Oh how work gets in the way

the red arrows 2008

This photo was taken at the Gran Prix this year. Every year I take loads of photos at the Gran Prix, mostly of the Red Arrows with the rest being of the track with the odd front or end of a car in the frame. Sadly the weather was so bad this year that the Red Arrows had to do their low level display, hence the very grey background. This year we have improved our photgraphy as our new camera can take five frames a second so now we can’t miss the car although considerable time is subsequently spent deleting the no car, front of car or rear of car shots!

I do think that work sometimes gets in the way of life. I enjoy the work I do, it is varied (to a point), has problems that need resolving and involves working with a nice bunch of people. It is not a vocation in life but it has helped pay the bills for the last ten years as well as providing some wonderful moments of satisfaction when we deliver a complete project. It can also be stressful, long hours and sometimes rather like a large and insurmountable brick wall.

I would say that food is more our vocation in life. T-W-Os Mum always used to say he would have made a great chef and our youngest son has indeed gone on to be a chef, but unless we become a business with safe and regular returns the day job will be there for a while to come.

The business provides us with an opportunity to explore new ideas and makes us work hard to deliver something others will hopefully enjoy. I am not preaching here, it really pains me every time someone eats a sample from the stall. I want them to enjoy the experience but at the same time be truthful. Not easy and a little like answering that TV famous question ‘Does my bum look big in this?’ You only want to hear one answer and yet……….

So is work less about paying the bills and more about loving what we do or is this just an ideal? Who can say and if we switched our lives to producing food would it become just another job?

I have again spent too long in the car today travelling the long and straight M4 for more than 6 hours in total which gives me too much contemplation time. Working from home tomorrow, thank goodness.