Free at Last

Free at Last. Free at Last!

I am no longer the Captain of Jazz of Monaco. I got the boot and couldn’t be happier. They wanted things to go perfectly and I couldn’t deliver perfection so they decided to bring on the “much more experienced” captain who relieved me when I was on holiday to finish out the season. I can’t blame them for wishing for perfection, but I think they are foolish to be believe it possible.

The split was amicable. In fact, I’m still helping them straighten out some of the accounting which was supposed to be done on a monthly basis. However, they fired their accountant and it’s been piling up for six months and of course I’m the only one who can make heads and tails of it all.

Really there is no doubt that I was more unhappy than they were and no doubt I am and will be happier than they will be now that I have been released.

So at the moment they have me in a Hotel Compte de Nice in Beauleiu through Friday. So the question arises, “What’s next?”. A good question which I’m working out at the moment. I get hit with a huge tax bill if I go back home before October so for now that’s going to have to wait. So I have two months to kill one way or the other. I could try for more work around here which I will do, if only half heartedly. What I think I will do though is take some time for myself.

Firstly, if I can’t get access to my offshore account by the end of the week I will be flying to London to straighten that out. Two months ago I sent in requested documents so that I could access my account via Internet/phone and apparently I slipped through the cracks. Since then I have been accruing a long diary of un-returned phone calls trying to straighten things out, but so far to no avail. It’s really pissing me off since NatWest is basically holding me ransom. The money goes in, but doesn’t come out.

Once I’ve got that taken care of the world is my oyster. I don’t really like oysters, but I do like the east and will probably fly to Thailand. I think another retreat is in order. If I don’t reach enlightenment there and decide to rejoin society I think a career move is in order. Are you ready for this; I’m gonna be a helicopter pilot! It’s something I’ve been considering for years, but the price tag has always been prohibitive. Now I’ve got the money, I still have the desire and with all the baby boomers (Vietnam pilots) retiring the market is good.

I’ll update later in the week when I have a better idea of what I’m doing….