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UNINTERRUPTED WEEKENDS KEEP FAWCETT AFLOAT
00:00 18 May 1995
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David
Fawcett:
DIRECTOR
Babtie Group As a director with the seemingly ever-expanding Babtie Group, David Fawcett runs the consultancy gauntlet between the Far East, Maidstone and Glasgow.
When Fawcett is not in the air he is on the road, helping to keep activities rolling in other UK offices - Derby, Exeter, Ipswich and so on.
After all the weekday running about, Friday nights are mostly sacred for the Yorkshireman. You can usually find him sinking a few decent pints in the quiet village pub in peaceful, leafy Hawkhurst, Kent, with a handful of friends.
That is, when he is not at that time having an early breakfast in Hong Kong when visiting that overseas office. Or some other excuse for not being at the 'established event' in the pub.
The Friday night jugs, though, are just an aperitif to the weekend: uninterrupted family time. Only on that basis is he prepared to let work totally rule the weekdays.
On the road there is no favourite hotel, except in Glasgow, the company HQ. Meetings are planned, but food is not. The food could be anything, and is often a sandwich 'but never a burger'.
Though flying quite a bit, Fawcett has not been winning the Air Miles game - using too many different airlines, he says. His kids have learned that they can't cash in on the miles collected 'unless I'm with them,' he laughs. 'They tried that.'
Despite all the flying, he manages to rake up at least 35,000 miles a year on the road.
'I don't have music in the car. Driving time is thinking time.' Except, that is, for a morning current affairs programme on the radio. He still has a bugbear about travelling, though.
'It often frustrates me that I can be a long way from home and can't call in to see friends or family.' He did manage to call in and see his mother recently, though. That makes a difference, especially as he has not always worked in the UK.
A senior UK tunnelling figure, he found that he had to go to South Africa in the grim early 1980s to get more subterranean work. Specialist sectors like tunnelling call for one of the most itinerant construction lifestyles.
A staunch family man, he has usually moved home - with the backing of his wife, Jocelyn, a dentist with her own demanding profession - rather than live away from his brood.
The first house move when they got married was from one end of the Kielder tunnel to the other following a promotion. Of going to South Africa, he says that it was ' a big upheaval, but not all negative. It was as exciting as it was traumatic.
'We talked about it a lot. We knew that if we didn't take the opportunity, we'd kick ourselves for the rest of our lives. We took very little, apart from the kids.' It was difficult to leave the country but when he returned to Scotland - where his family could not settle, the travelling geared up.
Most tunnelling work was in England and the kids' education started to drive family decisions. The result was a move to Maidstone to set up a new office for Babtie. He thought the move would mean that he could sleep in his own bed at night, he says.
For a while he was right. But the success of the office, combined with acquisitions, has changed his duties and he is back on the road again.
As he has only weekends for the therapeutic hobbies to balance the heavy workload, he finds himself tackling long-term projects. There is a constant trickle of some dry-on-the-mouth homebrew, and one big project which cannot be brushed aside.
It sits on the front yard. A big old sailing boat. The latest addition to the family of five, the 27ft vessel is the result of a year long effort, recently christened in a local river.
Is the lifestyle worth it? Doesn't he at least partly wish the industry would change?
'If you are planning to go into the profession you have to accept that you usually will have this lifestyle to progress. You have to take it as it is, you can't change it.' The itinerant's life certainly suits those who crave variety but it does require a certain attitude to not only survive but prosper.
Fawcett believes there are benefits as well as disadvantages. It keeps life interesting, provides opportunities and his family, he says, are more worldly wise than would have otherwise been the case. One daughter is in India at present, having been educated in eight schools. He does acknowledge, though, that you can lose much when you move.
'You must look for stability where you can find it. There are big impacts on the family. Having said that, I would do most of it again.'
Fawcett:
DIRECTOR
Babtie Group As a director with the seemingly ever-expanding Babtie Group, David Fawcett runs the consultancy gauntlet between the Far East, Maidstone and Glasgow.
When Fawcett is not in the air he is on the road, helping to keep activities rolling in other UK offices - Derby, Exeter, Ipswich and so on.
After all the weekday running about, Friday nights are mostly sacred for the Yorkshireman. You can usually find him sinking a few decent pints in the quiet village pub in peaceful, leafy Hawkhurst, Kent, with a handful of friends.
That is, when he is not at that time having an early breakfast in Hong Kong when visiting that overseas office. Or some other excuse for not being at the 'established event' in the pub.
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The Friday night jugs, though, are just an aperitif to the weekend: uninterrupted family time. Only on that basis is he prepared to let work totally rule the weekdays.
On the road there is no favourite hotel, except in Glasgow, the company HQ. Meetings are planned, but food is not. The food could be anything, and is often a sandwich 'but never a burger'.
Though flying quite a bit, Fawcett has not been winning the Air Miles game - using too many different airlines, he says. His kids have learned that they can't cash in on the miles collected 'unless I'm with them,' he laughs. 'They tried that.'
Despite all the flying, he manages to rake up at least 35,000 miles a year on the road.
'I don't have music in the car. Driving time is thinking time.' Except, that is, for a morning current affairs programme on the radio. He still has a bugbear about travelling, though.
'It often frustrates me that I can be a long way from home and can't call in to see friends or family.' He did manage to call in and see his mother recently, though. That makes a difference, especially as he has not always worked in the UK.
A senior UK tunnelling figure, he found that he had to go to South Africa in the grim early 1980s to get more subterranean work. Specialist sectors like tunnelling call for one of the most itinerant construction lifestyles.
A staunch family man, he has usually moved home - with the backing of his wife, Jocelyn, a dentist with her own demanding profession - rather than live away from his brood.
The first house move when they got married was from one end of the Kielder tunnel to the other following a promotion. Of going to South Africa, he says that it was ' a big upheaval, but not all negative. It was as exciting as it was traumatic.
'We talked about it a lot. We knew that if we didn't take the opportunity, we'd kick ourselves for the rest of our lives. We took very little, apart from the kids.' It was difficult to leave the country but when he returned to Scotland - where his family could not settle, the travelling geared up.
Most tunnelling work was in England and the kids' education started to drive family decisions. The result was a move to Maidstone to set up a new office for Babtie. He thought the move would mean that he could sleep in his own bed at night, he says.
For a while he was right. But the success of the office, combined with acquisitions, has changed his duties and he is back on the road again.
As he has only weekends for the therapeutic hobbies to balance the heavy workload, he finds himself tackling long-term projects. There is a constant trickle of some dry-on-the-mouth homebrew, and one big project which cannot be brushed aside.
It sits on the front yard. A big old sailing boat. The latest addition to the family of five, the 27ft vessel is the result of a year long effort, recently christened in a local river.
Is the lifestyle worth it? Doesn't he at least partly wish the industry would change?
'If you are planning to go into the profession you have to accept that you usually will have this lifestyle to progress. You have to take it as it is, you can't change it.' The itinerant's life certainly suits those who crave variety but it does require a certain attitude to not only survive but prosper.
Fawcett believes there are benefits as well as disadvantages. It keeps life interesting, provides opportunities and his family, he says, are more worldly wise than would have otherwise been the case. One daughter is in India at present, having been educated in eight schools. He does acknowledge, though, that you can lose much when you move.
'You must look for stability where you can find it. There are big impacts on the family. Having said that, I would do most of it again.'
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