I have always been used to hard work and have never expected anything less. I was born in 1948, grew up through the hard times of the fifties, saw the big improvements in the sixties and have witnessed the booms and busts since then. My father was a church minister for most of my life at home, mainly for the free, independent, evangelical churches where pay was at the survival end with free housing being the only financial blessing. Although they fed and clothed me (in school uniforms mainly), my parents had little money for extras and what there was tended to go on piano lessons for my sister and me.
So, from the age of thirteen, I always had part-time jobs. A newspaper round before school and delivering fruit and vegetables, evenings and Saturdays, meant I could buy records and clothes for going out (and cigarettes). Then, at sixteen, I started working in hotels during the school holidays. We lived in Sidmouth by then and there were loads of hotels and loads of jobs. I started at the bottom end, dishwashing, and slowly moved up to portering and waiting, better because you got tips on top of the pay (if the Head Waiter didn't pinch them all). Another bonus of working in hotels was being able to live in and therefore able to go out without parents knowing, but this demanded more money as pubs and dances came into their own. The only other jobs I had before leaving home were being a postman for the Christmas mail rush and working the till in a self-service cafeteria.
With some of my language students in Wales. |
Caring for my mum. Here, in fact, it is my daughter-in-law, Murielle, cutting her hair. |
This was no good so, with my wife pregnant, we moved right out into the country, to the wilds of North Devon where I was unemployed for 6 months waiting to start a teaching course at Exeter University: my first time on the dole. My first son was born the week I started which sent my student grant (oh yes, those were the days) up through the roof. Having qualified, I didn't want to teach anyone except my own children but, in order to get a colour TV, I did work for a few weeks in the Ulster Chipboard factory which was a mixture of boredom, danger and fun.
Playing with Lastwind at the Fleece in Bristol. |
There, particularly with my lack of passable French, my work choices were a bit limited and for a year or so were a mixture of building work, working on our small farm growing vegetables and hens, ducks, geese and, for a short while, rabbits, selling our produce on markets and teaching a little English, as well as playing gigs. With the kids getting older, the pressure was on to earn more than survival income so we moved from the small farm to a bigger house and borrowed money, so easy back then, to start a full time Language Services business. And so, besides actually teaching some English, I had to run the business, finding clients, finding teachers and translators, doing the billings, paying our bills and the staff salaries and many other things ( but still finding the time to play in bands, including a short stint with the Topper Headon band. It got quite big. I had 17 employees at the end, sold out to an Australian businessman who kept me as director, got involved in a huge localisation project with an American software company and was working my socks off when the Australian went bust which meant we went bust and I headed back to the UK looking for work.
After a few weeks living off doing several paper-rounds, I'd been out of the country too long to have any rights to Unemployment Benefit, I got a job in a boarding school doing what was now called working with Emotionally and Behaviourally Disturbed children.
The computer room we installed in the language school which was very popular. |
I was then head-hunted, literally, to become Head back at the school where I had first started which went well till I upset the owner and was suddenly replaced by his daughter. This job had been really hard, 24/7/365 pretty much, so no time for playing in bands at all. I had a heart attack, took the owner to court with the support of the Head Teachers' Union, won a year's salary and moved to France for a bit to live with my wife who had moved back there previously being fed up with our life in England.
I took this photo when about to address a new intake of students at the language school in Bristol. |
We basically lost our house and it all affected our relationship badly but the good thing was music came back big time and I started the band Lastwind, touring with Hawkwind in the autumn of 2006.
I tried supply teaching when I was totally fit to work again, lasted one day and then started teaching English as a Foreign Language, ending up as Centre Manager after a few months. That lasted for 3 years till I got ill again, diabetic problems, so I had to give up and spent the last 3 years of my working life looking after my very sick, old mother. She died finally in December 2013 and my working life (and my life in the UK) was over.
Retirement is fantastic provided you can live on a low income and have plenty to occupy yourself!!!
My farewell dinner at Bristol Language Centre with my now ex-partner, Liz, on my right. |
No comments:
Post a Comment