Vancouver Day 0

Can't believe I woke up in London and will be going to sleep in Vancouver. Rebecca and I travelled 4700 miles today over 12ish hours, 1 bus, 3 metro trains, 2 planes and 1 of them little runway bus things they always fit too many people onto. We did a brief change at Reykjavik, alas, not long enough to see the Northern Lights, nor long enough to really warrent going in the country's gift shop (I mean we did anyway). I packed my Kindle with a 800 page book loaded up, I locked in pretty hard on the flight and already took a big chunk of it out. We arrived in Canada feeling somewhere between jetlagged and jazzed. We checked into our Air B&B and took a stroll up our high street. A late night pizza filled our bellies and now we're ready to hit the hay.

We did just travel 4700 miles after all... 

Packing Light as a Feather

The final push before the big holiday. Rebecca and I have checked if we have our passport two dozen times already, you know, just to make sure. Aside from clothes and toiletries, the only fun things I'm packing is my notebook, my kindle a d a very small Gameboy/emulator device. Bag feels approximately light and I'm ready to roll onto that plane tomorrow.

Before all that though I waltzed up to meet Louis to discuss his new game. I read his script and we went through the beats, blow by blow. It was a really positive meeting I thought, good to share notes and to hopefully be of some good use to him. 

Emergency Packing

The most stressful part of going on holiday is emergency purchasing all the bits you need. I've told everyone I'm packing light for this holiday which is still technically true, but now I have a sleep mask, ear plugs, portable lunch box... Basically a lot of extraneous stuff I hadn't fully factored in. But I got it all now, all that's left to do is cram it all into a bag.

Script Nodding

Still chipping away at some of the residual work that creeps in at the end of a big job. But in between that I had a superb day in. I read the script for Louis' new game which is in a much better place than he lead me to believe. I'm writing up my notes on it all now to hand over soon. I needed to catch up a bit on my movie watching quota so I caught It Was Just an Accident on Mubi which was well worth my time. While Rebecca was out doing yoga I headed to the digital mines and hung out with a few chums online. 

Now that I'm unemployed, I don't know how I'd ever find the time to do my job! 

D&D

I put the F in Funemployment this afternoon. I drummed up some enthusiasm for a cowboy themed Dungeons and Dragons campaign that I've been working on for the last couple of days. Working on it was like cramming for an exam, I did my best to flesh out the world and the people, I prepped answers for any rouge question and planned rewards and outcomes for any scenario. My over-worrying paid off though, I sat down with my old coworkers (who are out of work now, just like me) and we had a whale of a time playing through my little scenario. I mentally locked in, and before I looked up from my various notebooks I noticed that three hours had gone by. My first every lengthy TTRPG campaign completed!

Opportunity comes with Freedom

First day of freedom! Aside from the stint of work I did this morning to mop up my lingering to do list. I suspect there'll be a few more odd jobs and bills to settle as the dust settles, but I'll take those as they come. In the meantime, I noticed just how content I felt. The days are getting longer, my obligations are only to myself and the horizon ahead feels vast in an inspiring way. I've got a small hit list of activities to crack on with before my holidays, the most important being having Dan over for some games. So I messaged him out the blue with the offer of dinner and beers but he honestly didn't need persuading because we had a great time hanging out in the evening. 

Mr Popular

Took our guests up to North Street where I was spotted by not one, but two other groups of friends. My network of Bristol people is clearly growing, nice to know that there's a small chance of always bumping into a familiar face. Rebecca and I bid our guests farewell as the Sunday scaries started to set in.

I mean, they should have done, but I'm free as a bird! Monday tomorrow will just be an extension of the weekend, no obligations, no stresses, no income... But I'll be more than fine til the next one rolls along, just got to enjoy the time I got, it'll be over before I know it.