Daniel Felice

The Simple Life

// August 6th, 2008 // General

I have just returned from a 6 day holiday on the tiny island of Malta, enjoying the sunshine and living the simple life. I stayed at a family owned house in which no one has lived in for years so there was no internet, no television and not even a radio.

Most days were spent at the beach or on a boat, and I certainly was not thinking about work, the internet or blogging. It was the first time for a long time that I felt so detached from the rest of the world. I had no idea what was going on, and to tell you the truth it was nice not having to think about anything.

I spent 18 minutes at an internet cafe as I had to print off my boarding pass for my return flight to Dublin. I had a quick look at my e-mails and after seeing I had over 50 unread e-mails I quickly logged off.

It made me think about how the internet and e-mail has changed our lifestyle over the past 15 or so years. We are now so used to keeping in touch with our family, friends and virtual contacts that it has become second nature to us, and without it how lost and isolated we feel from the rest of the world.

I am so used to having a laptop at my side, whether I am working, checking the weather, doing my internet banking or looking for directions. When I have spare time or when I am bored, I’ll usually pick up my laptop and find something to do. In Malta I didn’t have that option.

I enjoyed coming home of a night after a long day out and sitting on the rooftop where the cool breeze was blowing with absolutely nothing to do. It was the first time in years that I have just sat alone in silence without a thought running through my brain. I normally would have watched television to kill the time, or use the internet until I was too tired to keep my eyes open.

Coming back to reality last night I had over 100 e-mails, I hadn’t blogged in a few days and I had people wondering where I was as they had not seen me online for nearly a week. It was actually a bit depressing.

So when was the last time you lived the simple life? No internet, television, radio, not even a newspaper…