When I first came to the UK, 14 year old Conor Travers was tearing it up on Countdown. I remember watching.

So what's he doing now? According to Wikipedia, studying mathetmatics. But at the age of 25? So I did some more sleuthing and realised that that's out of date. I found his Linkedin and he works as a "trader" in Amsterdam.

I don't know what a "trader" is in this sense. Something to do with stocks, I guess. But good for him for moving. And according to Glassdoor or whatever, a "trader" at that company can expect to make a fair bit of cash.

I also remember him being crowned champion of champions in some big tournament that invited a bunch of people from previous series of the show.

However, I have yet a third Conor Travers memory wherein he lost and was asked about this he said something like, "I didn't study much. I had better things to do." Sour grapes, perhaps, but he may also have a point. What were they competing for? An encyclopedia set?

Do they even make encyclopedia sets any more? I vaguelly recall a story that Encyclopedia Britannica was no longer producing them. Yeah. In 2012.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/mar/13/encyclopedia-britannica-halts-print-publication

It seems that they still made the Book of the Year things until 2015. You can buy whatever they have left on their website.

We had a bunch of those as a kid. They were interesting. There was an article on WWF wrestling in the 1984 or so book. It was a patronising comedy piece and appeared to be written by a completely out of touch upper class English guy (which it probably was). It was interesting, though. Had a picture of a young Hulk Hogan.

What are these encyclopedias going for on Ebay? Mmm...maybe $500 if you're lucky. The 1968 set looks like the one I had a kid.

Where was I? Conor Travers. Encyclopedias.

Oh, yeah. I propose a match between Conor Travers and this retarded guy Owen. Spot Owen 70 points to make it competitive.

This case got cancelled. So that's £800 I'm making this month. That's terrible.

But wait a minute. That's $800 for doing absolutely nothing. Put in that context, I made out like a bandit.

Even so, I'd like to follow in my hero Conor Travers' footsteps and leave the UK. I'm not enjoying this job. I don't want to work for peanuts for the companies and I hate dealing with these miserly, sleazy, up their own rectum solicitors.

Can do whatever. Go to Finland. Go to the US. Go to Spain. Go to Germany.

I was looking at some of these jobs in the US. Some of them are like $100,000 plus transcripts but there's also no shortage of low-paid jobs.

Here's one in Alaska. Starts at $82,000. Goes up to $95,000 if you pass a few tests. Pretty sweet. Of course, you have to live in Alaska.

Here's one in an Arizona youth court for $52,000 to $60,000. More than I expected from Arizona.

Los Angeles. $7000/month. Weird to give it in months. How much is that a year...$84,000, I guess. Pretty good. It also goes higher if you pass tests.

Florida for $52,000. That's more than I thought as well. Florida and Arizona, you expect rock bottom wages.

Oh here we go. Idaho. Oh wait. I thought they were giving the yearly salary as $22,000. It's $22 to £25 an hour. That's comprable to what I'm making working for the companies here. It's nothing. I guess in Idaho, the money goes further, though.

What are the qualifications...yeah, they only want six months experience. Most of these jobs want at least four or five years. They're getting $3.25 a page. Again, that's about what these companies are paying but 1/3 of what you get if you do a job direct. So that's terrible.

I saw some bad ones. Oh. Iowa. This was it, I think. No, £51,000 to £80,000.

Here we go. Kansas City, Missouri. $27 an hour. Same as Iowa then. How much is that a year, assuming it's full time? $56,000. That's surprising. I guess these are all about the same then. $56,000 doesn't seem that bad to me but $27/hour does.

I don't know. I was making £30,000 in London. That's about $45,000. So any of these jobs would be an improvement. Plus, it's more expensive to live in London, of course. Houses and taxes and whatever.

Yeah, I just need to pass this test and then I can look at my options. These's also a guy who does depositions throughout Europe. And I might be able to get jobs directly if I advertise.