How to Plan Your Next Career Move
Where the pastures would be new and much greener…
It’s 1993 and my time in Germany is coming to its natural end. Personally and professionally it had run its course, I was twenty-four and wanted to move up the kitchen ladder and I knew it wasn’t going to happen in a German kitchen.
Looking back it was probably the Christmas of 1992 which proved the turning point in my decision to return to the UK. Truth be told it had been pretty miserable, on Christmas Eve everywhere shuts down for the family get together. I lived and worked in an eighty-bedroom hotel and on Christmas Eve I was the only person in it, now that’s a big empty house to be in!
I remember my mother calling me to wish me a merry Christmas and asking me what I was going to do. I told her I was going on a pub-crawl to make her feel better. The only crawl I did was down the staircase in the pitch black (they didn’t leave any lights on) to make a sandwich in the kitchen.
A quick tour of the town confirmed that everywhere was indeed shut, even the Greek bar , it was snowing and I felt like a pathetic hunch backed character from a Dickens novel as I walked the empty streets lined with brightly lit houses full of festive cheer. It was at this point I had my first brilliant idea, I would go back to my room (the alternative was to freeze to death), watch television and get drunk on warm, out of date German beer.
German television is made for one purpose, to break the expats mental spirit, if it entertains their own then that is a bonus. Picture the scene; big hotel with one light on, half-shot English chef laid on an iron bed with a bag of paprika flavoured crisps and a remote control from the same Dickens novel as I had just starred in. I surf the channels, Eurosport have got an English snooker match on. Things are looking up I tell myself until I realise it is three months old and I know the score. Sat 1 is next, oh good, a Baverian knees up in full costume, never mind, RTL is usually good for some semi naked beauties who can’t act, but then show me a man who cares. Ah, John Wayne in black and white with a German accent, it’s Christmas Eve, the one day of the year Germans don’t show nudity, by now I am convinced it’s a conspiracy. Time for my second brilliant idea.
I turn the television off and play a cassette of the English comedian, ’Blaster Bates’ a legend in the field of explosives and, more importantly, an English accent to listen to. I reach for an old copy of the AA Guide to Hotels in Great Britain and look at the enclosed map. Decision time I tell myself. Scotland and Wales are out, I’m English and want to feel welcome again, don’t fancy anywhere ‘down south’ because the beer is flat (that mattered more than house prices back then) so my finger falls firmly on the North-West and the beauty that is the English Lake District.
That is how I decided on where I was going to live and work (for the next four years) by looking at a map and thinking that looks alright. Before I knew it I was stood on the crowded London-Glasgow train with a bag, a suitcase, and, most importantly, my cloth bound fishing rod.
I watched the landscape change from the dull grey of Preston central station to the land that time forgot; the Oxenholme to Windemere single carriage at 2.45. This was England I told myself, sheep, dry-stone walls and mint cake. I was in for a few suprises….
Miles,
I have nothing to add except that I love these little memoirs and always look forward to the next.
Strangely enough I have often tried to get someone else we both know, to write his…. would make good reading I’ve no doubt but he’d probably have to live in exile
Cid
January 25, 2008 @ 6:32 pm
Cid,
Thankyou, it’s actually quite good to revisit my past now and then, the past molds the present I suppose.
Miles
January 25, 2008 @ 6:56 pm
Miles,
A moving story. Hope you never had another Christmas like it. I bet this is not what singletons dream of when contemplating working in other countries.
Interesting way to choose where to go to next.
Roll on the Lake District ….
Elsie
January 25, 2008 @ 7:27 pm
Miles,
When I look back on years gone by, I could cringe but I still believe the events of the past and how we dealt with them, defines who we are now and how far we have ‘travelled’.
So here’s to the good and the bad, and to a positive future, armed with friends and a sense of humour, how can we fail?
Cid
p.s. by the way what’s German for ….
but probably not at the age of 24!
‘fill your hands, you sonofa*****’ … you see a thinking woman would have gone for the John Wayne movie in b/w rather than a load of scantilly clad gorgeous blokes in a bad sitcom
January 25, 2008 @ 7:53 pm
Cid,
Travel and the chance to work with people from other countries has certainly given me a different perspective on life, good and bad!
Miles
January 26, 2008 @ 9:45 am
Elsie,
There is much to contemplate before moving to pastures new, it isn’t always as wonderful as some might have you believe. I know!
Miles
January 26, 2008 @ 9:46 am
Miles,
Holidays always seem to generate their own particular set of variable and pathos. I remember a particularly bleak and rainy Thanksgiving, that oh-so-American holiday celebrated in November. Thanksgiving usually involves eating one’s way through mountains of turkey, stuffing, yams, mashed potatoes and gravy, cranberry sauce, and enough pie to make her comatose. The family gathers round the table, and often share those things for which they are most thankful. This Thanksgiving, for me, was a bit shy of the things that make the holiday truly special. My “significant other” of 15 years had dumped me, and I was hundreds of miles from family. My friends all had special plans that did not include me, and I would not have been good company anyway. So, I decided that the best option was to feast on food from the Jack-in-the-Box drive thru, and then to take in a movie. As the Sourdough Jack ( a hamburger on toasted sourdough bread) warmed my innards, I blasted up the motorway to the theatre. A large box of popcorn, smothered in fake butter, a box of chocolate malt balls, and a diet Coke (must watch the calories, you know) completed my gastronomic delights, and saw me through the movie. As it turned out, the evening wasn’t all that bad. Perhaps a high carbohydrate indulgence numbs the brain and soul, or maybe it is the combination of empty calories and the escapism provided by Tinseltown that sees one through in moments of emotional darkness. At any rate, I survived the day, and lived to be depressed on others.
You had the better option, I think. You planned your new adventure, and took charge of your fate. Well done, old chap, well done!!
Annie
January 26, 2008 @ 6:42 pm
Annie,
A great comment, at least you get the turkey out of the way early, I have the agony of it for a month. A feast on carbs and dodgy fats doesn’t do any harm once in a while and by all acounts you deserve it.
That wasn’t the first time I had to bounce back and it wouldn’t be the last, the secret is to do it well. I know how you feel, been there and given the t-shirt etc. A few high calorie beers down the line and I’m back on track. I look forward to hearing how you bounce back
Miles
January 26, 2008 @ 8:19 pm
Dear Miles,
thanks for your encouragement. We have a saying, “what doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger.” I am a firm believer in that. I did survive the break-up mentioned, and I learned how to thrive. Even my latest break-up hasn’t put me down and out. I have learned the value of retail therapy, as well. Nothing like a new bottle of perfume, or a new book, or even a nice new tablecloth to get one’s engines revving again. When the weather is nice, I also find that digging in the dirt is better than an hour with a therapist. I have enough dirt under my fingernails to keep me mentally fit into the next decade, at least. there will be more adventures to come, I know!!!
Annie
January 30, 2008 @ 8:17 pm
Annie,
Good for you, regarding the table cloth and perfume I guess I’ll take your word for it
We used to have a saying in England way back when, it was ‘Dig for Victory’
Keep digging Annie, it sounds like its working.
Miles
January 30, 2008 @ 9:38 pm