Whos given up everything to follow a dream ?

[Jimmy No Hands]

Maybe not on par with some of the posts but I gave up a very secure (but pretty dull) full time job to go back to college. Had a very good salary with plenty of overtime, mortgage provisionally accepted with the girlfriend all ready to go. Fobbed it all off to go back to full time education and I'm loving every minute, even if I am skint I'm much, much happier. So yeah..

[BE57 TOY]

Jimmy No Hands said:

Maybe not on par with some of the posts but I gave up a very secure (but pretty dull) full time job to go back to college. Had a very good salary with plenty of overtime, mortgage provisionally accepted with the girlfriend all ready to go. Fobbed it all off to go back to full time education and I'm loving every minute, even if I am skint I'm much, much happier. So yeah..

Do it while you can! What're you studying?

[Jimmy No Hands]

Classic car restoration

[DonnyMac]

Hopefully not Tuvra - http://www.pistonheads.co.uk/gassing/topic.asp?h=0...

[DJRC]

King Herald said:

DJRC said:

Not really, I like them just fine. Its the principle that I dont understand.

I'll put it simply: I like my parents, they like me. We get on together and enjoy each others company, for I have known them all my life. They also like my wife and daughter, they too get along and like seeing each other.

My parents are also elderly, mid seventies, so there is probably limited time available for us to enjoy each others company.

Parents like to see their children and grandchildren.

Thus, if we move 9000 miles away we won't see very much of each other.

And seeing as a round of tickets for us to visit the UK is £2500 we won't be making the trip very often.

Has this made the 'principle' any clearer?

Not really. But then I dont do empathy, so no I cannot identify or understand it at all.

[chilistrucker]

neilski said:

I closed my business, put all my stuff I wanted to keep in storage, rented out my flat and eight months ago today headed off on my bike with just a few clothes & a tent to cycle around the world. 12,000km and 21 countries later I've reached Kyrgyzstan and think the whole trip will probably take about 3 years.

Everyone said I was mad to do it but I didn't want to be sitting here in twenty years kicking myself and saying "what if?" if I hadn't. The whole trip has been amazing with the only downside being missing my family & friends (and proper beer!) back home.

Edited by neilski on Thursday 8th November 14:43

fantastic story

i sort of have. gave up a decent job, and well paid, (for my industry) back in june 2006 to drive trucks on music tours, something i'd always wanted to do. started on the rolling stones which was magic, my face seemed to fit and was offered more work with the company. unfortunately my mum got ill mid tour, so had to decline, but told them as a joke i'd do chili peppers if they did it and it came up.
so the stones finished, and i go back to the real world of truck driving then mid october 2006 the phone rings and its the touring company asking if i want to do the chili peppers. it turns out to be about 5 weeks work in november/december. my mum was doing ok, so i had to go and do it, this for me was a once in a lifetime job, i'd followed the chilis for years. as you can imagine, dream job. tour finishes and i'm offered more work, which i again sadly decline, as know i'm gonna be needed in the u.k
back to normal work again. then about march/april 2007, i get the same call, and same offer to do the chilis again, this time starting in june, and lasting 3 months. i initially agree, but at end of may my mum takes a turn for the worse, and i phone the touring company, and explain as much as i want to do it i have to pull out, they are fine about it. it was a wise move, as the day after i should have started that tour we lost my mum.
from then on, did a mix of normal haulage, and slowly got back into the tours, which to be honest really suits me. had a few good years doing various stuff, most of last year on the, "wall tour" and luckily again 3 months on the chili peppers, then just before christmas last year, as the tour is ending, i find out my dad is quite ill, and won't be getting any better. so once again, for the right reasons i have to jack it in.

so back to normal haulage again for most of this year, (bar 1 tour type job in the summer) whilst nursing my dad, and then my other halfs mum whilst they were still with us. now thats sadly all changed, i can once again try and think about getting back into the tours, (hopefully my remaining relatives won't see this as a curse)
so get xmas out the way, and then try and follow that dream once again

[Moose.]

Yup! Gave up the steady 9-5 IT job, spent every penny I earned on flight training, sold the flat (at a big loss) and car to move to Indonesia to become a bush pilot with bearly a pound in my pocket:

http://indopilot.blogspot.com/p/about-me.html

Best thing I ever did and don't regret a thing. Three years later I'm loving my job, life and earning stloads more than I ever did in the uk. The main thing I miss is my dog and having a car. I kept the Se7en though and come back a few times a year to visit the dog

[Bob_Defly]

Moose. said:

Yup! Gave up the steady 9-5 IT job, spent every penny I earned on flight training, sold the flat (at a big loss) and car to move to Indonesia to become a bush pilot with bearly a pound in my pocket:

http://indopilot.blogspot.com/p/about-me.html

Best thing I ever did and don't regret a thing. Three years later I'm loving my job, life and earning stloads more than I ever did in the uk. The main thing I miss is my dog and having a car. I kept the Se7en though and come back a few times a year to visit the dog

Awesome story!

[King Herald]

DJRC said:

Not really. But then I dont do empathy, so no I cannot identify or understand it at all.

WTF? Were you a learning difficulties child?

[Moose.]

Thanks! Forgot to add, like many here, leaving the folks behind was very hard too, especially as my brother moved to Canada then Aus years ago before I moved away; so now both their sons live abroad. However, we grew up in the Middle East, so have always lived an expat lifestyle which my folks got bored with after 25 odd years, so moved back to uk in 2001. Both my brother and I always wanted to get out of the UK with its high taxes and crappy weather. I think my folks are getting itchy feet again and we're all meeting up in Melborne for Chrstmas/New Years, I know they want to check out retirement life in Aus.

My life now just cannot compare to what I left behind. After eight years in the 9-5 rut, it was very difficult to step out of that comfort zone into a totally different world. I'd never been to Asia and bearly knew where Indonesia was! But with views like this from my current office, I couldn't be happier:


Bugalaga airstrip by Indo Pilot, on Flickr

[mybrainhurts]

I gave up everything and got married.

The dream turned into a nightmare.

Does that count...?

[mybrainhurts]

I just knew that would kill the thread...

[King Herald]

mybrainhurts said:

I just knew that would kill the thread...

No mate, it just motivates people not to ruin their own lives thus.

[Bob_Defly]

mybrainhurts said:

I just knew that would kill the thread...

What, he married Hitler?

[mybrainhurts]

[SimonV8ster]

Moose. said:

Yup! Gave up the steady 9-5 IT job, spent every penny I earned on flight training, sold the flat (at a big loss) and car to move to Indonesia to become a bush pilot with bearly a pound in my pocket:

http://indopilot.blogspot.com/p/about-me.html

Best thing I ever did and don't regret a thing. Three years later I'm loving my job, life and earning stloads more than I ever did in the uk. The main thing I miss is my dog and having a car. I kept the Se7en though and come back a few times a year to visit the dog

Fantastic story

I'd never tire of a view like that !!

[neilski]

King Herald said:

You planning on visiting the Philippines?

At the moment, no. My intended route takes me down through SE Asia to Singapore then Indonesia then Australia.

Xaero said:

Epic win! How much money did you go with if you mind me asking?

I'd rather not quote an exact figure on a public forum but it's enough for a few years if I skip 5 star hotels & posh restaurants in favour of camping, hostels, cooking my own food & cheap cafés.

[King Herald]

neilski said:

King Herald said:

You planning on visiting the Philippines?

At the moment, no. My intended route takes me down through SE Asia to Singapore then Indonesia then Australia.

The PI is a bit out of the way really, on normal routes, an expensive leap in a dead end direction. You could start at the top and travel right down to the bottom, loads of island hopping, then pop back across to Malaysia. Let me know if you change your mind you can pop in and visit us near Manila for some R&R. Plenty of room to kip, tools and mechanical facilities aplenty.

[Chim]

Did this over 20 years ago now. All started in a very bizarre fashion and was undoubtedly one of the strangest and most exciting experiences of my life.

Another cold wet night in my little home town in Scotland with the rain doing its usual job of hitting off the ground so hard that it went back up again. I had just turned 24 at this point, computers had just started to come in to their own with large companies and I had found myself in the fortunate position of having a bit of knack for technology. This combined with a certificate from the local College confirming the fact that I had the ability to turn one on placed me in a rather small minority of computer skilled people. The fact that I was bereft of anything other than this in terms of qualification was somewhat irrelevant and this rare "skill" had led me to wiggling my way into a few good jobs. I was at this point in my life making the crazy sum of £10 an hour, had bagged a lovely girlfriend, bought myself a nice ex-council house in a lovely area and drove around in a rather smart Alpha 33 Cloverleaf that I had picked up for a steal at the local car auction. Life seemed quite sweet. Apart of course from the horizontal rain that continued falling outside.

So there I was on this Saturday morning reading the job adds in the Glasgow Herald. Had worked my way through the proper adds and was now straining to read the little 40 word adds that filled up the page. These where done in a font so small that anyone lacking complete 20-20 vision or above would require the use a microscope to read them. These adds tended to consist of cooks, live in nanny's, small shop jobs and a multitude of sales type jobs that promised unlimited earnings for the right type of person. This generally meant that you would be trudging the streets knocking on office doors trying to sell Photo copiers, your basic pay was 0 but the commission, should you strike it lucky, was enough to keep you going. Not many struck it lucky though, most ended up with sore feet and an inferiority complex from constantly having doors slammed in their face.

Half way through my trawl though I come across a rather unusual little add that read something like this;

Computer support person needed. Come to Gabon and earn a over thousand pounds a week, tax free with all expenses paid. A life of luxury awaits you in this unspoiled tropical paradise. Call.....then a number in Holland somewhere.

Now this perked my interest, a grand a week was a huge amount of Money back then, come to think of it, its still fairly healthy today. The fact that I had never actually heard of Gabon was somewhat irrelevant at this point, it was a thousand pounds a week and it sounded really exotic. Being the rather reckless type I reached for the phone and dialed the number. I was greeted in Dutch with a distinctly english accent. Chap on the phone was named Jim and I proceed to express my interest in his little add. Very nice chap, rather short on details for the job though. He proceeded to tell me that he was acting as an agent for another agent in Holland. As mentioned, not much detail about the Job, he was though very keen to have my CV and stated that I sounded ideal for the role. So off pops my CV in the post (remember, no internet back then and email was still a bit of gleam in Mr Gates eye.

Life then goes on. Decided to go open a little shop building and selling computers. This was how it was done back then. You bought in the bits and built the machines up. They where damn expensive though, a 1 meg strip of RAM would cost 70 quid alone so not a huge market at the time with lots of emerging competition. So it turned out to be a bit of struggle and things got tough. Was in a bit of debt, relationship was suffering and it was still fecking pissing it down. Not great. My little job add application had been all but forgotten and a rather difficult year had passed since the CV left in the mail.

Then one Saturday morning the phone rang.

"Hi Steven, it's Jim here. would you still be interested in the job in Gabon" said the voice on the other end.

I had to think for a minute, Gabon, what the feck is a Gabon.... Job..... then It clicked, grand a week.

"Yes Jim, I certainly would" I say

"Great!" states Jim. "Can you get over to Holland on Tuesday to meet a chap called Bram Dehond to discuss it". Wow thinks I. "Tuesday is a bit short notice" I say. "I know" said Jim "but we need you start two weeks on Monday so things need to move fast and there is a lot to arrange".

My impulsive nature kicks in again at this point and I say OK. "Great!" says Jim, "if you arrange getting here we will pick up all your costs. You are coming to Den Hague where you will meet me and then we will be going to meet Bram. Just call me back and let me know where and when you will be arriving and I will pick you up".

The call ends and I sit there a little bemused considering how I am going to cover this off with her indoors who is still happily sleeping up the stairs. So off I trot to the kitchen emerging five minutes later with a cup off coffee in hand. I proceed upstairs waking my beloved up with a kiss and proffer said coffee with a cheery "good morning Darling". Her suspicions are immediately raised and I can feel her spiddy senses tingling. Well in truth it was more the "what the fk have you done this time" comment that sealed it.

So I hatched my cunning plan. "How would you like to go on an all expenses paid trip abroad my darling" says I with a big grin. This only had the effect of raising her suspicions further. At this point her frown had deepened to point where I could have hid the coffee cup I was proffering between the furrows. Still, I pushed on. "Remember that Job I applied for last year, the one that was offering a thousand pounds a week". I can see her mind working here. "You mean that stupid thing in the small adds that you applied for in some god forsaken country" says she. Her geography was unfortunately at a far high level than mine. "Yip, thats the one" says I "they want me to go for an Interview.....on Tuesday.....in Holland.

At this point she took the proffered coffee, slurped a large mouthful and laid back down pulling the covers over her head while letting out a very audible moan.

I took this as a positive and proceeded to make arrangements.

Money was tight. Although I had been told that I was getting the cash for the trip back, this did not unfortunately help with having to raise it in the first place. So options where considered, flying was quickly ruled out. I had actually only ever flown once before, on a package trip to Zante, the previous year and much as Iiked the idea of jumping on plane, the whole procedure back then was a tad more involved than it is today. That and the fact that It was also very fecking expensive.

So options considered, a coach trip was duly arranged to Rotterdam. We would get on the Bus at 8.00am on Monday morning, travel down to Hull then overnight ferry, arriving in Rotterdam on Tuesday morning. Promptly arranged with Jim to pick us up at 10.00am. We would then travel through for my Bram meeting at 12.00.

Sorted. Her indoors was even a little excited at the prospect of visiting Holland, this was also helped along with a promise of getting a little bit legally stoned in one the famous Café’s.

So off we trot, all goes well up until Birmingham, some sort of accident on the M6 stopping our progress. Coach driver then thinks it would be a good idea to take a diversion via the city centre. The small fact of never actually having travelled through Birmingham before seemed to quite bypass his natural confidence in his superior sense of direction.

3 hours later and we are still trying to find our fking way out of Birmingham. We are at this point supposed to be arriving at our connecting bus station to board with the coach that will take us to Hull and onto to the ferry for Rotterdam. We eventually pull into the coach station at 8.00pm that evening feeling slightly bedraggled by the journey. We have of course missed our connecting bus. Oh well, st happens. We will just get another bus to Hull, the Ferry does not leave till 10.00 so should still make it.

No more fking buses, still, keep calm, there are always trains. So off we jog to the train station and by christ did we jog. Get to the train station and nice ticket man then proceeds to tell us that the train had just left, next one is not till 10.00 o'clock.

Brilliant, I risk a glance at her indoors, the return look is not one that I will savor on my deathbed. Still, surly there is more than one boat that crosses the channel. By the way, its really pissing it down in Birmingham. So I purchase I ticket for Hull and off we go. We finally arrive in Hull at 11.00am and proceed in a taxi to the ferry terminal. By this point the rain has turned into a veritable river falling from the sky, vertically, due to the 70 mph winds.

“Sorry, ports shut mate”, shouts the rather bedraggled looking docker above the sound of the wind. “Its this storm innit, everything’s cancelled mate” he continues. At this point my normally stoic resolve is fast sinking into my sodden wet shoes. I dare not pass a glance to the side as the look that would be returned from my rather soggy beloved would be more than I could perhaps shoulder at this point.

Still, chin up, there are always options. “so what about Dover” I ask hopefully.”. “Nope, that’s shut to” he thinks a minute and follows helpfully with “ you have more chance of getting something across from there once things clear up a bit mind” .

Dover it is then. So we set off leaning almost vertically in to the wind and rain in the search to find a Taxi rank. The taxi’s where a tad thin on the ground, this I surmised had probably something to do with everyone else having the same idea.

At last we get ourselves into a taxi and set off for Dover, finally reaching the port at around two in the morning. On reaching the terminal we are met with a rather overly officious worker who has obviously had more than enough of this night. We are greeted rather grouchily and told that nothing is moving. At this point there is a large group gathered round the chaps desk all firing a multitude of question, questions to which he has no real answers. Most though are answered with same response “nothing sailing and everything is full when it eventually does. No chance of getting a ticket for anything for at least two days.

In the large car boarding area beyond him sits a multitude of backed up cars and buses. Then I spot it, sitting there, nestled in amongst the throng is a coach with a simple, yet to my eyes simply beautiful board in the window. The board reads Rotterdam.

It was our coach; we had booked seats on that coach. It was the very coach we where supposed to connect with for Hull. It had obviously been rerouted to Dover when they shut the Hull port. Now all I had to do was convince the pissed off herr grupnenfuhrer to let me on it .

That took slightly longer. After much debate and the eventual intervention of some form of rather more sympathetic supervisor we boarded our coach. Our feelings of triumphant elation though where short lived when informed that the coach was now bound for Calais and would then be going overland to Rotterdam.

This little nugget, combined with the fact that the ferry it was destined to board was currently sitting in the middle of the English Channel in the middle of a hurricane did not bode well for arriving at my 1000 pound a week job interview at 10.00am.

Still, could be worse. I will intercede here and offer these words of wisdom. Should you ever find yourself in a situation where you feel the need to say “It could be worse” just don’t, clear your mind of said thought and certainly do not voice it. Why, because fate my friends is a complete bh of the highest order and listens carefully for any and all temptation. As soon as she hears you utter this statement only one thing is guaranteed…………………things will get worse

Wow, just realised I have typed quite a bit, will break off here as I am being summoned to partake in room remodeling, ode to joy. If you feel you cannot stomach more of my ramblings feel free to say. Otherwise I will finish my African adventure later

Edited by Chim on Saturday 17th November 14:39

[wolfy1988]

CHIM!

Please continue.....