The, flight, the car, the shoulder and the beginning...

In 2024, I found myself in little situation.

They say things happen in 3's and in this case it went from bad to worse to a complete disaster!

After my 6 week African adventure where I spent time on Zanzibar Island, I drove from Dar Es Salaam all the way to Volcanoes National Park in Rwanda. I visited Serengeti National Park, Ngorongoro Crater, Loshoto Mountain, and many amazing stops in between!

It was the start of an adventure really with no plan or idea how long it'd last, where my next destination was and who i'd meet along the way.

When I returned to Tanzania, I stopped off in Moshi when the next chapter would begin.

I met a group of volunteers, at an accommodation that my friend organised. There were volunteers from Germany, Switzerland, Greece, France, The Netherlands, UK, America, Slovakia and it was just a great place to be. I found peace, I found harmony, community and joy. I had a lot of time to reflect during my time there but without a doubt, the most amazing thing happened.

After just 12 hours of being there, two german volunteers asked me if I wanted to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro.

I said when, they said next week, and 8 days later I was on the mountain.

This 5 day hike took me to the summit, and it truly felt like it was the climb of my mental health recovery on one side of the mountain and on the other side was the climb of my physical health recover after a 2021 accident that left me doing 6 months of rehab.

Africa, truly was life changing. I will never forget it and I will one day return.

But my time was up, I booked my flights to England and got myself to the airport a couple of days later.

My flight had a stopover in Rwanda, and thats where the connecting flight didn't turn up.

2 days later, I finally left Rwanda and ended up in Guildford at my friends house.

I had organised to buy the Just Another Moment car (an old london cab) branded it and ready for my roadtrip to Italy where I would enjoy 2 weeks of living and skiing in the Dolomites.

5 days later I set off on a Friday morning, I drove all the way to Germany on that Friday, spend the night to rest. Saturday I would meet with a friend and then head off at 7pm.

Around 10pm I started to get really tired, so I pulled up and has a nap until around 2am before I set off again.

I cruising, listening to music, enjoying my drive and BOOM. The car power cut out completely, it grinded to a halt just off the Motorway at 4am. Early February, freezing cold -2 degrees and I was completely alone, in a country I had never been to before.

I stayed calm, I tried to figure out what the problem was, I tried to get help but nothing. Eventually I got hold of the insurance company and they were able to tow it to a mechanic. I had to be in Italy that evening to meet a group of digital nomads I was going to be spending the next 2 weeks with.

I asked the insurer if I needed to stay with the car, because the mechanic wasn't open until monday, and they said no, I can leave it and they will tow it back to Sngland if the mechanic can't fix it. I made that split decision, I packed my things for skiing and got a taxi, two buses and two trains to finally arrive in Innsbruk, Austria at 7pm where I would meet Glen who was one of the digital nomads joining for the 2 weeks!

Because of the change of transportation, I left my boots and skis in my Taxi and decided I would hire new ones when I arrived in Italy.

At this point I was tired, grumpy and sad that my roadtrip plans were up in literal smoke...

I didn't let that stop me though, I keep going forward and Glen and I arrived at our accomodation at 10pm that night.

We had some wine, some pizza, met the other nomads and went to bed, for tomorrow, I would achieve a dream (skiing in Europe)

The morning was lovely, the snow all around, the freshness of the air and the excitement within me made this one memorable.

I got my skis, I got my pass, I got my way to the mountain and had the most spectacular gondola ride up to where my European skiing journey would begin!

I enjoyed a lovely croissant and hot choclate and then we set off!

1 turn, 2 turns, left, right, lef....... BANG, SNAP, CRASH

Yep, 4 turns was all I got.

My boots and skis weren't fitted correctly and the ski completely flew off mid turn, I fell back and snapped my shoulder, dislocating it and tearing ligaments. I was in a lot of pain, I thought it was my colarbone at the start, a Dr came and checked on me and told me I had dislocated my shoulder and I though Oh great news, ive done that plenty of times. I thought that I would just get back up and go skiing again. I quickly realized this wasn't the case and my trip, was now over.

The car, the accident and the additional costs literally blew through over half of my money I had which was to last me over a year. I made the call to fly back to England 2 days later to see if I could get surgery (as thats what the Italians recommended) and I went back to my friends place in Guildford where I would stay for the next 2 weeks, on a blow up bed, in a 1 bedroom apartment with my mate.

I had nothing to do and I was feeling defeated and thats when I thought...

I've got this business idea I have been wanting to do, I had already started it, but I didn't know what the direction was and so with an A4 piece of paper, a pen and my mind I drew the first Mind Map of Just Another Moment and that's where Just Another Moment as we know it truly began.

I continues my travels, and after this experience I very nearly went back to Australia, instead, travelled to Croatia, Montenegro, Bosnia (twice), The Netherlands, Morocco, Portugal, Andorra, Spain and Vietnam before returning home, to start my life from scratch, with pennies in my pocket, at 31 living with my parents. I met so many people with so many stories, it truly formed the business as it stands today.

A global travel minded mental fitness community.

There's more to this story, of course, but this is a story of resilience, and never giving up and following a dream!

When time's got tough, when it got hard. I kept going, and I told myself the story that I could let this defeat me or I could make this the story that I will one day tell up on stage, to inspire others to follow their dreams.

If you have a dream

Share the dream with us!

Why is it your dream?

What does it mean to you?

Let's see if we can achieve it together!

Then we can share the story of achievement and maybe, just maybe. that story will inspire someone else to achieve a dream!

Dream | Share | Inspire

Big Love,

Arthur!

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