Sorry to hear that Dino.

Condolences, Dino.

Feels weird now giving my story but it's interesting to see how we've all changed throughout our time here.

I joined the day after GTA IV came out after buying a PS3 to play it.  

6 months later I got arrested and lost my job.  It was a bullshit charge but comes with the territory when you work as a bouncer.

I started working in a call centre 3 months later. It's not easy getting a job with an assault charge hanging over you.  I fucking hated that job and get ill even thinking about it.  I think that if I could transport that version of me from there to here right now, I'd be unrecognisable to people that know me now.  I was broken.

A full year after being arrested and charged, the case was dropped.  I cried with relief when the lawyer explained what was being said by the Sheriff.  I had the misfortune of having a serial liar as the chief witness who had embellished the events beyond recognition.  Had he been believed, I would have been facing jail.  In the end, his ludicrous version of events was the cause of collapse in the case. 

9 months after that my dad died.  It was the most significant event of my adult life.  The absolute worst thing that has ever happened to me but also the catalyst that caused a large upswing in my fortunes.  If only it didn't have to come at such a high price.

I quit my job and went travelling.  It's odd thinking that it all took place 5 years ago.  Feels like yesterday I was heading off.  Visited China (4 weeks), New Zealand (6 weeks), Australia (3 months), Singapore (1 week), Hong Kong (1 week) and finally Tokyo (1 week).  It was the best way to deal with my grief and changed who I am.

I came back home and was looking to head off in the other direction soon after and see the Americas but instead met the love of my life.  Pamela and I celebrate 5 years together on Saturday.  She has health problems and it's been tough (and frightening at times) but I wouldn't change it for anything else.  We can't have kids which upsets her but I'm hoping that from that sadness to be able to take her places and show her the world.  So far we've managed Turkey and Germany.  It's a modest start but we'll get there.

Since I was staying here, I decided to see more of Scotland.  It was here that I found photography.  What started out as a way to document my trips on my motorbike about some of Scotland's nice areas was to take over my life.  The motorbike, on the other hand hasn't been used for nearly two years now, despite getting my full license.  It filled a whole in my life that now gets filled with other things.  

Finding a job having been out of the country for several months wasn't easy, though.  I had a gap in my employment and a high school education so was passed over many times.  I eventually got a job in an Amazon warehouse.  It was fucking terrible beyond accurate description and I left after 2 weeks.

After a while I was told by the Job Centre that I would have to go back to the call centre. The very thought filled me with dread.  When I showed up for the interview, I had to sit in the room that I was told my dad had died.  So when the local Starbucks phoned to say I had been accepted in there I was more grateful than just about anyone else who got a job in Starbucks at the age of 31.

Having been quickly taken on as a supervisor, I had a 'sign off' with my area manager.  He walked in the door and told me that he didn't want me as as supervisor and made me jump through hoops that no one else was asked to during their own meetings with him.  To top it off, he interrupted me and sat looking at his watch throughout the thing.  In the end I stopped talking mid-sentence.  He didn't notice and started talking as if it was a normal conversation.  I didn't get his approval.

Faced with the ever present question:  "What the fuck am I going to do?", I applied to college the next week.

Soon after that my gran died.  She had been suffering from dementia for a number of years and really had a terrible quality of life.  One of the associated symptoms was that she was often falling over and hurting herself.  She wouldn't remember she was injured and would often aggravate things unknowingly.  I was actually glad when she died as it was heartbreaking seeing her like that.  She had raised 3 children to become a lawyer, teacher and a midwife while dealing with an alcoholic, abusive husband.  She was a fucking hero and the last two years of her life were nothing but confusion and pain.

I had my interview at college and went from Glasgow back to the church to carry my gran's coffin inside.  Shortly after that I was accepted to college and spent the next two years with my head buried in books or sitting at a computer.  And occasionally taking a photo.

I graduated on Monday there and the grand age of 34 and now have to work out how to make a good living out of the photography that I do and want to do.  It would seem that it almost certainly involves moving away from Falkirk.  Possibly out of the UK.

So things are far from sorted but they're certainly looking better than when I joined up what feels like a lifetime ago.

Kow wrote:

I learned to make bread.

Bread machine doesn't count. Even if it's good bread.

SpaceGazelle wrote:

Kow wrote:

I learned to make bread.

Bread machine doesn't count. Even if it's good bread.

Actually, I started there and now I do handmade sourdough. Nya.

SpaceGazelle wrote:

I've been drunk through most of it. How's Edge doing?

Split from Christian and formed a reasonably successful Heavy Weight career, all be it in a personality vacuum. Now retired and failing at a Hollywood career.

Jay Kay?

Whilst I appreciate the Adam Copeland reference, I feel I have to correct this.

He's made 2 WWE films, which no reasonable person would construe as Hollywood. What he has actually done is move into TV, with a successful role in 4 seasons of Haven, and an upcoming role in Vikings.

I don't remember Edge ever playing with The Police. Was it a charity record?

@matt_82 hope things work out for you dude. You've been through a lot. Damn

Probably. Little known fact is that after they split their singer went on to have a successful career in professional wrestling.

g.man wrote:

Probably. Little known fact is that after they split their singer went on to have a successful career in professional wrestling.