Lost Horizons

A little bit about me....

Six foot six he stood on the ground,
weighed two hundred and thirty five pounds
but I saw this giant of a man brought down..
by a thing called love..

Johnny Cash could have been singing about me when he sung "A Thing called Love", certainly the physical size matches, and my reaction to falling in love is very similar; but, I am not the subject of any old country and western song, I am a real life and blood human being.

I have spent a lot of my life traveling:- when I was sixteen, I left home and joined the Merchant Navy. At the time, my parents were horrified and my friends thought I was mad, but it was a reasonably good life in those days. Like, a lot of ambitious people starting out in a new career, I wanted the top job, to be a ship's Captain. I got there in the end, and it wasn't easy: especially, balancing the need to work hard to earn promotion, and fulfilling the needs of a family at home.

Having got that far, I sat back and thought to myself "Right, you can't do this for the next twenty-five or thirty years. What are you going to do now?" So, I made the choice to get a job ashore. Strangely enough, that was the cause of my divorce. Isn't it strange how two people can love each other so much for short periods of time, and the love endures over months of absence and many thousands of miles (every time I came home it was like a second honeymoon), but as soon as you are with each other all the time things go totally pear shaped?

You can't see it with your eyes; hold it in your hand;
But like the wind that covers our land;
Strong enough to rule the heart of any man,
This thing called love.
It can lift you up; never let you down;
Take your world and turn it all around.
Ever since time nothing's ever been found,
That's stronger than love.

Back in 2004, I was asked to go and work in Jakarta for a few months on a project the company, I worked for, was involved in. It was there that I met my present boss. Obviously I impressed him enough for him to offer me this job in Hong Kong, for the next few years.

I still do a lot of travelling: next week its Dalien, the week after its Mumbai, and the following week its Phuket (but that's a holiday).

posted by Luke @ 2:34 PM