Need a few good yarns

Now guys, no good comparing one working life with another.
Sure that all have given their best to their careers and been well rewarded.
No gold watch for 30 or more years at the one job, take what you can.
Find all of the histories disclosed on here most interesting and informative.
Did work with one chap, if you added up all his jobs and times, he'd be 168!
At least the writers on here are dinkum. Good luck to all. Paul.

Paul, reckon we can all relate to the 168 year experience packed into a 40 odd year old body! Still, what makes the world go round! I liked the bloke who applied for multiple Centrelink payments, reckoned that he had packed so much living into such a short span that he should be paid accordingly!!

Then there was the guy who applied to Centrelink for holiday pay as he had been on the dole for twelve months.

PaulFH wrote: Did work with one chap, if you added up all his jobs and times, he'd be 168!

i think Most of Us have Worked with that Bloke, Paul..:side:

hayseed wrote:

PaulFH wrote: Did work with one chap, if you added up all his jobs and times, he'd be 168!

i think Most of Us have Worked with that Bloke, Paul..:side:

There was one where I work. To this day he is known industry-wide as Hans Christian Andersen!

Jarrod.

No doubt there are many on the Centrelink benefits that are well over due for long service leave too.

When i worked in the Top End for three months some 30 years ago, they used to talk about 150 year old men. The blokes said you would have to be at least that old to have done all the things some guys said they had done.

Yes, there are some great stories on here arent they? My 81 year old mum loves them, thats gotta be a good sign.
When I was in Africa years ago on the overland truck (and I was only a passenger, nothing so exotic as some of you)
I heard a story about one bloke who was an Overland driver who was camped with his crew on the east coast somewhere, apparently they got "ambushed" late one night, shots were fired, bullets flying around, so quite a dangerous and frightening situation for him and the travellers I'd say.
They all managed to get in the truck, left all their gear, but as they speed off a few bullets went through the truck and one hit the driver in the arm (?)
Of course they kept going, and as they bounced over the ground as fast as they could, some people screaming with fright, they reckon the driver yelled back at the crew "FFS SHUT UP, YOU WANTED AN ADVENTURE DIDN'T YOU? WELL YOU BLOODY GOT IT"...
Tough breed some of these guys I reckon...

Which reminds me of another African story- not about me, but a very good friend of mine.
She had been working in London for a few years as a lot of Aussies do, and upon deciding to finally come home to Australia, her and a friend though one of the African Overland trips would be a terrific way to slowly work their way home. Somehow they got on to this fellow who was running one a truck, sounded a bit sketchy but they thought thats just the way it must be?
Anyway they eventually flew in to Senegal on the west coast of Africa, met up with the rest of the punters, the skipper, and the truck - a big blue 4WD Bedford called Bertha.
Apparantly the bloke running the show was bloody hopeless- it may have been his first overland trip, or his first business venture, but he was ll over the shop, had a couple of panics going on, started borrowing money from the punters, and the crew were very worried about the way their expensive overland trip was shaping up.
It culminated in the driver / owner baling out- he flew out of Niger or somewhere like that, to 'go back to England to get some more money".. he told the punters that they could either leave the truck there and fly out too, with no refund, or they could drive it themselves if they wanted to!
They had a bit of a vote- all but four of them decided to get the hell out of there on the plane. (West Africa may have that effect on people I think?)
So the four, another girl and two fellas, thought bugger it, we'll drive this bloody great blue thing across Africa..I don't think any of them had ever driven a truck before.
I'm pretty sure they got through a couple of countries before deciding that they'd never make it, with all the required paperwork missing, and an acute shortage of money for fuel...
In the end they made a decision that they'd either end up dead or arrested if they kept on, so they found some dodgy bloke in Nigeria, who knew more dodgy blokes, and arranged to sell the truck.
Some other dodgy bloke bought it, so I'm pretty sure the two young fellas took their share of the money and flew out back to the UK , whilstI don't think the girls could afford the flight. So two girls continued overland by themselves, hitching, bussing, riverboating and trucking all the way across Africa, and ended up Zanzibar.
And made it home some months later.
Some of the stories, and the photos they took were amazing...The highway (track) through what was then Zaire (Now Congo I think?) is worth googling too.
Bloody tough for a couple for young white girls I reckon.
Cheers
Rich

I think a lot of people who only have a small number of jobs, maybe doing the same thing but possibly at different companies, in their lifetime can not conceive of the experience many others have.

The average time in a job for Australians is 3 years and 4 months. This means the average Australian will have around 15 jobs in his lifetime. It also means that someone who has had 3 jobs (possibly doing the same thing) is balanced by someone who has had 30 jobs, not necessarily the same thing.

Having 30 jobs certainly does not mean a drifting ne'er-do-well (although it can do) and very many "achievers" move often to new pastures as something more challenging, interesting or better paying comes up. They tend to be risk-takers - not jumping off cliff type risk-takers but losing security and possibly their house type risk-takers.

The point of this concerning experiences and good yarns is there are many people out there with a vast store of yarns without being 150 years old. We are starting to tap into some and it is good fun.

Lang