Greetings all. May I present to you my quandary?
I have been, since leaving that establishment where you are stripped of every trace of individuality and initiative, working in the technical sector, mainly electronics and IT. 15 years ago I lost my father (yes, I did check behind the 'fridge and had all the cushions off the sofa) and, since then, my wife and I have had to devote almost all of our time caring for my mother who has vartious ailments that we won’t go into here. Long story short, I sort of lost touch with my chosen profession. Not completely, but most of my professional qualifications are either spent or irrelevant – and probably were around ten years ago.
The thing is, apart from a few glorious months on the road as a national IT engineer before the [zb]s promoted me, I don’t miss it. Now, Mr. Osborne has made sure we all know who he thinks more highly of and it’s certainly not anyone outside of the city, so I’m not altogether comfortable with the situation as it stands and want to get a career back sharpish before we’re left with an unpayable mortgage and a whole lot of sod-all. I’m 44, which means you’re either already middle management or past it. Since I’m not the former, my options in my chosen trade are few. Also, the rot you have to put up with would dwarf an effluent tanker. So I have no great desire to go back and pick up where I left off, even if it were possible.
Now, dad was a wagon driver. I still have his licence, which looks a lot like Tachograph’s avatar. Some of my fondest memories are of trucking and the people in it. Ian’s Out and About videos https://www.youtube.com/user/1958IanM/videos strike a chord that resonates through my whole being, which is odd as nothing work-related has ever done that before.
Money, which is probably just as crap as every other industry, isn’t as important as being gainfully and happily employed as long as the bills get paid. I don’t have delusions of a blissful life without paperwork, jobsworths and managers who can barely get their right foot sorted into the right shoe but I do think I may be happy with my lot when driving. Nights and unsociable hours I can do. Basically whatever comes my way to get a few years experience. Obviously I want C+E if I’m going to do this and I’d ultimately like to end up 4 on 4 off tramping but that’s a goal, not a starting point.
Can anyone see any huge holes in my reasoning that I should just get on with the training and go for it? I’m located in North Wales, if that makes much difference. There seems to be a lot of haulage activity around here; it’s very handy for both Holyhead and Liverpool, not to mention Kingspan, Gwynedd’s Deeside base and Mostyn. Local training is either Chevron or P&G, if one is to avoid the brokers, and I’m leaning toward P&G for no other reason than their C+E training vehicle is a full artic not a W&D, which I think I may be more comfortable with.
What I’m having a problem with is that it all seems too easy a decision. When that happens, I always suspect I’ve missed something. So comments, even those I don’t particularly want to hear, are welcome.
