Missed Opportunities

[ITFC2024]

Several years ago a young lady I worked with found a kitten in the car park. I said, can I touch your pussy? She said, not yet!

I was still married at the time, so did nothing.

True story.

[ITFC2024]

I kissed a stripper, and she said I was a good kisser…?

True story

[ITFC2024]

In my early 20s, I accomplished the trifecta…three different women in a 24hr period. I’m not boasting it’s just what happened…it could have been four.

I’m half joking half serious, and I’m just trying to have a laugh to fill the gap. Hope no one is offended by my remarks, it’s all in fun.

[ITFC2024]

Changing the subject, I was hired for a job in the media a few weeks after I was laid off after 20+ years at CBS News in Dallas. I initially accepted the offer, and then declined. It was probably the wrong move professionally, but it suited my mindset at the time. Now I make half as much money in a different profession far removed from television journalism. I don’t miss the stress of being on call 24/7, but I do miss the paychecks.

Guess you could say that was a missed opportunity financially, but mentally I’m a much happier and content individual. Which begs the question, what’s more important to be happy in life?

[marko69]

Wow, thats superb, 24. Were you an actual out in the field correspondent?

“……. and now, the UK finds itself in a precarious position because the Mango Messiah thinks everything will be decided ‘in two weeks’, which means IN two weeks time, he’ll still decide two weeks from then and then of course in the extended 4 weeks from now, it’ll be two weeks from then. This is ITFC24 reporting from the inside of a dumpster, desparately needing new underwear, Central Tehran.”

[ITFC2024]

Wow, thats superb, 24. Were you an actual out in the field correspondent?

“……. and now, the UK finds itself in a precarious position because the Mango Messiah thinks everything will be decided ‘in two weeks’, which means IN two weeks time, he’ll still decide two weeks from then and then of course in the extended 4 weeks from now, it’ll be two weeks from then. This is ITFC24 reporting from the inside of a dumpster, desparately needing new underwear, Central Tehran.”

Lol! Well I was mostly behind the camera although I did have to narrate live footage of crime scenes and weather related disasters. There were a few times I desperately needed a change of underwear!

[marko69]

Well, I got to tell you, and I ain't kidding around......, you could very easily start a thread , or a blog on this very site, dedicated to your time as a reporter. That is my "thing"...... I've read all the big correspondents memoirs over the years, John Simpson being the very best. Love all that stuff. You'd certainly have one interested reader here.

Re missed opportunities and women? Only one, but not a missed opportunity AT ALL. Just a straight refusal as married with 3 kids at home....... British Gas Xmas night out in Edinburgh, 1997. Frankensteins bar on George 1V Bridge. Was at the bar getting a round in, quite late, ....., a woman who looked like Gillian Anderson from the X-Files stepped in beside me, spoke provocatively in my ear about leaving there, getting a cab somewhere else...........

......., absolutely sh*t my y-fronts....., stumbled, fumbled, stuttered, made my excuses and fecked off. Didn't even say goodbye to the guys. (Got some stick for that...., Marko the tight b*stard who fkd off when it was his round) ....., and of course no one believed the story!

But within a hour, was home wrapping Xmas presents with the Mrs. 100% true story. Remember it vividly.

[ITFC2024]

I’m flattered you’d be interested to be honest. One last night cap, I shared a post to my family after I watched the Trump military parade…it stirred up some memories. They have no idea about many of my experiences as a combat photographer in the Navy mostly because I haven’t shared much. This was pre-CBS when I was stationed in Bosnia:

When I was stationed in Sarajevo, we got an alert one day. SFOR or the stabilization force had been ordered to set up a check point in Mostar, a predominantly Croatian area in Bosnia. Organized crime was rife after the cease fire, and SFOR was attempting to weed out the agitators.

My assignment along with my colleague was to document events at the checkpoint. I was video, and my colleague was still photography. Everything went smoothly until the leader of the Croatian resistance was stopped and detained at the checkpoint. Shortly after his detention, agitators surrounded the checkpoint, stopped traffic and forced people out of their cars to protest, while vandalizing SFOR vehicles and burning traffic cones in the street. My colleague was surrounded by the agitators and they smashed his camera and threatened violence. An interpreter told me to put my camera away because I was next.

The stand off lasted about 12 hours and the agitators were constantly telling SFOR personnel including myself that they were going to kill us. Eventually politicians and military leaders diffused the situation after hours of threats, but somehow we came out of it unscathed accept for my colleague and his expensive equipment. We actually had to have a meeting with the Army general about the incident.

Anyway there were numerous other incidents I dealt with over there. I wasn’t in a fire fight, but there were certainly times I felt my life was at risk. I don’t think I’ve shared that with you before.

[marko69]

Jeezo.

The vast majority of us have never lived really.

All this would've been early 90s era, Balkans War etc.

A proper week changing nightmare for me around that time was the Graham Plumbers' Merchant truck being late for a "One Day Heating" install. Snowballed the whole week. Some of those truck drivers needed a SFOR presence if they were late.

Not making light, at all......, just saying that only a couple thousand miles away from where we were, yourself & hundreds of others were enduring some "real" issues.

What were your motives for signing up? Did you sign up to see action? Or initially was it just to travel the world (see the world) with the Navy?

[marko69]

Long story short……, but suppose could be about NOT having missed opportunities for this particular apprentice.

Doing a job for a contractor. The contractor wanted me to take his apprentice for the day.
(Stuart: good lad and now has his own heating company)
I got a call from the contractor to say he was sending over one of his new employees as another job had been cancelled.
This new employee, (Michael: early 30s and had been in the army during the Bosnian conflict)
I said to Stuart, “Don’t be asking any daft questions to this Michael guy when he turns up. Some people don’t like talking about stuff.”

Michael arrives around lunchtime. We make coffee, we all sit down with our sandwiches etc. ……
Stuart: “So….. you killed anyone before?”