THE BIKE WHEEL & THE SHEEPSKIN COAT!

Firstly, my last Blog Entry (on my Life), I thought I changed Jobs before we moved!

That was wrong, after writing the last Blog Entry it got me thinking about what happened first, and an incident that happened back in 1979 reminded me of which came first!

I used to Cycle back and forth to work back then, which was a fair few miles about 4/5 each way! I must have had a Puncture in one of my Bike Tyres, I cant remember that, but can remember what happened when I was taking the mended Bike Tyre back to work to fix back on my Bike!

The Bus Stop was down in the High Street about 5 minutes from where we lived, and I can remember running along carrying the Bike Wheel , I was about 2 minutes from my House, when I passed a couple of Shops, I can remember a Woman standing there with a Nurses Uniform on (I believe there was another bus stop there, she was obviously waiting for a Bus, but this wasnt the bus stop I needed) she was waiting to go to work by Bus!

That day as I remember I had my Full Length Sheepskin Coat on, and I was running quite quickly (I must have been late for work/bus) and some how my Coat got tangled with the Bike Wheel , and Crash???? I fell over on to the Concrete Pavement right in front of this Nurse, near enough right where she stood!

I remember looking up and she was laughing her head off, I felt such a Prat, but all I could do was laugh as well, me and Susan often have a laugh about that incident, to this Day!

I Loved that Sheepskin Coat!!!!!!

BABY, HOUSE and JOB!

By about July /August 1979 Three Major things were happening in our Life!

Baby, House & Job!

Firstly Susan was Pregnant, the baby was due March 1980, Nathan was’nt quite one yet, so two small Babies together , anyway the new Baby was planned!

Our One Bedroomed place in a shared House, was alright but as you can imagine, very cramped, but as I said in previous post we got on well with a couple of different people, one being the unofficial Person in Charge of the House, Shirley was her name, the other Person was the Head Council Woman in Charge of our House, a Woman by the name of Phyllis Flaxman, who I mentioned her in a previous Post!

Now Mrs Flaxman had said she had a Landlady Friend who was soon having a Property empty, & would we be interested in a Move!

Of course we said “Yes” to her, and now just had to wait for news on the possible move!

The Third about to happen was concerning my Job, I had just found out I had Passed my Catering Exams, I had taken them about May / June earlier that year!

In the Exams I took to become a Fully Qualfied Chef, you had Three Levels of Pass,

1. Distinction 2. Credit 3. Pass

I got a “PASS”…………………. so not the Best Brains!

But I could Handle working under Pressure in a Hot Steamy Kitchen as good as most, & thats what really mattered, A person can have as many Qualifications as he wants, but when it comes to the Nitty Gritty of Hard Work in a under pressure situation of a Hot Kitchen, can he handle it!

& the answer in most cases was……………. “NO”

So with the Passing of my Final Exams, We had to make our Minds up what was I going to do for a Job!

I definately knew I was finishing with being a Chef, seems strange after doing 4 Years at College on day release from Work and 1 year when at School (at college) that I finally passed all my Exams and the first I do when finally being a Qualfied Chef, was Leave the Trade!

But when I started 5 years previous I was a single man, now I was Married with a Kid & one on the way, Cooking was not a Married Man’s Job!

Too many Long Hours and too many differing Split Shifts!

So I decided to either try to become a Butcher or a Baker, so I set about writing off loads of letters to different Butcher’s & Bakery’s in my Home Town!