Quirky song which I love!
Most of you have probably heard this before, but just in case you haven’t… Mike Batt was head Womble of Wimbledon…
Author: Chas
Hi!
After 29 years roaming the world on mostly Foreign Flag and FOC vessels, sampling local delicacies in numerous ports along the way, I swallowed the anchor in 1994 - not really through choice, but being shunted out by cheap labour.
Tony has put up a gallery of some of my vessels and shacks. Since leaving the sea, I went on a Training For Work scheme, and the training providers offered me employment doing some admin work, IT Tutoring for RSA Level I and II along with repairing PCs and cobbling working units for trainees to use out of old "scrapped" ones in the organisation.
Sadly, that came to an end when the centre closed due to lack of erm, trainable people referred by the Job Centre and local Training and Enterprise Council, as well as getting people into work. I did a lot of co-ordinating with local employers to take on YTS people. My next move was into Financial Services, becoming a "Best Advice" researcher for a fairly large practice of corporate and personal Independent Financial Advisors. I was there for 6 years when I got hit by the Big C (18 months after quitting smoking, grrrr!) and had to have my voicebox removed. Following a few months off sick, my employers put me on a few months gardening leave, as with the voice prosthesis, I found telephone work difficult, and a lot of my research work involved phoning insurance and investment providers. I got a nice redundancy package (due to being put on gardening leave to make my service up to 7 years) and as well as a party/prezzies from colleagues, I got a bottle of premium rum with a crystal decanter and glasses from the Chairman. Being curious, I checked out the rum online, and it cost him £54 which was a decent gesture! All in all a nice end to a nice employment. My next job was factory based - no need to be on the phone all day - where I worked for 6 years till the Big C hit me again - this time in a lung. Out came the affected one, and again, after a long spell on sick leave (both employers kept me on full pay) I returned to work, and struggled due to shortage of breath. As it was only 4 months till my 65th birthday, they also put me on gardening leave till retirement.
So, here I am, Jurassic Sparks, enjoying life as best as possible, nearly always happy and cheerful except when odd things get me into grumpy old man rant mode. I miss the sea, and ships, but have family and friends so things could be worse.
Anyone wanting to have anosey at photos of ships, shacks, ports, and other stuff, feel welcome to browse my photo albums on facebook, they are set to public viewing... I change my account QRA now and then, but it'll always be a combination of Chas Anfield-Progster York - currently the York is removed. So now you know!
regards, Chas