Exciting life stories...
Discussion
kING ANGRY.Rossay said:
Anyway, has anyone had any particularly fascinating lives that they would like to share?
For a moment I was thinking I'd misunderstood the whole jist of the thread, that it was about sharing other peoples exciting lives, not our own, seeing as that is what the replies pertain to. Don't any PHers have anything to say about their own lives??? 
drivin_me_nuts said:
My partner. Grew up in Iran....
FastLaneGirl said:
I nominate my parents.
My Mum grew up as one....
My Mum grew up as one....
off_again said:
I would nominate a chap I used to work with -
Ahh, salvation, a PHer with story of his own.v15ben said:
I wouldn't say my life has been that exciting compared to some of these stories so far, but I'm going for the maxim of 'Living life to the full.'
The interesting stuff started when I was the first in my family to go to uni. At 19 I went off to study in Sydney for 6 months, travelled around Oz and NZ. Worked a summer of music festivals and race events in the summer after uni then went to Tanzania to build a kindergarten, teach kids and deliver books and sports kit to kids in remote schools in the western Serengeti. I came home and worked in a 'normal' job for a few months then went travelling round Asia for 3 months and worked in Sydney for a further 4. Turning up in Beijing alone, in the middle of winter at 6am and travelling round the country with no organised trips was great fun. I came home and ran a plumbing warehouse for a while then worked as a travel agent and now work as a debt collector! I've done a teaching English course and will be leaving to teach in South Korea this August. I've visited 23 countries since 2006 and plan to visit plenty more too - Carpe Diem
But then...The interesting stuff started when I was the first in my family to go to uni. At 19 I went off to study in Sydney for 6 months, travelled around Oz and NZ. Worked a summer of music festivals and race events in the summer after uni then went to Tanzania to build a kindergarten, teach kids and deliver books and sports kit to kids in remote schools in the western Serengeti. I came home and worked in a 'normal' job for a few months then went travelling round Asia for 3 months and worked in Sydney for a further 4. Turning up in Beijing alone, in the middle of winter at 6am and travelling round the country with no organised trips was great fun. I came home and ran a plumbing warehouse for a while then worked as a travel agent and now work as a debt collector! I've done a teaching English course and will be leaving to teach in South Korea this August. I've visited 23 countries since 2006 and plan to visit plenty more too - Carpe Diem
v15ben said:
In a totally different vein I'd also nominate my grandparents, now sadly passed away. They met aged 3 and 6 and were together for nearly 80 years. Grandad went to war serving as a mechanic in Europe, the Middle East and was involved in Dunkirk. They had pretty well no money after the war so Gran started a career with BT and became the first female telephone engineer in Yorkshire apparently! Grandad set up his own business from nothing (which was sold for over a £1 million in 2008 with 40+ staff in fact!) They had 4 sons and took in another 2 teenage lads when their families couldn't keep them any more. They retired, bought a canal boat and travelled all across the UK on it including a month volunteering at a national event (unpaid and in their 70s!) and travelled the world too. All self made and from nowt
Yes, it's a boring day at work
True. Personally while I try to have an interesting life, I'm only a youngster so I don't think I can say I have an 'exciting life story' yet. I picked my grandparents because they were both in their 80s when they died so they had full lives and you can look back on the whole thing rather than just the bits so far.I know there are plenty of PHers who've had what I'd consider interesting lives though so I'm sure there are plenty of stories out there. You for example
Not me, but a neighbour we had when I was growing up had quite a life.
(very) long story short. He was a Polish chap whose family ran a farm pre-WWII. When the Germans came, he was about 8 years old. A couple of years later, the Germans leave, his dad is dead and the Russians take over. His mother is kept on at the farm to teach the new Russian workers the ropes, while him, his younger brother and older sister are shipped off by train (tans-Siberian) to Moscow.
On the journey, his sister dies and her body is thrown from the train. Him and his brother are put in a communist school in Moscow from which they escape. The two of them travel across Russia (on foot), living out of bins or scrounging whatever they could. Finally, they get back to the farm, only to be told that their mum has gone to South Africa.
Not to be deterred, this 11 year old kid and his 8 year old brother set off for South Africa, getting a job on a ship out of Gibraltar. They work their passage to South Africa and find the farm that their mum is working on - only she ain't there. She 's gone to Scotland...
...so, off they set, this time across most of Africa as they couldn't find passage on a boat, all the way through Europe, across the channel, into England, then Scotland. Find their mum, a few months later, she's dead...
He ended up marrying a Scottish girl and eventually moved down to London.
He was an amazing mechanic too - kept my MGB on, the road for me when I was younger. He'd worked on pretty much every make of car from Minis to Rollers. Still alive now (in his 80s) and still fit as a fiddle. A legendary chap all round.
(very) long story short. He was a Polish chap whose family ran a farm pre-WWII. When the Germans came, he was about 8 years old. A couple of years later, the Germans leave, his dad is dead and the Russians take over. His mother is kept on at the farm to teach the new Russian workers the ropes, while him, his younger brother and older sister are shipped off by train (tans-Siberian) to Moscow.
On the journey, his sister dies and her body is thrown from the train. Him and his brother are put in a communist school in Moscow from which they escape. The two of them travel across Russia (on foot), living out of bins or scrounging whatever they could. Finally, they get back to the farm, only to be told that their mum has gone to South Africa.
Not to be deterred, this 11 year old kid and his 8 year old brother set off for South Africa, getting a job on a ship out of Gibraltar. They work their passage to South Africa and find the farm that their mum is working on - only she ain't there. She 's gone to Scotland...
...so, off they set, this time across most of Africa as they couldn't find passage on a boat, all the way through Europe, across the channel, into England, then Scotland. Find their mum, a few months later, she's dead...
He ended up marrying a Scottish girl and eventually moved down to London.
He was an amazing mechanic too - kept my MGB on, the road for me when I was younger. He'd worked on pretty much every make of car from Minis to Rollers. Still alive now (in his 80s) and still fit as a fiddle. A legendary chap all round.
A couple we met on holiday in Wales.
Had been Fostering Children on a Farm for 25 years. Sounded like they had seen and heard everything over that time - I forget how many kids they had cared for, but it was near the 100's.
Clearly they got a lot out of it, and while we were there had one of the older kids who was a nightmare, but now grown up with kids job etc. visit them.
I could not put up with what they did.
Had been Fostering Children on a Farm for 25 years. Sounded like they had seen and heard everything over that time - I forget how many kids they had cared for, but it was near the 100's.
Clearly they got a lot out of it, and while we were there had one of the older kids who was a nightmare, but now grown up with kids job etc. visit them.
I could not put up with what they did.
blindswelledrat said:
TTwiggy said:
polish chap.
Brilliant.I bet that would make a bloody good book.
He's a hard man to pull info from sadly – and I guess it's understandable – but yeah, great book/film in there for sure.
not my life, but my dad came from the east end, and by the time he took early retirement he was a civil engineer looking after a very big computer centre on the plant side. not bad for someone who left school at 15 with no qualifications.
my OHs uncle was involved with the development of nuclear weapons, has led a very interesting life, although doesn't talk about it much, can understand why.
his dad also won a gallantry medal in the ww2 as the skipper of a tug who used his tug to stop a German merchant ship ramming the gates at a port to escape and put the port out of action. he apparently then boarded the ship and took the bridge on his own until the coppers could get on board. that must have been at the beginning of the war. he then went on to go to Dunkirk and rescue a load of guys, and i am led to believe pull a RN ship from the sandbank it had beached on (on purpose) to get the main guns in range to cover the guys wading out. I don't know the details and they are a bit sketchy, my MIL is 80.
my OHs uncle was involved with the development of nuclear weapons, has led a very interesting life, although doesn't talk about it much, can understand why.
his dad also won a gallantry medal in the ww2 as the skipper of a tug who used his tug to stop a German merchant ship ramming the gates at a port to escape and put the port out of action. he apparently then boarded the ship and took the bridge on his own until the coppers could get on board. that must have been at the beginning of the war. he then went on to go to Dunkirk and rescue a load of guys, and i am led to believe pull a RN ship from the sandbank it had beached on (on purpose) to get the main guns in range to cover the guys wading out. I don't know the details and they are a bit sketchy, my MIL is 80
.TTwiggy said:
The full story, as you can imagine, is a lot longer as they got into various scraps and scrapes along the way.
I thought nothing less - I mean, two kids making their way around the world? Incredible people.Seriously, their childhood adventures would make a good book/film.
TTwiggy said:
...all the way through Europe, across the channel, into England, then Scotland. Find their mum, a few months later, she's dead...
Hardly surprising really, as she'd spent half her life running herself ragged trying to hide from the kids she didn't want. 
Seriously, that would make one hell of a story, if it could be put down on paper.
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