| John Shields
It's quite a challenge to account for 50 years in a few words, but here goes.
There are social, economic and "just living it" components.
I got married, and had two wonderful kids, John and Julie. I got divorced and remarried. Susann and I have shared life now for some 30 years. And with a little bit of luck, another 30 to come. Susann is an American citizen, which is why I now reside here. With no regret, I might add. John and Julie got on with it too (Julie in London, John in Perth, Australia). I now have 5 grand kids, and no doubt in a few short years will move on to "great grand" status.
From Glasgow I moved to the south of England, where I worked as an engineer and project manager (in several disciplines - IR physics, lasers and masers, atmospheric physics as examples). My next career move was into sales and marketing, first peddling radar systems, then Control and Data Acquisition systems to electrical, gas and water supply industries. Then I sold Subsea Control systems to the offshore oil and gas industries, in support of nascent UK developments, and also to the world.
I enjoy travelling. Luckily my work had me travel a lot of Europe and to Russia, the Mid East, N. Africa, India, Indonesia and Australia. Outside of that, I have also done the tourist bit to places like Egypt and China (Luxor, the Forbidden City, Great Wall, etc.). In the '80s I became very interested in sailing, and continue to be. Susann and I took a year off and sailed the Atlantic. We left the UK late in '89, to the Canaries, to Barbados, cruised the Caribbean, and then came ashore again in Fort Lauderdale, FL, to begin economic life afresh in the US. We still dream that we might again take our current yacht, Synergy, to sail the azure waters of the Caribbean. In the US we have lived in California (San Francisco and Los Angeles), and then crossed the country to live here in New York's Hudson Valley. We are currently buying a home in Arizona, and with luck the builder will complete it in time for us to relocate there in October this year. Finally free of the need to be gainfully employed.
I remain curious about it all.
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