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09/16/2003 at 03:00 PM GMT

"PhD - the bane of my life...."

Tuesday morning again. Another meeting regarding my PhD. I really am in two minds about it at the moment. I originally started it way back in 1994, but I lost interest, and became really disillusioned with it all. The whole idea of restarting my PhD emerged about 8 months ago, and at the time it seemed like a good idea, but know I'm not so sure.

Its not that I'm work shy (you only have to look at this website to realise that is not the case), I'm just not sure that it fits in with my plans for my life. Shall I elaborate? Oh why not.

For a while now my wife and myself have been unhappy living in the UK. Its not the people as such, we are just generally not content with the lifestyle, the cost of houses, and the way life seems to becoming more and more cut throat. We yearn for a more simplistic way of life, back to basics etc. You may laugh but we have often thought living like Tom and Barbara Good, from the English comedy show the "Good Life" would suit us down to the ground, i.e. being self sufficient.

A few years ago I ended up being rather unwell, I won't go into the details, but suffice to say I was signed off work for several months. Almost immediately our income was reduced to a third of what it had been, and we only survived by the sheer fortune that I had taken out a payment protection policy a number of years earlier.

Despite the lack of money, we managed, and we managed incredibly well, and you know what, that was the most exciting period of my life. It sounds peverse, but knowing we had limited funds we really had to try hard to be inventive with how we spent our money, but it was really enjoyable, as you made sure you enjoyed every last penny.

I actually felt like I was "living" even though I was not well. You enjoy the small simple pleasures in life. When you are back at work (unless you truly love your job) you tend to end up spending loads more money on "things" just to distract you and cheer you up - "you deserve it" because you have to put up with all the crap at work. It seems to me that few people realise that the reason you get into debt and spend lots of money, is because you are earning money in a manner you are not enjoying. does this make sense?

One of the reasons for starting this website was because I felt that I did not want to be a "grey robot" doing nine to five to earn money that would only get squandered. I wanted to be able to earn some money doing what I enjoyed, not what I felt I had to do. OK, I've not yet got to the money making stage yet, but I'm well on the way.

Anyway suffice to say I envisage my life changing radically over the next few months / years, and all I know is it will be for the better......

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