I cannot believe how quickly this has come.
Tomorrow is my final day at work.

I cannot wait, nor do I want to go in tomorrow. It’s a battle everyday and to be honest I want to hold up my white flag early.

(Click here to leave a comment)

Life has just become so busy recently, plans are afoot for this and that, plans that take time. Tonight I sat down with good intentions of writing a damn fine travel information post; went through the usual processes – grab a nice cold glass of Ice Tea, turn the mobile off, turn laptop on, whack on the media player, find links – then it all stopped.

And I make absolutely no apology for the post below sounding like a bloody hippy or “life coach” thing – I don’t really believe in them personally, but who knows they may be on to something.

Whilst the glorious piece of technology that is Media Player trawled through my collection of random noises that is my music folder it stumbled across a track that I hadn’t heard before. You know the ones I’m on about, you bought the compilation because you knew eighty percent of the stuff, but had only got round to playing the first of the two disks before you copied it onto the laptop and promptly bought something else.

I am listening to Beyond Time (ambient mix) by Blank and Jones. You can listen to it by clicking here.

Listen to it, close your eyes – don’t look at the screen, don’t look at anything. Picture yourself where you want to be. Take the moment of solitude before the bass kicks in to do a complete 360 shot of yourself, once the heavy bass kicks in dream of the discoveries you will make, the small things you see everyday that have made you stop and look twice. Allow yourself a little smile.

Seven Minutes and 40 seconds.

How often do any of us ever actually dedicate that amount of time to just closing our eyes and dreaming of somewhere else. And not the dreams before you fall asleep that you actually have very little control over, in this you are in control.

Seven Minutes and 40 seconds

Isn’t really that long, so why do we push ourselves continuously to be as busy as possible, cram everything in, work harder, play harder. Just stop.

For Seven minutes and forty seconds.

Don’t think about the music, don’t analyse it, don’t think about the lyrics. Just shut off.

I’m still not a hippy, I just wish that the whole world would take a day off, without insecurities or stresses most people are actually quite nice and a whole lot happier.

I hope that some of you will appreciate this. I look forward to my new life. Because I have suddenly realised that it’s not about the travel, it’s not about getting out of a job I didn’t like. I don’t know tha answer yet, but I’m going to go looking.

I realise that some people will just think that it’s because I’m “at that age”.

My question to you is this – when did you give up, when did you give in?

Think about this also for just a few minutes…

If I said to you that I want you to plan your life around me, around where I want you to be for 30 hours each week, at the times I specify – which happen to be during the day, when the sun is out, I will leave you the dark evenings though, so you can eat, have a few hours to yourself and get some sleep before you come back to do what I want you to do.

How much would you want for me to disrupt your life like that?

Back to normality, please leave a comment – even if just to say hi, it has been a pleasure meeting you.

Evening all, I have been tagged by the wonderful Lis over at the Travel for the Over 30′s blog, in one of these wonderfully easy yet enthrallingly interesting games that us travel bloggers do.

So, I am to tell you now seven secrets about yours truly and why I love to travel. So without further ado, please continue reading below or click here to add a comment.

1. I was born and raised, for most of my life, in Germany and I still consider Germany “home”.
2. I changed Primary School 12 times as my farther was in the army and was posted to different places
3. I went to a military boarding school in England so that I wouldn’t have to move about so much in my secondry school education – and we moved only once after this!
4. I have never owned a car that could be described as “normal”, it’s either been a bright colour or some strange, yet practical, travel wagon.
5. I love country music and electronic chillout
6. I play the saxaphone.
7. I travel because it is the only thing that presents a new experience everyday.

Ok so now I have to tag seven more blogs to do the same, hopefully some will respond, but mostly these are links to blogs I read and find interesting.

Flight Level 390 – this is a blog from a pilot, Dave, and gives a good view into their lives and thoughts. I would feel quite safe flying with this guy!

Also Kevin Littleton keeps a good blog of his daily adventures and thoughts. A good read that contains thought-provoking pieces.

Previously.Bitten is pebble dashed with brilliant photos, informative travel articles and some brilliant travel tips!

The Foodie and Travel Bug Blog from Mei Ting is also good for travellers, it is filled with all sorts of information and if Mei does a post about food I will usually end up salivating like Pavlov’s dogs!

An absolute must for all travel bloggers is Nomadic Matt’s site, brilliant photos, brilliant layout, brilliant writings – I think its a crap site though, nothing to do with jealousy, nothing at all. hehe

For those that are interested in building your own campervan then a look at “The Journey Continues” is an absolute must. I love the ideas on this blog and may soon steal some ideas for my own DIY Campervan

And finally for all those who wish to take up the nomad style of living then you must visit Working Nomad – a fellow brit who has “made the dream”
Just before I go though – a quick reminder of my offer from the previous post

You can add a compliment here (comments sound too negative) hehe.

Happy Travelling
OverlandSi

I FINALLY QUIT MY JOB

For the first time in ages I am truly happy, have not come home and ranted and raved about this or that. weight off shoulders, in control of my life.

The only trouble is…… what am i going to do now.

i’d rather not think about that right now. Also congratulations to my wonderful colleague who I know reads this from time to time.

She may not think it now but it really is the best thing to happen to her – she can now get out and experience new things, and hopefully find a job where she is valued fully and will become one of the best damn people in her field of expertise. Change may seem scary, but it truly is the most repleneshing energy source.

Also, check out my wonderful RSS feed (and snazzy rad logo)

Happy Travellin’
Overland Si

Gruss Gott alles – or – hello faithful readers.

I keep apologising for having late updates – so new rule. An eternal apology, I am useless at writing down my thoughts, have had loads of work on and been working away on other stuff. That’s it though, from now on all posts will not include an apology if they’re late.

So where the crap am I at now?

Well grab a coffee and sit down. This may take a while….

First off – Overland jobs.

Not going so well on this front. It is an understandably hard industry to get into, which is good because it means that if you do take a trip with one of the reputable companies you can almost guarantee that you will get experienced and knowledgable staff.

So that put me back into after a series of knock backs I started to wonder if there really was a possibility of getting out and living the travelling life.

Well luckily for me a good read through www.adventurejobs.co.uk reaffirmed that there were hundreds of positions available, just in slightly different areas.

From there I decided to start off small, perhaps just book some of the more adventurous travel holidays, gain experience through that whilst still in my current job and then eventually after a few years move on and go ful throttle into what I want to do. This idea was almost settled upon and I was just getting prepared to shift into full gear at work so as to be able to save up enough money when the Credit Crunch came and swallowed this plan whole, bastard didn’t even chew.

At the firm I work for we all know things are tough. Then we lost a big big contract. The managers are predicting losses although they are trying to keep hold of staff for as long as possible, which they see as the correct move and I can understand why.

But this leaves a predicament, to go out and find a position now and then quit or wait around for redundency use the settlement to fund a bit of round the world travel.

Should I tell my boss that I’m looking to leave and will go quickly and quietly for a smaller redundency package? Or will they just say that if I want to quit I should quit? Or do I just go for it – I want to leave anyway so what  am I hanging around for?

I am lucky enough not to have a mortgage, or any debts. I have always saved money but this was for a “rainy day” fund – does this count as a rainy day? Or should I save it for when things are more dire? Can they get anymore Dire?

Usually I am able to make a decision in seconds – just go with gut feeling, but I have no real gut feeling on this one. Yes I’d love to travel but can you really live on the salaries made doing travel jobs?

Too many questions and not enough answers at the moment. I’m just stuck at the moment, not wanting to be somewhere but not knowing where to go. Any questions, comments or slaps in the face are duly welcome. Actually – no more questions!

Happy Travellin’
OverlandSi

Yes after many many kilometres I have now arrived back in the UK. Damn.

So how are you all? Anyone make any New Years Resolutions? Anyone broken them yet? Good, join the club. I hate new years resolutions, they never really work for me, I usually end up just doin whatever it was I resolved not to do in the first place. So this year I decided my resolution would not be to give anything up, but to actually go out and do something. Hence I shall now be attempting to spend every weekend doing something or going somewhere different.

Which might actually make this blog interesting… Nah, probably not.

Anyways im off for a few hours of sleep.

Oh and Happy New Year to all

Wooo – so I have finally managed to tear myself away from applying for jobs, packing for my skiing holiday, trying to build a better template for this blog and my normal daily work to bring you guys all an update – see the things I do for you ey! haha!

(That was of course sarcasm, unfortunately the internet does not have a sarcasm button – I think I might invent one)

So – how are you wonderful people?

First stop is a little life lesson. Don’t worry I’m not gonna get all self help on your ass!
I have just one thing to say… Rule Number 6. This is the only rule you really ever need in this life.

This rule comes from Benjamin Zander you can watch the video here. If you are having a crap day, or just an ordinary day, or even a good day. Go and watch this video. You will feel good afterwards. That I promise you.

I shall tell you all what Rule Number 6 is in the next post – it will spoil the video other wise.

After that life afferming lesson, how is the hunt for jobs going I hear you ask?

Well – I have found out that getting an overland job is going to be a lot harder than I thought (I never thought it would be a walk in the park by any stretch) and that some of the companies that were interested in me were a little “shady” and were known about the internet as bad payers, poor on safety and a whole host of other issues.

Since then, and after some replies to my post on the Thorn Tree Forum, I have decided to focus more on starting off within Europe. First hit on this was Busabout.com

These guys offer a “Hop-on-Hop-off” service throughout Europe and pretty much looks like a bloody good job.

You can download their 2009 brochure here (click clunk)

I don’t know about pay or anything as yet, but I’ve never really been in it for the money. Which is possibly one of the biggest problems I have being a salesman as I am currently!

So – a slight change to the original plan, but I told you it was going to be a long journey. I am most probably going to start off in a non-driving job whatever path I choose. Most insurance policies start from 23 or 25… which is just a mighty pain in the rear!

I’m off now to find more of these types of companies and keep the fires burning, but before I go….

There probably won’t be anymore blog posts until after the New Year. I’m off skiing!

We shall be driving down to Garmisch Partenkirchen and staying in the Alpencamp Wank – yes you did hear that correctly. We shall be skiing on Mount Wank.

I will offer a prize of 100 Entrecard credits to the person who gets the best joke about skiing in wank by the time I return – the 8th January 2009! Post your entry in the comments section below.

Oh and below should be the daily webcam image from where we are staying in our campervan in Wank… I’m starting to wonder if the use of this word will increase the search engine statistics or just get my blog blocked by all this NSFW stop things. OOPS!

And here’s another image of the pistes we shall be on…

I am hoping that these images will keep refreshing. They are taken from the webcam’s feed and that location is put into blogger directly. So you never know. I suppose the only way to find out is to keep coming back!

Well, I’m off back to work now – and to planning the ski-trip.

I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Happy Travellin’

Overland Si

Argh!

Ok so first of all sorry for the lack of updates.

I will be changing to updating this blog once a week

Life at the moment is crazy busy and I found myself spending more time updating the blog than looking for jobs!

So whats changed?

Well I have hit a slightly large brick wall in the challenge to become an overland drvier – insurance!

Most companies I have spoken to have stated that their policy for drivers is over 25′s only. Being only 22 this has created a wee issue!

So where to now?

Well don’t worry readers. I will not give up at the 1st (or more likely 6th) hurdle.

At the moment I am looking for any job that will involve travel – hopefully to some bizzare country or lands, but anything will do.

If you have any suggestions please leave them in the comments box below. I will promise to check them all out.

However, first of all I must get cracking on packing for my skiing holiday!

Happy Travellin’
Overland Si

Evening all – how are ya?

Well I’ll admit to being extremely lazy and lacklustre over the weekend and you all have permission to kick one up the behind to get meself moving again!

As you may have seen from the short post (late) last night, I have had an issue with my own car, namely that 5th gear has “fallen off” – literally, no word of a lie, the nut came off in the gearbox and off it came. Unfortunately it also jammed. Leading to a death defying dash across the motorway from the fast lane to the hard shoulder. My thanks to the truck drivers who let me get out the way of the traffic quickly and easily.

So after a very long drive in a recovery truck (thanks for the conversation Mike, who should be checking out the blog soon!)I eventually got home and am now looking at a bill for a few hundred. Not what you want just before Christmas.

But I digress from the main point. You guys must be craving a new Overland link by now (hehe) so, without further ado here it is:

http://www.doyoutravel.com/blogs/tourleader/

A blog all about some guy becoming an Overland Driver. Hmmm. Well thats me out of business then. Thanks for reading. Bye…….

(oh alright then I’ll keep going, catch me again tomorrow)

Happy Travellin’
Overland Si

Doubts

Big word, an arse of a word, a word that kill off dreams

Well this week i have been collecting job application forms from just about any company to do with Overlanding.

Job hunting hint #1. Always phone, whether they have the job application on the website or not. Pick up the dog and bone and holla.

Makes a better impression and when your name is headed up on that job application form you have an extra way to be noticed… “oh I remember talking to him etc”

Anyways – I have my eye on one application in particular – for Dragoman.

They appear to be a good company and have a good reputation amongst travellers. A scour of the Thorn Tree from Lonely Planet comes up with only praise for this company and a quick Google also shows people enjoying the trips.

They also provide a lot of the training and so are a natural choice for a novice like moi.

So what’s all this about doubts then?

Well – so many of the forms are asking about what trips/leadership experience I have had. The answer is quite a bit BUT, and here comes the but, it was a few years ago.

Also I have not actually been “outside of Europe” too much, short trips to America and also Sweden etc don’t really count.

- Interesting point here – many of us whinge at the yanks for not going out of America, but how many of us have never really been out of Europe? – Point over!

So with that nagging doubt in my mind I am trying to do everything possible to get me foot in the door, learn languages, find out geography information etc, in the vain hope that it will help me along the way.

Well anyways I’m off back to the normal office grind now, before the doubts become too much.

Cheers, Overland Wannabe
http://overlandwannabe.blogspot.com

Ok, day 2 or 3.

Have now realised that it simply isn’t going to be a case of apply for job, apply for PCV license and off ye go.

I had never really thought it would be, but there was a dream of it being so.

There are a lot of stories of drivers getting into the trade this way. Most of these are unfortunately back in the early uears of the 60′s – 80′s, where the Old Bedford trucks were commonplace, these being merely convereted British Army trucks and nothing like today’s purpose built monoliths.

So my first post will most likely be some sort of adventure leader of sorts.

Not the dream I hear you scream!

But hang on – I’ve just checked the Blog title and it just says Overland Wannabe – So I guess that its still covered!

Still I’m off to fill in the 5 page application now for Toucan Travel – I suppose it’s good that they vet people thoroughly, on their knowledge of regions as much as everything else. Meaning if you are travelling you will recieve a good service.

Still – not sure if my GCSE knowledge of slavery really counts as true “history” for the Africa section!

Yer – end of blog update, must go write to more companies – for a list of them I’m currently loking at this list (link) on go-overland.com

There’s quite a few there, I have a feeling my Inbox may be full, or completely empty – which would be rather dissapointing.

I’m really going to stop writing this blog now.