So, just how did I end up here?

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Sunday 26 October, 2014 by Uncle Spike

Well well, who would’ve thought that young Spike would one day be a naturalised Türk, having emigrated to the pan-Eurasian country of Turkey in the mid-naughties?

I was recently asked by a Spikette by the name of Joanne (from the blog ‘My Life Lived Full‘) how I came to end up here. Now, not wanting to dodge the question, as one advocates ‘blog requests’, here goes, the story of Spike Mk III in the making…

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Ever since I could walk, I have had nomadic tendencies. From the running away from home as a youngster, to the teenage railway holidays just for the sake of travelling. Then there was hitch-hiking, something I used to relish as a pastime, both on domestic soil and long-distance international adventures.

After a fairly traumatic bag of ups and downs during my late teens, I opted for the “I’ll go off for a month and find myself”. It was the fashionable thing to do at the time. Did I ‘find myself’? Well, that’s debatable, but what I did discover was a love of overseas travel, and a love of hot climates, differing cultures, alternative religious offerings and a thirst for adventure.

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Like most travellers, I used to sit and daydream about settling down in all sorts of places. I recall how I planned on teaching English in Beijing, training as a kayak instructor in New Zealand, a chauffeur in Israel, and an elephant trainer in India. Guess what, I moved into IT, working for a bank in the UK; so there ya go, there are dreams…, and then there’s reality… lol

However, life has a funny old way of kicking you in the short-n-curlies, and then, whilst you are bent over double in agony, another door opens. And that’s kind of what happened to me. I was widowed rather suddenly and wham-bam, life as I knew it stopped. The serious day job, the extra jobs at weekends and evenings, the double-mortgage, the big house, the fancy cars, the holidays…. well, they all suddenly seemed so immaterial and of absolutely no use or interest to me.

After a few soul-searching weeks, wandering around the Scottish Highlands, New England in the States, and the mountains here in Turkey, I reached a decision. My old life, whilst I would never have changed it at the time, simply wasn’t the right thing for me any more…

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So that was that… house up for sale to repay debts, resign from the bank, gave away all my furniture and belongings (that was fun, having friends around to literally empty the garden shed, attic, spare room etc). I then jumped on a plane back to Turkey, with just 20kg of belongings… and well, started life all over again.

The rest is history I guess one could say.

UNCLE SPIKE

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