I’m with OP, the fantasy of driving a truck stateside/canada, I always loved the sound of that. Also my dad was a lorry driver for 30 years, not sure why I didn’t follow him in to that.

Since watching Gold Rush on Discovery, i often wonder if I should have went into something more “blue collar” – I guess it’s always the grass is always greener, but IT gets a bit boring sometimes

@Ambrose: Cool. I’ll do just that. I had always wanted to join one back then, but never quite managed.

It was always a stuntman for me as a kid.
Now I’m an older kid, whatever it is that Matt Hunter does.
He seems to have nailed it!

Me, in a job interview for a senior position, October 2015:

Boss: So what made you pursue a 20 year career in this area, it’s quite specialized?

Me: There were no vacancies for a Spitfire pilot at my local Job Centre Plus.

Got the job!

Most of my ambitions are based on bad puns.
Always fancied having a mobile catering van called Tiffany’s and parking it up at Brechfa (which is lacking facilities).

Lumberjack of course

+1

This:

Rather than this:

Helicopter winch man would be cool I think.

“Unlike truck driving, we have no conception of train driving because we don’t get to look out the front window and see the rails race by (generally speaking). It’s a hidden, magical world. “

Try sitting at the front of one of the DLR driverless trains, it is just like being a train driver (especially if you wear a peaked hat and eat an egg sandwich)

Mine was a film editor. I used to like chopping up bits of video, thought it would be a cool job. Bet it’s quite tedious really, although nowhere near as tedious and unrewarding as what I actually do!

Personally knowing a long distance US trucker, and having heard some of the stories… err no ta!

DLR trains have always been too busy in recent years when I’ve taken them, so no chance of a front seat. Far too many tourists trying to film the journey on an iPhone. Just watch youchoob instead.

Or those ancient Leyland bus bodies mounted on BR train bogies. They have a clear screen in to the driver’s cab (or at least the ones that used to run on the Guildford-Reading line did, until they sent them oop north and replaced with proper trains).

German ICE trains have a screen too, so you think “cool can see the driver driving”, but then it’s actually that fancy LCD glass that goes non-seethrough when the train moves.

I always wanted to be a sailor. Not Dennis Connor, mind. I recently read a book, “Down to the Sea in Ships” about the reality of life on modern container ships, which has done quite a lot to disabuse me of any last vestige of romance about commercial seafaring. A very interesting read btw.

I’ve done a stint in the world of conservation and would only return on my own terms.

Try sitting at the front of one of the DLR driverless trains,

First time I went on one that’s the seat I went for. They really really need to install a pretend control panel with some knobs and dials that don’t do anything. You know.. for kids 🙂

The long-distance lorry driving one has captured my imagination more than once, it suits my solitary streak and love for camping out and late nights, night-driving.

Would quite like to be a physiotherapist as find the human body fascinating and think that helping restore people to health and activity would be immensely satisfying. Something I’ve been working at myself these last twenty years with my own (post-disease) mobility.

However, such a career is unsuitable for my low tolerance to people who have no desire or willingness to fix themselves. Have lost count of people I’ve met who moan about impaired mobility, aches and pains and whatnot – yet they normally do exactly the opposite of what’s good for them and cannot or will not stick to a plan. I’d soon enough become a terrifying dicatorial horror of a physiotherapist. “LEAVE my office and take your attitude with you. Your attitude means that your body is destined to be fat and f**** and I mean neither in a nice way.”

I even shout this at myself. It helps. But I get that not everyone is the same.

My family up north own a haulage firm – my eldest cousin used to drive backwards and forwards to Germany each week throughout the year. My uncle used to drive to Turkey and Iran on a regular basis, from the 70’s through to when he passed away and took my cousin with him a few times to share the driving. Chatting to him the other week, the stories they have about driving through Turkey dealing with bandits trying to steal the cargo and derv makes for fascinating listening.

Below are a couple of pictures, the first being a later 143 Scania pulling one of the original ’tilts’ that my uncle used, and the F16 my cousin used to go to Germany every week. 52 trips a year, he used to get back on a Saturday afternoon, wash and service the truck then set off again on Sunday night

Interesting fact for Guy Martin fanbois – the first moto-x bike Guy owned was bought from my cousin Michael. He mentions it in his first book. And Guy’s dad services the Scania’s, Guy apparently wanted to buy the 143 Streamline shown above when it was sat on the ramps at Ian’s workshop recently..

Wartime biplane pilot, with a white scarf, leather helmet and goggles, machine gun and hand dropped bombs (preferably with ‘BOMB’ written on the side).

Not sure that there’s much commercial demand these days though.

Nice post, flange. 8)

Test pilot or astronaut. Being a test pilot is probably a lot more about tedious procedures and planning than it is about flying exciting cutting edge aircraft though. No matter what the negatives about being an astronaut might be it still involves going into space and as part of the generation that grew up to Star Wars, that trumps everything.

I used to watch repeats of Whirly birds as a kid in Hong Kong, desperately wanted to be a Helicopter pilot