New office in the Roman ruins
New address some 62 km from Rome, where the eternal struggle begins again: how to keep an adequate working schedule when there is so much new to see. My five rules for getting it done.
It’s 05.53 in the morning. The sun is rising behind the vines and olive trees. The temperature here is 13 degrees Celsius, but the Nescafe is warm. And a lizard is sunning itself on the stones a little off.
The dog is struggling with some hard life choices: sit or sleep?
We have now moved 591 km from Tarzo in the North down towards Rome, outside a little village called Monteleone Sabino. And as of right now my office has taken refuge outside on the veranda for a little while.
I love these quiet moments in the morning. It’s not that I get a lot more done, although I am writing these words to you. I am trying to build new routines, a constant struggle for me in our new way of life. I will get back to that in a few paragraphs.
Whatever marble from the Roman ruins
The Mastiff, Aunt Emma, have finally made her decision to sit, at least for the time being. It’s all new to her. The house is small, but the grounds are larger than she is used to from both Tarzo, where she couldn’t run free.
Cherry and olive trees dominate the area, and the family that rents out the place, have said that Aunt Emma can run free, if she stays away from the mansion down the dirt road. When I say mansion, it’s not that far off. It is a three-story imposing building with a large swimming pool and compared to our ours a very manicured garden.
When the family doesn’t use it in the weekends, they rent out for something like 10.000 euro a month (my wife checked). In comparison, we pay about 1.406 euros a month for the villa that we are occupying for the next three months. The grounds are far from that well-kept, but it has the view, Roman remains and sun from morning till evening.
This house is like many older Italian country house built from stones and mortar seemingly slapped together using the available stones around. That also includes whatever marble from the Roman ruins in the area. Just a minute down the road a Roman amphitheater is still being used by the locals for concerts and the like, our landlord told us.
It has a large living room with a fireplace, which my wife adores. The kitchen is a little rustic, but it works after my wife went through it with brushes and disinfectant. German style.
On the ground level there is a shower and there is one bathroom more on the upper level. There we also have our sleeping room and a guest room that we have turned in to my office. And most important for a house out in the country it has an adequate internet connection, some 10 Mbps download and 18,8 Mbps upload out here on the veranda with half a meter of stone walls between me and the Wi-Fi connection. So that’s all good.
How to maintain the routines slash discipline
And that brings me to the importance of building new routines.
Maybe because I am easily tempted, I find it hard to get on with the daily chores, before I have lost interest or have sidetracked too much. On the first morning my wife and I spent some hours in the morning sun just taking the view of the hills and the distant village and laughing at my inability to muster some discipline. I hope that I am now getting back in the so important rhythm of everyday work, where I get up between 05.30 and six, let the dog out, make the coffee and start working.
And it might be boring, but for me it’s a constant challenge to build up and maintain the routines slash discipline, when we every two or three months are moving house (and office). And with every move comes a vast host of new adventures and sights to explore. Yes, yes, I know how pathetic it sounds. Here, I am whining about living about living the life that we set out to live. Like the proverb, be careful what you wish for, you might just get it.
But it’s not like that. I am happy so far about the first months in Italy, but I have not embarked on months of unending Aperol Spritz, Pinot Grigio and espresso. In my age turning ever closer to the big 6-0 that would probably hit my off switch faster than the smokes I quit years ago.
So how to do it?
Well for me, it must involve starting early in the morning. My very smart ex-wife number one (everyone should have an ex-wife like her. She is great) once told me that most people are the most productive in the morning. From then on it almost always goes downhill with energy and concentration. So, I am following her advice and try to start with the heavy work tasks as early as possible and leave not so essential e-mails and phone calls for later in the day. Of course, this is not carved in marble. There are customers that need a status report in the morning and that won’t kill me, but they are and should be the exceptions.
So, my rules or aspirations for getting the work done and my conscience clean, are as follows:
1. Get up early every day including weekend. Between 05.30 and six will do it.
2. Get the coffee going and let the dog out to do her business.
3. Around 06.15 the work should start. I fire off the essential e-mails and get on with the heavy lifting of the day. And I really try not to get sidetracked (does not always work but I try to make an effort)
4. Take a break when my wife gets up so around eight or nine(ish). Make some fresh coffee for her and have nice chat, or just be a little quiet together.
5. Off to the races again until around 12-14 o’clock.
What happens after that should be a little freer. If there is a lot to do, articles to write and people to phone, Zoom or something like that, then that must be done.
But otherwise, we can do, what seems nice or inviting. What my wife does with her time and energy, I will only say this. She too is writing on her take on all of it. I have not read it and I will not spoil it by telling, what I have heard.
Anyway, let’s see, if it all fits here in these new surroundings. I will get back to on that.
An apologetic side note
Now why am I writing this in English and not in Danish or German, you might wonder. The answer to that is we have family and friends on both sides of the German-Danish border and in a few other countries, so English seems the right choice (even though I am so very far from mastering this language well enough, for which I apologize in advance). And that means that I sometimes (most of the times) go back and edit and add content, if I find mistakes (many) and remember something that might be relevant.
A practical side note
Our plan is to post content every week, at least one article every weekend, hopefully more, as we learn new lessons in how to live this new and for us different life. There will be many dos and (surely) don’ts as we progress. I will also explain in more detail, how we prepared us for this next step in our lives together, as it took a lot of work and endless evenings discussing all sorts of challenges and dreams.
Of course, we will also publish, when we find new places, sights and other things that leave an impression on us. Hopefully that will leave you with a list of this to do or don’t do if you pass by here or if you also want to try something like this. Now the plan is soon as possible to build an app, so you easily can do that. With my limited technical abilities, we need to finance that and other expenses, so in due time we will charge a tiny sum for this content.