Enjoying the beauty of Time

I do have to admit that I have now more time in my hands than I did back home.  There are fewer things that I “must do” and anything less means more time on my hands. 

I don’t have to worry about the everyday property management as I relinquished most of my responsibilities back home to others and anything remaining I manage virtually in front of my computer.  Work at the Cheesecake Etc. plant is now done mostly as a coach supporting the team rather than hands-on in Miami.  I hear about events back at the factory shortly after they happened or hours later if they happened when I was sleeping.   Because we are 11 hours ahead of Miami, I can address electronically any issues during my day and my replies will be there waiting when our sons back home wake up in their morning.

At “home” things are a lot easier too.  For one, we live in a slightly smaller area (2BR/2BA) but also it being a “serviced apartment” we do have a cleaning staff that shows up everyday to clean up around, fix beds, change towels and even clean the dishes if I had left a mess in the kitchen.  So even if at home I didn’t use to do that every day, still it is something that we don’t have to worry about.

I don’t have to waste time commuting as the walk to B’s work is less than a block away and food and shopping is everywhere around.  Additionally we have a shuttle bus at the hotel that takes us directly to the Sky Train station.  Taxis are abundant and economical. 

Given that I have more time on my hands, now I can focus more on looking at the finances of our business back home in more detail than before.  I can also work on my personal finances and 2012 taxes by accessing all our accounts online.

The bulk of the business accounting usually happens in the beginning part of the month so I also have more time to plan our local activities and to plan our future travel plans.  One of the opportunities of being on this part of the world is to get to know so many places that would be difficult and expensive to reach directly from our home in Miami.  Currently I’m planning a couple of trips, one is a weekend trip to the south of Thailand in a couple of weeks and the other one is going out of the country for my first visa renewal. 

Each of these trips involves a certain level of reading, online searching, planning and executing.  I have to make it so it fits our budget and to fit the way we have always liked to travel in the past.  We’re not really the type to simply “buy” an all-inclusive vacation package anywhere.  We usually do it the harder, read cheaper, way.   A lot of learning and venturing along the way.  Years ago, I remember making these long trips with a lot of unknowns as these were the days before the Internet.  Now there a lot more “knowns”  including online pictures, maps and other travelers’ reviews.  So it takes a lot more time to research and to select the best alternative.

The irony about “time” is that this is also what prisoners call their time spent in prison.  They are doing “time”.  I’m guessing that in prison, doing the time means waiting for time to pass so that they could do something else.  In my case, I’m waiting too but I can make my plans happen a lot quicker and I can choose how to spend my time. 

Ok, time is ticking.  Got to go grab some lunch!