Just how easily could you up roots and move to another country for three years?

We all moan about this country, at least on some level, whether its about politics, finance, or the most likely of the top topics we Blighty Brits like to moan about...the weather. But do we really have it in us to leave?

I'm 23. I'm still young, but that's 23 years of friendships, connections, knowledge and experience in a country that has become very familiar to me, very comfortable to me, and a place which yes I moan about, but a place I also love to be in. So when I received a phone call this morning (which woke me up) with a casual proposition of meeting the UK managing director of a large company regarding taking on a new job in Australia, I was more than speechless.

An hour later, and all the speculation I had ever mulled over regarding such an event (basically wandering whether I really could leave the UK if I were asked) is suddenly forced into the forefront of my mind, for this time around there is no speculation of a hypothetical scenario, this is real, I have to seriously think about this.

Coincidentally on my drive home from work a few weeks ago I was making a list of all the things that were keeping me in Herefordshire...There was very little on the list.

So the next question...What is keeping me in the UK?...well Friends, Family, Familiarity for a start.

Friends

But my friends are all over the place and I can't keep on travelling around to see them...can I ?

Of course  I can, Nowhere is too far away in the Uk. Yet Oz to Uk is £1000+ and a day flight followed by crippling jet lag for a week. My friends mean a lot to me, of course I will make friends in Oz straight away, but maybe I don't want to make an entire new life for myself, maybe I'm comfortable with the way things are here. Conversely I can think of two people who have just left for Canada for a year, another friend who now lives in New York, and a couple other friends who are soon off to Canada for a year maybe more, and there are others that are planning to move out of the uk to chase something else in life.

Family

Same as friends.

Familiarity

I love the South West, I love the Lake District, I love Yorkshire and the Mores, I love the Rural West Midlands, I love Wales. I love the variety of the UK, I hate the constant rain, but when the sun shines in the UK there is nothing quite like it. I know where to go for a good surf, a good ride etc. However Oz is one of the best places to surf in the world, and the weather is nearly always good. I've spent two months in Oz and it's a pretty wild place, they have a good way of life, and making a decent living is still an accessible thing for young people like myself.

What do I want right now?

I want to move out of home and have my own place with a job I enjoy, a good wage, and plenty of time to take holidays and travel to some sweet locations. That in it's self will involve making new friends and not leaving my current friends behind, which would be the case if I went to Oz.

Besides I can recall having conversations with people about Oz, and I remember myself often saying I liked it, but it was all just a bit full on, a bit over the top. But I was travelling by myself at 18 years old so when you have never travelled anywhere by yourself before, where ever you go is going to be like that. Essh this is such a crazy thing to have to think about. Oz could be really good, I could make some serious money, work hard, play hard, but then I could potentially have all that here if I land a great job here. Ahhhh.

The last 24 hours have been mental! Yesterday afternoon I had a chat with Simon about working for Robus, that in itself put a lot of thoughts in my head. Then I ended up at a Wu Tang Clan gig which was totally unexpected, and now I've just been woken up by a phone call asking if I can see the managing director who is interested in getting me out to Australia, all within 24 hours! It's not like I even said that much to Simon that would actually impress him. Simon said I could be earning silly money out in Oz...

Does this all sound too good to be true?

Well anyway I'm seeing Mark on Monday back down in Cheltenham, so I can get more details together and go from there.

Life is not simple. I guess then it would be pretty boring too.

Inspired Flight

I mix emotion up with thoughts and the outcome's bliss. 
Inhibition ain’t my boss, without a doubt take risks. 
A slow dance with destiny, and her hands I grip. 
She quick, but I chase; freeze, tag, I'm it.

http://inspiredflight.bandcamp.com/track/its-the-chemicals-feat-scarub

O Brother, Where Art Thou?

I love this film, and I love this line:

You seek a great fortune, you three who are now in chains. You will find a fortune, though it will not be the one you seek. But first... first you must travel a long and difficult road, a road fraught with peril. Mm-hmm. You shall see thangs, wonderful to tell. You shall see a... a cow... on the roof of a cottonhouse, ha. And, oh, so many startlements. I cannot tell you how long this road shall be, but fear not the obstacles in your path, for fate has vouchsafed your reward. Though the road may wind, yea, your hearts grow weary, still shall ye follow them, even unto your salvation.


Just Brilliant.

Give me a break

So yesterday I got the all clear from my physio...good result.

However myself and a friend went for a drink, now I don't really want to drink any more, but I did nonetheless and it was good fun.

However at about four in the morning my LEFT shoulder subluxed. Not the RIGHT which I have just got the all clear for.

I mean come on give me a fucking break. I was feeling really good, my shoulders were behaving, I was gymming regularly with no pains at all. Now I have a painful left shoulder which, as past has taught me, will sublux again in the next few days before taking around three weeks to 'settle down'. It's been about 4 months since it last subluxed, I thought it was past that, clearly not. Yet this time there is substantial pain where as before there usually is not.

So now I'm really quite pissed off. This means I have to rehab my left shoulder, I have to be careful when I'm lay in bed, I need to be careful not to move it to quickly, all for fear of it doing it again. Just when everything was starting to piece together.

Fuck My Life.

Perhaps I can spin this into a positive?

Perhaps it is a sign that all though I have been given the all clear, I should get the rest of my body 110% before I do anything else? Well I don't have much choice in the matter now.

Cheers Shoulders, You pair of useless cunts.

On the 26th Novermber 2011 I wrote..
"...well I have Dad, I've done you proud, and I will keep doing so forever, and I hope you don't mind but I might just get your initials tattooed on my wrist so that just in case I ever waver in life I have an instant reminder of everything I stand for, my morals, beliefs, motivations and my main source of inspiration. You were a fantastic dad, and my best friend, and if I can be half the man you were I will be satisfied. I think I've made a good start. Love you always. "

Well I did Dad.

Money?

I'd rather be poor and live for the moments that money cannot buy,

than be rich and live for the experiences that one buys with money.

- Jack Stephen Wetherbee.

Grave.

I put some flowers on an unattended grave today.

Partly because doing so features in the book

"this book will change your life" by Ben Carey & Henrik Delehag

but also I think because I wanted to do something selfless. But then when is anything selfless when we are often driven to do it to make ourselves feel better?

To be honest I wanted to put some flowers on the grave of an old neighbour of ours, dad used to, and I guess I felt I should be keeping up the tradition. Finding the grave was impossible, so I lay some flowers on an unnamed grave and on my old maths teachers stone. Mark Stevenson.

Did I do it because I wish I could do something for Dad? I think so. I would like to have a place to go, at the moment his ashes are under the bed in the spare room. Yer because that was his favourite place ever! Soon he will be on the golf course on his favourite fairway. Much more dignified.

A place to go, to be near to him, to talk to him. We all need that Everyone needs that.