Clearly i am suffering from demob fever as i went and placed a deposit on a shiney new Yamaha , which i pick up on my return from Maroc :DThe dealer is in Wigan , which i had to google as i had no idea where it was doh Which is bizarre as i generally navigate around the continent with pants maps and manage pretty well , but my UK knowledge appears to be very lacking :helpsmilie:

No one ever said "See Wigan and die", so not a piece of knowledge I'd worry about looking up!


I'm sharing the Demob fever, there is certain joy in telling managers to make their own decisions because I won't be here to deal with the consequences of any I take. My tidy desk is getting a few comments from those who can't remember what colour theirs is under the piles of ****. Proof IMHO that any decent company would have leavers on a short run down programme, not spreading (even unintentionally) the grass-is-greener rot by hanging about with less than 100% of a job to do.


Enjoy the bike.


Andy

Too right Andy
I feel sorry for all those that are alot younger and me and have been told (1) You have to work ALOT longer (2) You have to pay ALOT more for your pension (3) you will get ALOT less at the end .
The majority of my colleagues are drowning under a sea of paperwork and jobs , whilst i just grab a car and go and deliver / collect files etc etc :scooter:
Still if you cant take a joke ................................................

Today, I handed in my notice.
No more excuses.
No more "what if's"
No more "next year"
I'm leaving - WOOHOOO!!!! :)

I often say to myself.. one day.... but good on you Elaine. I'm sure you wont regret it one litlle bit. Happy travels and ride safe.

Bones

WOOOOOOOOOOOO bier


That's probably one of the hardest things about your trip.

The next is booking your flight/shipping/ferry etc.

Then mark a day on your calendar and don't forget to turn the gas off.

After that, it's all gravy... :cool4:

Markharf,

I like your comment and I am going to bookmark it and show it to my son - he needs a little direction with attitude I think - It will do him good to see it come from someone else from the other side of the planet - try as we (wife and I) might he needs just a little of what you said and what can be read between the lines - '....stick to the studies and push through the barriers, stop dodging them, everything can be a pain and have it's bad moments but perseverence will not let you down' (well, I THINK I read that in your post), anyway thanks, it's a pretty honest comment.

Regards,
Greg O :thumbup1:

NO!

Hate it!
Been working as a jailer for the last 15 years. Before that, 12 years active duty U.S. Army. Finished off my military career with 8 years of reserve time.

On the positive side, I retire next year. I won't be rich, but I will be able to take a few trips now and again.

Gregbart

Charity work, rubbish pay.
 

I'm a youth and community project manager and have worked hard all all my career in a very rewarding job, that I'm totally passionate about. However, Ive always worked for registered charities, on absolutely rubbish pay. I've travelled lots but always on an absolute shoe string and usually only for two weeks at a time, ....'mini adventures' if you like. It's kinda worked, but now I'm getting older, I want to travel more and work less, while I still can. Until the mortgage is paid off, I can't presently figure a way to do that. My house is a big part of my pension, so, it's a bit too hard to just sell up and go blow the cash (unless I wanna live on the streets in old age!). However, the way the politics and benefits system of the UK work (especially, if you work hard and you are a home owner), you just get shafted every which way. Feeling burned out and restless. To figure the way out, I'm on a journey, of sorts, I guess, but, not one in which I physically travel? For the first time ever, I've just negotiated some unpaid leave, for my next adventure, maybe, that's a possible way forward?

Yes I love my job. I'm listened to and respected. I'm challenged and have to be creative and creatively work my way around problems either before they arrive or when they do. I'm king of my own castle, can direct others and I'm a piece of a well oiled machine.

Although I do love my holidays. (All 12 weeks)

i hate my job but it will have to do for now becouse after all it is steady work and it alows me to save up some money for a trip. but when i do give my notice it will be with a massive smile on my face

I used to like my job. It was a good laugh with the lads on our shift. We got through loads of work, customers were happy and the shift pattern we worked allowed us to get good family and holiday time.

Then the last recession hit.

Shifts were changed, lots of people left and were not replaced. Customers are no longer happy as we're not open when they want us to be. Most of the highly skilled lads have moved on, and now the company is trying to recruit more. Not many in our trade any good now, lots of fitters not many mechanics.
Funny we said to the management this would happen when they were cutting back, laying people off, messing with lives.
But they're all bloody accountants, that wouldn't know what a truck was if it landed on them.

Funny how every mechanic knows that if you lose 5 men that 200 hours labour a week less that you have to sell. Office staff now outnumber the workshop staff.

They have really screwed a good company up.

Already got 2 possible jobs lined up.....

1 year on update …. working offshore.
 

Since the thread is still going I thought I'd write an update.

I was new to offshore life and hoped it would give me more time off.
It does, but its not the same …...

I've been working in Africa for about a year. Gabon and now the Congo and I work 28 days on / 28 off.

I was originally looking for another way to manage my time and thought that 28 days on 28 days off would be pretty sweet. Pay is good and time off is good …. right?

Well, offshore life can be quite challenging and not very sociable. Days are hard and we never get enough sleep! But when your off, your off … for 28 days ! :palm:

So ….. whats the problem I hear you say? Got a bike :scooter:, some spare cash:thumbup1: Yup, but sadly, no ones ever about when I'm off.

Go on your own …… Yes, true, but I spend 28 days 'alone' and want to spend time with friends when I'm back…doing stuff :mchappy:

I've been on a few trips in this year, Spain was fantastic and the highlands of Scotland was too. Right now I'm looking at Tunisia again to play in the dunes or India maybe, but I'm a sociable person, I like to share lifes experiences. bier

You also miss stuff! Organisers rarely check with me before agreeing dates for events …. and I've missed a ton this year !!! doh …. not to mention births, deaths and marriages.

My wife rides her CRF250 every day to work, she's a dental student and loves travel and bikes too, but we find its never easy to line our lives up so we can do more. Even in the summer when she's off I worked and the same this Christmas. :thumbdown:

The long and short …… I keep the dream alive and look for the opportunities, when one comes along … I pounce !

Is working offshore better for me …. Not better, just very very different with new challenges.

:thumbup1:

ps, there is a very very small feel good factor knowing that I'm helping to keep our bikes going!

Thanks for the update Platypus,
Working in the natural gas industry myself, I was looking into doing the same as you.
Your post gives me food for thought

Bit sad that over 20% of the voters hate their job.

I wouldn't say I'm madly in love with my job but I've been doing the same thing for 10 years with 4 different brands. The only thing I truly dislike is the hours and the fact that 60% of my time 'at work' I'm not actually doing anything just waiting for others.

After many years of doing something that I hated ( plus having to work with some people I'd normally avoid ) just to pay the bills and raise a family and .then have the turmoil of a divorce thrust upon me

Out of the blue came a great job offer.
Don't let yourself stay stuck in the doldrums .
Get out of a lousy job and do something you love .
Life is too short.
PS I hate tapatalk!

What I want to know is where is Touring Ted????

Well my friends.

I'm currently in a shit hole town of Pakbang in Cambodia. Being treated like a walking ATM stuck on the gringo trail. All because I thought it was a good idea to try out 'Backpacking'..

Biggest mistake ever. I pay double or triple for everything, get herded around like a sheep going to market and have my face stuck behind bus windows for hours on end with no idea where I am or where I'm going.

Never ever ever ever again !!

Was meant to be back in the UK in mid march. Now I'm thinking mid Feb.

At least its not snowing haha ;)

Bugger public transport mate, trust me, you'll go nuts within days doh


Fancy a trip to Oz mate?

I backpacked in SE Asia a few years back and know exactly what you mean about the gringo trail...it's hard work to get off. It feels like everyone wants you there so they can make money off you.

If you don't want to go home straight away but are fed up with SE Asia you could try India for a few weeks. I'm sure there is a gringo trail there too, but it's easy to buy train tickets yourself and travel with the locals.

I've actually been checking flights. £500 return from bangkok. Cheaper from Bali though.

Darwin/Kimberleys are not looking good this time of year eh ??

And its sooooooo expensive !!!:??

I spent a month on the west coast of India in 2012. Less of a trail as you say. Visa is too expensive again for a couple of weeks..

Mate you know you're welcome to hang out here, plenty to see and do!


Forget the Kimberly this time of the year! keep working on it Ted you'll find a flight, one way from BKK-DRW and return to DPS maybe? I'll start stocking up on T-Bones and Coopers!


Cheers

£150 quid with Jetstar Asia.. Ho chi min to Darwin. You've planted a seed.

You're going to get me into trouble..

Dave.... You drop bear ass monkey. I just looked at the Darwin weather.. Haha Torrential rain storms 24/7 ;)

Bit o rain never stopped the beer fridge or BBQ from working mate!

That's a bloody good point mate. Just need to get Stan and Andy a flight and we've got a reunion on our hands.

Well you'd better get you ass up to Ho Chi Min and on that plane, you'll have to represent Stan & Andy!

Not even an Xmas card either :rolleyes:

Taken from the OP's original post;
"This interests me.....

I always assumed most people hated their jobs. I've never found a job I liked.

Some have been better than others and some are fine for a while."

I have always looked foreward to retirement, even though my final job was quite well paid & l got to travel within the UK (I may have stayed there other than my manager was a complete dick head!

I retired at 54 & due to that ugly statistic called "marrying a Yank" I got to travel in an RV from Cnada to Mexico with many diversions in between.
I am no longer married so l get to live cheaply in Missouri & use my savings to travel to places like Nepal/Sri Lanks/Thailand & as often as possible back to my beloved UK/Europe (l went back twice last year!)

Going back to generalise work, it does infringe on travel, but for most people you have to work to make money so that you can travel.....:palm:

Well that's an odd one: I haven't had time for HUBB stuff lately so didn't see Ted's 'issues' in SEA, but I've always thought that backpacking sucks, mainly because so many just seem to follow the same route, with rip-offs to match . .

On the other hand why should Rich Kids from the West complain when a very poor person trues to male a few bucks - after all that's often all it amounts to . . .

I remember a friend getting train tickets in Delhi and was overcharged', i.e. undercharged by about £40 for a massive rail journey. He thought it was great until months later he realised that the ticket main could have lost his job, and about three months pay fine for the error . . .

Everything in its due perspective methinks :)

Regs

Simon

What I want to know is what's Mr Ted doing at the moment?

I have been back in the UK about a month now. Just registered myself as a sole trader and gone freelance. Planning to build some custom bikes and see if I can turn a profit. Also going to fabricate some non bike related stuff too. Also, might give journalism another shot. Early days !!! We'll see.

I've recently set up as a Limited Liability Partnership, which is in effect a sole trader but there's two of us :)

But I also have a brillliant accountant who is into the custom scene, so if you want a recommendation just send me a PM

Simon

Could be a vacancy at the BBC shortly. :rolleyes2:

Mind you, Touring Ted, The Hamster and Captain Slow sounds more like a 70's hippie road movie. :rofl:

Haha hell yeah. I could be the next Clarkson.

Aim higher. Jeffrey Archer sold more books and more people watched Michael Fish on the telly!


This thread is like the "what bike" one. I need to change my vote. Free career advice; if you are basically lazy and uninterested in anything commercially valuable become a technical expert. Far better to be senior specialist sub-minion than minion in charge of sub-minions.


I wonder how that Hamster bloke see's his place in history? 2-i-c to Clarkson. Money must be good to stand that.


Andy

Kind of surprised to see that so many people genuinely enjoy their jobs. Good for you guys. bier

yes i am doing my job because of money problem and this is not my dreamed job.

Semi retired on 80 hours a week
 

I have been in the hotel/restaurant trade for 35 years and was unhappy, so took a new course doing similar thing in events management and despite being semi retired I enjoy an 80 to 100 hours a week very regurlaly. Different venue and people every day, best of all as I work freelance I invoice for every hour worked, every mile travelled! Great as well that I can pick and choose what I do and when I do it

Work / Life balance
 

I always figured that I would have some kids and then see the world later on when they were old enough. Now, I have a job that is not too bad 4 days a week and I don't work too hard. The problem is that although I get to see the kids I don't have the big cash and holidays are infrequent.
Trying to balance everything is really hard and if I took a job that paid really well, the kids would never see me and we would drift apart - which is the last thing I would ever want

Well I love organising trail riding events in Spain, which I've been doing for the last three years. Now the Uk government has added five more years contributions to get a full pension, so I've gone 'legit' and now I'm a UK business :thumbup1:

Regs

Simon

Wait for the 2016 pension bomb shell, if you were final salary, as I was or in another company scheme, the suggestion is that you paid a reduced national insurance amount so you may end up having less years then you think. Hence me paying class two subs even though I could opt out due to what I earn part-time.

Already out of the final salary scheme . . .

Ta for the info though :)

Simon

I am pretty happy in my job :) but I actually dont work in the job I've did my appreticeship (computer specialist). I work as a travel agent now and have around 3 month of payed holidays (due to overtime and 6 days weeks plus 5 weeks of normal holidays). Therefore I work quite a lot but in a great job with good people and I have the possibility to travel a lot. Its not big money in this industry but I used to earn a lot and it didnt make me happy...therefore I rather work in a job I like as long as I can pay my bills, my motorbike gadgets and my travels than earning loads and hating every day of the week bier

you'll never find a man on his deathbed saying, 'you know, I wish I spent less time with my kids'

I have been a truckdriver for 22 years. Drove around in Europe.
Now, since a few weeks I don'v drive anymore and started to work as a mechanic with trucks ans busses. And I like it very much. I work less houres, have more days off in a year and all that at 200m from my house. OK, I have less money at the end off the month but now I have more time to plan my next biketrip and I am more relaxed on my job and at home.

When I finished working the Mrs said she was amazed how quick I made the transition from working to a clock to now not having to.
Have just spent a fantastic month staying in montenegro, now on way home, next time will do Albania and move on from there.
Living out of my side cases , don't miss home at all. I consider myself extremely lucky, am young enough to enjoy it, have a decent pension and am OK money wise, have a disability but am buggered if I will let that stop me, on the bright side it let's me Park in reserved bays lol.
Now what's that Touring Ted bloke up to at the moment??

Earn while you sleep...
 

At sixty eight, I am arguably one of the senior members of the HUBB.
And, I have realized that there are 3 ways to legally earn money.

1. Buy something that is needed and wanted and sell it for more than paid for it.

2. Provide a needed and wanted service.

3. Manipulate various currencies so that your investment in one currency
results in a profit in another currency.

Once I understood how the majority of people earn money - excluding the "trustafarians" , those poor souls who have inherited money from the past performance of relatives and wander the world in a vain attempt to figure out who they are.... as they have not actually participated in earning a living like the rest of us, a task that instills self confidence and integrity....- excluding the "trustafarians" who more often than not often dress in the garb of the foreign locals in a desperate attempt to obliterate their personal reality and include themselves ..... in some group, any group and when that fails as it always does turn to drugs, alcohol and sex, ........ to distract themselves from having to consider who they are and how they got there.

I reasoned that if I could combine all three ways of legally earning money that it would be much better than committing to one or the other of the three ways. Here, I will share with you the results of my ambition to combine all three ways I determined that money is earned legally.

1. Discover what is needed and wanted and buy it, for example parking spaces in a parking high rise in a big city where, by your own research you discover, there is a great need for safe and secure parking. The parking spaces we purchased have increased in value by one to two thousand dollars a year.

2. Offer what you have purchased , parking spaces, to provide the needed and wanted service of safe and secure parking.

3. Do this in a country where your own past performance money / social security/pension is in a currency that can be traded for the local currency at a great advantage to you......and collect a currency from your clients that also can be exchanged on the local market for a profit beyond the profit of providing the service itself.

4. Make sure you have a trustworthy, foolproof way of administering your investment and collecting the payments from your clients. For example, have your clients deposit directly into a local bank account via an ATM etc and thus eliminate anyone handling your money.... The idea is to do all this without expending any of your own time and energy, thus you earn money while you sleep.

oh, I almost forgot, marry an intelligent, beautiful partner who is much younger than you and can carry on long after you are gone. see photo

comments welcome....

Eat , Drink and invest wisely

xfiltrate

I'm in the "means to an end" camp, but I wish I've been the guy that hated his job before too and it sucks. We spend so much time at work and doing work, that it can really drain the life out of you if you let it.

Sadly, my life is pretty much all drained out! Let's keep paying those bills! :(

Gotta stack that paper! Even on the weekend:(

Love my jobs (not all aspects of it) but I'm also excited that it is going to end. It creates new possibilities, like traveling.

Life is not only about working, it's about having fun in the first place.

Every Cloud Has A Silver Lining
 

What a great thread and some really interesting replies.


If you had of asked me maybe 18months ago I would have said yes but it’s all gone a bit wrong lately.


But as they say every cloud has a silver lining, it’s all made us re-evaluate our lives and I’ve come with a phrase that sums it all up “the more sh*t you have, the more sh*t you have” so I’m busy de sh*tting my life!

I’ve never had any great career plan and have worked in the same industry since leaving school and have basically risen through the ranks to a senior position. The motivation for this has actually been boredom, I’d do a job for maybe 3 to 4 years max. and then move on. To achieve this you always tend to move on up the food chain as sideways moves are frowned on in my organisation.


I’ve an odd job, my day job is talking and dealing with all the corporate cr*p and huge budgets, this is mixed in with onsite stuff, literally paddling around in the mud and at times in challenging conditions. On the face of it great, varied and challenging. The reality is that I’ve come to detest the individuals I have to deal with in my “day job”. Their sharp suits, pathetic corporate speak, leased merc’s and BMW’s is as far as their imagination and characters stretch. Unlike the guys on site who are real people. This being my roots, climbing poles, building stuff. When I did this we worked hard but we laughed hard too, I’d literally go home with aching stomach muscles from laughing all day. Of course your memory plays tricks on you, you forget the hyperthermia, hands sticking to steel work because it’s so cold, being soaked completely through, 18hr days at times 30hrs non stop.


So I’m now 54 and in a bit of a mess, it’s tough to admit that I’ve been bullied at work (I never thought I was “soft”) I’m on medication that turns you into a monochrome character (or a reality version of the Body Snatchers film) my councillor thinks I’ve got a version of PTSD.
But I’m coming through it, I’m keeping busy (I seem to have found my niche in digging) and sorting our house out ready to sell in the new year. My wife has been so supportive (more than I could have been I’m ashamed to say) and we have plans:
Sell the house
Demolish a house and build a new one
Sell the G Wagen and buy a Sprinter 4x4, build an overland camper
Go travelling. Asia first and then Europe and Africa in the Sprinter


After maybe 18 to 24 months get some sort of job. I have an “as is” and a “to be” spreadsheet. Basically by the time we’ve “de sh*tted” our lives we need to earn £500 each per month to end up with the equivalent disposable income that a 6 figure salary gives now.

Bring on 2016 :-)

Well said that man. There's nothing to be ashamed or embarrassed about with 'bullying'. I was victimised by my ex-boss - and set up to be the scape goat when a huge It project flopped - and the stress was incredible.

I hope you are able to sue the b******ds - I wasn't - and get on with your new life having drawn a line under the old one.

We did the Big Break back in 1997, a bit more panic stricken and less clean cut than your plans, but never regret it.

Good luck - and don't forget the trip report :)

Regs

Simon

Thanks for the word's of encouragement, I never thought I'd be here but when it happens it's amazing how many other people have been through it and come out of it in a better position. I can't retire but I equally don't need all the materialistic sh*t that we accumulate.

I don't bare my sole on the internet:oops2: but it was actually quite cathartic.

Anyway if I had broken my leg (or worse) at work then yes any ambulance chasing lawyers would have sued. This I doubt it even though he's known for it.

I'm convinced this will turn out to be a positive but it's been grim.

Yes I'll make sure I report backbier

You may have grounds to sue for constructive dismissal, but only if you left under your own steam rather than accept any deal.

It's a difficult one but in UK there is - or was perhaps - unlimited liability and some people have won shedloads on money!

Worth thinking about of you're still negotiating an exit but I guess you really do need specialist advice!

Regs

Simon

Just over a year ago, I posted that I had handed in my notice. About 6 weeks later, I locked up my belongings, stored my vehicles and flew to New Zealand. I arrived on a tourist visa with the notion of finding work, then obtain a work visa.
I am now very happily employed and living in Wellington.

Get in touch if you're heading this way :)

Hi Elaine,

Thought your posts looked familiar - congratulations! :clap:

Meanwhile my 'voyage' has gone the other way in a manner of speaking: I've turned my blog and the HISS off road events from a hobby into a 'job' by registering 'The Spanish Biker' as a UK based business - we had a successful first season and next year is already looking good ...

Best wishes for your new life.

Simon

15 months
 

HI folks
I have been retired now for 15 months.
ante I had been mostly a teacher, mostly in high schools . enjoyed it , yes , mostly .
15 years I had been training noobs for the job ; nice 12 years , boring and increasing stupidity at the end . The last 4 years i work as a teach in a mental health bospital :innocent:, I met some intersting people and some nasty ones . New program also, new things to fix ! Great !
I hope i finished straight ! Not made the " combat de trop" like we said for boxers .
Now i will be back more on trails, more on big rides, and so .
BUT the last year was tough to get through
- a deer shoots me down ; a clavicula and some ribs
- my mother gets sick and passed away in may
-bla bla with some family blokes


In 81 , as we got back from the big tour in Africa, we did not dare to open a bike shop for to prepare XT's for raids ( my pal the mechanic and me)
Other life ?
keep on running all of you . :rofl:

I am self employed, that aspect I dislike, I also work three quarter time for the state gov in a kick ass job, pay sucks though. So I am at a commendrum in life, I have always believed work was just work and busted my ass, however now that I am older and as stated most of your life is spent at work, it is great to have a job I look forward to each day.

Regardless I intend to retire early and this job allows at least a meagre early retirement at 55. :thumbup1: plus I get several weeks paid vacation a year, hard to beat that.

So, Will I Do It?
 

95 Days, 15 hrs and 17 minutes before I press the send button on my resignation:thumbup1:

Watch this space.

I've already put my stuff on this topic long ago but as it's new year-ish it's always a time to take stock. Plus we've had a year of sorting out our affairs for our '2nd retirement', i.e. what happens from age 66 in seven years time after having quit the rat race aged 40 back in '97.

That stage came in two parts: a) downsizing in the UK house market and paying off our mortgages and buying a house for cash aged 35, and b) using that freedom to put two fingers to the s***e that we had to put up with in our jobs and moving here to Spain into a ruined cottage that we'd picked up along the way.

Both of these weren't exactly free choices as we had each suffered a great deal of angst in the process, having been victimised at work and in my case being used as a scapegoat by the board of directors to cover their backsides after making a barking, mulkti-million ££££ mistake in choosing an IT 'solution' - no prizes for guessing that I worked in the UK National Health Service.

Moreover we never made a mortgage payment of under 10% in our entire time as house owners - the worst was 17%, think about that nowadays! We started out aged 18 and spent our 'leisure' time up to our armpits in brick rubble, etc. in between having two part time jobs each on top of our full-time careers.

OK, we're poor but happy but here's the rub: that last house would now be worth a cool £1.1 million, and if I'd just stayed put and watched my ass like all of my colleagues, who still attend lots of meetings and achieve or produce nothing, I'd have collected a very fat pension three years ago now aged 55.

But the balance: Our new business, The Spanish Biker LLP, has ended its first year in the black and we're starting 2017 as Event Partners with none other than Grant and Susan for the 2017 HUMM: Sierras de España - Aragón ... YES! :D

Were we right? Over to you guys and gals

Regs

Simon

There's a well known saying "you'll only regret the things you've not done and you should never regret the decisions you have made". I'm sure I've mangled that but you get it, another one I like is "there are no refunds in life".

So although there are some similarities we're in a slightly different situation, I'll leave more on my terms (hopefully) and I figure once we've de shi##ed our lives we'll survive on not a lot of money and improve our quality of life.

So congratulations on your business and no brainer you did the right thing:thumbup1:

Russ

OK so the old house would be worth a six figure sum, so what........ If you carried on living in it then it's value is academic, if you stayed in that pants job then you would of haved to trade up in size to keep up with the Joneses and buy a four by four too. Heart attack by fifty five etc etc........ Or have a smaller house, eat loads of tapas and enjoy life..... Difficult one that doh only down side I see is having to drink San Miguel Yuk. Btw where abouts are you in Spain??

Thanks for your kind words Chris and Russ.

In fact I wasn't moaning or feeling down in any way, just taking some time out to reflect and run out a few ideas that others in similar situations to mine back then may be pondering - correctly methinks.

You may not think so but I've never been materialistic or bothered about money in any way, just for reason that will remain in the box marked 'private stuff' both Mrs S and I had a profound need to have a secure home of our own since, well, forever really ... and an unlooked for consequence of the strange British property scene we became capital rich - but cash poor - at a very young age.

But there's no denying that money does matter, especially as you begin to stare old age in the face and realise that what seemed a long time to wait for the big pension, in my case 15 years to 55, pales into insignificance if the context of a life expectancy well into one's '80s. So that's why we spent 2015 re-planning our future, what we want out of it and how we propose to pay for it ...

Then as it happens an unexpected visit over the holiday weekend from an old friend from way back in the early 'eighties again rebooted the hindsight system. The only time I seriously doubted my decision was around my 55th birthday and then when I talked about 'regrets' with my best friend here (my Spanish and Catalan isn't good enough to filter or disguise the finer feelings and she doesn't speak any English at al so when we talk secrets we just have to belt it out as it comes - much cheaper than therapy!) she pondered for a minute and said, "But, then you wouldn't have met me!" And i think that puts it in a nutshell.

Chris, I live in two places; the cottage, which is in the Catalan Pyrenees, and inside the Roman walls in Tarragona city right on the Mediterranean coast, where we bought a tiny bolt hole near to a source of work when we realised that you can't eat a view! As I write the mortgage on the purchase amounts to the princely sum of €285.87 - but the one we took out to do it up is, er, somewhat larger ...

Meanwhile, life would indeed be not worth living if all one had to drink was the beastly San Miguel - a torture only surpassed by overhearing the occasion British tourist asking for 'San Mig-well'. Fortunately almost no-one here drink the s****, apart form tourists, so there's plenty of choice, Estrella Damm, Mahou, Cruzcampo, etc. to name but a few. But none of these hold a candle to real beer, which I really do miss - oh! - and now that we have no ties with the UK whatsoever there's a genuine possibility that I may never taste the stuff in its home context again!

The only other yearning that I can satisfy in some ethic shops in Barcelona - an hour away by train - is for Marmite - well, you can't have it all! :rofl:

Regs

Simon

Lots of people in that position me thinks.... Asset rich etc etc. It sounds so bad there we may have to organise an airlift of leffe beer, baked beans and marmite :innocent:
Anyway if you managed a few years in the NHS your new life is a piece of piddle :thumbup1:

Unbelievable, my wife read this:
The Life-Changing Magic of Not Giving A F*ck: How to Stop Spending Time You Don't Have with People You Don't Like Doing Things You Don't Want to Do: Amazon.co.uk: Sarah Knight: 9780316270724: Books

And she's beaten me to it by resigning. I thought it was all about me:innocent:

Anyway 86 days 11hrs. and 10 minutes......

Excited and a little scared:clap:

Like the title of that book :thumbup1:

Well, a year ago I was still employed and made good money.
Last year they proposed to pay me out of the company.
As it was quite a big amount I signed.
I was supposed to leave the company end of June 15.
But I broke my leg in Morocco in May...I was lying on my couch until 31st aug. 15, and was pid almost my normal salary by the insurance.
From 1st of oct. I was paid by the government (we have a mandatory unemployement insurance in Germany!!)
In Sept. I was riding through Spain, France and Portugal.

I can tell that I didn´t like my job, but it was worth it.
Now I have my chance for a long term trip on my beemer.
Secretly I started to rebuilt it in the past few years, and it´s prepared to start.

Now I´m looking forward to start either in Canada or take a ride to Japan.

It worked out fine for me, I am really max. relaxed and as long I can pay my expenses it´ll stay that way.

So, no I didn´t like my job and no I won´t do that again.:nono:

Some people have all the luck!! Good for you ... life has a funny way of giving us what we really want. Happy riding!
http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...es/scooter.gif

In german there ist a telling which says "the sun shines out of my axx ("the south exit" :cool4: )
I feel very lucky, also to have a wife who is fine with my plan to ride the world, at least for 18 months...

But it still was hard to achieve what I got now. But still I´m very lucky.
I can´t tell how lucky I feel, but I was and still am ready to work for evrything, although there is no need to right now.
Maximum relaxation:D:D

Number or people working their dream job is higher than I thought. Just as many as those that hate their work. Interesting.

Still.......NO!!!!

In 44 years of employment I can safely say that I enjoyed less than 10% of that. Made redundant at the end of 2012 I took a three month contract as a project manager with a large IT company, and hated it... I'm fortunate that I get a modest pension, so terminated the contract and started my own small gardening business: no ambitions to expand or even make "living wage", I take on jobs that I enjoy (and customers that I like) and earn just enough to run my bike and have a couple of weeks touring each year.

Yes!
 

Yes I like it because it let me take some time to go biking :thumbup1:

I guess I'm one of the lucky ones then lol, I've worked most of my life in heavy transport mostly as a SPMT operator on projects all over the world, benefits are seeing new places and playing with adult sized remote control cars, and beer now on a project 30 days on 30 days off, that means 30 days on the bike with the wife meeting/ flying to me on weekends beer

I can say that i am happy and not happy with my jop. I run my own transportation company and represent a German company, i have two partners and my working hours are very flexible. When i am bored i ride where i want to (short rides)... But i can not say this for my profit :) i am lucky i don't have fixed working hours, but i am not happy i can not earn enough money i am not happy cos my jop is full of stress...

Am i lucky or...?

:)

The Adventure Begins
 

Well I've gone and done it. Finished work as of the 2nd of March. I collected all my stuff together, laptop, phone, ID etc and handed it all over. Considering it constituted 30 plus years worth of "stuff" I felt next to nothing. I thought I may have some regrets, anxiety, fear, sadness. But no. Apart from every day that goes by I'm starting to figure that I don't have minutes to cram hours worth of thinking/work into a day. I'm absolutely de shi##ing my mind as well as my life.
Anyone want a pile of work clothes? Wow that felt good, going through the wardrobe and removing anything remotely "corporate" I will NEVER wear a tie again, maybe not a suit either. You should never trust a middle-aged man in a sharp suit :-)
We've bought this, so the adventure begins. How does "The White Van Plan" sound?
2016 Europe and maybe Morocco if we have time.
2017 South Africa. Then who knows. It won't be your standard rtw trip, we'll still have family and business commitments in the UK.

I'm really pleased with it so far.

For the petrol heads it's:

Selectable 4wd by pushing a button on the dash. Not quite as basic as a mechanical lever but that's progress. This is the configuration I wanted. They do multiple variations, some constant 4wd. Only down side is that it doesn't have the low range transfer box. But the engine is very flexible and torquey so shouldn't be an issue. At the end of the day it's not an extreme off road vehicle.
OM642. 3.0 V6.190bhp, 440Nm. Goes really well, very flexible. Don't know the economy yet, I've only done 300 miles or so.
6 speed manual. They do a 7 speed auto but that's pushing my confidence in MB electronics too far :)

So the conversion will start the end of this week. It looks like we will have enough space for a permanent double bed, compact kitchen unit and a toilet/shower cubicle (luxury :) )

Only issue to date is that my wife struggles to get in and out, jeez it's high! See the photo, for perspective I'm around 6ft 1.

Congrats RussG!! Have fun and live it up!

I hate my job. I think I am absolutely wasting my life there, it's utterly pointless and useless and meaningless and just plain inhumane. People should be exploring the world and themselves, and discovering things and people, and be free, and enjoy sunrises and fresh air and unlimited bloody horizons rather than be sat at a desk in front of a computer!!

That said, I can't really see a way out just now, so I'm going to stick it out, but it's absolutely soul destroying, and what's even more terrifying is that 99% of my colleagues think it's perfectly fine and normal way for humans to exist - in fact they think I am the freak for wanting to ride my bike around the world.

I'm sitting at a desk in front of a computer at this very moment, looking outside and dreaming of taking off as well. Although understanding your comment about it all being pointless, I try to see it as a way to provide a roof, food and some amenities for myself as well as securing my financial needs and family responsibilities. Do I like my job? It's not so bad. I'd rather be out riding for sure. My work still has the advantage of making it possible for me to take off for a few weeks at a time. As I'm doing this, I'm slowly able to shed the needless stuff in my life, the kids are starting to fly on their own and I am reaching a period in my life where I can be less dependent on a steady income. This being said, it's still a big step to take the leap of faith, chuck the job, sell everything and take off for the ultimate road trip. The endless " What if "questions are never too far away. My hat goes off to the people who have taken that leap.
As for the "normal people", I think that society has "trained" us to become caged hamsters and tricked us into thinking that the norm is to grow up, get a job, find a mate, make more hamsters, and die. All this for ensuring our way of life. Most people are willing to give up their liberties in order to feel safe and secure. The endless tragedies that are shown in the media keep the population in check and scare them just enough to remain sedentary.
The world being brought closer through technology is still a very big place to discover and it's a shame that people have lost their sense of adventure because there are so many beautiful areas and experiences to be discovered.

Funny coincidence as I was scanning the posts ... I came across a post I made in 2016. Ever since, I had sold my house and gotten rid of my unnecessary "stuff". I managed to get a year-long sabatical to take off and do my dream trip. I was supposed to leave in May 2020, but the world turned sideways with a planet-wide pandemic before my start date. I'm still planning on taking off next spring. You know what they say about planning .... I guess s**t happens. Looking on the bright side, I've still got my health and piling more cash towards the trip.

No.

How did I miss this gem?!
 

Only 8 years too late which, to those who know me probably seems early.

I do like my job. In fact, I've recently embarked on my third career!!

The first was an office job with some travelling and a passing association with my uni studies. Paid well, but sucked every waking minute from my day and gave me stress-based blood pressure levels by my late 20s. So plenty of cash, but no time to enjoy it.

Move country to Estonia, and take up something else completely different. I got shorter working weeks, long holidays, but naff-all pay. So lots of time but no money to enjoy it.

Career #3: start a business with a friend. Starting a business at the thin end of a global pandemic sucks but it was then or never. Enjoy it. Work on my terms. Have decent free time. Hopefully get decent money.

Noice....

I've been at my current position (IT work with a gov't agency). I'm ready to move on... but I can start collecting a reduced pension in just over a year, so my plan is to stick out until December 2022, and then make some decisions.

Seeing how the world has turned sideways, you're better off waiting it out for the next year.

I've only quit 4 jobs this year

Which is below par for me ( there has been a pandemic mind you )

But to reinforce my answer from years ago....

Management sucks
Patients are awesome

Keep on keeping on

I am retired and I love it !
I hope the travel restrictions will be gone next spring or summer. I just started a VLOG on youtube and would love to put some nice travel videos on YouTube.
Until recently, I just took a lot of pictures during my trips and wrote a travel BLOG (https://jkrijt.home.xs4all.nl/trips/index.shtml) but thanks to my son, I started a VLOG

Well, actually two VLOGS. My own personal VLOG under my own name, Jan Krijtenburg and the other with the name Motormobilist, together with my son who started riding motorbikes just a few months ago.

For now, I'll post all my new videos on the Motormobilist channel.
The Motormobilist channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7o...KqR3SyQiVy6ehw

Since the pandemic (and winter) stops me from travelling, I do the next best thing: applying my tech and business skills to improve people's riding experiences. The downside is that if we succeed it'll be a couple of very busy years before I can head off into the horizon. And that I don't have a salary yet... Watch this space for a description of what we do once we're going public!

I could never keep showing up at a job I hated. I need to feel enthusiastic about what I do at all times, which tends to make me better at whatever it is I do. I even tried to be enthusiastic when I had a summer job packing books into boxes. I really got to use my Tetris skills.

The couple of times I've felt bad about my job I've crashed into depressive periods. Sometimes I wish I could adopt a "work to live" attitude, but as work takes up so much of my life, I need to find a way to make it important.

Blimey, this discussion goes back so far I think I've had another complete career since it started! :rofl:

I've always distinguished between career and job - in my head anyway. A career is something I've been interested in, qualified for and earn my lifestyle through. It's an activity that, at some level, is what I am. On that basis I've had two careers throughout my working life. No 1 was working in a research lab throughout my 20's / early 30's. The second was when life opened up for me in my mid 30's (post divorce!) and I started a photography business. At one level I never really saw myself as a photographer but I was good at it, it paid well (for a time anyway) and it certainly opened doors into a whole load of other stuff / places I'd never have been able to otherwise access.

Jobs though, they're activities I take on (usually but not always) for monetary reasons. I don't have to enjoy them (although some have been great fun) but they have to pay and I judge whether to take them on on the basis of stress vs reward. On that basis I've had somewhere around 20-25 jobs over the course of my life.

Some of them have been bizarre - I've been an axe and knife throwing instructor. Some of them have been slave labour - picking potatoes by hand as a child to help out with the family finances. Some of them have been 'rewarding' - I met one of the loves of my life as a stand-in Xmas postman, and some of them have been a waste of time - a 'fender bender' crash investigator for the car insurance world. They paid a flat rate and I quickly worked out if the car was more than three miles away (they almost always were) it wasn't worth the effort of going. Annoyingly one of the post retirement jobs I quite enjoyed doing has not survived Covid so, for the second time in my life, I've been made redundant. No big deal for me but some of the other people for whom it was more career than job will be far more badly affected.

I'm trying to work out now what I'll look towards doing after Covid is no longer an issue. I'm not sure I want another zero hrs / min wage level job - unless there's some other interest in it anyway but temperamentally I'm not the sort just to sit around in retirement with an endless supply of box sets and a big tv. I've been writing travel books (for my own amusement) over the last 10yrs or so - just finishing number 5 - and I might self publish them on Amazon or somewhere out of interest. One sale and that would be another tick in the jobs I've learnt money from list. :thumbup1:

Over the last 12 months I would say that I have not enjoyed my job - however it is now starting to be much more fun and I am having to juggle the jobs coming through the factory more and more and am now running two production lines all day most days whereas this time a year ago I had one running about 3 days a week for half a day at a time. So now I am a happy chap. I would still rather be travelling though but this is paying for the trip.

After getting up for my 3am pee thought I'd browse HU posts and found this thread and your opening sentence.. Exactly this, 2012 post India trip I decided to look at a change of job and the sole driving force I am embarrassed to admit too was 'more money' needed to fund a need to travel. Look where the world is now compared to when this thread started but particularly look at where 'we' can now travel..?? Since drastically changing my work environment and tweaking/improving my skillset I've allowed myself to realise my long-term dream of RTW travel. It seems to be a trade-off between doing something you more so endure than love for the reward so you can do something you actually love..!! I would imagine somewhere out there theirs folk who die only ever doing their job in which they love SO much there isn't a need for anything else in their lives...!! Eeeek...!!!

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