Tip: cycling touring & security clearance afterwards...

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

I'm currently tearing my hair out trying to prove where my husband has been for the 12 months whilst we were on tour. So what's the problem: all it is is the length of time we were out of the UK, not even the conutries we went to (on the whole). Great concept for someone who camped wild a lot and who, like most tourers threw away anything that was not needed and including all receipts.

So my tip is: Don't throw away receipts - if you don't want to carry them, photo them. We are now trying to prove where we were for the 12 months. Regretfully the things we did keep like leaflets, maps & people's contact details don't prove we were there or when we were there. We have very few receipts (may be enough to prove 2 of the 22 countries we visited). Photos are not ideal, because I tend to take pictures without people in them and so could have been taken anywhere by anyone - all I can really prove is that they were taken by the same 2 cameras (oh - 3 cameras because I replaced one). We have a couple of entry tickets to the odd place here and there, 4 ferry crossing (out of some 39 ferries taken) and a few photos of us at easily identifable places (such as Nordkapp, the arctic circle, the lofoten island, the acropolis in athens) but otherwise I am pulling my hair out... Even out bank statements don't help that much and I still can not prove anything for 3 of the countries we visited.

Oh and final tip: Don't assume you won't work in the industry again. Many private companies now need you to have security clearance as well.

OK - frustration vented - thank you for reading!

 

[lulubel]

This will probably seem very stupid/innocent/naive, but why do you need to prove where you were?

 

[TheDoctor]

It's part and parcel of security clearance.
If you can't give job references for the last however many years, they want to know where you were and what you were doing.

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

This will probably seem very stupid/innocent/naive, but why do you need to prove where you were?

mostly to prove where you were not!

 

[lulubel]

Oh, I see - I think! Being an ex-pat, I thought it was something to do with fiscal residence, but I was obviously on completely the wrong track

 

[psmiffy]

mostly to prove where you were not!

So it is true then - your journal unlike mine is a work of fiction

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

So it is true then - your journal unlike mine is a work of fiction

and given that my style of photography contains very few images of people like my husband in it, it could almost have been done by anyone! Perhaps he was that there at all. Have to talk to the lemming that tried eating through his side of the tent in the somewhere around the russian border with norway at the barent's sea...
Some countries don't even contain any people in the pictures, so proving we were there is 'interesting' to say the least. Can't even use the GPS reading we took every night because put blunty, someone else could have taken the device on a trip for us.
Cynic aren't I!

On the bright side of things, it has forced me to take another look at my pictures and I have found one or two that were not used where he had crept into the side of a photo, usually whilst watering that tree of his! still it will at least prove he was there on that day... in that place in the middle of nowhere in Hungary, and the bikes are in the picture as well... as is a sign post.... so that is 1 day out of 12 months & 2 weeks out of the country accounted for!

 

[psmiffy]

It seems that including oneself/associates in the pictures is now derigeur for ones journal either for the purposes of recording that you were actually there or to add human interest to the story. My fans have been giving me grief over this for some time and in view of this should I I ever become financially viable enough to return to cycle touring I am developing strategies to ensure that at least two pictures per journal show mandatory photographs of me cycling away into the distance with some suitable identifiable landmark in the foreground.

(Can anyone advise me of the cost of photoshop).

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

(Can anyone advise me of the cost of photoshop).

expensive. £££

I use Corel PaintShopPro (PSP) which I usually pick up from Amazon for about £20-25, but don't often use it. Everything I want to do can be done in PSP None of the photos in my journal (now over 1,000) used PSP or PS, and everything was done using the Canon Digital Professional Pro software that comes free with canon cameras.

Still if you are after faking it, then try the cheapest option first - download a free trial!

 

[psmiffy]

What are the differences between Corel PSP and Corel Photopaint X5 - which I have (should really be on the other forum)

not really much of a photo manipulator - contrast, brightness a bit of crop (all of which I can do very quickly with something like picasa) - but it might be fun to put a photo on every page of the journal with a signature psmiffy disappearing down the road

(you are too quick for me)

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

What are the differences between Corel PSP and Corel Photopaint X5 - which I have (should really be on the other forum)

Photopaint - not sure, can't see that one immediately on the corel website.... PaintShopPro is also upto X5 now, but I am still using X2 (think version 12) on window 7 x64, but I am seeing PSP X3 ultimate for around £15 on amazon...

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

What are the differences between Corel PSP and Corel Photopaint X5 - which I have (should really be on the other forum)

could be the mac version verses the PC version... (in the opposite order..)

 

[glasgowcyclist]

Are the various border crossings not recorded in your passports? Or is that no longer done?

Did you use your bank cards while away? The transactions on your bank statement could stand in place of receipts perhaps. If anything, I'd say statements would be better since anyone can pass around receipts whereas only you (should) know your PIN.


GC

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

Are the various border crossings not recorded in your passports? Or is that no longer done?
Did you use your bank cards while away? The transactions on your bank statement could stand in place of receipts perhaps.
GC

Out of 22 countries we have stamps for 3. Belarus with the visa in and out, Serbia (in only) but you would only know it was Serbia if you had seen it before - it does not say Serbia in any language, and Turkey (in & out). No other countries stamped our passports.
Unfortuantly we lived by cash in most countries (except Norway which ironically we have no issues proving because there are some pretty key locations we did photo ourselves at (arctic circle, north cape, kirkenes, not to mention 2 parents who flew out to meet us up there and happen to both by lawyers, and kept a couple of ferry tickets from the Hurtigruten who print your name on it and even include the bike symbol!), so we have the odd cash withdrawl on the visa statements, but unfortuantly the records are incomplete and by the time we have requested additional copies, it will be too late (he has to submit something by this Friday). We have a whole load of leaflets we collected for our own records, but they prove nothing and my husband new wrote any of the postcards, so we can't even bale to them!

Lesson learnt for next time!

 

[psmiffy]

C Paint is part of coreldraw X5 graphics suite which I mainly use for doing sketches of things - creating png's to put in word documents - cheap adobe illustrator - but my preferred option