Adventures Of An Ordinary Man

Download or read book An Ordinary Man written by David R. Bird and published by Austin Macauley Publishers. This book was released on 2024-03-01 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: While German bombs were falling on London people didn't worry too much when hearing Hitler's doodlebugs, the dreaded V1 flying bomb. But when the noise stopped then they were worried because they knew that the rocket was about to drop – on them! David, hanging in a basket inside an air raid shelter, was oblivious to all of this for he was just a baby. Growing up in West London he spoke with a cockney accent even though he wasn't a true cockney. He went to a good school and later to an art college but not being impressed with the lifestyle of an artist or of an interior designer he left and got an ordinary job, His sporting interests included rowing with a club on the nearby River Thames and gaining instruction in the sport of judo but at the age of 18 he was looking for something more, an adventure. He joined up for a three-year stint in a colonial police force in Southern Rhodesia and never looked back. He lost his cockney accent, learned a lot about police work and the native Rhodesians, both black and white, and his three-year stint turned into over ten. Then using his police experience he started two successful private security companies, one in Rhodesia, the other in South Africa, and later emigrated to British Columbia in Canada where he started a third. In 1984 he began working for the Canadian government, firstly in a security capacity and later in their commercial sector before taking early retirement on December 31st, 1999, and moving to the United States at the beginning of the new millennium. Now in his fifth country of residence, he resurrected his artistic talents and began selling his art at various shows in the south-eastern United States. He also joined a local rowing club and within a few months was their manager and coach. He has enjoyed many years of travel to over forty countries, has lived in five on three different continents and continues to live a healthy lifestyle which includes kayaking, cycling and plenty of walking.