Fat, Fired and not Forty

I have recently reconnected with a high school friends.  We were estranged after she came out of the closet of gayness. We were estranged not because she was gay but because of the *lady she had come out of the closet to be gay with.  *By lady I mean girl, we later found out that she was a lot younger than we thought- but legal, I want to make it very clear that she was very much of a legal age. Further to this, by my friends accounts of her actions and not by my personal experience, it would seem to be a stretch to refer to her as a lady in any sense of the word.

Fair enough, I respect people prioritising romantic love over friendship, in fact I am very very guilty of it myself. So I got on with my life and she got on with hers.

We re-connected during the time directly after their final break up.

While helping my friend throw out the ex's residual belongings I came across the book "Fat, Forty and Fired".  It had a very simple, not so eye catching blue cover with the silhouette of a slouching,  pot bellied man standing sideways. I was lucky enough to catch a glimpse at the title while thumbing my way through the book that was next to it on the shelf.

My friend yelled in from another room, "Take whichever books you like, as many as you like".

Having recently finished up a contract (currently happily not working, by choice), finding that I had put on over 25 kilos in the last year or so (maybe 30 kilos) and heading further into my thirties than I'd care to admit, the title of the book resonated with me.

I picked it up, turned it over, resisted reading the last page (which has become a bad habit-I want to know that the story / book that I am about to invest my time into has a worthwhile ending) and read the blurb.  My heart pounded as the words.  The author, Nigel Marsh, had decided to take a year out of the rat race after being retrenched to actually live.  I could not believe how serendipitous finding Mr Marsh' book was. More about Mr Marsh later.

In the weeks leading up to this moment  I had been toying with the idea of travelling or starting a business like I'd always wanted or finally finishing my study.  My partner, my mother and acquaintances had been looking at me funny when I explained that I was not sure that I wanted to go back to work, I had the feeling they thought that I could not find work.  My partner, understandably, wanted me to start earning some dollars asap.  He explained that although my bank balance was healthy at the moment it was very quickly being spent.  I was beginning to think that he had a point, Until. This. Book.