This sums up my life, no regrets and I would do it all over again in an instant.
[font=.SF UI Display][font=.SFUIDisplay]Nostalgia by Steve Woolley [/font][/color][/font][/size][font=.SF UI Display][/color][font=.SFUIDisplay][/font][/color][/font][/size][font=.SF UI Display][/color][font=.SFUIDisplay]Many years ago I was in my mid thirties and life was comfortable. I was married with a reasonably successful business and a good group of mates that I trained with regularly a few times a week. One Tuesday night over a beer they were planning their usual Friday night out for that weekend which they had done virtually every week since leaving school. On one occasion I just couldn't be bothered so I said I would give it a miss. I can't now remember my excuse but I can clearly remember the reply from an old friend named Carl........ "Steve you need to ####### get out more.... You haven't ###### lived"[/font][/color][/font][/size][font=.SF UI Display][/color][font=.SFUIDisplay]Well, Carl me old mate, by the time I was 22 I had been around the world 3 times and visited 53 countries. I'd had my 17th, 18th and 21st birthdays at sea (all coincidentally in Biscay) and I had been to places my landlubber friends could only dream of and some they couldn't even begin to imagine. I had seen and experienced things of which they had no comprehension, I had embarked upon adventures with other pals to exotic places and boy had I grown up quickly. I had flown to the U.S, Japan,Hong Kong and Singapore by national flag carriers. I had swam in the Indian Ocean and the Suez Canal, I had been trained to put out a serious fire properly, I could identify star constellations and "read" the weather, I could tie a proper knot ( I'm calling it a knot for simplicity - hitch or bend more correctly) I could take and action an instruction dutifully and respectfully because I knew that the guy who gave it had done it many times before me, I could help my nephew with his homework " uncle Steve .... Why do we have tides?". I had been a lowly Peggy and literally been up to my waste in poop, I had slept in a hammock beneath the stars, I'd seen dolphins playing beneath the bows, and watched flying fish whilst painting on deck in those glorious Indian Ocean swells heading for Penang, Singapore, Japan, The Phillipines.... Oh! The blue sky..... Oh! The blue sea...... Oh! The anticipation! [/font][/color][/font][/size][font=.SF UI Display][/color][font=.SFUIDisplay]I'd been to Bugis Street, The Venus Rooms, The Mozzy Bar, The Hong Kong Bar, The Harbour Lights so I had seen it all and I had met Mamma San so you know what that means ( sorry I know there are ladies in this group [/font][/color][/font][/size][font=.AppleColorEmojiUI]😜[/font][font=.SFUIDisplay][/size]) I'd seen Mt Fuji and the remains of Krakatoa, I'd been dazzled and in awe from the centre of Hong Kong harbour at night and I've anchored in a bay somewhere in Indonesia were the only light from shore was the village campfires. [/font]
[/size][font=.SF UI Display][/color][font=.SFUIDisplay]I've worked in freezing conditions and I've worked in the tropics, I've worked aloft from a Bosuns chair and I've worked at the bottom of the engine room. I've operated 35 ton forklifts and 40 ton cranes. I've worked until I am so exhausted that I couldn't read my own notes the next day. I've been carried back onboard by shipmates when we've all had a little too much fun, and been guided by older and more sensible heads when I was young and didn't know any better. I've worked in a typhoon so violent that nobody slept properly for 72 hours, I learned, earned [/font][/color][/font][/size]and was given responsibility. At 21 years of age my employers trusted me ( well for 8 hours a day at least) to ensure that their prized asset was heading in the right direction and that it didn't hit anything. I'd been eating three "all you can" meals a day from the age of 16. For a job description read experience in painting on a large scale, planned maintenance, electronics, engineering, cargo handling machinery, health and safety (well sort of!), logistics, use and operation of Nav aids, skilled in the science of celestial navigation, fire fighter, docker, crane driver, greaser, forklift driver,steward, meteorologist, tally clerk, cargo super, rigger, emergency response, signaller, boat handler, chart work, security, management, admin, student, teacher, bog cleaner, bilge emptier (that's where the brown stuff was), communications etc etc and I nearly gave it all up for a certain Fee Fee Cheng in Taiwan [font=.AppleColorEmojiUI]😅[/font][font=.SFUIDisplay][/size].[/font]
[/size][font=.SF UI Display][/color][font=.SFUIDisplay]I've worked nights, I've worked shifts, I've worked watches, I've done all three in the same week, I've done each for weeks on end. I've been bored and I've been knackered but I have also looked up at the mid Pacific stars and chatted about nothing in particular with the officer of the watch or the lookout and the hours have melted away in what seemed like minutes. I've worked alone and I've worked in a team, a proper team with men who knew their job and had learned it the only way through experience and who in the most part would help the inexperienced, as long as you showed willing. It was a long time ago now but I loved every single minute of it.[/font][/color][/font][/size][font=.SF UI Display][/color][font=.SFUIDisplay]I've crossed the equator and been duly initiated, I've shopped for presents, cameras, watches and silk kimonoes in Singapore, Hong Kong and the Motomachi in Japan. I know how to barter ( well as long as you don't count the genuine imitation gold ring with blue sapphire I bought in Trinco I think it was), I've been up the Empire State building, been through the Suez and Panama canals, I've been to the Peace Park in Hiroshima and witnessed the cherry blossom in Osaka, I've been to temples in Thailand and I've been to "temples" in the Reeperbahn and Red Light districts of Amsterdam and Rotterdam. I've travelled on and in helicopters, rickshaws, tuck tucks, The Bullet train, mopeds, speedboats, powered canoes and paddled canoes, lifeboats and God knows what else. I've been to beach parties in Ceylon, Nigeria, Indonesia, Mexico and California. I've worked in shipyards and in dry docks, I've worked on brand new ships and I've worked on ships built before air con when the sweat runs down your legs and the cockroaches run up them, funnily enough they weren't called cockroaches they were Jaspers, and cakes were called tab nabs and the big blue wet thing we were floating in was called the "oggan?". I've experienced many times the anticipation and excitement of joining a new ship, the smell of bunkers at the top of the gangway and the din of cargo winches, instantly replaced by the homely smell of fresh bread from the galley and the gentle hum of hidden generators as you enter the internal calm and close the heavy weather door behind you..... The start of new adventures..... New friends and colleagues. I've experienced the smell of woodsmoke wafting across the waves from Malaysia the evening before landfall, the smells and sounds of markets and bars in the mystical, magical orient and much much more. [/font][/color][/font][/size][font=.SF UI Display][/color][font=.SFUIDisplay]Anyone who has been deep sea will know that none of the above is particularly exceptional. And I am not boasting or complaining, it was just....,well, our life and it was brilliant for us all especially when so young! Life at sea ( then) was all about variety, new experiences, ever changing scenery, new horizons and it was both exciting and rewarding and it set me up to have a sensible and practical attitude and approach to life when I settled ashore. None of the above is scripted in any way just random thoughts whilst having smoko (an extended smoko cos I know I have gone on a bit) and I hope nobody objects to me sharing my thoughts. [/font][/color][/font][/size][font=.SF UI Display][/color][font=.SFUIDisplay]One day I might explain all this to Carl but he won't understand. Carl was until the day he retired an insurance man, which I admit is an entirely honourable job but one of which I have absolutely no experience[/font][/color][/font][/size][font=.AppleColorEmojiUI]😀😀😀😀[/font]
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Topic: As one gets into the elderly category, Any regrets? (Read 4036 times)