From Diego to the Bay
California. When I actually think back it’s probably been the place of some of my highest highs and lowest lows. When I’m here it’s the only place in the world for me and it almost physically hurts to leave but of course I do leave and I move on. That’s all there is to it and really that is all there can be to it. This is for a number of reasons, the main one being that it just isn’t real. Allow me to explain.
My family live in California, not everyone, not everyone by a long way but pretty much anyone I would ever care about lives here. To use a phrase of the area; that sucks. Bigtime. To have all of the family that you actually want to see and interact with on a regular basis so far away is hard and I defy anyone to say otherwise. Yes of course the internet makes the world so much smaller but it’s still not the same. Anyway, I visit more often than not for at least a month at a time and it is always the happiest of times for me. As a child this time would consist of non stop amazing, Disney Land, Universal studios, Kayaking, White Water Rafting, Amusement Parks, the Beach, Surfing, I could go on and on and on. As an adult things are less go-go-go but no less special.
What’s difficult is that you (or rather I) enter a world that isn’t real. There are no pressures, no actual facts of life such as jobs and bills and commitments. Free time is in abundance, everything is in a way different and it isn’t just the same old, same old. Everyone also makes time for you because you’re only around for a limited time. Not that you would live in isolation normally but everyone has their own routines and hanging out care free 24/7 couldn’t be accommodated.
Somewhat unsurprisingly, as a child I could not see the reality of the situation. In my mind it was as simple as I have to move here as soon as humanly possible so that this could be my life all day everyday. I look back and this seems quite cute but it seemed so logical at the time. I’m not sure if I ever thought about issues such as how school would feature. What I do know is that when the time came to leave it was actually quite a traumatising experience. From the airport all the way home I would just cry and cry or perhaps quietly sob is more accurate, basically without a break for the entire 10 hour flight. Pretty epic when I look back on it and even after all of this I would enter a child like equivalent of depression for weeks and weeks afterwards.
I’m not even sure of the point that I’m rather messily trying to make, I think it’s that even now I really struggle separating my experience visiting with what everyday life would be like. When I’m elsewhere I can be rational but as soon as I’m back inside the bubble I think maybe it would be better to be here. That it would be 50/50, with the banal reality of life being watered down by other factors. I don’t know really. I’ve come up with many an idea over the years, the main one being University but for a normal person the price of being an international student in the US is astronomical. It’s pretty hard to obtain a work visa/green card as a British citizen as that would be the other option. It’s also an excessively long, drawn out procedure and when I’m happily living life in the UK or elsewhere all of this only features in my thoughts only now and again.
It will kill me to leave again this time around though thing’s will be made slightly easier by the fact I’m continuing travelling and I also have (if I ever sign a contract) my Deck Officer cadetship to go back to at the end of August/beginning of September. I know almost for a fact that during this three year period I’m not going to have the time to disappear off for a month at a time but hopefully by being smart with money I might be able to make it over here for a couple, maybe three weeks in one of the holidays each year.
The beauty of this career path is that once qualified I should have two month holidays to play about with and that’s a decent amount of time to turn up, rent somewhere, build a little routine and see how it all works out. In fact, maybe in the longer term that’s the answer. I do also realise that a mere few posts back I’m going on about how much I love Zimbabwe, that remains the same, it’s probably just a much longer term goal.
Okay, okay..
Alright, so I’ve been terrible at updating yet again. That said I have been crazy, crazy, busy. I’m leaving until the 23rd August TOMORROW, so that’s my excuse. In the meantime I’ve climbed up Snowdon, been to Edinburgh, left work and by the time that I’ll have the time to update everything I will have been to New York and then finally found myself in California. I will update soon. Promise.
Away Days
Yesterday I drove to the Isle of Wight and back in one day which equates to roughly 500 miles in a 20 hours period. Up at 3am, picked my friend and traveling companion up and set off. Luckily made it to Southampton for the ferry on time and faced my ultimate phobia (ok not quite but..) and drove onto the Ferry. It seems that one day I decided that were I to drive onto a Ro-Ro I would someone drive into the water, sink to the bottom and fail to escape from the flooding car. No, don’t ask, I don’t know where it came from either. Had to love the Captain on board though, as we left Southampton he gave an announcement like an airline pilot and welcomed us to “Red Eagle” which actually came out across the tanoy system as “Spread Eagle.”
Anyway, the purpose of this great trek was to attend an interview with a shipping company on the Island. I think it went well, I didn’t crash and burn and it lasted about an hour or so. It’s my fourth interview for the same position so I’ve had a fair bit of practice. I’ve got a couple of offers on the table but until I’ve signed a contract I’m playing the field, with the economic climate as it is I think I would be mad not to. I liked the company, they operate worldwide as opposed to specific areas but there were some downsides too. They certainly aren’t the best payers, not that that’s an issue but it’s something for consideration. They also don’t employ a lot of Brits and said themselves they try to put you with people who will make an effort with training which perhaps sounds a little ominous. We’ll see, there were a lot of plus points.
We spent the rest of the afternoon cruising around the Island. I’ve found that I dislike driving on the Isle of Wight, all of the roads are so narrow and there’s the ever present threat of meeting a huge coach coming the other way on a blind bend. We hung out at Fort Victoria at the Marine Archeology exhibit which was pretty lol-tastic, the aquarium was good though and we saw some crabs having sex. Too many jokes can be made about that. Obviously I don’t know it as a fact that they were shagging, I’m not a crab expert, but I like to assume that that’s what they were doing.
Catching up
Ok, Ok, OK. So one of my new years resolutions was to post every week and I’ve blatantly failed at that during the last month but it’s been one of those months that has basically gone at 1000 mph. As soon as I got back from Barcelona I started working full time again as opposed to (at best) a 20 hour week so that’s taken up a vast amount of my time. Other than the odd run in with Hitler-esque (always female) under achieving faux-managers I do enjoy work, provided it’s my job that I’m doing as opposed to jobs that aren’t mine and ones that I dislike because some people can’t organise a piss up in the proverbial brewery. I digress.
Other than work the rest of my time has been spent running errands and going to the gym. I’ve brought most of the things that I need for my travels in the summer but I intend to run on about this in another post. Also I’ve been up to the Fleetwood, err, “riviera” for an interview and it was a nice trip out. A lovely warm, sunny day and a pleasant traffic free drive. What’s more I got offered the position that I went there for but I doubt that I’ll accept. The company whose offer I originally accepted have been (so my sources inform me) asking for references so that’s all good and hopefully I’ll be signing my contract before I bugger orf for the summer.
On that subject, I’m on the one month countdown and what a month it’s going to be. Highly enjoyable but mad busy at the same time. I have an interview on the Isle of Wight this coming week so I’ll be driving there and back in a day but my best friend is coming so it’s all a bit of a road trip. Whenever we’re together there’s disasters abound so watch this space for photographs and tales of idiocy. What else, well I’ve just booked a b&b in north Wales that has a chandelier made of antlers and I’ll be staying there with another good friend and trekking up Snowdon. A trip to Edinburgh at the end of the month, finishing work, having a medical for my new job, sorting everything for going away……………………….
Homage to Catalonia
I’m very lucky, I do get about a bit in the traveling sense of the term but it’s not often that I go to a place and think that I could live there. It’s one thing to visit somewhere and think it’s nice, fun, I might visit again one day and then move on but it’s another to click with somewhere and feel as if you could live there. I’ve felt that way about London (and I did live there for four years), I felt it about Edinburgh, Santa Cruz CA, Harare, Cape Town and now Barcelona. I really loved it. It’s a good sized city, good public transport, stunning architecture, palm tree lined streets, the beach, great food, clean, cosmopolitan and just generally nice. I keep meaning to do some kind of quirky travel reviews type posts so I’ll save all of the what to do and where to go type things for that. (When I finally get around to it.) For now though here’s some pictures, and there’s some more here too.
29th Feb
Well, it would be almost rude not to post on this special date. Not like it comes around every year! Sadly haven’t had the chance to propose to anyone. Better luck four years from now maybe?
Without further ado I bring you a random picture.
Coming or going. Dublin to Newcastle.
… I’m not sure which it is at the moment. It’s been a crazy week with one thing and another. Spent last weekend in Ireland visiting friends which was lovely and especially exciting as I’ve never actually been to Ireland before which is quite bad given how close it is. We hung out in Dublin and visited a few towns along the coast, I tried (and loved) white pudding and it was just simply the loveliest of weekends. Also was great to know that I’ve still got it when it comes to Cluedo and can pack away a pizza of gargantuan proportions.
Travel broadens the mind, so what have I learned? There’s a lot of dog poo in Ireland. It’s quite an expensive place. The people are lovely. The countryside is beautiful. Dublin is quirky in the loveliest of ways. In my quest to one day live in the middle of nowhere away from society, I think Ireland would be a good place for it. 4 million-ish people and a fair sized land mass? Sounds like a plan.
I got back from the airport at around 7pm on Monday evening and then by 5am the next morning I was getting up and catching the train to Newcastle for a job interview. Seriously, what a day. Practically everything went wrong. I dropped my Blackberry down the toilet in the train station, along with this my memory stick went flying out of my pocket but luckily this smacked onto the floor and I managed to run back and find it. This was particularly handy seeing as the files on it were a scan of my passport and all of my exam certificates since I was 16.
From here I needed to kill 3 hours. Starbucks, obvious choice. This place was so busy that after I got a drink I had to sit outside in the February cold. I then go to Vodafone to buy a shitty replacement phone and walk the remaining 0.4 miles to the offices on the Quayside that I needed to go to for my interview. This walk took 50 minutes. FIFTY MINUTES. I had a map that was complete fail, everyone I asked for directions sent me off on a tangent and it basically resulted in my walking/running down the street, swearing and sweating, on the verge of tears and literally just making it to my interview.
For the mean time though, super duper Barcelona excitement.
Travel fit
Work is still sort of non existent, but working a 22 hours week instead of a full-time week does have its advantages in that I’m able to spend a lot of time in the gym. The more I read about the trek to Machu Picchu the more I think oh my… I’m pretty fit these days but have the athletic equivalent of white coat syndrome. Every time there’s a physical challenge in front of me I convince myself that I can’t do it, that’ll get tired, hold everyone back and as such fail.
I don’t know why I do this but I do. I did it for days and days leading up to the gorilla trek last summer, I tied myself up so tight I was almost a bit of a mess… In reality it was fine. It was a challenge, we stopped for breaks and it was tiring but I did it just as well as anyone else. I think if I don’t put this stupidity to the back of my mind it will come back over and over again unless I somehow train to an athletic standard. Not going to happen. Slow and steady wins the race is what will happen though.
(Photo credit to: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tropical-blizzard/2084310843/)
On the subject of my summer trek to South America, I’m starting to get pretty excited and the other day marked the 3 month countdown. This might sound like a while but seeing as I paid the deposit for my trip back in September it feels like it’s just around the corner. Scarily so in fact. I’ve been starting to buy some of the bits that I need, namely silk sleeping bag liners, fleece liners, a new backpack and a fake therma-rest. Yes, I’m petrified of being cold. There were a few nights in Zimbabwe when it was so cold that I actually couldn’t sleep and this is not something I want to repeat.
Also this year I’m going for minimalism in what I take. I don’t tend to take loads of crap away with me but last summer I took quite a large bag which allowed me to take more things… Mainly I took extra clothes that in all honesty were a hassle more than a benefit. I’m being strict this year and I have to be seeing as my rucksack is around 80 litres and in there needs to go all of my camping things. No room for shite. I’m also going to need to drag my things all the way from Rio to Buenos Aires before I join the overland truck part of the my trip starting in Santiago so I don’t want the added horror of a bag that’s huge and full and heavy.
There’s just generally so much going on at the moment. I should receive some of the paperwork for my new job over the next couple of weeks or so. I’m off to Ireland this coming weekend, renewing my passport that week too and then going to Barcelona for a long weekend a couple of weeks after that. Mix into that trying to remember maths, gym-ing everyday and planning my summer trip there’s a decent amount of things to be getting on with.
Honourary Zimbo?
Did I ever mention that Zimbabwe is my favourite country in the whole wide world? When I’m there I really never want to leave, even with the power cuts and the water being off at random. I don’t want to discuss all of the issues going on there right now, of which there are many, because that’s not the point of this entry. I just want to say that underneath everything it is such an amazing country and YOU should go there. Right now. You’ll never regret it.
Here Goes:
The End.
Relief!
After an absolutely horrendous month of waiting (2 weeks to hear if I’d got the job and 2 weeks to hear if I was going to suffer if the government funding was cut) I finally have my answer and it’s good news. It was announced on Monday that SMarT funding is going to stay at its current level of £12 million per year until at least 2015. This money goes towards the training of British Merchant Navy officers and as far as I’m aware it supplements training to the tune of about 40%. Then the company that sponsors you picks up most of the remaining costs, though they do get tax breaks for this.
I’m lucky in that I’ve been offered sponsorship by a pretty interesting company who own their own vessels which operate all over the world. They also actually employ qualified British Officers as opposed to some who will train British Officers for the tax breaks but don’t actually employ Brits in their fleet. There’s a fair amount of debate about this and to be honest I don’t know enough to comment as it’s possible to have a mixed experience with any company. I do think it’s nice to know that there is the potential to be offered a job in the end and they also seemed genuinely interested in the quality of the training and making sure their trainees got the most out of it all which is nice.
I’ve been offered interviews with other companies but I’m happy with my original offer as it’s a good package on the table so to speak. It means that subject to passing a medical and sorting out all of the paperwork I’ll most probably be off to Southampton come September. I won’t pretend, I’m majorly excited and it can’t come soon enough. I finally have a career type job and one that I actually see myself in 10 years down the line not just for the next few months at best (like now.) I am however going to have to brush up on my maths and physics. Those two have not been a part of my life for a long, loooooong time!
Anyway, that’s all of my life in a nutshell right now. My current job is decreasing by the week, this coming week I’m working 6.5 hours. Seriously, what the fuck use to me is that? I am however on a countdown, only about 93 days until I’ll be leaving and believe me I’m counting down and crossing off each day in my diary. In addition to this I’m also thinking when I should announce my leaving at work (end of April) as I wouldn’t want a request for a reference to appear before I’ve mentioned this…
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