Talk Morgan Forums Community The Malvern Arms Life's too Short

... make that 5 Pete. Ex Systems Administrator for JLP (a great company - and I'm missing the 17% bonus they all got last week ), now High Speed Trains from Bristol to Swansea/Hereford/Paddington/Exeter and all points in between, 10 weeks holiday ( ) and more money (excl Bonus !) than at JL.

Do have a number of 01.45 / 02.40 / 03.23 starts thou...

Would not ever go back. Now a round peg in a round hole, and it's a great feeling.

Early starts are not a problem to me!
Late ones are...
At 54 I don't think I'd make it into HSTs, or any other professional rail work - but good on you Jeremy. I know my Land Rover pal misses the railway, even though he's up to his eyes in rebuilding a cottage!
The way the jobmarket is at present, it will be difficult to find anything else in the employed line. I will not commute long distances - that is stressful - and in the beginning of January 2001 nearly led to my demise...

Love all the great stories - brilliant!!

IMHO its making the final jump/cutting the cord that is the difficult part.Lots of folk "think" about "doing it" - I would say jump in - the water is quite warm!!!

I'm now 16 working days away from 18 hours a week........

2001 was the year that decided the "big gamble" for me :

Incident 1: Driving little VW Lupo to exhibition at NEC; Norbert Detressangle and his big red lorry decided he wanted to be in middle lane; I was already there, overtaking him. Lotus Esprit (S3 I think) doing nee-narr speed in outside lane. Hit brakes as hard as I could & read the makers name on the rear crash bar of ND lorry VERY close up ;
Incident 2: Driving VW to exhibition at NEC (theme developing here); Jonny Foreigner and his big not-red lorry decided he wanted to be in middle lane; I was already there (join in when you feel up to speed TM'ers) but this time slightly further forward; BMW something-fast in o/s lane. Hit brakes very hard and lent on horn. JF lorry swerved back into nearside lane AFTER collecting my passenger wing mirror
Incident 3: Two weeks later, in a warehouse in central London, went into MD's office. All secretaries bawling their eyes out. On TV : a loop of two planes being flown into Twin Towers. Text from "COME HOME NOW, London's next"
That weekend, searched Internet, found "train drivers wanted" ad (the only other career I had ever wanted), applied, interviewed, interviewed again, offered, sworn at repeatedly by MD, took £ 26k pay CUT (for a year), hand shaken warmly by MD at leaving do - and have never looked back.

[It's ok, you can wake up now, I'm done ]

Jeremy

Good for you Jeremy.

We spend most of our lives working - so best that your job should be something which you find fulfilling and enjoyable.

Been there with the trucks a couple of times....do they ever look in their mirrors? The worst was coming back from picking up g/f from Bristol airport on her first trip to UK and nearly her last! In outside lane of M5 overtaking a large container lorry who decided to veer into the outside lane as I alongside him I had no choice with cars behind me to pull half of the outer lane towards the crash barrier...which seemed extremely close. Decided to drop a gear and accelerate and luckily car kept in a straight line. G/f told me she thought that I was very cool not using my horn and that she preferred driving in Berlin! I didn't say that I was to preoccupied to find the horn!

Love this thread for the interesting stories about alternative careers? Like Giles I'm unemployable but for two reasons, firstly I've worked for myself for nearly 30-years and secondly, I'm over retirement age!

I think everyone's circumstances are different, but love Jeremy's career change and what boy hasn't wanted to be a train driver!

Tutor (Coventry Diocese Bishop's Certificate in Discipleship) and Lay preacher/ Sunday School teacher in my spare time, self employment pays the bills

17 years and 9 months (not that I was counting!) with Barclays Bank from the age of 17, at which point I sold my house in the UK to my Mum and Dad (who downsized for Dad's retirement) and I bought a place in Spain, despite speaking no Spanish and never having visited the country before! All to concentrate on my artwork and to give me more time to paint, I worked part-time in Spain as a cook in an English cafe, as a vegetarian serving full English fry-ups to English golfers!

Came back to the UK after about a year and a half living in Spain (still got the place in Spain) and worked in a garden centre for nearly 5 years as the "Hard Goods Area" Manager, before joining Hampshire Police as civilian staff about 2 and a half years ago, currently deploying CSI's all over Hampshire to crime scenes, researching crimes scenes with Officers to see if / what forensic potential there is and phoning unfortunate members of the public who have been burgled, had their car broken into etc...

Whilst still painting in my spare time, I'm still trying to pursue the dream of making a living full-time from my artwork...and still thinking about going to art college, but not sure I could stand all the b*llocks talked about art...

Save me from my desk job and help me fulfill my dream, commission a painting of your pride and joy!

Neil