Hello.
I'm Carmel. This is my new blog, 'Carmel on the road', because I'm (yes, you guessed it) heading out onto the road.
This is the obligatory welcome post (well, apart from sharing this inspiring piece of Tennyson), to explain what has brought me to this place, to this moment, where I’ve felt the urge to start this record. It’s an exciting time; plans are afoot and I am looking forward to sharing them all with you. But first, a little pre-amble.
The pre-amble
Since I was 13 I’ve always been gainfully employed. It started with a paper-round; early mornings before school in snowy Yorkshire. Then aged 16 I got a Saturday job in a local newsagent where my shift started at 6am. Sometimes I'd go out to my favourite mod club, 'Brighton Beach' on a Friday night, catch the night bus home after it finished at 4am, grab some peanut butter on toast and head straight to work! I've always fitted my life around my jobs, learning to cat-nap and micro-sleep to refuel on energy. I worked all the way through university, first as a waitress and then as a bookseller. Studying for a literature degree was light on scheduled classes, heavy on reading, giving me the freedom to work almost full-time, fitting my uni work into the small hours. Upon graduating I ran an author events program at a bookshop, before finally moving to London (‘the big smoke’) to seek my fortune.
Fortune never came, of course, but a career in arts administration did, initially in arthouse film exhibition. Working up through the ranks of the British Film Institute I eventually found myself in a senior role at the London Film Festival in my mid-twenties. I worked inhuman hours, forged solid friendships with some incredible people, had a blast at the Cannes Film Festival, developed an ardent passion for the moving image.
I'm Carmel. This is my new blog, 'Carmel on the road', because I'm (yes, you guessed it) heading out onto the road.
This is the obligatory welcome post (well, apart from sharing this inspiring piece of Tennyson), to explain what has brought me to this place, to this moment, where I’ve felt the urge to start this record. It’s an exciting time; plans are afoot and I am looking forward to sharing them all with you. But first, a little pre-amble.
The pre-amble
Since I was 13 I’ve always been gainfully employed. It started with a paper-round; early mornings before school in snowy Yorkshire. Then aged 16 I got a Saturday job in a local newsagent where my shift started at 6am. Sometimes I'd go out to my favourite mod club, 'Brighton Beach' on a Friday night, catch the night bus home after it finished at 4am, grab some peanut butter on toast and head straight to work! I've always fitted my life around my jobs, learning to cat-nap and micro-sleep to refuel on energy. I worked all the way through university, first as a waitress and then as a bookseller. Studying for a literature degree was light on scheduled classes, heavy on reading, giving me the freedom to work almost full-time, fitting my uni work into the small hours. Upon graduating I ran an author events program at a bookshop, before finally moving to London (‘the big smoke’) to seek my fortune.
Fortune never came, of course, but a career in arts administration did, initially in arthouse film exhibition. Working up through the ranks of the British Film Institute I eventually found myself in a senior role at the London Film Festival in my mid-twenties. I worked inhuman hours, forged solid friendships with some incredible people, had a blast at the Cannes Film Festival, developed an ardent passion for the moving image.
Soon I wanted adventure, so took a phone interview for the equivalent role on the other side of the world. Moving to Sydney, Australia for work in 2006 didn’t feel like a risk: I had a job, even if I didn’t have anywhere to live or know a single person. I subsequently took a few stepping stones in the Sydney cultural scene and now work in the performing arts. Seven years since emigrating I have some mindbogglingly brilliant friends, a wonderful Australian adoptive family and official citizenship of the Lucky Country.
So, you'd think I'd have grown roots, right? But actually, I'm out of sorts. I feel like I'm at a crossroads. I love living here but there's a pervasive restlessness that I can't shake. A feeling that there's more out there in this great big world to be discovered. That I've always taken the route which is most secure, never taken risks or been really courageous and that this has held me back. Also, perhaps crucially, that I've allowed my working life to dominate, at the expense of personal and creative growth.
All this is a rather wishy-washy way of saying that I need to make some big changes. And what better way to do this than a complete upheaval. I feel that it's time to close my eyes and jump. Do something that absolutely terrifies me. Shake things up a bit. Have an awfully big adventure.
The current situation
This week I quit my job. Yes, you heard that right, after being employed continuously in one way or another since I was 13 years old, I handed my notice in with no job to go to. As of 20 December 2013 I shall voluntarily join the ranks of the unemployed. Am I crazy? Definitely. And what am I going to do? I shall become a thirtysomething backpacker. A gap year gal. I'm putting the contents of my lovely little flat into a Camperdown storage container and reducing my life to a 50-litre backpack. And you know what? This Cath Kidston-loving, GHD-using, vintage furniture-owning, frock-wearing girl is pretty bloody excited about it.
So that's the background. If you're interested in finding out more about my plans and following my adventures then bookmark this blog, subscribe to the RSS feed, follow me on facebook, twitter, whatever. Feel free to give me your 2c worth too. I'd love to have your travel advice, feedback, encouragement and even ridicule (I can already guess who'll be accepting that invitation!). I know I'm taking a huge risk by doing this, but that's what I need right now and I'd love you to come on this journey with me (metaphorically, you understand: going out onto the road on my own is kind of the whole point).
So here we go. It’s a beginning. Let’s see where it takes us.
So, you'd think I'd have grown roots, right? But actually, I'm out of sorts. I feel like I'm at a crossroads. I love living here but there's a pervasive restlessness that I can't shake. A feeling that there's more out there in this great big world to be discovered. That I've always taken the route which is most secure, never taken risks or been really courageous and that this has held me back. Also, perhaps crucially, that I've allowed my working life to dominate, at the expense of personal and creative growth.
All this is a rather wishy-washy way of saying that I need to make some big changes. And what better way to do this than a complete upheaval. I feel that it's time to close my eyes and jump. Do something that absolutely terrifies me. Shake things up a bit. Have an awfully big adventure.
The current situation
This week I quit my job. Yes, you heard that right, after being employed continuously in one way or another since I was 13 years old, I handed my notice in with no job to go to. As of 20 December 2013 I shall voluntarily join the ranks of the unemployed. Am I crazy? Definitely. And what am I going to do? I shall become a thirtysomething backpacker. A gap year gal. I'm putting the contents of my lovely little flat into a Camperdown storage container and reducing my life to a 50-litre backpack. And you know what? This Cath Kidston-loving, GHD-using, vintage furniture-owning, frock-wearing girl is pretty bloody excited about it.
So that's the background. If you're interested in finding out more about my plans and following my adventures then bookmark this blog, subscribe to the RSS feed, follow me on facebook, twitter, whatever. Feel free to give me your 2c worth too. I'd love to have your travel advice, feedback, encouragement and even ridicule (I can already guess who'll be accepting that invitation!). I know I'm taking a huge risk by doing this, but that's what I need right now and I'd love you to come on this journey with me (metaphorically, you understand: going out onto the road on my own is kind of the whole point).
So here we go. It’s a beginning. Let’s see where it takes us.
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