No… I didn’t feel like a Johnny come lately, either with the Russian or the Middle East stuff…After all it was stiil there , still in the same place ( give or take a few millimetres here or there.) I just took the opportunities that suited me as they came along. There were a few that were offered that I let slip by, usually because I was settled in to job at the time they arose… But when I got a bit unsettled or had found something else that I wanted to have a go at I was off in a new direction…I’d been offered a Russian job a few years earlier… late 80’s early 90’s but the guy running it ( in my opinion was very inexperienced… naive… gullible )…and I’d just started a good position in Australia, which had been a hard slog to get another working visa so I didn’t want stuff it up…
I was very close to saying yes to it, but I’m glad I didn’t get the Russian job as it was dodgy from the start, and it folded very quick with loads of TIP/ Central trailers, and hire trucks getting abandoned all over the place… The guy running it ■■■■■■ of to the Philippines/Thailand/ Indo China somewhere never to be seen again… I’ve always had the feeling that he was set up from the start by the Russian end…
When I did get into it I was actually ready for it and even bought myself a few teach yourself Russian tapes… When your down the bottom end it’s more kind of an adapted Turkish dialect that the locals speak… probably something to do with the ruminants of the old Ottoman empire… or maybe they just think Turkish is cool … ( saxophone players )…( see if that one gets edited out ) … Actually most of them were OK but just like any where there’il always be a few around…
If it ever settles down that way I wouldn’t mind spending a few months running the old silk roads just to have bit of a look about… I wouldn’t mind going to Ashkhabad… But Turkman Ali… Hmmmmmmm… and it makes me wonder…
As for my books… not going to happen any time soon… the offer made by R T wasn’t good… looked like it was going to be a right hack job by the time they had edited it…very conversational…( I wasn’t sure if that was good or bad thing)… I don’t think it would sit well with our readers… To all you guys on here that’ve been successful at it… top marks… well done…
I’ve got other ways of getting stuff out there now… and it’s not for me… no really… I know what I did, I was there, I think I can still remember most of it … but if I can leave something for my son to have a look at later on in life… or maybe when I get dementia someone can give me a can of Irn Bru and run it for me…
Well that’s my Sunday morning rant over and I’ve just watched Spaghetti no Junction on Ferdy Top Run’s site… I used to run with AR GS… sometimes … &(^R^%#@$^& for want of a better word… "I like to stop and do a bit of fishing " said Pat … Not when I was with him he didn’t… Heathrow straight to Borg… 3 hours off then right down to Napoli… Ahhhh the good old days…
I’m not sure what’ll happen with Betrix. I would assume there’ll still be some kind of trade agreement. I can’t see the benefit of all the countries being alienated form each other with hundreds of trucks and rail wagons sitting at borders for days at a time just waiting for a stamp on a bit of paper…I suppose there’s pros and coms to every decision… some more than others… I don’t think I’m going to be to involved in it… but it’ll be interesting to sit back and watch it all unfold… A good analogy would be to watch the voting on the European Song Contest …France doesn’t usually give to many votes to Britain…Nuff said… One thing’s for sure… what we’re being told and what’s actually happening will probably be 2 different things … Customs strikes… they were always a bit of a laugh… I’ll go and cut some grass now…
Jeff…