Destinations and expenses…

It’s funny how my mind trips along, one thought leading to another until I arrive at some destination I didn’t even know I was travelling to. Yesterday was all about tomatoes and, through one comment or another, it got me thinking about my years in the corporate world and the freedom that an expense based lifestyle gave me at the time.

Oh, it wasn’t just the car and the free petrol, driving to Scotland or Wales for the weekend cost nothing, or the booze and the meals in Michelin star restaurants, not even the motorway services breakfasts. It was the experiences that my job and my expense account afforded me. How I wish I’d appreciated the things that 'just happened' to me more at the time. I took so much for granted, experiences that today I would view as adventures and treats.

Of course I was in the business for a long time, but these days I no longer travel to Paris for the day, take a road trip to the Mysore Palace in India, visit umpteen temples in Bangalore, spend a day on a canal barge drinking champagne in Bristol, go to the races at York, open a mission kitchen in Hyderabad, pop up to the Edinburgh Fringe, watch the Cirque du Soleil in Florida, take the lift to the top of the Empire State, Lunch in Honfleur's best fish restaurant, drink Guinness in Dublin, wander the Kennedy Space Centre, spend three cold dark nights on a small yacht in a stormy North Sea. What great times I had and all at no cost to myself. And Elvis? Well, I even managed a trip to Graceland, Memphis, all paid for on expenses.

I could go on, there was something different all the time, but I won’t.

What a life I used to lead, although - when living it - it felt like it was just all meetings, planes, and cars. Yes, what a life. I used to get paid for eating, drinking, and talking, with (working) holidays thrown in for good measure. Perhaps that was one of the reasons the company fell over, although I doubt it.

I’m not complaining about my life today, the destination I’ve arrived at isn’t too bad at all, but sometimes it can be a little samey and it leaves me wishing that I’d made more effort to savor my experiences more at the time.

Of well, at least I had the opportunity. As Elvis would have said: “Thank you very much M’am.”