Life is a roller coaster ride. Enjoy the highs and grit your teeth through the lows
I’ve recently been reading many blogs that are new to me, I’ve found some really excellent blogs and far too many poor quality, soulless, bad blogs. The thing that made some of the more interesting blogs stand out is when the author share real life experiences with their readers. This has inspired me to let you guys know more about me and my world, and a what a crazy world it is.
In the last 15 years since leaving Art School I have been a Fine Art Painter & Sculptor , working in Stop-Frame Animation, Professional Puppet-making, Model Making, Exhibition Design, Furniture Design. Then in 2001 I had a serious accident where I lost the use of my right hand for over a year(fell through a glass window ripping 4 main tendons). Being right handed and being that all my work was based around me creating with my hands, my business was quickly collapsing around me. Then it just got worse, from being so stressed I started having random epileptic seizures. Occasional sudden loss of consciousness, with the use of only one arm caused me to smash my self up even more. I was not a happy chappy. I then lost my girlfriend of 6 years, turned to drink and was heading down a deep dark road.
It took a year for my damaged right hand to be ok, turning out that I had only 80% feeling back which was better than nothing. The problem was that in that 1 year I had lost my business, my love and my creative ability leading to me to losing my passion, drive and general get up n go. My family and some of my friends stuck with me through these tough times but I was starting to not appreciate them also. Some thing had to be done, what was I gonna do ?
November 2002. One afternoon I sat down and wrote all my problems and all my options on paper. Sort of like a Mind-map. By order of denomination I had figured that my best option was to go traveling. I had traveled a little around the UK and Europe before but never further than that and nothing longer than a “holiday”.
Serious Times Mean Taking Serious Actions,
3 days of research on the internet and I buy the ticket. Now I’m committed. And have to learn as much as I can before I go. Guide books and Backpack time.
My ticket, £925.00 ($1,800) for a round the world air ticket, leaving 27th Dec, so I get to do Christmas and leaving parties together then jump on the plane to my first destination for New Year celebrations.
The Ticket was a bunch of flights with open dates and some overland parts along the way.
Manchester to HongKong then make my own way overland through China and my next flight was to Bangkok. From there I would take as long as I like heading overland thru Thaland, Malaysia to Singapore where my flight was to Auckland(New Zealand) then a flight to Melborne (South Australia) then with a 3month visa (where I’m aloud to work if I want) I head overland to my next flight from Cains (North Australia) to The Cook Islands then a flight to Los Angeles (USA) and a flight back to the UK. I did it in 362 days and what an adventure it was ! (but that’s a whole other story).
After that year of adventure, I had came back to the UK like a new person. But now I’d had a taste of the traveling life I quickly got bored of the day to day life in England and sold up all my stuff and did some quick cash in hand work for my friend and I was off again. This time I was going to travel mainly around South-East Asia. China, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand Malaysia, Burma etc. (Mainly because my money lasts a lot longer in these places)
Zooming fast forward to Today (6 years later) and guess what, I am still Traveling ! It has been incredible the amount of experiences I have crammed into my time. But I did not have a big stash of money to keep me going, I have had to use my entrepreneurial skills to enable myself to continue with my adventures. Teaching English is always an option, but I like more of a challenge. I have been involved in all sorts of bizarre things from helping setting up a Monkey School in Cambodia to being an extra in Chinese movies, Designing Resorts in Laos and my most recent was the building from scratch a successful Indian Restaurant in Thailand. I have a beautiful local girlfriend who takes care of the team of seven staff running this great little business. The Restaurant does not make a fortune but enough for me to survive whilst I work on my current project of Making Money Online.
So as I type this I am doing so from my office out the back of the Indian in Thailand, wearing my shorts and appreciating the environment I am in. It is simply beautiful. And to do something as simple as to go for a walk and buy some fruit from the local market is still a great adventure as I am exposed to new interesting parts of the local culture every day. *Another bonus of owning an Curry House is that I get to eat as much Indian food as I like, luckily my chefs also cook western food and Thai food if I fancy a change.
Of course I miss home, my family and friends but not as much as I thought I would. And my family and friends love me living out here because they have an excuse to go on holiday and come and see me. I have been to back to England twice in the last 6 years and I see it more like me going on holiday to England. Sorry but it is just to cold, rain… and I could go on….. but I won’t.
So right now I am riding the roller coaster of life through one of the high parts and trying my best to enjoy and appreciate every moment. Maybe sometime in the future I’ll have to rough it through some low times but that’s ok, I’ll just grit my teeth and get on with it. Bring on the “Good times”.
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