Campsite Wardens

New lifestyle number two ……

Its been a while I know, faithful readers will also be aware that we were extra cagey about what we planned doing on our return to the uk.

Neither of us wished to rejoin the rat race, so we looked outside of the box, having met a fantastic couple (you’ll never forgot an Englishman with real ale after not seeing any for months) in a small free sosta in Italy, an idea started to form they had tried many things to allow them to travel, one of his favourites had been an ASDA delivery driver, he literally counted down his shift until the bank was healthy enough to travel again, the other thing they had tried and loved was being a campsite Warden.

Have you ever wondered what life is like for the site staff? What do they have to do? What’s their work-life balance? What do they enjoy most… and least? Ever wondered if you’d like to be a warden yourself?

So armed with a couple of websites to look at, we slowly convinced ourselves that we needed to start looking for a job….

Hurdle number one, having both been in the same jobs for 10 years or so we both needed to write a C.V. I like to think that I can be fairly creative with words, but summing up my working life was a nightmare! – having choose to forgot many of the tasks I undertook, I finally had it just the gap year bit to go…..

It turns out Explaining a year off on your CV doesn’t have to be a bad thing, taking the time off can highlight that you want to further your skill set and try new experiences, look back over this blog and ask yourself how many of the little things we did would you have managed on a normal holiday?

It means that you’ll come back from your break with a different perspective, which is likely to aid your job performance, in other words, stop worrying that people will label you a slacker, a drifter, the odd one and embrace the fact that your willing to chase down a dream explore your inner self and relish in new challenges !

With two C.V.’s composed we started to look a little more seriously, firstly the thing to keep in mind with this type of work that it isn’t well paid, but also the hours required (advertised) and also a lot lower than I’m used to, but on top of the pay you would normally get a Free pitch, electricity, WiFi etc – so with no major bills the value of salary increases drastically!

But where do we want to be in the UK ?

We considered the two major clubs, but with both websites saying no new applications were being taken and the prospect of being ‘placed’ anywhere in the uk, we decided to look at independent sites. It’s difficult to say if we either have standout skills or were just very lucky, out of the couple of positions we applied for one offered a UK based interview, but not much help when your in Spain and the other position we applied for was ‘Super Cleaners’, but after a quick swap of emails another vacancy at the same site had appeared, maybe by luck, by fate, or the power of attraction……

We have landed the role of “Super Wardens” thankfully for us we swap a few e-mails, had a fairly long phone conversation, where I pretty much got told to shut up and let Michele talk (always a positive thing when everyone feels comfortable enough to say that sort of thing) and attempted a SKYPE call which couldn’t have gone worse, no WiFi in the uk end, so we rescheduled and then a poor connection at the Spanish end, left us using the iPad for buffering, freezing video and the iPhone on speaker for chatting that didn’t match the video, it couldn’t have gone worse !

But hey ho, and then a couple of hours later that joyous e-mail welcoming us to the team.

So here we are on the AA campsite of the year 2018, a five star site with facilities that rival any hotel I’ve ever stayed in! And only about an hours drive away from Family and Friends…

Our instagram followers will probably already know the locations of site, as we arrived a week or so before our start date to explore the area, so at least if anyone asks we have been to some of the major attractions.

It’s been a long long time since either one of us was the office junior, and as I’m sure it is normal, that the first day in a new job should be a stomach churning combination of exciting and terrifying. The chance to prove yourself and be challenged by new opportunities is coupled with the overwhelming thought that you won’t know which mug to use in the kitchen or where the toilets are, but thankfully the first day past without any incident.

Being the newbie is daunting – not least because you will have given a very rosy impression of yourselves in the interview and now you need to show-up on all those promises of genius, unless your lucky enough to be mentored and trained by two other long standing Wardens who like you dipped out of the rat race at a young age and can relate to our reasons why add that to the rest of the fabulous team we think we may have struck gold with this one …

Wish us luck …….

Paul and Michele

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8 thoughts on “New lifestyle number two ……

  • Good luck with the new jobs, I’m sure you will both be marvellous wardens have fun, Donna

    Reply
  • Chris and Peter

    How wonderful! Wish you both success and heaps of fun!!

    Reply
    • Shellthecobbler

      Thanks we also hope it works out great, and the best bit we get to go off and travel November time !

      Reply
  • All the best to you both, I’m sure you’ll do just fine!

    Reply
    • Shellthecobbler

      Thanks mike – so far so Good – safe travels to you both

      Reply
    • Shellthecobbler

      It would !! – the site is stunning and Di far so good

      Reply

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