I’m on my second to last Contract at sea. And it’s not even two full contracts. I’m on my eight days contract now, midway, and have another four days before waving off ships-life for good. Hopefully…

Am I going to miss it? Not at first, but probably. Will it be tough? Changing all my routines since 13 years back, missing the lifestyle and finding a new way of living. Again. Yes, I guess it will be tough. Do I stress about it? Not really, because I’ve waited for this moment for a very long time. But yes, it stresses me not knowing financially how it will go after my six months pay stops. But I’m ready.

I’ve always said ‘you never say goodbye to DFDS’. And even now when I try to convince myself ‘this is a definite goodbye’ it still doesn’t feel like it. But I hope it’s a goodbye to life at sea though.

Plans? I need to have a plan. And a Backup plan. And a backup plan to the backup plan. Just to be sure… But I have decided to wait to apply for a job until the end of spring, and enjoy my time off. All-in studies. If I can keep myself from working that is. Only worry I’ve got, is that it won’t be enough for me to just study. So! All in gym, workout, food and diabetes (type 1) too. And hopefully that will be enough.

To make it happen and Follow the first plan? Yes. That. Following a plan. Any plan. Or more to finish it and be done. Tic it off the list… Not my strong suit. Nevertheless, I have to try. So! On the paper, my schedule for these first three months looks like:

• Writing one to-do list every evening for the following day, including breaks (even breaks for eating)
• Gym and workout in the morning on days I don’t have school
• Daytime, five to eight hours studying, with breaks
• Food and diabetes will follow automatically

This is what I attend to start doing when I leave this job. My first little project. But as I know myself quite well, I’ll probably not follow the schedule. Having had a month off in November, I already now know three weeks of off-time is about what I can handle. I get so bored that I almost get depressed. So there will probably be a down period in the end of January where I will ‘feel sorry’ for myself. And that’s my first goal to make sure not happens!

Back to my second to last contract… I’ve actually not been studying that much these last few days. For the last year I have been studying all my off-time and in all my breaks onboard. But now I’ve been too busy socialising with the crew. And I really enjoy it, fun times. To be honest, our whole department feels like we’re in some sort of no-mans-land. We want to be done. To start our new adventures. To move on. We have no energy at the moment. Except, funny enough, to talk and laugh with all the crew, and with each other. We’re actually having a really good time, which is a perfect ending to this job!

And here’s just a random fun fact to finish off this post: Did you know that the tentacles on a star fish’s arm are all genitals… Just had a colleague telling me. And now you know too! Over and out