Well if I thought that my multiplicity photo idea was new I was of course wrong, but also Natalie has proved that they can be very well done and attract a lot of interest both online and financially.
Apparently she had had over 4 million hits for just one of her photos, which clearly shows that she did heaps better at advertising than I had, but in time ... who knows.
May 27, 2009
A Double Edged Sword
I am beginning to accept that my trip around the world was a bit of a double edged sword, it was both the best time in my life and yet due to lack of planning about my return to the UK I am now on the verge of losing my house and financial ruin.
I cannot say that I regret a single day of travelling, yet the fact that I clearly had not raised enough funds to adequately cover my trip and the return to the UK has meant I am being chased daily by my debtors, have received numerous letters threatening legal action and my house will soon be repossessed unless something changes for the better and fast.
I should have never remortgaged my house in the past so that there was precious little equity left, I should have left enough funds aside to cope with emergency repairs / renovations to my property and i should have been more careful with my funds while abroad, perhaps going to
restaurants and cinemas less often and instead buying cheap food from supermarkets.
While it may be true that had I left my departure date off for another couple of years I might never have got the opoprtunity to go, as it is I am now feeling that despite not selling my house I still had pretty much burned my bridges back in the UK and that I should have never
bothered coming back and instead stayed in either South America or Asia and tried to make a new life for myself over there.
As always, things seem much clearer in hindsight and I can see now that despite a years planning and savings I was still in no fit position to go travelling with the current financial crisis already starting to bite down.
My other main personal failing is that I did not bother to study when I was working in London and so am not ACCA qualified and thus the chance of walking into another accounts job was always going to be much harder than it should have been, as has proven by the number of rejection emails I have received.
My biggest fear now is that I do not want to go from one mistake to the next, and yet with each day my choice of options is dwindling.
Just to recap - I have a house with no equity one missed payment and in need of electrical and damp work repairs, I have no job or savings to speak of, I have furniture stored at family and friends, I have no girlfriend or dependents here in the UK and I am in debt to a number of banks and credit cards.
I cannot say that I regret a single day of travelling, yet the fact that I clearly had not raised enough funds to adequately cover my trip and the return to the UK has meant I am being chased daily by my debtors, have received numerous letters threatening legal action and my house will soon be repossessed unless something changes for the better and fast.
I should have never remortgaged my house in the past so that there was precious little equity left, I should have left enough funds aside to cope with emergency repairs / renovations to my property and i should have been more careful with my funds while abroad, perhaps going to
restaurants and cinemas less often and instead buying cheap food from supermarkets.
While it may be true that had I left my departure date off for another couple of years I might never have got the opoprtunity to go, as it is I am now feeling that despite not selling my house I still had pretty much burned my bridges back in the UK and that I should have never
bothered coming back and instead stayed in either South America or Asia and tried to make a new life for myself over there.
As always, things seem much clearer in hindsight and I can see now that despite a years planning and savings I was still in no fit position to go travelling with the current financial crisis already starting to bite down.
My other main personal failing is that I did not bother to study when I was working in London and so am not ACCA qualified and thus the chance of walking into another accounts job was always going to be much harder than it should have been, as has proven by the number of rejection emails I have received.
My biggest fear now is that I do not want to go from one mistake to the next, and yet with each day my choice of options is dwindling.
Just to recap - I have a house with no equity one missed payment and in need of electrical and damp work repairs, I have no job or savings to speak of, I have furniture stored at family and friends, I have no girlfriend or dependents here in the UK and I am in debt to a number of banks and credit cards.
May 22, 2009
A White Elephant
When I was in Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur to be exact, I went to an Elephant reserve where we got to ride, feed and swim with them and from my guide I also learned the true origin of the White Elephant, and why it is considered a double edged gift.
Years ago White Elephants were considered the ultimate prize and status symbol of power and fortune due to their extreme rareness, and all the Royal households in the Far East had small collections of them.
However, because of their extreme rareness, their more select diet and grooming requirements, the Asian royalty also saw them as a way of politely causing financial discomfort to any courtiers they disliked or had under perfomed.
The giving such an elephant was considered a very generous and favourable act, but in reality for the poor unfortunate who was now lumbered with the expensively demanding beast it was just the start of his financial misfortune.
In a way it is like the modern day equivalent of giving a very classic car or introducing an extremely attractive WAG to one of your friends, at first it seems you are doing them a great favour and service, but all too soon the high maintenance of them quickly overshadows any benefit of having such a prize and become just a huge financial drain.
The real punishment though was that it was the height of rudeness and ill manners to refuse of give away such a gift and even the burial of said elephant was a lavish affair that could not be scrimpt or done cheaply without causing offence and dishonour.
And so it is that the saying comes down the generations that if you are landed with an unwanted white elephant in your lap you will have a hard time getting rid of it easily.
Years ago White Elephants were considered the ultimate prize and status symbol of power and fortune due to their extreme rareness, and all the Royal households in the Far East had small collections of them.
However, because of their extreme rareness, their more select diet and grooming requirements, the Asian royalty also saw them as a way of politely causing financial discomfort to any courtiers they disliked or had under perfomed.
The giving such an elephant was considered a very generous and favourable act, but in reality for the poor unfortunate who was now lumbered with the expensively demanding beast it was just the start of his financial misfortune.
In a way it is like the modern day equivalent of giving a very classic car or introducing an extremely attractive WAG to one of your friends, at first it seems you are doing them a great favour and service, but all too soon the high maintenance of them quickly overshadows any benefit of having such a prize and become just a huge financial drain.
The real punishment though was that it was the height of rudeness and ill manners to refuse of give away such a gift and even the burial of said elephant was a lavish affair that could not be scrimpt or done cheaply without causing offence and dishonour.
And so it is that the saying comes down the generations that if you are landed with an unwanted white elephant in your lap you will have a hard time getting rid of it easily.
May 14, 2009
London Interviews
Last week a family member of my Peruvian friend came over but sadly I had absolutely no forward notice and was unable to meet her in London, but in an effort to still help out as much as possible I provided her with a list of some of the top places to visit and how to reach them via the Metro, such as :-
Buckingham Palace, Covent Garden, Royal Household Cavalry, Big Ben & the Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, Trafalgar Square, St Pauls Cathedral, Royal Albert Hall, Hyde Park, HMS Belfast, HMS Illustrious, The Cutty Sark, Imperial War Museum, Hamleys, Harrods, Leicester Square, London Eye, Madam Tussauds, The House of Sherlock Holmes, Milennium Dome, Tower of London, London Dungeon, Scotland Yard
Now months before I left on my RTW trip I made a blog entry where I took some photos of the route between London Victoria and my office near Oxford Circus, but this was more to show that people dont pay enough attention to the beauty around them rather than to show off how great was London.
With this in mind, I took a second look at it and I realised that in fact I hadn't been to most of them myself, or at least not in the last decade, and in my experience I know that actually this is pretty much the same with locals all around the world.
So as I had a couple of interviews up town to go to on Tuesday, I made it my mission to try and get to to visit a few more of these places in between going to the work agency interviews. Plus to top it all off I was able to meet up with some friends during lunch and after work, even ended up tagging along to a friend of my friends birthday bash so I really did manage to make the best of all worlds.
Catching a late train home brought back its own range of memories and it was only a shame that the kebab house at the end of our street was closed when I got back or I would have had a meat and chips plus a can of Dr Pepper just to nicely round off the day.
The only other two tiny things that marred it were that I didnt get into London early enough for the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace, that the beef eaters at the Tower of London were only in traditional uniform inside and not outside ( for a freebe photo opportunity ) and that the Cutty Shark is currently totally under cover being in the middle of its restoration process.
Buckingham Palace, Covent Garden, Royal Household Cavalry, Big Ben & the Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, Trafalgar Square, St Pauls Cathedral, Royal Albert Hall, Hyde Park, HMS Belfast, HMS Illustrious, The Cutty Sark, Imperial War Museum, Hamleys, Harrods, Leicester Square, London Eye, Madam Tussauds, The House of Sherlock Holmes, Milennium Dome, Tower of London, London Dungeon, Scotland Yard
Now months before I left on my RTW trip I made a blog entry where I took some photos of the route between London Victoria and my office near Oxford Circus, but this was more to show that people dont pay enough attention to the beauty around them rather than to show off how great was London.
With this in mind, I took a second look at it and I realised that in fact I hadn't been to most of them myself, or at least not in the last decade, and in my experience I know that actually this is pretty much the same with locals all around the world.
So as I had a couple of interviews up town to go to on Tuesday, I made it my mission to try and get to to visit a few more of these places in between going to the work agency interviews. Plus to top it all off I was able to meet up with some friends during lunch and after work, even ended up tagging along to a friend of my friends birthday bash so I really did manage to make the best of all worlds.
Catching a late train home brought back its own range of memories and it was only a shame that the kebab house at the end of our street was closed when I got back or I would have had a meat and chips plus a can of Dr Pepper just to nicely round off the day.
The only other two tiny things that marred it were that I didnt get into London early enough for the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace, that the beef eaters at the Tower of London were only in traditional uniform inside and not outside ( for a freebe photo opportunity ) and that the Cutty Shark is currently totally under cover being in the middle of its restoration process.
May 06, 2009
Farewell Dom Deluise
Farewell Dom, you will be missed by millions who you made smile and laugh down the ages.
I remember him best for being Captain Chaos in the movie Cannonball Run, but he was known for many roles and appeared in many tv specials and guest spots.
Laugh, love and be merry always
May 01, 2009
Now comes the hard part
Well I saved up and planned ... chased the dream and succeeded ... took the photos and updated the blog ... and even completed the age old saying of "bought the T-shirt", so now the only thing left to do is to "write the book".
Although I have all my blog notes, my memory, my photos, the maps and the receipts from with which to draw my inspiration from, now rewriting it all into a neat, crisp, readable and sellable piece of literature is going to be the hardest part of all.
I will want to get it right, to inject just the right amount of humour and relate enough of the stories to keep the audience interested and not lose the pace of the book ... it will be a hard thing and although I know I can and will give it a go, I am just not sure how long it will take me and if by the time I have finished I will like the end result enough to say that I gave it my best and did myself proud.
Because of this, and because my life is back to being a bit boring and hum drum at the moment, I doubt I will be updating the blog with many entries regulary ... i'll just be too busy with this part of the project.
Although I have all my blog notes, my memory, my photos, the maps and the receipts from with which to draw my inspiration from, now rewriting it all into a neat, crisp, readable and sellable piece of literature is going to be the hardest part of all.
I will want to get it right, to inject just the right amount of humour and relate enough of the stories to keep the audience interested and not lose the pace of the book ... it will be a hard thing and although I know I can and will give it a go, I am just not sure how long it will take me and if by the time I have finished I will like the end result enough to say that I gave it my best and did myself proud.
Because of this, and because my life is back to being a bit boring and hum drum at the moment, I doubt I will be updating the blog with many entries regulary ... i'll just be too busy with this part of the project.
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