chockablock, that's exactly my thought process for doing my Class 1 in another state! Killing two birds with one stone, but I think I may have to settle for training here in the UK as it'll be less disruption in terms of work and family life. At least for the PPL stage. We'll see how it is later on.
parkfell, if you refer to my very first post here, rest assured I've moved on from that position a long while ago! I'm going for modular training now. My employer can only give me 12 months sabbatical at most, plus the cost for Integrated is, well, you know. In all honesty, I won't know if the professional route is for me until I'm actually doing the job. For example, prior to my nursing training, I didn't really like gory movies and was near collapsing watching a Discovery Channel video about a minor operation on a foot. At that point, I was sure nursing wasn't for me!! Since then, I've touched some patient's brain and helped tuck the skull in his abdomen, touched another patient's spine, handled an amputated foot, numerous digits, helped put someone's guts back in, taken out kidneys for transplants, assisted in organ donation operations, more CPRs than I'd care to do, and so on..... things that would've never occurred to me that I could do 15 years ago! Whether I can hack an airline pilot job, I can't really tell until I'm there, but I'm pretty sure I want to fly so a PPL is a given. Whether I progress further after that will depend on time and money afterwards, but I can't really determine that until I'm in that situation, so I've stepped off the cliff now and have booked myself for some flying lessons. The gray matter hasn't really been taxed so much recently, it'll be good for it to be exercised again!!
A friend of mine found out about an aeromedical examiner in a nearby hospital and suggested that instead of going down to London for a Class 1, why not get a Class 2 for now (seeing as I've resigned to doing at least a PPL first), then get the doctor to advise me on what to do to improve my chances of passing a Class 1 medical later on. Spend £100+ and less stress compared to "risking" £500+ and freaking out. I'm thinking it'll be at least 3-6 months to knock out my PPL anyway plus a few flights hour-building and that'll give me enough time to sort out any issues the doctor might find. I should mention that this doctor can do Class 1 re-certification as well. Is there any merit to this plan?