Pre-conceived notions and the concept of Time

Its crazy how we perceive Time and how our concept of it can change at different times in our life, for good or worse, but we have no control of it, or do we? Its funny that when you are doing something that you perceive as fun and entertaining, that time seems to slip away too quickly. When I am in Indonesia surfing for the majority of the day and relaxing, I can literally turn around and weeks have elapsed in the blink of a moment, followed by months. In these times I am eternally happy and contented. The fatigue after coming in from a surf that lasted from the first break of dawn until 12 noon, one full of amazing waves, is better than the best drug that money could buy. That feeling of being numb and senseless, and utterly exhausted after a long morning in the salt water is the pinnacle of contentment. In a place so beautiful and with people so happy and friendly, its hard not to be at peace and living in the moment. Under these circumstances time is something that truly gets away from us too quickly. These blissful moments shared in the ocean act as a fountain of eternal youth. Why is it that these times often go by us too quickly instead of lasting forever? Instead you want to put the brakes on these moments and live them in slow motion. You get so comfortable with surfing such perfect waves that one day seems to mesh into another. When I am in Sydney time seems to be running slower then it ever has in my life (except for my last 2 months on the prawn trawler). I am living in a sort of paradise on the beach, but not the one realized in my mind, not the right beach or the right place. If I could only do this work in a different place I tell myself. But it never seems that work can be in paradise and you could have both at the same time, in the same place. Instead I feel that I am locked into a routine in a place that is wearing away at me one day by painful day. I realized that my perception of time became much slower in the last two weeks since my work has become less frequent. I began to think more about my unhappiness in my current situation and yearned to leave for realized Indonesian paradise. I think it all boils down to my notion that work must be done and isn't pleasurable, no matter what or where it might be. Work. Eat. Sleep. Repeat. You have to work to make money. You have to have money to do what you want in life. The path I take is different than what most people would say is normal. Instead of working and living a 'normal' life, I have periods of extreme contentedness, and exreme frustration. I choose to put my head down and grit through a 3 or 4 month stint of 7 day weeks to take 6 or 8 months off. It is what I now call my reality, my path. Most people who travel say they hate going home at the end of the trip, but secretly their biggest reward is returning home to tell the story their experiences. I mean, isn't great when you go home again and see old friends and go out to the bar and tell your story? I go home and its amazing to see old friends, family, and familiar places, but I'm not there long enough to fall back into my usual routine back in San Diego. I leave before I fall back in the comfort of going back on auto-pilot in my life. That's how I use to feel when I was in California to a large entent, like I was merely a zombie on auto-pilot going through the motions. In small doses I tell myself I could live back home again. I am sure from previous experiences over the years though that after a month I would grow restless once again. After it has been this long, back home no longer has the same feeling it once did, my life now is traveling. The happiness I feel when I am traveling is like being home. If being home is being happy, isn't being happy like being home? Home is wherever you are happy, and I seem to have homes all over the world, like a couch I can crash on all over the world! Baldo has found the universal 'couch' to sleep on and it has taken on a wave of new strength in recent years! If your couch can help me to live my dream out to its fullest, then why not join the cause? If I can find a way to be in eternal bliss in all the different aspects of my life (including work) that seems to get better and better with ages, then I will truly be in paradise! I guess sometime I have to pinch myself and remember that there are people back home working alot worse jobs doing a hell of lot less with their lives. To each is his own, and rather than return home with a story and reminesce about the good days of traveling, I am living it out and finding new ways to make it my full time reality.