Much a do about gardening leave

I recently resigned from one amazing company and am about to join another amazing company. As they are competitors I was technically 'walked' so that means I am on 'Gardening Leave'. Interestingly many people have been asking me, 'what is gardening leave?' including asking are you doing much gardening (..some tongue in cheek).

Gardening Leave is when you leave (resign) your employer to join a competitor. Often but not always you will be literally or metaphorically walked from the building including having to surrender your IT assets and you aren't able to start with your new employer until the gardening leave period is completed (..normally one month). You are paid for your leave period but you can't do any work.

After I was walked I left the building with the prospect of having 30 days off and without great surprise I had a stupid grin on my face for about half an hour. Walking to the train station people kept looking at me kind of strange - it was because I had this ear to ear grin. I loved the people I worked with but I was happy to be facing such a great break followed by starting a new adventure.

When I sat down in the train carriage my subconscious went for a novel I was reading but then I stopped and pulled out a paper and pen. I thought ' I am going to get value out of these 30 blessed days ' - so I wrote a few lists - i) jobs around the house I wanted to get done...you know painting, gardening!, getting quotes for other work.. ii) jobs for our life that I wanted to complete...checking out stuff like insurance, pension plans etc and iii) how do I remain active and lose a few pounds I had collected over Christmas.

Interestingly two weeks in it's only List 3 that received any attention and my friends are telling me how sick they are of seeing my Instagram posts from the beach. So at the mid point as I look ahead to the 2nd two weeks of gardening leave I am mentally focusing on List 1 and 2 but if in the end I end up lighter and healthier and have spent lots of time with my wife and kids then I guess we can call that a successful use of my time in the metaphorical garden.

I would say 'cheers' but I am having a Dry February so let me just say 'See you March'.