What do you want in life?

I'm a Cancerian, always drawn to water and when I'm feeling low, I usually head for a white water river or a beach with rolling waves. Where do YOU go to relax and chill-out?

More and more people are being forced to work longer weeks, more hours in a day and rarely get time to relax. They are even on call AFTER they leave work, something I never do now, I won't answer work calls or emails once my shift has finished.

Back in the days when I set-out on the business of 'adulting' and took my first job, the standard working week was 40 hours and anything above that was classed as 'overtime'. Overtime was generally time and half (your normal hour rate plus a further 50% on top) and Sundays were 'double time' (double your normal hourly rate. However, with the crushing of the trade unions in the Thatcher era, we saw an end to the power of the very people that helped us get that overtime and more time with our families. Ever since, we have been either labelled "hard working people" (those who work 48 hours plus per week) or "benefit scroungers" (those who have no choice but to top up poor salaries/wages with Universal Credit, just to be able to live!)

The new Labour government in the UK, seem to me just like the last Tory government, but wearing red ties and pretending to be the party of "hard working people"!!

It is TIME FOR CHANGE.

We must now find time to spend with our families, time for days out and less hours working our way to our graves.

I now work 4It is TIME FOR CHANGE.

We must now find time to spend with our families, time for days out and less hours working our way to our graves.

I now work 4 days on and 4 days days on and 4 days off, which although still being 48 hours a week (12 hour shifts), at least offers me 4 days to spend with my wife and cat, take days out and have some time making music in my studio.

If I could, I would move to a house nearer the sea, or a close walk to a river or lake, (but not close enough to be constantly flooded!) I dream of a small holding with room to build a larger recording studio, preferably well away from other houses and people!

We need to all realise that our time on Earth is short and goes much faster than we all think when we are young. We need to be more at one with nature and love things that we all too often ignore because of our busy lives. We need to put down the phones and laptops and connect more with nature around us.

Life is for LIVING not just for working and making others rich.

Ross Hemsworth

Songwriter/Composer/Producer