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What do dogs DO on their day off? Can't lie around ...that's their job! George Carlin Free from work or duty... able to move with calm and grace. Suits you sir... How do you spend your leisure time? TGIF ...and a whole weekend of it rises before me - well so the theory goes. Friday started early today at Arrow Ridge a stop work meeting for teachers meant all my kids home at 12.30. So I took the opportunity to kick the learning proposal writing to touch and catch up with my neighbour for a coffee and a chat. However in the pursuit of enjoyable activities I plan a couple of hours work tommorrow creating corporate culture for a client with office interior design. And I DO have a fair bit of duty to perform with kids who need to be taxi'd to parties and cheered on from the sidelines of the mini- x mountain bike race. I plan to move through it all with calm and grace, sharing with others that I'm flourishing and loving living a life loaded with leisure... and you? There is not much that I recall from my learning at school but one project in particular stands out. I can still see my artfully drawn bubble letter title page. "Leisure time and how we will spend it." The theory went that by the time I reached adulthood the world would be such a different place that endless hours of leisure would fill my world. And unless I learnt to capture the void and have a handy check list of activities with which to fill it I would surely fail. What fun it was to sit and daydream about the many hobbies, crafts, sports and pass times I would have to learn to engage in. To look at the skills required , tools I'd need and venues that I was sure to frequent. Ten minutes ago my middle child complained that she is bored. It's 3pm Friday afternoon the sun is shining we have the neighbours children here , the pool is open, the tennis court vacant. The baby chickens are looking way too cute and fluffy peeping for attention. There is art and craft materials, cookies to bake the TV is on and ALL devices are full charged. Short of hiring a performing artist and a bouncy castle I had to give my "learn to enjoy your own company" lecture. To encourage her to revel in the moment and relax. To look up and out, or within and about. To find the spark of fun and DO anything you want at all! We have acknowledged recently how precious our weekends as a family are. The engineer away most of the week and each day at Arrow Ridge a juggle of what to DO. Queenstown has the luxury of being a 365 day a year opportunity. Many of us are not religious about what days we worship the leisure gods. Our free time may be weather dependent, dictated by a rotating roster and seasonal. Ask many in this town when their next day off is at the moment and they hopefully suggest they may just fit one in during May. So leisure time may be nabbed in the moment. An alpha nap parked on the side of the road between the supermarket and your next appointment. Time on facebook late at night or maybe lunch with a friend who can almost be called a client if anyone from work sees you out. Then there are those professional pleasure seekers. Who have crafted a life out of leisure pursuits and have turned work into fun and fun into work. We are surrounded by them here, the skygods and snow gods. Those who fly and drink redbull as a diet staple. They wear the brands of sponsors who pay them to have fun and inspire the rest of us to get up off the swivel chair, spend back to back winters - though I fail to see the fun in that. They are adept at doing what ever it is they D.A.R.E to DO. But then is it leisure? What do they DO in their time off? Do they dress down, lie down or act down and out? One of my besties was delivered the pick up line - "Sooo...what do you DO?" "I'm a student." Being 40 something and gorgeous the reply though she is studying law was... "No your not" - "yes I am" - " No your not" - "yes I am" " No your not..." "Ok I'm not." "See I knew you weren't... who are you married to?" "I'm not"... "yes you are"... "No...I'm not"... "yes you are"... "Actually I'm not"... Yes... - you get the drift. What do you DO then...? "Well...Ok, I'm a princess, I live in a big house on a hill, I'm a princess. I have a tatoo of a heart on my arm with my daddy's name through it. My daddy's the maharajah and I'm a princess - I don't have to DO anything." Surely a princess lives a life of leisure, right? I hope she pops in when she has finished work. The real problem of leisure time is how to keep others from using yours. ~Arthur Lacey
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