EP007 - Who is Chris? Motorcycling through Africa, corporate life to starting Adventure Solos, boarding school escapades, dating and more! (SPECIAL Part 3 of 3)

Chris' turn under the spotlight - growing up abroad, overlanding trips, corporate life and starting Adventure Solos. followed by those 'rapid-fire' questions. This is part three of a three-part special.

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Transcript

007 - Chris

Chris: [00:00:00] I knew I was going away on quite a big trip and And I guess the biggest danger, really, people think it's animals or whatever. You're riding a motorbike for a lot of time, and as a young kid as well, I guess you've not fully settled in, not sure you ever settle into riding motorbikes and stuff, but so I had a conversation with my mum, and my mum brought it up with me, saying, look, like, if you don't, I'm gonna get emotional saying this, but, if you, if you don't.

Chris: Like, make it if you don't come back, like, what do you want us to do with your body, kind of thing? If we can get your body back.

Nat: Hello! It's Nat here, your co host at Life Changes with Adventure Solos. Adventure Solos help people in their 30s, 40s, and 50s rediscover themselves and meet new people. In this bonus episode of Life Changes, Chris and I speak about his fascinating [00:01:00] life so far. From navigating life in the Middle East in his childhood, a career in the corporate mainstream world, climbing the ladder to a once in a lifetime solo motorbike expedition across Africa.

Nat: We speak about his taking a leap of faith, following his passion and starting adventure solos. We discuss the importance of family and flexibility in Chris current lifestyle. Please also consider supporting us over at Patreon. You can find details of that in the show notes below. If you'd like to learn more about Adventure Solo's events Please visit AdventureSolos.com

Nat: and enter your details to sign up to the mailing list.

Chris: My parents were from the Midlands and I was born in Wolverhampton. I've got two sisters as well. I'm the middle one. So Yeah, we were born in Wolverhampton, but I don't know Wolverhampton. I left when I was two and we moved to West Yorkshire, lived there till I was nine. I really enjoyed living there like we We're in this old cottage.

Chris: It never [00:02:00] got really finished done up until until literally the week we left. You know, being done up to sell it on. And now that I own my own property, I understand why that was, especially when my parents were working full time and had three kids. But yeah, I just used to enjoy playing out in the fields, really, and riding my bike.

Chris: I think I spent as much time as I could I probably do have ADHD and that's always been a thing, like an attention span thing that I've struggled with and being outdoors is always, I never realized it was a conscious thing, but that's always helped. So yeah, when, when I was nine, we, my dad got a job in the Middle East.

Chris: He was in HR really, so could go into, I guess it spans every industry, but he ended up getting a job for an oil company out there for the first time. So we, as a family, when I was nine years old in 1992, moved out to the Middle East I'd love living out there. It was just such a nice lifestyle because you had the weather, like it's always, I guess, between 30 to.

Chris: Normally between 30 to [00:03:00] 40 degrees but in the summer it can get up to like 52 53 degrees and stuff Although never officially I think because if it ever hit 50 degrees, I think they were meant to people didn't have to go into work So it was always like 49 point whatever

Chris: So, yeah, I guess I just enjoyed that. It was a bit, bit of a shock moving out. I guess as a kid, I didn't think I wanted to move out there, but once we got out there and settled into like an English school and stuff, it was, it was just a nice lifestyle. We, I actually have the, a wooden table in my garden here and that wooden table is 30 years old, give or take, because we had that in Oman and we just used to eat meals out there as a default.

Chris: Like, whereas in the UK you sit, I don't know, at a table or something. Yeah. In the living room or wherever you sit we sat outside and it was so nice to have that, I guess, time and space. And there was a lot of, like, we were by the sea, so there was swimming and obviously you got the weather for it and stuff.

Chris: So that was a really nice lifestyle. So I was out there full time for four years. My parents were there for 11 [00:04:00] or 12 years. And 

Nat: what was your schooling at that stage? Like what were you going to a local 

Chris: school or I mean all the schools out there really were sort of private schools And so I guess my dad's company paid for education for for the employees Families that sort of just had to be what the deal was to get expats out there.

Chris: So Yeah, they were, it was a local English school that taught the, taught the, whatever it was, English, British curriculum. So yeah, I went to one school for a few years and then went to a school. Yeah. A British school after that for a few years. And I, I enjoyed it, but I wasn't, I was never, I never really applied myself and, and I missed some of the, I guess, sport and stuff like, for example, we didn't have any grass pitches to play.

Chris: You know, I used to play rugby by this time and we played on like, It wasn't far off gravel, to be honest. It was, it was, [00:05:00] it was dust or dirt, but it was compacted and to stop the dust coming up, they would sort of put water tankers over that leave a layer of water. So over time, it got more and more compounded.

Chris: So I thought we were playing rugby, but they were quite highly adapted rules. You didn't really have forwards and backs and stuff so much either. For if anyone knows rugby, but basically if you tackled someone properly, I mean, I've got scars on my knees cause you just get these flaps of skin that would come down.

Chris: I know, but I have to say, I think that actually probably helped me. I've only just. Pin connected these together, but when I was then playing rugby, so I went to boarding school at that point. And again, that was funded by the company my dad worked for, which was brilliant and such an opportunity. But yeah, just really enjoyed.

Chris: We had, we, we did have PE lessons for an hour or two each week, but we had what they called games as well. And we had that three days a week, three afternoons a week. So it was something like Monday afternoon, Wednesday afternoon and Friday afternoon. And that was like two hours [00:06:00] of two, two and a half hours of.

Chris: Proper exercise, like whatever the sport was, football or rugby or I think we did a lot of outdoor pursuits. I did some mountain biking and stuff. And I really enjoyed that. And then on a Saturday as well, you had your matches, your fixtures. So like four or five times a week, you're doing quite a few hours exercise every day.

Chris: And I think I just always enjoyed that release. So that was quite a big thing for me. So yeah, I was at boarding school for, from the age of 12, I think to 18 and, and I loved it. There was six boarding houses four of them were boys and two of them were girls. So there was more boys and girls, but it was mixed.

Chris: So yeah, I guess I just feel that the house I was in, the people in my year group, we, we sort of, you know, I don't have any brothers and we were sort of like brothers to my mind. And I think we'll always be close. We don't always see each other that often, but actually even the weekend just gone, I was over in Leeds probably a bit of an overdue catch up actually, but with one of those guys and yeah, we, we stay in touch and.

Chris: You know, it's not every day, but yeah, we're still close. That's fantastic to hear. 

Nat: Do you [00:07:00] think, I'm interested, because it differs from my experience somewhat do you think you had that relationship with the other kids at your school because you got lucky, or because they engendered a culture at your school, or it's just a particular group of boys?

Chris: I'm not so sure. So there was three of the boys houses. I could be wrong on this, but I'm not so sure that they are in touch in the way that a group of sort of seven of us are in touch. As in maybe they've got a WhatsApp group, for example, and maybe they've met up over the last few years, but I'm not aware of it.

Chris: So maybe I was just lucky. I don't know. Yeah, I just really enjoyed it. I mean, you're growing up together for four or five years or whatever, five years or something. And yeah, I think we just bonded. And I guess what I enjoyed about it. So we're always up to mischief. I did used to get in trouble a lot.

Chris: I was probably, well, I got a lot of letters home, letters home written. I Got a lot of final warnings. I got, I got, it was [00:08:00] called I got, we had a thing called gating, which I used to get gated. Sometimes, which is when you have more checks to make sure that you're behaving yourself and that you're in the right place at the right time and all of this, and it's meant to be just a bit more onerous, I think, for you and take some of your, I guess, freedoms away.

Chris: Your free time. Yeah, 

Nat: I remember we had the same kind of thing. It was called something very similar. But what kind of trouble were you getting into? 

Chris: It was always just, I guess I'd sort of see it as innocent mischief, like, and it's just schoolboy stuff, like, I guess we used to play pranks, and then I would get in trouble, I guess, for smoking, and I never really liked smoking.

Chris: I still think it's disgusting. You would do it, I guess it was an entertainment thing. It was almost a game to see what you could get away with. So this, this smoking wasn't the exciting bit. It was like, oh, got to sneak into town and you'd go the back way into town and you've got to be able to buy them from the shop.

Chris: And then obviously you've got to smuggle them back into school without being [00:09:00] caught. And then you'd go and like maybe sneak up behind a building or in the woods or something. And then you'd have your cigarette and try not to get caught. And maybe you're creeping around at dark. And it was all that. It wasn't really.

Chris: There was a bit. 

Nat: That totally rings a bell with me, now you mention it, because the adrenaline rush, you can't almost, it's kind of like you're defying authority, so I remember one time we had the same thing, you had to go into town and get some kid who would always look 21 even though they were 15 to buy booze, and then you'd have to hide the booze somewhere, and so we came up with the bright idea to hide it in, like, Lynx, Africa.

Nat: Shower gel. Empty Lynx Africa shower gel bottles. The problem was, we left it in there for about two weeks. Oh my god, we went down to the river, and then we were drinking it, this vodka, and it tasted like, like Lynx Africa. And it was absolutely 

Chris: disgusting. Yeah, well, I have a similar thing. So, lived in Scotland, and my friends would try and make me, you know, Tom, he'd, he'd try and give me, like, a [00:10:00] nice single molten, just be like, have some, and I'd try it, and it was rank.

Chris: Because, to me, whiskey, We'd go into the co op in town. This is back in the days when you didn't have to challenge 25. You just had to look 18. And I looked older. There was me and one other guy looked a bit older. We were sort of, I guess, gone through puberty a bit earlier. So we were always the ones sent in to try and get the booze.

Chris: And most of the time we'd get away with it. It was probably 60 percent successful, something like that. So sometimes you'd have to try other shops or go cycle to a different village. But yeah, we'd get a big Coke bottle. So whatever they were, two liters you pour. Two thirds of it away and then the rest is the cheapest bottle of vodka, whatever Awful brand you can find anything with that.

Chris: So yeah, well, well, no, that's too well branded But yeah, it was was not good stuff. It was very chemically but yeah misspent youth on that stuff So yeah drinking smoking even just stuff like food fights I don't [00:11:00] know if I should fess up to this or not, but I did have a girlfriend one time and I went away on the rugby tour to Isle of Man and I came back and yeah, he'd apparently, I don't know, tried it on whilst I was away and I wasn't very happy with that.

Chris: So I, the next time I bumped into him, he came around the corner and so did I, and it just happened to be outside of the staff room. So. I guess, I don't know, I was being a bit of an idiot and gave him a little punch maybe and it was right outside of the staff room and so obviously the teacher just marched straight out and and I, I just, like I say, I just had these letters home all the time and I do remember one was like, I think from the headmaster saying, Chris, or Christopher, I think it was, is on very thin ice at the school at the moment and sort of one more strike and he's out kind of thing.

Chris: And literally, I think it was three days later, there was the next letter. You kept doing 

Nat: that. Presumably if they had more people applying to the school, you would have been out, but obviously you didn't have anyone to fill your space. So you [00:12:00] were given a reprieve. 

Chris: I was probably quite frustrated because I think if I did apply myself, I could do well.

Chris: And I think they knew I was sort of a nice person. I was, was not really a nasty person and I wasn't really getting in trouble. Okay. Aside from that one, which wasn't very clever, but And I think it was just a frustration from their sense, because I guess they were trying to shock me into sort of applying myself or whatever, but in the lessons and stuff itself, I guess, so I enjoyed my time, but from an academic perspective, we were encouraged not to fail.

Chris: So let's say you're at the bottom of the class, you were encouraged to stop messing about and get into the sort of herd in the middle, but I think there was. you know, certainly in specific subjects, but there was a certain group of us that could have actually been pushed and challenged to be more academic, which is kind of what you'd maybe assume you would get from a private school like that.

Chris: But that never really happened as long as you weren't standing out for being [00:13:00] shit. Then you're allowed to get by but that said I did we did get quite a rounded education If that's the right word as in as you say you get independence you're away from home You learn certain things. I think you grew up a bit quicker but yeah, some of the pranks and stuff we used to get up to I mean the 

Nat: independence is quite a key word and I think it's almost a double edged aspect to our personalities.

Nat: I think we probably have that in common because of our upbringing, the independence. But, I mean, certainly, independence, wanting to be kind of alone and, well, if I can describe it like that, or being comfortable in your own company can be a skill set, but it can also be something that holds you back. If you're, especially in relationships and things, if you're not comfortable being around.

Nat: other people all the time and you're not used to that. Certainly I've got male friends that, you know, I suppose they would, they would, [00:14:00] would have been called or would be called commitment a phobes that they just, I think, they're so independent that they just struggle. I don't know, I don't have any statistical backing for this at all, but I suspect that boarding schools probably, people who've been to boarding school are probably more on that end of the spectrum, the independence, but also maybe struggle a bit more with letting people into their lives and having, you know, a relationship like that.

Nat: Like that. I don't know if you agree or just think that's complete bullshit that I've made up. 

Chris: No, I mean, I think that kind of stands true for me, but I've never associated it with that. But it's possible. I'm just trying to think of my group of friends and, yeah, I, yeah, I mean, you might be right. I, I, I'm, that does ring true, but it's a very small sample size, I guess, so you could be onto something, but I've never thought about it.

Chris: In those terms, but I mean, there was, 

Nat: that's, you know, as I say, there's a lot of positive [00:15:00] attributes to the independence allows you to kind of sort of maybe a bit stayed language or stand on your own two feet and, you know, and do and do things like start your own business that you've done. So it does give you some confidence to go out into the world and you don't always need people to tell you what to do because you've.

Nat: From a young age, I mean, 

Chris: have that confidence. Yeah, traveling and stuff has always been, I guess, almost within the comfort zone sort of thing. I've done, you know, big motorbike trip through Africa and some dodgy countries where you're not meant to go and stuff. And, you know, obviously there's scary times, but yeah, it's all fairly within the comfort zone.

Chris: So maybe a lot of that does tie back. I think you're. There's something that, it took me a long time to learn, I only learnt this, it was in one of the times I went travelling, it was when I left Glasgow actually, so whatever that is, I'd say eight, nine years ago. So I learnt something about myself, because I had always known I'd been very independent, and I was, sort of got stuck in the [00:16:00] wilderness, because the trip was that long, I had two weeks, almost without other human contact, and this was before people had been through lockdown or anything, so.

Chris: It was, it felt like quite a unique experience at the time. But yeah, being in that isolation and knowing I was a very independent person, but realizing that I needed others around me and actually sometimes I can probably be quite needy almost for, for. other people's attention and to interact with other people.

Chris: That was a big eye opener that, yeah, independence and needing to be social around other people were very different things. Yeah, 

Nat: it's a strange dichotomy that, like, being comfortable in your own, just being on your own, but also needing to have other people around. It's kind of, doesn't always seem to sit together, but I totally know what you're talking about.

Nat: I remember going on a trip. myself to Scottish wilderness and I've always, I'd always wanted to do it and I did it when I was about, I can't [00:17:00] remember, 26, 27 or something like that and I went out and just took a tent, took a fishing rod, went into the wilderness, and I was due to spend, it's a bank holiday weekend, I was due to spend three nights alone in the wilderness.

Nat: Well, after two nights, I was bored out of my brain, so I just, I'll sod this, I'll just go back to Glasgow, and actually, again, it was probably a similar thing, it just taught me a lesson, which was what is it, that Alexander Supertramp in that film, Into the World, which is one of my favourite books and films is, I think it's the quote, it's something like, happiness is best shared or something like that, and that's, I think that's 

Chris: true.

Chris: Yeah, well that feeds in, I think, to the adventure solo stuff again, which is doing stuff with other people and being around them. It's like, I'm confident enough to go off and do, like, a big Whatever it be a hike or whatever and that's fine. And sometimes i'll do that I've just been in portugal cycling for three weeks by myself but Yeah, I like doing stuff with other people and and it's nice to then be able to [00:18:00] look back and relive things with other people That have had that shared experience and stuff as well.

Nat: Yeah, and exactly and even on the the adventure solos Events, I mean, okay a weekend you're probably going to spend most of the time with other people But one of the expedition events you might not you might go and Just want to have some quiet time for an hour and on myself and just enjoy and that's fine as well, isn't it?

Chris: Yeah, absolutely So where have we got to in your journey? this is what I think of when I think of boarding school which gives an example of sort of The silly mischief we used to get up to and this i'm sure is very public school boy stuff But we had a thing so you you have all these weird names from each school that evolves and I suspect they're still there But i'm not sure but one of the things we did was stomping so stomping was Like the teacher would have a room, like I guess an office within the boarding house and there'd be a computer in there at the time.

Chris: And I don't know, maybe anyway, that that'd be their office within the house [00:19:00] and would do stuff. Like you'd go up to the bedroom, you'd find the bedroom above that. The room above that and everyone had climb up onto the beds and the wardrobes and desks and all this sort of stuff. And then obviously you get a group of like, say, maybe six or eight of you.

Chris: And then on three, you jump as high as you can all land on the sort of floor, which is the ceiling for the room. below at the same time, and that is stomping. But then the, the song, so childish, isn't it? But I guess the challenge bit then is you've got to run away and hide or be fast enough or, or play it cool enough so you don't get busted for having been the one that stomped.

Chris: So like you would get like, yeah, you'd get the older pupils and then be running up trying to find you and hunt you out. So you'd be hiding and. Yeah, hiding in bathrooms and all this sort of stuff. So it was just silly stuff, mischief that we got up to and that, but I did enjoy it. We, we had 

Nat: stuff like that and we had a, I don't know if I can, probably shouldn't mention it was a [00:20:00] far more x rated.

Nat: thing that we, our school, used to happen and it was the adrenaline that you got from basically trying not to get caught for these capers was, was brilliant. That was great fun. Whether it was probably, well it's not good. It's like so entertaining for a teenage person. Kid, but definitely not something that should be going on.

Nat: I don't know, that one's, that, that, what you've described there is just, that's, like, kind of harmless stuff. But some of the stuff we had was, like, kids would get beat in a pool and then they'd have to run round the church three times naked in the middle of the night without getting caught by a teacher and just stuff like that.

Nat: And, I mean, it was, as I say, it was, it was great fun as a teenager, but you think And I don't want to get negative, but I felt like a lot of kids were bullied, [00:21:00] and I feel like I was bullied, and I feel like I bullied, and I think everyone bullied, and everyone was a bully. Now that's shades of grey, that's unfortunately how I felt at the time, so I hope that that's changed now and there's been more nurture put into the environment and people are just a bit kinder to one another, but it's just a hope because you know it's teenage.

Nat: Teenage kids will be probably will be teenage kids. So I don't think that's probably something it's just restricted to boarding school 

Chris: environments Yeah, and I guess I could see a bit of that Yeah, but I do think I enjoyed it because we were a nice close knit group of people But if if you were sort of an outsider if you were bullied It would have been awful because I think it's extreme, as in, if you're at a normal school, and I think bullying goes on in every school, [00:22:00] you get some reprive or whatever because you go home to your family and you can sort of, you'd get downtime.

Chris: But, so, if you enjoyed school or if you didn't enjoy school, if you were bullied at school and you were there 24 7, that must have been pretty awful. Or, or even if you weren't bullied and you just didn't fit in. I guess it would have been a pretty lonely, isolating place to be. It's just an extreme. So yeah, I guess I was lucky enough that I enjoyed my experience and had close friends, but if you didn't have that, it would be shit.

Chris: And yeah, I suspect you wouldn't last there very long. You'd soon be off to a different school or different setup. 

Nat: Yeah. And there were kids that kind of came and went, unfortunately. I mean, I was lucky. I didn't really have it. that bad. Everyone had it a bit and some people had worse than others. I didn't have it that bad, so I was lucky.

Nat: But I'm glad, I'm glad to hear that you had, I remember you talking about it before and your friends that you've got from school and it's largely a positive experience. I think for me, the outcome was positive. Did I love every minute [00:23:00] of being there? No. Did I enjoy lots of parts of it? Yes. So, you know, I guess similar 

Chris: to me.

Chris: My attitude with it, like, I guess what you might call being bullied, like, the older pupils. I don't know, I sort of Sounds wrong, but I sort of enjoyed that. Like, we would intentionally give them lip and give them shit. Knowing that you were then gonna get a beating, but I kind of enjoyed that. 

Nat: Yeah, oh, I was an absolute cheeky shit.

Nat: Yeah, I mean, like, I was absolutely, you know, I could say deserved everything I got. I mean, I didn't, obviously, because I was a fish out of water, and that's why I was being a cheeky shit looking back. But, I thought you were gonna say the opposite, that when you got to being an older kid, you enjoyed dishing out all this.

Nat: punishment. But I found, like, when I got to that age, I just couldn't be bothered. I couldn't be bothered having kids waking me up at 7 in the morning to send them to do stuff [00:24:00] and all this nonsense, or give them lines or do whatever. I was just like I, no, it wasn't so, so much. I mean, I didn't want to perpetuate the, the cycle, but it wasn't so much that.

Nat: I think it was just 

Chris: lazy. So yeah, that was my boarding school experience. After that what did I do? I had a year out just working. I think I'd had enough of education. I was 18. I had found it a bit of a slog from the academic perspective to try and keep focused and get through my exams. I actually did all right with, with.

Chris: GCSEs in particular, A levels was a bit more scrapey through but yeah, I had a year just working in Lancaster and down in Cornwall. I did a long summer straight after school in Cornwall with my girlfriend at the time. Then I worked in Lancaster and just pubs like casual jobs where you walk out minimum wage, you walk out and you've forgotten it.

Chris: It's all left behind. And then. Yeah, back down to Cornwall. I went off to university after that. I was at uni in the Northeast. I was at Durham although a campus that was near a Middlesborough in Stockton at [00:25:00] the time, which it was a nice new campus, but it, it was sort of, I guess quite isolating as a campus.

Chris: It, and, and I felt more, a bit more grown up. I know that sounds a bit of a dick thing to say, but. The people that I was in halls with, for example, where I guess a year younger, which was a bigger deal at the time, but I'd sort of been away from home since I was 12. And then, then, you know, I guess you do grow up a bit faster and then I'd had a year working as well.

Chris: Whereas these guys were all away from, from home for the first time and they were like, Oh, we can stay up as late as we want and we don't have to wash the dishes up and stuff. And I know I'm sure that's the typical student experience, but I just felt a bit past it in a way. So. Fine, I didn't hate it, but I was just there to tick a box really to get a degree and get out and I didn't, I didn't particularly apply myself, but I did used to try and go to the lectures because one of the guys had said one of the lecturers had said he said, For the year before, he'd marked who'd been [00:26:00] to what lessons, like he'd taken a register at every one, and he said of those that attended, I can't remember what the percentage was, but let's say 80 percent of lectures or more, he said the lowest score any of them got was a 2 1, and I was like, oh, well, that's me sorted then, all I have to do is go to at least 80 percent of lectures, yeah, and that's what happened, I did very little work outside, I did Did go to as many of the lectures as I could, because to be honest, it was only about six hours a week or something ridiculous.

Chris: And yeah, I came out with a 2 1 in business finance that got me a job in banking. I started on a nice graduate scheme for a couple of years. So again, I was moving around that was six month placements. This was with Bank of Scotland corporate before Any of this banking stuff kicked off and I could see at the time and where was that geographically?

Chris: Yeah, so I started in edinburgh for six months. Then it was manchester for six months although actually that first edinburgh one I missed a lot of it because I had a [00:27:00] motorbike accident and a mess my arms up. So I ended up moving. I had to move home with my mum because I couldn't live by myself. So I was off for probably, probably about five months maybe or something with that in the end and quite intensive physio and stuff to get my, my, my wrist and my hand working properly again.

Chris: So yeah, Edinburgh, then Manchester for six months and London for six months. And then I went back up to Edinburgh for the final six months. After that, I buggered off to Africa. So I'd been planning this motorbike trip. I actually planned it with a friend and he sort of never formally bailed, but pretty much just didn't turn up.

Chris: There's a whole other story there somewhere, but yeah, I did a big motorbike trip through Africa, so it was kind of six months and this is before Ewan McGregor and Charlie Borman did this stuff. 

Nat: You're the original. long 

Chris: way down? Well, sort of. They had done Long Way Round. I think, yeah, they hadn't done Long Way Down or maybe it hadn't aired.

Chris: Maybe they'd done it six months before and it hadn't aired or something. But, and they went down the east coast. We went down the west coast. So that [00:28:00] was kind of, well, it was five months door to door from leaving sort of Yorkshire to arriving at Cape Orgullus, which is the southernmost point where the, of Africa, where the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean meet.

Chris: So yeah, that was like 25 countries, you know, a couple of weeks down through Europe. Then over there's like a half hour ferry from, I can't remember if it was Gibraltar or next to Gibraltar. I think it was next to Gibraltar over to Morocco and then you kind of go down Morocco. This is the test.

Chris: My memory, Western Sahara Mauritania, Mali, Senegal. Tell us about the, I mean, 

Nat: you've mentioned this trip. You know, I've never talked to you in detail about it, but it sounds like it, this, maybe for you, is a bit of a life changing experience. 

Chris: In a way, it was a monumental trip, and I was still fairly young.

Chris: I think I was maybe 23 when I left, and I'd been planning it for a couple of years. I guess so this is to add a bit of context before I left. And people said it could be done or it couldn't be done. [00:29:00] I had this motorbike, the brand was CCM, and I knew of only one other person that had tried to do Africa.

Chris: He was actually going the other way and he'd done some traveling before. He'd tried to do it on a CCM and, and the words used where he perished on the way he, I dunno the details of what happened. So I knew I was going away on quite a big trip. And I guess the biggest danger really people think it's animals or whatever, but actually the biggest trip is you're riding a motorbike for a lot of time.

Chris: And as a young kid as well, I guess you've not fully settled in, not sure we ever settle into riding motorbikes and stuff. But so I had a conversation with my mum or my mum brought it up with me saying like, if you don't get emotional saying this, but if you, if you don't. Like, make it if you don't come back, like, what do you want us to do with your body kind of thing?

Chris: If we can get your body back. And, yeah, I guess, I mean, you don't plan it thinking that's gonna happen, but, that was, [00:30:00] so you're going into the unknown a little 

Nat: bit. If your mum says that to you, it must really bring it home. Like, at that age, don't know, did that make you think, oh my god, this is actually a bit scarier maybe than Bit off more than I can 

Chris: chew.

Chris: I think almost that was people's gut reactions when I first said I was going to do it, like 18 months before, whatever, and two years before. And people were either dismissive or just said I was stupid for trying to do it. But I don't think they really understood it. And I had been looking at it and researching it and you knew other people had done it, like on different motorbikes and stuff.

Chris: And it was possible. I just planned it and prepared as much as I could. And you're taking. Yeah, of course you're taking a chance and it's hard to know in reality what, how much of a chance you were taking, but you, you just had to set off and try. I just used to sort of think to myself, like, I would rather die living than live dying.

Chris: And yeah, I just, I guess it's one of those life's too [00:31:00] short thing to, I wouldn't want to not do something because I was afraid of it. So yeah, I guess I've always been a bit like that. And perhaps 

Nat: we could maybe talk about it in more detail another time, but in a nutshell you obviously survived it, but what was your kind of takeaway?

Nat: Did you, did you enjoy it? 

Chris: Yeah, I did really enjoy it. It was scary setting off by myself, because as I say, I'd planned it with someone else. He pretty much didn't turn up. He was meant to meet me in Morocco for a bizarre reason or story that came about. But that didn't happen. So I was in Morocco by myself and I was like, well, I'm just going to start heading South now and take it one day at a time.

Chris: And luckily I bumped into two really great guys, Dan and Ed, that I'm still friends with and still see, you know, WhatsApp group and see once a year or whatever and we traveled the middle half together really, and. Sort of, they almost literally, I was a few years younger than them. We pretty much our formation riding along was normally me in the middle.

Chris: One of them in front of one of them behind some of that was practical. They had comms and could speak to each other. So it made sense for me to be in the middle and they [00:32:00] had sat yeah, sat navs and it was very. early stage sat nav. I just had Michelin maps. So they were a bit better in the cities and stuff.

Chris: So yeah, I mean, I think we were a good threesome, if you will. And we did the dangerous countries together, DRC, Congo, some of Angola I guess Nigeria and stuff. Some of the, some of the, yeah, more scary places. 

Nat: And did you have, did you ever have any? Close encounters. 

Chris: I guess it's like, yeah, how much do you want to hear we did, but I would want to caveat it heavily with it's easy to tell the scary stories and stuff, but like 99 percent of people were good, friendly, happy people, really pleased to see us intrigued with what we're doing.

Chris: And yeah, there was a few moments where there was sort of one or two scary moments. I didn't really decapitate myself on on a barrier. It was actually the Congo border barrier that was just not not scary. There was no indication it was there, it was riding along a dirt track stood up and, and it was this scaffolding bar kind of [00:33:00] gate and, and I honestly like, this is on video as well actually, there's a shite old pixelated video somewhere where, so, so there was, I guess that.

Chris: side, but yeah, there was one or two. We got stopped by armed bandits and they were like just kids probably high and had machetes and guns and stuff and stopped us. And it's easy to tell the horror stories, I guess is my point though, whereas actually so many people were so welcoming, so hospitable, had very little and would share stuff with us or try and look after us and help us.

Chris: And it's just wonderful. So yeah, that was Africa. 

Nat: I've read that account of the. Can't remember the guy's name. I mean, lots of people have done it, but one of the kind of British guys cycled around the world, and 

Chris: Mark Beaumont, is it? 

Nat: No, that's a Scottish guy. We went for a talk with him years ago, I remember, in Glasgow.

Nat: Not him. It's an English guy, I think, who's done it. He now does these books. 

Chris: Alastair Humphreys. 

Nat: That's it. Alastair Humphreys. His book [00:34:00] is full of nice anecdotes about people just generally being supportive of his journey and being friendly, etc. 

Chris: Yeah, I needed to get a job when I came back to pay off some of my debts from the trip.

Chris: I'd saved as much as I could, but I did end up taking out a loan just before I went. So yeah, I ended up, that's when I did get offered a few jobs, one in Manchester, one in Glasgow. There was another one. I think that was Edinburgh, maybe. Yeah, it was a couple of banks and this firm, which actually ended up, the two people that were hiring me, there was going to be three of us, just didn't have quite the right feeling about it.

Chris: And funny enough, they ended up, they got off in the end, but they ended up going through this like court case where they were up on like, I guess, Tax avoidance running a tax avoidance scheme or something like that. And they were offering me more money and this glam lifestyle and stuff. And my spider sense was just sort of ticking a little bit.

Chris: And I thought this is a bit unprofessional and stuff. So as a, like 24 year old or whatever I was, I took a lower paid job offer. [00:35:00] Thankfully, I think that was absolutely the right thing to do. So I ended up in Glasgow, as I say, I worked with this guy, Graham, that I got on with really well for a long time that you know, as well, not, and that's kind of how our paths crossed really enjoyed that that was funding technology companies.

Chris: We were doing something quite new in the UK. We were funding loss making businesses that were venture capital backed. Yeah, it was really, it was very different. It was always a real challenge, even internally. We were always having, yeah, it was always a fight and it just never got easier. And as I say, when it became more, we wanted to spin it out, I think, and when it became more vital to the banks, more important to the bank and the bank strategy could see that was never going to happen.

Chris: And that's kind of what drove along with some of the relationship stuff and, and things drove me to get an itchy feet. So I headed off, did some more traveling. So this is where I did a whole load of different things. We were, I was actually sort of. Planning a South American motorbike trip with a friend.

Chris: And then he'd got the same motorbike as me, modified it the same way. And then him and his missus [00:36:00] decided to have a kid. So it all went on eBay very quickly. So I was like, what am I going to do? So I filled it, filled it with a whole load of different stuff. That's when I rode a motorbike actually out to Greece.

Chris: I spent six weeks doing that a bit of a long way out there. Worked in Greece for a few months as this mountain bike guide. That was knackering actually. No, no, no, you didn't really get a day off. It was hardcore. I spent three weeks riding back from that. Then my friend Stu and I flew out to America where we did this hike, which is the John Weir trail, which is where I had that kind of experience about he left halfway through and I was kind of left in the wilderness by myself.

Chris: And that was. Yeah, an eye opening experience. I did, I think I did some other stuff. I went to Egypt with my sister. I went to, to Iceland for a friend's stag and then wedding. I feel there might be something else, but then I went to France. I, I'd never applied myself too well at languages at school. I think I kind of touched on some of this before, but as you grow older, you.

Chris: Realize that you should have, and maybe you'd like to have played a musical instrument or spoke a foreign language. So I went [00:37:00] to a French language school in Nice in the south of France for a few months, and my plan really was to spend six months out there and become sort of conversationally fluent. And my, my My French went from non existent awful to just bad.

Chris: So I was quite pleased with that, but I was only there for two months because I got offered this job in London, which I knew the guy there. I mean, I knew it was a bit of a lazy guy as well, actually, but I knew him. I knew the job that they wanted me to do. They basically wanted me to, to sort of just start up the business that I'd already done, but for a venture capital firm.

Chris: So I sort of got taken in to do that, although I wasn't sure I wanted to go back to the industry and I wasn't sure I wanted to be in London. It just made no sense for me to turn that Good offer down. So I negotiated hard as well. Cause I wasn't that fuss cause I was happy in France. I negotiated hard. I got what I was asking for pretty much.

Chris: So it just didn't make sense to turn that down. And then in a couple of months be job hunting. [00:38:00] So that I, we did agree. Like I could stay an extra few weeks or something there, but I kind of came back earlier than I'd intentionally planned to start this role in London. I guess I realized pretty quickly that it wasn't where I wanted to be or what I wanted to do, but the money was good.

Chris: So I did that for a couple of years. Well, three years, really two and a half, three years saved up as much money as I could really. And that went into sort of, you know, decent deposit and chunk on a house and then some money to spend doing it up, which is what I did for the next nine months. So that kind of got me to the point where.

Chris: Yeah, I had this house. It was pretty much done up, had some equity in it, but not a lot of cash and that's when I'm like, okay, so what are we doing for income then? 

Nat: Can't, you only have like, you know, three eggs a day. You can't be selling them for income. So you need to start Venture Solos. I think that brings us full circle.

Nat: Yeah, I've seen, obviously I've been to your place quite a few times and it's a [00:39:00] lovely, lovely environment. kind of out in the Lake District, isn't it? So yeah, and you've got bits, quite a few bits and pieces to keep you busy working out in the garden, and don't, you've still not got your wood fired pizza oven, have you?

Chris: Yeah, so, so yeah, I live in this house with, it has got a big garden, well, it's an apartment that I live in, and there's, There's a big garden, huge garden that's, that's mine at the back and it's actually a walled garden and it's, it's too big. Really, you buy these things thinking it's a nice thing. And I guess it's slightly naive.

Chris: I didn't realize that it was actually quite a liability and in a lot of ways as well, just maintaining it and stuff. But yeah, it kind of clearing some of the brambles because it was so overgrown, discovered this kind of ruin of an outbuilding. Stone out building and there was a whole load of slates piled up on the ground nearby.

Chris: So having cleared the area, then yeah, spent quite a bit of time really ended up being a three year project. Sort of over, over, you know, doing evenings and weekends or whatever. So it's pretty much had to half demolish this building, rebuild it [00:40:00] back up, you know, and it's only, it's maybe about. Three or four meters by three meters, something like that.

Chris: But yeah, sort of pretty much half demolished it, built it back up to a decent height and actually slightly higher to get the right slope for the pitch of the roof and then put this slate roof on. So this is random width slate in which I could. Talk to you for ages about now, but yeah, my friend, Noel, again, that's been on some of these podcasts helped with that.

Chris: That was really useful. So yeah, it was just nice to do practical stuff like that. And you kind of touched on, I've got a few hens in the garden and stuff that in the summer lay eggs and that, but so yeah, it's a nice bit of lifestyle and I'm closer to family. Like I go, my mom has my nieces once a week.

Chris: So I sort of knock off a bit early and go around there and it's nice to have that flexibility and be able to see my mom regularly and to see my nieces grow up and just be present for that stuff. And both my sisters now, actually, since last year, my little sisters, I say little, she's. Coming up for 40, but she's moved from London up, up this way as well.

Chris: So it's nice for us [00:41:00] to be able to get together once a week and have that time together, really. 

Nat: Yeah, that's really, really important. Something we've probably learned. Travelling is it's great being out in Thailand and Vietnam and all these places. But at the end of the day, I actually do miss friends and family.

Nat: So the grass is always greener. Definitely 

Chris: learned that. Speaking of travelling, I've just, I have skipped something. So We lived in the Middle East and, well, two things. One is we'd get money to come home to the UK once a year to see friends and family, I guess. But the, you, it was perfectly legitimate.

Chris: I think you could take 80% of that and you could use it for different travel. So that was a really great opportunity to travel whilst there was there. And then one year, my dad and I, I planned it. All the deal was kind of, my dad would pay for it if I, if I planned and. My dad and I drove. We had this old four by four at the time.

Chris: It was 11 years old and we drove that back from the Middle East. So we spent two weeks doing that. So with amazing. Yeah, some of the [00:42:00] overlanding stuff I've done, plus some of the travel I've been lucky enough to get. I've probably been to maybe 80 countries, something like that. Maybe more, maybe less. I don't know.

Chris: I should count. But yeah, I've been really lucky to have that opportunity and to travel. Okay, 

Nat: Chris, time for your rapid fire questions. We're going to get to know you a little bit deeper here. The first question is, what personal achievement are you most proud of? The one 

Chris: that springs to mind for me really is my Africa trip, my motorbike trip through Africa.

Chris: So it was, I mean, I was, I was pretty young. I must've been maybe 23 when I set off. I'd been planning it for a couple of years before that. So 21, something like that. It was quite a big financial commitment. I was trying to save up for. Best part of two years before I went, I ended up having to take a loan.

Chris: So I had to pay that off for a couple of years after I got back. So it was pretty much a five year financial commitment, but obviously sort of the adventure and the risk, like it was five months in execution from leaving the UK, the [00:43:00] day I left the UK to get into the southernmost point of Africa. It was through 25 countries.

Chris: A lot of them quite dangerous ones and ones you're not meant to go to. Probably the most dangerous part as well is the fact that you'll ride in a motorbike for, you know, pretty much solid for the best part of six months. And, and I'd also left my job, you know, I had a good graduate job. I left at the end of that scheme and came back sort of with the hope of sort of falling into a new role.

Chris: So yeah, I think that's the thing I'm most proud of. 

Nat: Yeah, I'm glad you made it back alive and I've heard a bit about it and it sounds like hell of an adventure. Next question, who has been the biggest influence on your personal 

Chris: philosophy?

Chris: Yeah, I find that a bit of a tricky question because There's the answer is probably lots of people. And I like to take little bits from here and little bits from there. And even people that I don't know that do have podcasts or books and stuff you know, [00:44:00] people around you, bits from family and parents.

Chris: And some of it, to be honest is even, you know, I don't want to have that habit or I don't want to be like that as well. So I'd struggled to. Give any one name, I think, but that's not to say that there's not people there. It's just, yeah, I guess you try and pick and choose and do what you feel you can take on on Adapt and all that kind of stuff.

Chris: Have 

Nat: you got anyone in mind for maybe your professional career that's inspired you or anyone who you can think of in relation to adventure solos? 

Chris: I think there's someone, there's a guy called Pat Flynn. He's an American guy. And he has his podcast is SPI, Smart Passive Income. He does some YouTube stuff as well.

Chris: I'm not, I don't necessarily think he's the inspiration for me doing it, but I've found his content really useful for improving stuff and giving focus to [00:45:00] stuff and focusing down on niches, I guess it helped with some of the confidence for, for some of those things. So yeah, that's been really useful. So yeah, maybe, maybe Pat Flynn.

Chris: Which, funny enough, is someone I've never met, never had a conversation with but yeah, puts useful stuff out there. 

Nat: Are there any books, podcasts, etc. that have had a significant impact on you?

Chris: There's a guy called Dan Buetner I only came across him maybe I knew of, so there's this project called blue zones and what it's all about is reverse engineering, longevity and health. So instead of being like, oh, we've got this new formula where you can take this and we think it will be good for you.

Chris: And it's normally. process crap what they've actually done. And this was sponsored by National Geographic. I think it started in something like 2003. So it's like a 20 year project, decades long project, but they [00:46:00] basically found the five regions in the world where people live the longest. So the most number of centenarians, if that's.

Chris: If I said that correctly, so people live into a hundred. And what they did was they went and studied how those people had lived their lives. So not just how people live in those places now, because obviously things have changed, but how they would have lived over their lives of a hundred years or, or, or whatever.

Chris: And so I, my understanding is they gathered masses and masses of data from these five places. One is somewhere, what one is, an island south of Japan, one is in sort of, it's not Sardinia or Greece or somewhere like that. One's actually sort of a, I think like a religious community in California somewhere.

Chris: Maybe there's somewhere in South America, but anyway, I found that really interesting. I love the fact that there's data there. So there's, this is one, one example. So everyone knows smoking is bad for you. And one thing that their data sort of tells them is that [00:47:00] not smoking gives you two additional years on your life.

Chris: There's another thing you can do that adds another two years to your life, according to their data, which is eating a handful of nuts each day. Now I don't, or I thought I didn't like nuts, but I've just built, it's these little nudges that I've built into my lifestyle. So I have now this little sort of.

Chris: Pot or whatever you want to call it on the side in the kitchen. And whenever I go through in the morning, you know, to make a cup of tea or have some toast or whatever, then I see that and I try and have a handful of nuts, so I have done that today. And like I say, I didn't particularly like nuts. So I started off with a lot of pine nuts in there, which.

Chris: To me, isn't particularly nutty, but then started slowly, I guess, mixing that with higher concentrations of nuts, like chopped hazelnuts. So yeah, I guess that's something Dan Buettner and that blue zones and there's, there's various books and stuff. And actually recently, I think there's a Netflix thing about it, which I still need to sit down and watch.

Chris: So yeah, that'd be my answer to that. [00:48:00] 

Nat: Yeah. So I think I flicked across that. Yesterday, so I need to give that a watch. That sounds really interesting and you touched upon the little nudge that it's the kind of atomic habits idea, isn't it? Or there's a, there's a book that actually resonated slightly more with me called Tiny Habits by B.

Nat: J. Fogg who actually, I think, taught. the guy who wrote Atomic Habits, but it's just about put out your gym stuff before you go to bed. Make sure you know, just do it, do everything that you can to set up, design your life for success. So yeah, I'm not particularly great at that, I wouldn't have thought.

Nat: But but yeah, I think having the, having the data points to then tell you what are the things that you should design for is probably a good thing. So I definitely need to look into that because I struggle a little bit. I think we've talked about this before with just, you know, one, one day eggs a good few.[00:49:00] 

Nat: And then the next day, eggs are bad for you. Someone told me the other day that salt's actually now good for you. Salt's always been bad for you. So it's hard, really hard to know what to design for with some of this health stuff in particular. 

Chris: Yeah. And for me, I just try and boil that all back to like, what did the caveman do or what are we designed to do?

Chris: Like, is it a load of processed powdery shit or is it fruit and veg? And I think we all know the answer to that. And that doesn't particularly change decade to decade. We do, 

Nat: but if we can get a sponsorship from AG1, like every other podcast, then we'll, we'll sell the powdery shit. Not a problem. I 

Chris: thought it was Huel.

Chris: We need the podcast of a CEO. 

Nat: I actually quite like Huel. So I've used that before. Saskia, my fiancée, bought that because she's a sucker for everything on Facebook. She'll buy anything off Facebook. And she bought it and then it came and she took one scoop in a glass, drank it, hated it. And then, I was so cynical because it had come off [00:50:00] Facebook advertising, but then I tried it, really liked it, and then I ended up signing up, and I ended up buying and continuing to have it every now and again.

Nat: So yeah. Huel will be fine. We'll take a sponsorship with Huel. Right, next question. How do you handle stress and maintain a work life balance? 

Chris: Yeah, I think that's a really interesting question. My, there's almost two parts for me. How do I handle stress for me getting outside? Like if I'm working, I can get up and have a walk either before I start work at lunchtime or in the evening, even in the winter when it's dark, stick a head torch on, go out and just tell yourself it's just for 10 or 15 minutes and you'll get out there and you'll want to stay out there.

Chris: And I think that's so, so good. That, that's more almost the maintenance of it, I think, and a processing, and I do think that time pays you back. Like, you might think my day's too busy to do that because I've got so much work to do, but actually, I think it adds [00:51:00] so much clarity and you come back more focused, knowing what you want to do and keen to get on.

Chris: So I think you do actually get that time back. I think if I'm feeling more stressed or, or if something were to upset me or whatever, a run is quite a good answer for me and don't get me wrong, I'm not a runner, I'm not out there like three times a week or anything like that. I do go through little spells or phases, but you know, if I averaged it out over a year, how many times I run, it's perhaps six or eight times maximum, like once every couple of months, but that for me, just.

Chris: You know, I say a little blast, you feel like it's, you've had a blast and released energy or stress, but I'm not like massive runner as in, I go out and I'd run through the woods and if I want to walk for a bit, I'll walk for a bit. And then if I'm ready to run a bit, I'll run a bit more. So yeah, that being outside and exercise a bit.

Chris: How do you kind of said, how do I manage it? I think as well, as opposed to just tackle it when it's there you know, that work life balance, [00:52:00] I think. That's something you have to be conscious of every day. I think, obviously I now work for myself. I do some of the small things like I've got two phones.

Chris: So I have a work phone and I have a personal phone, my work phone chats. Like there's a lot of WhatsApp groups from events and stuff. So they're pretty much all on mute unless it's something that's starting in the next day or so. But really, like when I come to my desk, for example, I don't try and conquer the world.

Chris: I, what I asked myself is what is one big thing that if that's the only thing I achieved today. That I'll be happy with that. And I try and get that done. And quite often that can just take a few hours. You know, some of this is all Nick from like the four hour working week and all these types of people.

Chris: But yeah, try and get that one thing done and then you'll feel good about yourself. You might have a bit of time to be like, Oh, well now that I've done, I'll just spend another half hour replying to that email or responding to that text message. But yeah, it's just about don't try and take on the world.

Chris: If you do one thing each [00:53:00] day. Then you've got 250, whatever working days a year, and you'll be massively on from where you were a year before. 

Nat: Yeah, it's like that. I've not read it actually, but make your bed type idea is that once you've got that positive mindset, you know, then you can roll over and get more done.

Nat: And I definitely agree on the. getting out into nature point. I've been using an app over the last, I think, four months called Daylio. It's just on the phone. D A Y L I O, I think it is for anyone who wants to look it up. Basically every day you just kind of, it's quite nicely laid out, but you just Push what you've done for the day.

Nat: Did you eat healthy? Did you go for a walk? Did you go to nature? Did you drink alcohol? Did you, what did you do? And then you put in a score and it's not too complicated. It's just basically one to five. And one of the big things that's come out of that [00:54:00] is I think one of the biggest correlations between feeling good is, is getting, getting exercise and into nature properly over lots of other things.

Nat: Sleep as well. I think sleep's absolutely massive. I kind of thought that before, but if I get a bad night's sleep, it's very hard to recover mentally. So yeah, I do agree with your nature one for sure. Right. Next question. Can you recall a moment that changed the course of your 

Chris: life? Yeah, good question.

Chris: I think that there is a few along the way, but the first and biggest one was probably, well, the fact was, it was us moving out to Oman from Yorkshire as a family when I was nine years old. And I do vaguely recall being told about that. So the way I recollect it, we're in my sister's room. I think we're about to go to bed.

Chris: There was me and my two sisters and. My mum and dad had come in and I think they had a [00:55:00] world atlas at least some sort of map and kind of said, we're moving here. And, and I think perhaps that night I didn't understand it or was just excited. I do remember like, when I was having to say goodbye, like we went to a last youth club and stuff at school.

Chris: I remember being a bit sad about that, but moving to Oman was kind of the start of. Yeah, I guess everything in a way, that's what led me to be able to go to boarding school, which is what led me to be able to go to a better uni, which led me to get a better job. Yeah, it's just that sort of, I guess, almost sliding doors moment, but, but that was probably the first and the biggest major change in my life.

Nat: What's a controversial opinion that you hold that you're willing 

Chris: to discuss? I think this is controversial, which is the just stop oil protesters. I think they get a very bad press and you keep seeing stuff like, oh, these guys are annoying when you're trying to commute into London, [00:56:00] or this guy's potentially going to be late for his grandmother's funeral.

Chris: I support I don't do anything to support them, but I am on the side of the Just Stop Oil protesters. I think Of course, they're causing disruption and it's a shame they're having to do that, but I do believe they're going to be on the right side of history. I think they are doing, they are trying to have a sustained campaign where they stay in the media and in the press to Get the message through to politicians.

Chris: And I don't feel they get a lot of support. I think the media is very negative on them and kind of treats them as almost like, who are these weird or annoying hippies, or they're doing this stupid stuff, but ultimately if you step back, what are they trying to do? They're trying to. It sounds a bit dramatic, but almost save humanity and wake us up to the fact that we're in this climate crisis and that we need to do life [00:57:00] differently.

Chris: That maybe ties back to some of your stuff, Nat, when you answer the question you said about almost the one child policy and there being too many of us. I think they're going to be on the right side of history and I think they get a really bad rep for it. So yeah, that's probably my controversial opinion.

Chris: I think 

Nat: it would be quite. Good to work for them or be involved in their organization because I can imagine their board meetings being like, right, well, what stuff can we do to disrupt things, you know, throwing beans or tomato sauce on the Mona Lisa, or just do sort of slightly silly at times, disruptive stuff that's going to get in the, of course, the papers love them.

Nat: They're not going to say that, but they love them because it's just small stories, isn't it? It's kind of controversial what they do, but I think I agree with you. A lot of stuff they do is just. relatively harmless at the end of the day. I mean, the Mona Lisa was covered in about 10 layers of glass and perspex, so throwing some [00:58:00] tomato soup or whatever it was on that makes no difference.

Nat: But you know, it's a news story and it highlights the issue. 

Chris: I'm a bit worried, to be honest, that they'll go for the juggernaut and try and hack into our podcast or something like that, but for the time being, maybe we're okay. What would you 

Nat: do if you had like one prank or one something that you could do for Just Stop Oil?

Chris: It'd be great to use that as an excuse to target the current conservative leadership, wouldn't it? I mean, don't get me onto politics, but how do we end up with people like Boris Johnson, Matt Hancock? I mean, he's just such a weasel. Rishi Sunak I thought might be slightly better, but I don't think really is.

Chris: Dominic Cummins, like how do we end up with people like that? There's something wrong with the system, isn't there? So yeah, it'd be great to use just stop oil as a bit of a, an excuse to prank them in some way, inconvenience them. [00:59:00] Yeah, bring them back to the real world just for a tiny minute. 

Nat: I think we'll finish with this last question, which is, can you share a current challenge that you're working on?

Chris: Yeah, so maybe there's two bits. So if I step back from my life now, what would I like? One is the business financial side. You know, adventure solos and hopefully this podcast live changes needs to grow. It's not financially sustainable for me right now. I don't need to be a multimillionaire, but I do need to pay the mortgage and pay the bills.

Chris: So. That's, I guess, a medium term goal. It's been going on for a while. It's going in the right direction, but that's one. And actually, if you're listening, you can help with that. Just head on over to adventuresolos. com and sign up to the mailing list. The other, I guess, is my personal life. So I'm 41 at the moment.

Chris: I am still single. [01:00:00] I guess I always thought I was going to have sort of, you know, I guess kids and, you know, a life partner or whatever. And. That's not where I'm at just now, I think maybe there's a window for some of that stuff that starts to close and people are often quite dismissive when men say that, but I do think it's true for men as well.

Chris: I don't want to be mistaken for the granddad in the playground. So that's 1 that I guess is in the back of my mind. And again, I guess a medium term thing that. I guess I've been working on for a little while and yeah, we'll see where that gets to. So they're probably the two, the financial side and growing the business and making that pay its way.

Chris: And the other is the relationship aspect of that. 

Nat: And is there a mailing list some people can sign up to for the second bit, the 

Chris: relationship bit? That's probably where I'm going wrong. We should start one. A subscription package, I think. Just put subscription, 

Nat: but you have [01:01:00] to get a Patreon page up or something like that.

Chris: Well, we do have one, but not for the date inside. Yeah, this, this is all brand new, so we don't have any Patreons yet, but if you become our first Patreon, so look at the show notes below, go over and follow it and we'll give you a shout out on the show as a thank you. So yeah, go be our first Patreon.

Chris: Good plug Nat. Thank you. 

Nat: Yeah, sure. One of our parents will sign up for that. So we'll get a shout out. Actually, we better not, they're not going to do it. So you need to do it now. All right. Great. Thanks for being so candid with your answers, Chris. And good to, I hadn't heard all of those views and opinions about you.

Nat: So I found that very interesting. So, so thanks a lot. 

Chris: Brilliant. Awesome. Nice chatting. Na.

Chris: Hey, it is Chris here from Adventure Solos where we help people in their thirties, forties, and fifties to rediscover themselves and meet new people. [01:02:00] If you'd like to find out more about adventure solos events, visit adventure solos.com. That's adventure solos.com where you're very welcome to stay in touch by joining the mailing list, so adventure solos.com and enter your details to sign up to the mailing list.