NEW LIFE:Shauna Bradley followed the lure of the road after taking time out to plan for her future
SHAUNA BRADLEY has packed a jaw-dropping degree of activity into her relatively short life, including learning to drive a double-decker bus in rush hour traffic in London, working her way across 22 countries and having two children.
The lure of the road has always been a draw for Bradley, even though she grew up in a home without a car. She remembers riding her bike around Galway city as a youngster before progressing on to mopeds and then ultimately on to her first car in her early 20s.
When she left school she went to work at Paddy Power bookmakers with the intention of staying a a short time. After being employed there for eight years she felt “way overdue” a change and she started working as an auctioneer in 1995.
Bradley says she “should have made millions” but she felt deeply uncomfortable at the vast sums of money being made by developers. She also felt that the ordinary punter was paying far more for property than it was worth.
“It just didn’t sit comfortably with me. You would be selling phase one for X amount and then phase two for another amount and so on. I couldn’t get over the collusion between solicitors, developers and auctioneers.”
To all appearances Bradley “had it all”, with a relationship, two cars and a home to her name, but in 1998 she felt the need to leave Ireland to formulate her plan for the future.
“I didn’t ask anyone’s opinion. I had to go. My head told me I had to get out. I just disappeared overnight. I didn’t tell anyone my intention. I eventually sent three letters from Tunisia. I remember standing in the post office and I knew my life was changed. My personal relationship had run its course. I knew I would not be returning to my old life.”
Bradley was 31 and was trying to figure out her new career path. She spent three “life-changing” months in India where she believes she learned the true value of life. She never became caught up in the Celtic Tiger mentality of second houses and new cars. For Bradley life was all about finding out what was really important to her.
Over the next 18 months, she worked her away across 22 countries from Europe to Australia and the US, travelling only by land where possible.
In Australia, Bradley hired a camper van thinking it would be a great way to see the coast. She was expecting a small one, but ended up with an eight-berther. Travelling in the van was one of the most memorable parts of her journey and it reminded Bradley of just how much she enjoyed driving.
Bradley celebrated the millennium in New York before moving to London in early 2000. While there she took up a job as a bus driver. Her first day on the job involved the hair-raising experience of driving a double decker bus in to the heart of the city at rush hour.
“I always fancied driving old buses and I went to Tottenham garage in north London for training. I thought they would ease me in, but suddenly I was driving a double decker at rush hour in the city,” she recalls.
“I remember the ticket machine stopped working and I was in a bit of a panic. I got to London Bridge and then to the station and then suddenly the doors opened and about 500 suits rushed through and on to the bus with their passes.
“They were all packed on like sardines. They all made the bus heavy and I was not used to driving a heavy bus. I got through it and I remember thinking ‘Jesus, that was close’. But what an adrenaline rush.”
Bradley has always loved a challenge and “being thrown in at the deep end”. While working as a bus driver she met fellow employee Robin in the garage. She and Robin fell in together very easily and they felt like they had known each other all their lives.
Bradley jokes that the relationship was a done deal when she realised that Robin was “a great cook and owned a washer and dryer”.
She lived for a year in London before developing a yearning for Galway. When she returned there with Robin she quickly got a job with medical technology company Medtronic. She still works for the company on a part-time basis and the night-time hours work well with her day job as a driving instructor.
As a mother to two children, Pól and Sadhb, who were born just 14 months apart, Bradley was looking for work which fitted in with her need for a stable income and her thirst for adventure.
Returning to her love of driving, she became one of the first 20 people in Ireland to qualify as a driving instructor under the Road Safety Authority.
The recession has hit driving instructors such as Bradley but she says she continues to get business primarily through word of mouth.
“I love meeting people and driving instruction is a very easy business to set up. I don’t advertise at all. I rely on ex-students to get the word around. My job is to teach people something but I end up learning things from them as well. I think it is important to be passionate about a job and I am about teaching people to drive.
“I am not jaded by it. I am so lucky to be in the job I am in and to have the relationship I have. And the kids. I think if it is for you it will come to you. In the space of a year and a half I had a house, a husband and a child. The recession has hit driving instructors but I am getting there.”
