I was studying an HNC at Poly in London on day release from a really boring technical drawing job. I spent more time staring out of the window than looking at my drawings.

One day my mate Steve came in to college and said that he was dropping out of the course because he’d got a job elsewhere. Where? Saudi Arabia. What?! Saudi Arabia??!! Yes.

At the time I was earning £24 a week and he was doing slightly better on £25. What’s it paying? £1000 a month. Tax free. A thousand pounds a month! This was absolutely unbelievable money.

They were still doing interviews in a room at college for Assistant Land Surveyors so I went along.

The first thing he said to me was ‘Robert, can you set up a theodolite?’ Yes. (I’d done it once!) ‘Right. You’ll be flying out on….’ I can’t remember the rest. But that was it.

So I flew out to Saudi. I was 20. I’d only been abroad once before. France.

My mum and dad wouldn’t give me any money to get there cos she didn’t want me to go. So I had to sell my guitar. I got to Saudi with about ten quid in my pocket. Went straight into the desert to start surveying. It was June and over 40 degrees! But when payday came along and I got £1000 I was very happy!

I’d only passed my driving test in the February and now in June I’m driving a Toyota Landcruiser. That’s more or less where I got my first experience of driving. In the desert! And sometimes you’d just have to get off the road. Because there’d be a massive great truck coming towards you!

I can remember sitting on a hill in the desert. And you could just look around. This was when they were just starting to burn stuff off. When they were starting the liquefaction. Burning it off. What a waste of gas. All over. Miles and miles of it. All around.

It really educated me. I was there a year and a half and then came back and worked for a year in Cleckheaton. Bit different. But then went back out to Dubai.

In 86 the price of oil crashed and everyone got laid off. I ended up in Cairo. We were tunnelling a new main sewer. 5 metres in diameter. Over 6 kilometres underneath the city. How I did it I don’t know. My God that was a tough job. The hardest I’ve ever worked. We did six 12 hour shifts a week. Working with this band of tunnellers. They were nutcases. Banned from every bar in Cairo.