The Tales and Travels of Taylor Made PA 

The Tales and Travels of Taylor Made PA Greetings from Jamaica

The Tales and Travels of Taylor Made PA – The Travel Years

First Published 10 July 2019

 

Hello!

Welcome to the next edition of The Tales and Travels of Taylor Made PA.

My passion for travelling started in college.

My Leisure Management course included a Travel Segment. During School and College I worked for W.H Smith, embracing my love of music, reading and stationery! But in those days W.H Smith (for those of you old enough to remember!!), had a Travel Agency – W.H Smith Travel. During the summer of 1991, whilst the shops were being prepared to close down I was offered the opportunity to work as a Travel Agent over the summer break by the Manager. They knew that I covered Travel at college. I had just been on and booked my own holiday with them. So I worked there for the summer and loved it!

I worked for them for July and August and then helped them close the branch down at the end of the summer. Then headed back to college to finish my course with a new plan. The college helped me by adding an extra Travel Segment to my course to start gaining my Travel Qualifications.

Life after college

So after leaving college in 1992 I then settled into a career as a Travel Consultant and started trying to see the world! The first destination I set my mind on seeing was Australia. I had family in Melbourne and cousins that I had never met. So in December of 1993 aged just 19 I set off on my first visit to Australia. I’d hoped to stop off in Hawaii on the way but they changed the flight route! So I spent the full 3 weeks with my family and took in as much of Melbourne as I possibly could fit in 3 weeks. I saw Melbourne City, Great Ocean Road, Phillip Island, Healsville Wildlife Sanctuary, Ballarat, Bendigo, Sovereign Hill and so much more!

Back from Melbourne I moved into my first house and then focused on progressing my Travel Career whilst seeing the world. I took night school classes to complete more travel qualifications, the now defunct COTAC – Certificate of Travel Agency Competence. And I took on any location specific training I could and in time became a (also now defunct!) PSARA Cruise Consultant, Sandals Resort & Disney specialist. I took educational trips back to Australia, visiting the Queensland Coast and Sydney. I attend various cruise ships ( I was gutted when I had to turn an invite down for the Century Cruise Liner inauguration – but I was in Disney with family for my step-brothers wedding!). Then I had trips to Jamaica, Mexico, Turks & Caicos, Seychelles and Mauritius! I even had my first flights in Business Class!

The photograph with this Blog is from a holiday with a friend in Jamaica for her 30th Birthday in 1999. We stayed at Club Caribbean in Runaway Bay, where I managed to combine my passion for ponies with my love for travel and we took a ride through the Sugar Plantations to the beach. It was incredible!

Moving on from Travel

But after 10 years of travel I was starting to find working weekends – which had progressed to 7-day trading by this time – was becoming restrictive. I was watching more and more football and was missing games due to work. So, I decided to move into Business Development roles working with Travel Agents initially, promoting Car Hire, and then with mix of Agents and B2B clients for an online Travel Platform. One of my B2B clients was a Football Club – which I loved – and I found myself working with more clubs. I even spent my 30th birthday in Seville on tour with a Football Club overseeing their Pre-Season Tour!  It was an amazing time in my life. This in turn led to a job offer with a Football Club, where I spent a Season living the dream working as a Commercial Sales & Marketing Manager.

It was being made redundant from the Football Club at the end of the season, that led me to becoming a Personal Assistant.

Until next time…

 

Jules x 

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