Dear god that is fucking adorable! 
Biggest mistake I made was not following an engineering education/career - only damn thing I was any good at in school…
I loved using lathes, milling machines at.
Wish I had the space for a lathe
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Lucky escape. It’s fucked.
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As you may have noticed, so is every other career I’ve ever managed to hold down. At least I might have had a skillset worth a toss somewhere in the World.
…and perhaps more importantly, I would have enjoyed it, for a while at least…
Oh, it was an extremely enjoyable career for me. At least until I ended up in charge. Then the ‘engineering’ part disappeared and it just became a game of politics, cuddling up to slimy cunts, lying to promote the company, attending pointless fancy dinners and having to endure self loathing in order to ‘do my job’
Ever wonder why I retired at 58?
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You would have made an excellent civil servant, 58 is my target too and for pretty much the same reasons. Sick to death of reinventing wheels for some smarmy cunt or other to sell on abonus earning transformational improvement.
I do however remember blueing in an 18" tapered sluice valve in the bowels of a ship, waist deep in bilge water, fun fucking days.
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Now, you see, that’s what I was told at the age of 15, when I was pretty good at and, more importantly, enjoyed, tech drawing and metal work. “Thatcher’s fucked engineering, it’s over, go and work in a nice clean office…”
Yet @Stu still has to sort out lathes, cool stuff still gets made, we are told that there’s a massive shortage of new engineers, and companies like BAE are desperate to recruit good apprentices, especially female ones.
I was heading for retirement at 55 but that ain’t gonna happen now. Maybe 60, eh ?
You have a serious vinyl habit tho’
Just needs a straw hole for his beer
I loved Engineering. I was a sponsored Electronics Grad with BAe and went on to become an RF Engineer, working on designing millimetric guidance systems R & D, for 8 years.
Fantastic work for the only company I ever wanted to work for.
Unfortunately, there was no money in it, so I had to move out of Engineering.
Shit happens, I guess.
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Excuse me, I am here you know.
We thought you’d gone to bed after Rum, Sodomy & The Lash 
On my way.
No it doesn’t, there’s always an arsehole involved.
Unfortunately, I listened to my prick of a careers officer, which led to 20 years of gradually ramping up stress levels and never feeling I was doing what I wanted to do. Some of the stuff I did, especially for the MoD was worthwhile, possibly made a difference, but was ultimately unfulfilling.
It’s only in the last couple of years, when it’s too late for all sorts of reasons, I sussed out that I should have been making stuff for a living, and really, as long as there’s a bit left over for colourful vinyl and half decent booze after the bills are paid and the fridge has food in it, so what if I can’t afford to go to St Moritz or the Bahamas?
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Very much this
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I never wonder why anyone retires early - I just envy them…
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