It’s very near the end of my tour guiding season and again what a season it has been. I really can’t believe sometimes how lucky I am to be able to meet such wonderful, wonderful people from around the world. I finally landed on my feet after my chequered career.
It may be interesting to some folks to hear about my chequered career. So hang on folks here we go!
I was never academic. As a kid I was a bit of a dreamer and I was naturally good at sports. I played on the first rugby team and cricket team and was good enough to win my junior golf championship and I could run a half marathon in 1 hour 26, ski well etc
But I hugely lacked confidence and was shy and a dreamer and I was in the very bottom of my class throughout junior school. So it was a huge surprise to everyone when I got into St Andrews University in 1979 to study maths and physics in my first year. That is still a huge surprise to me to be honest. However I was far too green for all this and had no world experience and I didn’t make the most of this opportunity by a country mile.
I really often wonder what I would have done hadn’t I gone to St Andrews then. It would have been a whole different story.
I probably should have followed my instincts after St Andrews as I went to Val D’Isere as a ski guide and had the time of my life. But I didn’t know my mind and I didn’t think things through. I went to London and had miserable years trying to pass exams to become a chartered accountant and get a career in finance. Of course I failed. My heart wasn’t in it.
I then went back to Edinburgh and got a job in administration in an investment house and had a lot of fun but was never an investment administration type of guy. I chucked it after 2 years and headed back to the Alps and Val D’Isere to work as a rep for a season. I had great fun but eventually got sacked for not following protocol enough.
Back to Edinburgh in my thirties I floated around for years job gardening and began ski teaching at the local dry slope. I was happier doing this. One summer I spent in Marbella working for Club Med teaching golf which was superb. I taught beginners in my limited french and so if you ever do come across a french person with a wacky golf technique you could always proffer Marbella, Club Med, Keith?
Anyway I then started a flower business and built it for 14 years and the offshoot of this was that I started a cafe in an adjoining shop which morphed into a Sicilian restaurant which I tried to run but it lasted nearly 4 months as we didn’t know what we were doing. It was a disaster and I licked my wounds and headed to St Andrews to caddie.
I caddied for a good few years (now in my early fifties!) and did a bit of writing and worked in the Fairmont as a concierge which led onto the food tours and where I am today. And the tours are going swimmingly. I seem to be able to do this. Albeit I have had to do a rather intense crash course in Scottish and British history.
But as everyone who knows me I have always had a problem with alcohol and I am still battling it ongoing if I am honest.
The essence of it all I think is the issue that every single person in my situation will have at times. They will have ongoing urges and this will indeed last throughout their future lives (I know a remarkable guy who stopped for 19 years and then got drunk once and has been off it for 22 years now!). The basic fact is that there will come about times and situations when one is tempted and that is THE huge precipice.
It is the lucky ones who are on the edge of that precipice and know they have to do something for sure. But these lucky ones know and make the decision that that one thing is not to drink. And do something other than drink. But they are the lucky ones