so, on friday morning at 11am, i got paid. completely unprompted, it took me by surprise. ok , not quite as much as last season but a 20€ drop per day isnt gonna kill me, especially if i am working one hour less per day. I have at least one more week of work on nariida too. maybe , as i impress them with my skills and knowledge they might keep me on longer.
so my original job was discarded. I was offered around 600€ a month less than last time, the reason being that having a contract means the employer paying your tax and insurance, only this time it wasnt going to be quite like that. mike had told me that i had to earn him at least 600€ a month before he would start paying me. that means effectively working one week out of four for free. would also mean i would save around 3.5k less during my stay here, and of course, i would have been begging to be paid each time, on time and in full. Think about that for a minute, would you take a job that was paying 7k a year less than it paid you six months earlier? if you answer yes to that one, you are a twat
I did find another private yacht that is also looking for an engineer. they will be heading off to the pacific early next year and i would really like to go. would be a minimum 12 month stretch but i guess that a year would fly by, especially when i am new to the boat and we are cruising the pacific islands in style. The lazarette is huge too so maybe it could hold a couple of surf boards!
a boat that size has gotta be paying 40-50k a year too, and tax free at that. luckily for me, mason used to live with the skipper and is spreading the good word for me. I pass the boat each morning so will keep pushing the skipper.
Russ text me earlier to say that`portugal was gorgeously hot. 28 degrees and swimmers in the ocean at mareta.
Last night , i headed to masons for a BBQ. after we ate, we watched the comedian called Jethro. for those of you that have never seen him, i would put him in the same league as Tommy Cooper. Even if his gags arent funny, his delivery alone will have you peeing in your pants. At the end of the stage show, he sang a song he had written about cornwall. As he sang ´where the red rocks meet the white water´ i was reminded of all of the places i used to go in cornwall. for the first time in over two years, i had serious pangs to be back in england, not in the midlands, but i was seriously missing cornwall. All the places he sang about that i knew, had great memories of 5 years ago or more. That was a little wierd for me. since leaving england, i havent really missed it. returning when i do, for anything more than 2 days drives me insane, but cornwall, is definately the english equivalent of sagres, such a laid back way – shame the water isnt warmer.
Anyway, last night i was so shattered that i just wanted to curl up in my bed and stay there all day but sadly, i woke at 8.30 this morning with no hope of sleeping more. I headed out to paddys farm , i havent seen him in months. he is doing well too, a new website in the pipeline that appears to be a very solid business venture. I am sure it will work.
so for the rest of the day i will wander around the coffee shops and read my book before heading to sleep the evening away once more. work starts at 9am which is perfect, i get to head to a coffee shop or two on the way to work, a perfectly gentle way to start the day.
finally , i leave you with a picture at the bottom of the page, click to enlarge it. this is, what i would call filthy rich. OK the yacht isnt massive, but stick a helicopter on the back and you are talking seriously minted!
The November Archives 
Have a moan - the beers are on me !!