Originally Posted by
chemist661
I worked 4/10 and had Mondays off.
I started 4/10s with Tues/Wed/Thurs off and has progressed to Fri/Sat/Sun a few years before I retired---certainly makes it less painful to give up a day of your weekend for a mileage run. Actually turned down the opportunity to work 12. 5 hour shifts with Mon/Tues/Wed/Thurs off as I needed more free time than that afforded during the week (barely enough time to get home, go to bed, and get back up again for work, and God help you if you had to work overtime as they'd hold you for 16 if needed). Those shifts were very popular with dispatchers with small kids at home. No opportunity for prospective employers to pay for travel, though, and it looks you really made out well there.
Originally Posted by
chemist661
I had so much fun taking trains all over England & Scotland. I did it all in 8 days and only taking 1 days of vacation.
Was that with a railpass? My first international trip was in 1992 and I spent 25 days in the UK, including a 21 day rail pass. Did the same thing in following years in Switzerland, France and Germany, though now I tend to buy individual tickets which I think are the better value (recall back in 1992 you could not buy individual rail tickets on line--you had to get a travel agent involved even for those). Now it's second nature to just get on-line and buy a ticket from London-Edinburgh or Berlin-Salzburg.
Did you do any shift trades in there? The folks I worked with survived on shift trades just to get longer weekends.