlands.

It's all so intriguing, a chance to take myself out of the hurtful cycle and explore. I know a few people who could do with such a change too, but you can only lead a horse to water, you can't make it swim.

Au revoir!