[vc_row][vc_column width=”1/3″][vc_empty_space][vc_single_image image=”3273″ img_size=”large” alignment=”center”][/vc_column][vc_column width=”2/3″][vc_empty_space][vc_column_text]I was on my way home from work. The month was January and the temperature gauge in my car showed -20 outside. I was looking at well over an hour’s drive home, if I was lucky. The highway towards Oslo during winter is usually not pleasant. This afternoon, though, I didn’t have to worry about the traffic. I never made it to the highway! Instead, within three minutes of heading home from work I felt the distinct shaking that yells –You have a flat tire!
Great, I thought, if I’m lucky it won’t be that bad.
You see, my car was equipped with an air compressor instead of a spare tire. After changing for winter-tires at the auto-shop the bolts are always tightened so well that a compressor usually is your best option. Unless there is a big rip in the tire of course.
I pulled over to the side, stepped out and walked around the car.
Just my luck! A 4cm tear had gashed my right-front tire.
Excellent!
A quick phone call to road assistance told me that due to the weather there was a three-hour wait…
Excellent![/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row el_class=”shoul”][vc_column][vc_column_text el_class=”shoul”]So, should I wait for them in the car or leave the keys and take the bus home?
I took the bus.
Now, this was not the first time I was sitting frozen and yearning for a pee, with a flat tire in the middle of nowhere, in winter. But in this moment I was starting to wonder why I drove 160 kilometers to a job that at the end of the day, only left me exhausted. Was I mad?
For several years I had worked as a magazine contributor, in addition to my full time job, simply because I loved writing. Furthermore, for the past year I had been getting up two hours earlier in the mornings so I could work on some novel ideas before work. I spent all my free time writing and doing photography. Every vacation I was doing the same thing mixed with my third passion – diving. In addition I spent every hour on my many flights ploughing through books while in my car I listened to audio books (Thank you, Karl Ove, for making my hours on the highway much more pleasant.)
And as I sat on the bus into Oslo this afternoon, I asked myself – How can I devote more of my time to the things I love the most? My priorities were writing, reading, photography and diving – preferably in a nicer climate.
The answer came quickly, and even though it still took me some time before I dared act on it, I am now writing this ‘About me’ section from my house in Bali.
So why Bali?
Simple. I love Indonesia almost as much as I love good stories and the tales you find in this country will blow you away. Reality is truly more amazing than imagination in this part of the world. In addition, the nature is stunning, people are beautiful and diving is world class. So even though leaving my country was not an easy decision, coming to Indonesia was.
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