I hope everyone has a good weekend filled with pleasure and happiness. Here are some questions which I’ve borrowed from elsewhere…
1. Realistically, where do you think you’ll be five years from now - job/place/family etc
2. Unrealistically, given the choice, where do you want to be five years from now?
3. Name 3 things stopping you from achieving everything in #2 above.
4. Utterly and completely abandoning realism, make up where you’ll be in five years. Alien abductions and portals to alternate universes are encouraged.
5. Five years ago, where did you believe you’d be now and have any crucial events of the past five years dramatically changed the course of your life?
1. Realistically, where do you think you’ll be five years from now - job/place/family etc
Pretty much where I am now
2. Unrealistically, given the choice, where do you want to be five years from now?
Pretty much where I am now, but having completed my various side projects (Welsh, piano, etc.) and moved onto new ones.
3. Name 3 things stopping you from achieving everything in #2 above.
Time, Welsh being hard, and time.
4. Utterly and completely abandoning realism, make up where you’ll be in five years. Alien abductions and portals to alternate universes are encouraged.
Fluently Welsh?
5. Five years ago, where did you believe you’d be now and have any crucial events of the past five years dramatically changed the course of your life?
Nope, things are pretty much going to plan. I’m boring, me.
Realistically, where do you think you’ll be five years from now - job/place/family etc
Honestly, I do not know, the only thing I think is certain is that I will be 50… and still struggling on where I am now…
Unrealistically, given the choice, where do you want to be in five years from now?
I would be running a small family camp-site, near or in Aberdaron, with a nice restaurant/cafe as part of the business.
Name 3 things stopping you from achieving everything in #2 above
Fear,… Fear… oh, and Fear!
Utterly and completely abandoning realism, make up where you’ll be in five years. Alien abductions and portals to alternate universes are encouraged.
Ok, I would have invented a time-machine and gone back to ensure that I did all the things that I regret I have not (or did not) do.
Five years ago, where did you believe you’d be now and have any crucial events of the past five years dramatically changed the course of your life.
Five years ago I expected that I would now be living in the Sergeant’s Mess, away from home and my family. I expect I would have done a further tour in either Iraq or Afghanistan. The crucial event in my life was discovering a place called Tir Glyn, and a tearful walk along the cliffs to the ‘Lands end of Wales’ when I told my wife that I could not go back to the RAF after our holiday. We drove to Criccieth and went for ice cream in Cadawaladers… Sharon produced a napkin and did some calculations on it, she worked out we could ‘just’ afford for me to leave the RAF. Five years on we visit Wales when we want, I have a steady job, and we are stone broke because our income has been cut by over a half… but we are happy and I started learning Welsh as well!!!
Wow Andy. Thanks for posting your story, it’s certainly put a few things in perspective for my own Friday Five. I don’t think I’ve got anything that matches that…
Realistically, where do you think you’ll be five years from now - job/place/family etc
About where I am today. It’s not such a bad place to be.
Unrealistically, given the choice, where do you want to be five years from now?
Still here.
Name 3 things stopping you from achieving everything in #2 above.
Things that might stop me achieving the previous? Irrational ambition. A whimsical desire to try new things. Somebody else messing things up for me.
Utterly and completely abandoning realism, make up where you’ll be in five years. Alien abductions and portals to alternate universes are encouraged.
In five years time I will have perfected the ability to freeze time without freezing myself, thereby allowing me to fulfil my other ambitions of learning Spanish guitar, training for a marathon, doing some charity work, at the same time as picking up the pace on my Welsh learning. Inevitably there is a risk that I will age faster than people around me, but it’s a risk I’ll be willing to take.
Five years ago, where did you believe you’d be now and have any crucial events of the past five years dramatically changed the course of your life?
Five years ago I was bored, bored, bored. Then I saw the glimmer of an opportunity, ran with it as fast I could and ended up in a much better place. As a chap said to me at the time “do you want to live the same year every year, or do you want every year to be different?” I decided that different would be nice.
1. Realistically, where do you think you’ll be five years from now - job/place/family etc
Driving a bus (still) in Maidstone (still) no family (still) etc…
2. Unrealistically, given the choice, where do you want to be five years from now?
Owning a bus/coach company (or at least driving coaches), somewhere in Wales, and married with a couple of children (at least).
3. Name 3 things stopping you from achieving everything in #2 above.
Fear of taking a pay reduction if I were to change my job or the company I work for (if I stay with my current company I’m restricted to North Wales. Then there’s the possibility they could pull out of Wales gradually or completely - they’ve already pulled out of Aberystwyth because of reductions in government funding. But let’s not get political now…)
Moving to Wales will cost money. Then there’s the adjustment to new job, possible lower pay, having to keep working all the hours I can legally do to stay afloat…which brings me nicely to…
Having no social life because I’m having to work all the hours I can legally do just to stay afloat, hence I can’t meet a nice young lady to start a family with - let alone just to do the more fun things with such as go on dates etc. Life isn’t as simple as it should be isn’t it? Ah well…
4. Utterly and completely abandoning realism, make up where you’ll be in five years. Alien abductions and portals to alternate universes are encouraged.
Well, after winning the £120M EuroMillions jackpot after upteen weeks rollover in 2014, I will have travelled the world and seen some wonderful sights. And I would’ve come back to the UK, invested in some dynamic futuristic business that takes off and makes me millions more! In the meantime, I’m enjoying a simple life trying not to let the fortune go to my head! I would’ve met a beautiful down-to-earth Welsh woman who would no doubt have travelled the world with me, not for the free holiday, but for the chance to make a small difference to the more unfortunate countries we visit (being the beautiful, kind natured person she is). We would marry and would enjoy the simple life together. OK, no alien abductions here, but outlandish and utterly unrealistic nonetheless!
5. Five years ago, where did you believe you’d be now and have any crucial events of the past five years dramatically changed the course of your life?
5 years ago, my world was on the brink of crashing down (through some bad decisions of my own mind)! I had to endure a low point in my life before it started to get better. Moving house, changing jobs (in a way - I did have to take a pay cut, but it’s worked in my favour eventually), changing plans… I’ve still got a way to go, and I’m still uncertain of where I will end up or what changes (if any) will happen. But right now, I take each day as it comes, keep finding inspiration, and eventually, I know I will find myself on a path I will be happy to follow for the rest of my life. Here’s to hoping anyway!
Gav, if you and I could muster a couple of quid I would go halves on a couple of Bristol Lodekka’s and I am sure Gwynedd would welcome Crosville back with open arms…
If only it could go back to the old days when the buses were publicly owned (I’m not old enough to remember them before the National Bus Company’s existence)! But if I were to move to Wales, I would be in South Wales (Swansea, Llanelli, Cardiff, but as far as Aberystwyth). Not that I wouldn’t consider North Wales, just I’ve never had the pleasure to see that part of Wales beyond the A483/A5/A438. Maybe next year I will venture to these parts…
