It’s never a waste of time

When he saw these photographs, an old colleague said to me, why are you doing that? Isn’t it a waste of time?

Well, I love ‘wasting my time’. When I travel for work, I always plan to get to my destination half a day early so I can explore. So I have time to wander and notice the world around me.

A few years ago I travelled to Hull to run a training session for BBC journalists and producers. Rather than have a super-early start, I’d arrived the afternoon before. I hadn’t visited Hull in over twenty years so I enjoyed walking around the old docks. I also go in search of good coffee. And in a side street close to the BBC building I stumbled upon Two Gingers coffee shop. I got chatting to the owner about his story and why he’d started his own shop. I took these pictures on my wanders.

I started my training session with the story of the Two Gingers dude. I asked my local audience, had they visited his shop? And nobody had heard of it! It just shows you what happens when you walk around with your eyes open and follow your curiosity. They were journalists, always on the lookout for local stories, and they didn’t know about the bloke who’d served me my morning Long Black. I’d just arrived in the city, a stranger to Hull, but had made a connection over the counter.

So wasting my time? I don’t think so. After all, I’m not trying to squeeze productivity out of every waking moment. It’s never a waste of time.