Rowan Spazzoli

Note: website was down last night, so I couldn't upload this :)

In life there can be a number of bumps that come out of nowhere. A car accident, a robbery or injury. Or even the bumps that are expected… doing personal admin, sorting out taxes or picking up a family member from the airport.

And these things will inevitably get in the way of a full time job, when you’re expected to be around from 8-5.

But companies and managers can choose how to react to these. They can either leave you some freedom and space to do life things or force you to stay around the office, regardless of you have work.

Giving that freedom might seem like time is being wasted. Like your employee is taking your time to do their thing.

In reality, allowing them that time means that they are likely to be more productive and more able to focus on their work. They’re also probably going to be more loyal and appreciative of the company.

It’s good to allow a little bit of freedom.

Image is of the sunset on the drive home this evening 🙂

Blog: 246/365

Song of the day: Gangs of Ballet – Breaking the silence

I have a bad habit of over promising and under delivering.

I don’t do it on purpose, I’m just overly optimistic about what I am able to achieve in a certain amount of time.

Sometimes the over promising motivates me to get going into work. But it often makes me feel overwhelmed and defeated when I don’t reach what I set out to do.

The way to fix this is to either promise less or deliver more. I’ve been working on the delivering more but I struggle with the promising less.

I think it’s about balancing optimism with realism. And understanding your own limits.

I’ll continue to work on this. And hopefully be able to get the balance just right

Image is of the England game I watched on the last day in Portugal. A little bit of over promising here too 

Blog: 246/365

Song of the day: It’s coming home – Red Lions

So we ate a lot of food in Portugal. And didn’t exercise much

And now we have become semi tanned Teletubbies.

So we’ve started eating clean for a little while and trying to build it in as a habit.

No sweets. No chocolates. Few carbs. No beer. No potato products. No ice cream. No pastries.

But from sunset on Friday to sunset on Saturday we can indulge in whatever we want.

Combining this with the running will hopefully make me a slightly fitter looking teletubbie.

#fitnessgoals #healthy #imsohungrypleasehelp

Image is of my lunch today. Enjoy

Blog: 245/365

Song of the day: Getaway car – Taylor Swift

“Welcome home sir!”

The officer at passport control was one of the nicest I’ve ever had at the airport.

I grabbed my bag, headed through the gates and was greeted with a massive hug from Jared.

Back home, Jared, Marcelle, The Doctor (aka Su-Anne), Jarred and myself had our Sunday night dinner.

We caught up, shared stories and laughed.

I had a phenomenal holiday.

And it’s good to be home

Image was taken from the flat a few weeks ago 🙂

Blog: 243/365

Song of the day: Donna Lewis – I love you always forever

Note: double post today cause I missed one last week 🙂

Today is the end of my Portguese adventure. I´ve been here just under three weeks and have had an exhilarating and relaxing time here.

Some of the highlights include:

• Eating a ridiculous number of pastel de natas. I´m not even ashamed of it
• Swimming and braaing with family in Tavira
• Scooter rides around the Algarve
• Photobombing a German rap video
• Drinking and partying in the streets
• Trying to do activities hungover
• Watching football games in the Praca de commercio.
• Eating sardines
• Eating peri peri chicken
• Eating (in general)
• Dancing through the streets of the Albufiera with a tamborine
• Dancing through the streets of Vila Franca with bamboo clickers
• Happy hour at the hostel
• Having a beer on the beach in Albufiera with Jared and my brother
• THE MUSE CONCERT
• THE HAIM CONCERT
• Eating

And of course, the people that I have met and spent time with along the way.

Thank you to everyone that made this trip so special (including Jared, Alzira, Lorenzo, Fabio, Mom, Brenda, Dave, Alex, Jen, Mark, Jessica, Karina, Giles and all the amazing people we met along the way)

It´s been so special

Obrigado Portugal!

Image is of a Pastel da Nata at the Lisbon football fanzone, taken on the first day I was here 🙂

Blog: 242/365

Song of the day: Amália Rodrigues Uma Casa Portuguesa

Norwegian. Portuguese. Spanish. Dutch. Australian. Irish. English. Chilean. Swiss. Mozambican. Danish. Swedish. Italian. Canadian. American. Mexican. Puertorican. Kiwi. Zimbabwean. French. Brazilian. Nepalian. Chinese. Angolan. In 20 days I’ve met all these people from all over the planet. And with each of them I’ve found something in common. We spend a few minutes understanding one another and then we spend the rest of the time as best friends.I’ve said it before on the blog. But the point needs to be established again.We have more in common than we realise. We are more similar than we know.And once we establish that, we can bring the whole world closer together.

Image was taken tonight with some Portuguese and danish friendsSong of the day: DespacitoBlog: 241/365 (note: my WordPress app on my phone seems to ignore paragraphs. I’ll fix this post in South Africa when I’m on my laptop)