On Changing your Life

[kidcolin]

How pissed off were your punters about that trip?

[adsman]

Jimmyjohn; obviously you've never lived in a backpacker town.

Crazycanuk; Weird, that's the exact same boat that we used that first season in Italy. Even the same colour.

Jablue; I don't think that luck comes into it. You just gotta do what you gotta do. I really think that, I'm not trying to be silly or anything. Put your head down and get the job done. You can worry after you're back at the bar.

Kid; punters are always pissed off at something. It just washes over me.

[JaBlue]

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Jablue; I don't think that luck comes into it. You just gotta do what you gotta do. I really think that, I'm not trying to be silly or anything. Put your head down and get the job done. You can worry after you're back at the bar.

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does this apply to things like happening to meet a fellow guide in the airport in a country where you do not know the language? Sure you would probably eventually get to your destination, but don't you think you were "lucky" to have come across that particular guy at that particular time?

I suppose if you put yourself in situations like this enough, you're bound to get "lucky" some of the time, but I would definitely feel lucky if that happened for me.

[adsman]

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Jablue; I don't think that luck comes into it. You just gotta do what you gotta do. I really think that, I'm not trying to be silly or anything. Put your head down and get the job done. You can worry after you're back at the bar.

[/ QUOTE ]

does this apply to things like happening to meet a fellow guide in the airport in a country where you do not know the language? Sure you would probably eventually get to your destination, but don't you think you were "lucky" to have come across that particular guy at that particular time?

I suppose if you put yourself in situations like this enough, you're bound to get "lucky" some of the time, but I would definitely feel lucky if that happened for me.

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Yeah, that was lucky. But I still think that a lot of the time you make your own luck by not getting disheartened when things don't go the way you want them.

There were four rafting companies in the valley. We were one of the smaller ones. The season progressed with its usual range of problems. The main bar in the valley was called the Red Rock. The beer on tap was XXXX, which is an Aussie beer. We thought that was a little weird. There was a giant illuminated XXXX sign on top of the bar which was clearly visible. One of the X’s was burnt out. We called the bar the triple X car-park. Most of our time was spent there. The music was terrible, the beer tasted like crap, and we had no luck with the local girls. We couldn’t talk to them. I’d go up to a girl in the bar, introduce myself, ask her name, ask how she was, and then we’d both stand there like stunned mullets with strained smiles on our faces. Jeno had a bit of luck, but that’s because he had never relied on his gift of the gab. I needed my gift of the gab. It was a big inducement to keep trying to learn Italian.

The work was good though. We were doing around three trips a day, and the pingers were piling up. August is the crazy period. Heaps of work, we averaged five trips a day. At the beginning of August Charlia just left. Apparently he needed to oversee another company he was setting up on another river somewhere. We were left to fend for ourselves. Carla the secretary and I managed to run the show for the insane period. She ran the office, I ran the river. We pulled it off well. No major problems for the whole month. We were all quite pleased with ourselves. At the end of the month, Charlia suddenly reappeared. There was no thanks for the work we’d done, he just came in and started pulling things apart, accusations flying thick and fast. We were all seriously jacked off at this.

There was another smaller company in the valley run by a couple of Argentineans. They approached me with an offer. They needed a guide to see out the rest of the season, which finished close to the end of September. They offered me some good money. The start date was for the 5th of September. I said sure. I worked up until that date and the day before I was going to leave I walked into the office and told Charlia to pay me out. He refused, saying that I had to stay with him until the end of the season. At this point we hadn’t exchanged a civil word for about a week. His English wasn’t very good, but I managed to convince him to pay me. It might have had something to do with the fact that I threatened to throw his computers in the river, drive his vehicles into the river, and burn down the hut containing all the equipment. It took me about ten minutes. I got paid and walked out. Afterwards Carla came into the office and found Charlia looking shell-shocked. She asked him what had happened and he replied that another guide had threatened to kill him. Seems that this was a frequent occurrence.

I worked for the little company for the rest of the month. They were quite strange, but they left me alone, paid me on time, and gave me a luxurious apartment to stay in. I was quite happy. But the season was winding down, the days were getting colder. Snow began to appear on the mountain peaks and the river was getting lower and lower. Finally one morning I told them that I was off, there was no more work. They agreed, paid me out and I packed my bags and took the train to Verona. I had money in my pocket, but no job and no place to stay. I had become friends with a guide who worked for another company called Nonno. Nonno means grandfather in Italian, and he was called that due to the fact that he was so slow to make up his mind, even for an Italian. He took me in and I began the hunt for a new apartment. But the combination of not speaking the language, not having a job and not really having a reason to stay there was defeating me. I couldn’t find a place to live. All I knew was that I didn’t want to go back to Australia. I felt that that would be a step backwards.

Finally with some desperation I contacted the Spanish girl that I’d been seeing in Uganda. She was back in Madrid, but it seemed that things were not cool for me to go and stay with her. One morning I woke up and realized that I had to get home while I still had money to get home. I booked a flight online from London. I hopped a flight the next day to London. On leaving Italy I had some trouble at customs. Apparently I had overstayed my visa. I pleaded ignorance, pretended not to speak a word of Italian and finally they just let me go. So even if I’d managed to stay I would have been illegally in the country. It hadn’t even registered with me to check if I could have stayed or not. I was a little bit distanced from reality. I got to London and raced through the city to get my ticket in time. The plane left that night. I arrived back in Perth with a few hundred dollars in my pocket. I was home, seven years after I’d left. I had a new baby sister that was doing well after her operation, all my friends were glad to see me, and I hadn’t a clue what to do with myself.

[JOEL_]

"and I hadn’t a clue what to do with myself"

This is what makes your story so thrilling and enjoyable to follow.The reader does not know what happens next.Just as you did not at the time.

Where most people want answers in their life,you want questions.When you live your life with questions,your life becomes the answer.

[adsman]

This is going to be my last write-up in this thread. I feel that it’s distracting me a bit from what I should be doing, ie working on my book. I also feel that I can’t really better the stuff that I wrote about Africa and I don’t want t o post here feeling that I have to. I just want to thank all of you guys for the support, it’s been a lot of fun writing this up and getting peoples feedback. I thought that I had an ordinary sort of life. Now it appears not.

I just want to add something for the original target audience of this thread – the younger posters who are wondering what to do with their lives and how to go about changing it. When I left Perth all of those years ago my only plan was to get to Sydney. I didn’t know that I’d end up being a rafting guide, and I sure as hell didn’t plan on going to the places that I’ve been to. It’s just one step at a time, but most importantly, keep an eye open for possible options and have the courage to give it a go. That’s all you need. Think about why you can do something, not why you can’t. The luck factor has been brought up in the thread. I don’t believe in it. I think ‘lucky’ people are those who don’t get discouraged by their setbacks. I failed my shotgun guiding test three times in Cairns, but giving up just wasn’t an option. Just plug away.

Writing this thread has put me in contact with a great editor, and we’re now working together. Thanks go to Joe Tall for that. Lots of wine for you if you ever get out to Italy. Thanks to El D for allowing this to take the course that it has, he popped in with the occasional encouragement which was a huge help.

So, what happened next? It’s a long story and all I’ll say is that I alternated between summer in Perth and summer in Italy for a few years until I was able to stay in Italy full time. I’ve been here for five years now. I run the largest rafting base in the valley and this June, hopefully, I’ll be opening a very cool lounge bar here with Uncle Mick, who now lives and works in London. I don’t travel anymore, as the life of living out of a bag no longer appeals to me. I like coming home, opening the door and finding all my stuff. I’m 35, single, and content with my lot. If one person who read this thread gets inspired to go out and change their life then I’ll be very happy. So if you do, please let me know.

Thanks again,

ads.

[Yeti]

adsman,

This is my first reply in the thread but I've been reading it avidly since it began. Thanks for one of the all-time great threads on 2+2.

Good luck with the book, I'm sure it will be well received.

[El Diablo]

ads: I look forward to visiting your lounge in Italy. If not this summer, next. Thanks for your contributions here, this was an incredible thread, definitely the highlight of this forum so far.

All: Now that the main part of this thread is finished, my comment about not posting short awesome thread/thanks/whatever posts no longer applies. Go crazy.

[w_alloy]

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Go crazy.

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I've been checking this every day since the first post. Thanks.

[HajiShirazu]

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Thanks for one of the all-time great threads on 2+2.


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