Onegav

Tonight, I left work on time, or just after at least anyway. I’ve been late almost every day for a long time now, and yesterdays post “Sunsets Aren’t Free“, really made me think.

The answer was simple, wasn’t it. I just needed to leave work on time!

So thats what I did.

On the way home from work, having left at 5:15pm, the sky was burning bright, and instantly I had a plan. Holly was due to go to her pop-fit class, so I rang her, and as we were both driving I knew I’d be on the car phone loud speaker, and that Livvy would be able to hear me. So I asked Livvy if she wanted to go up a mountain and have a picnic. She wasn’t keen at first, but with temptation of sweets, drinks and a sausage roll, she soon changed her tune and wanted to go. When Holly picked Izzy up, and asked her, she was instantly super excited!

So, when we all arrived home, we got changed and headed straight out. We had to stop at the shop to get our picnic, and we had to get to the top of Helsby Hill before the sunset faded. And tonight, the sunset was aboluetely amazing!

Shop done, we sped off to the hill. All three of us were getting more and more excited, and even at the hill and now on foot, the girls flew up as fast as their little legs would carry them.

At the top, they both let out that sound that is just so gorgeous to hear from the mouths of children…….. “WOW, look at that!!” they both shreeked in excitement, as we cleared the woods and arrived at the top of the hill. I have to admit, it was stunning.

We sat down, got comfortable and tucked into our goodies.

The view was incredible, and I was also almost treated to capturing an image of the Beluga airplane too, which is a huge aircraft that transports wings to and from British Aerospace. It came close, and I did get a shot of it along with the sunset (below), but I didn’t want to change my lens to the long lens to get a close up of it, for fear of missing the ever more gorgeous sunset. The Beluga will have to wait for another day!

So, was the sunset free tonight? Well, it didn’t cost me a good night kiss with my daughters, but it did cost me some time in work, I guess. That said, I’d done my time, and over the 20 years I’ve been with the business I am at now, every day has been the same and I’ve given 100%. So leaving on time can’t be that costly can it?

Put it this way, I’ll happily go in early tomorrow, and again the day after, and again the day after, and again the day after, if it means I spend dinner up on top of a hill watching the sunset with my girls. It could only have been better if Holly was there, but she was busy “pop fitting”, so I’ll have to take her up on another evening………

Learnings – life priorities, simple as that. Sunsets aren’t free, nothing is, but if you can engineer time for minimal cost, and maximise the moment by sharing it with family and friends, I’d say you’ve pretty much nailed it.

As we climbed back down the hill, in the dark and with only my phone torch for light, the girls just loved the adventure. When we got back to the car Livvy grabbed me and said, “daddy I really loved that”.

What more is there to say?