The unplanned plan

I decided to leave Mind Candy, it's an idea that had been swirling around my head for a while, but it was also one I didn't forsee being expedited such as it was. I announced my decision at the end of summer and then two months later, I was out and free, and also jobless.

Being in full time employment has been my default for what feels like a long time. Yeah, I've taken time off in between jobs but never more than a week or three. But handing in my notice, I was feeling burned out and unwilling to rush into the next thing. I decided to take some time out, enjoy unemployment and the opportunities it would bring.

I faced the usual questions from friends and colleagues about my plans, the official line was that I'd be working on my own projects, but it was also a time to relax, recover and just start enjoying life again.

The first week out of employment was a holiday, the required do-nothing break. Still at home, but with writing software postponed in favor of running, cooking, reading and simply doing nothing. After that I begun work on a new project, one that I'd been planning for a while but hadn't had the time to make an impact. Maybe I'll provide more details in another post one day.

Diversion 1: Cooking

Out of employment I spent a lot of time cooking. Previously my style had been far on the un side of healthy (eating dinner in the office, grabbing something quick or ordering a pizza on my journey home, drinking beer and pretending it was a meal), but now I had time to dedicate to cooking and I was going to take it. It wasn't all healthy (I made a lot of pies), but it was all much more natural and "known" food.

I spent a few weeks working on the new project, for maybe three or four days a week and somewhere between three and eighteen hours per day. The mean hours per day was intended to be low but I occasionally missed that intention.

Diversion 2: London

London is expensive. I knew that already of course, but without money coming in I started to become much more aware of what I was paying to live in the shared house I was in and the city that I was in.

The planned plan

I decided to leave London. But I hadn't decided where exactly to leave to yet, I considered some other cities in the UK but then ruled them out, then other cities in Europe and ruled those out too. Casting my thoughts a bit wider, I started to look at Buenos Aires, I had heard about BA's burgeoning tech scene and it appeared to be a good fit.

But then, I thought a bit more, and why go to one place when I can go to many? And soon after I booked a flight to Bogota, Colombia. I didn't have much knowledge of Colombia, just a plan to turn up and discover it. And then a greater plan to head south.

My intentions now are to spend split between travel and work, ~one month traveling, then one month stationary and then repeat, until the end. As I write this I'm a few days from leaving Colombia, I have an apartment booked in Quito, Ecuador right by a 5.5 km² park and just in time for Christmas, New Years and a month of coding, cooking and running.

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