The King of Albania
.....is a nickname that a poor guy I met at Uni acquired.

Not a sexy or exciting story but something

Gavin was a nice guy, friendly, a bit loud at times but not necessarily as secure in himself as might have first appeared....he was a long way from home this being a Northern University and him being Cornish and there was no point of reference from home to keep him grounded. I don't think there's anyone that hasn't embellished a story for a bit of dramatic effect is there? Maybe I'm doing it a bit here as well, you get the drift....for this fella however it got a bit out of hand.

During the excesses of the fresher term and living in a halls of residence with lots of new people around Gavin started to bullshit and didn't know or most likely couldn't stop. First off was that he'd broken a vertebrae previously in a sporting accident and had to spend a long period of time in hospital - not beyond the realms of possibility at all, this then over the coming years then snowballed into recieving a huge whack of money through medical insurance, his late Grandfather had left him and his brother a huge sum of money in trust until their 21st birthdays and so on it went in a spiral, each untruth feeding off the other until people started to call him out about it and goad him into more outlandish gilding of each story.

Unable to make the step towards salvation and own up to a bit of bullshitting he went on and on - it was really painful to watch - I and several others having tried very hard to offer him a way out of the falsehoods on numerous occassions - he was a fantastically kind and generous guy and great to be around and probably still is, but it had gone on too long. Eventually he started to drift away and just isolated himself, got a bedsit on the other side of town, the last time I set eyes on him he looked like he was in the middle of a breakdown, a proper mess, avoiding eye contact he scarpered off and that was it. I worried for a while but had my own stuff to deal with at the time....

You might recognise Gavin as I've seen a few more of his type in my time and often they're just dreamers with low self esteem.

I caught up with him the other week through the wonders of Facebook......

He's making a mint running his own business, happily married and knows full well what a tit he made of himself, he says he just couldn't stop at the time. I've been invited over to stay with him and go out on his yacht......I'm pretty sure it actually belongs to him this time anyway.

Bullshitting - don't do it kids! (well, at least know when to stop)
(Oil Slick, Thu 10 Jul 2008, 16:33, 2 replies)

hmmmm.....
he SAYS he's making a mint running his own business :-)
(bblgoose, Sat 12 Jul 2008, 16:11, closed)

Exactly...
....although I've seen the evidence now, I must admit I was more than a little cynical at first.
(Oil Slick, Mon 14 Jul 2008, 11:37, closed)