The road to 2013 - part 14

This is the penultimate part of my journey around the country.  On 29th July 1991 I moved into a house on Filton Avenue in Horfield, a suburb in the north of the city of Bristol.  A friend of mine had moved in a short time earlier and let me know there was a letting room available.  I didn't know it at the time but I was to be living there for just shy of 9 years.

The house was owned by Cathy who became a tenant there under the previous owner.  He died, and having no relatives, bequeathed the house to Cathy.  The house was in a dilapidated state at the time, and she spent most of her savings doing the place up.  She also worked at Bristol Cathedral and my friend knew her from there. 

Shortly after moving in I got a job at South Gloucestershire Council in Thornbury, employed in the housing benefits section.  Whilst in Thornbury I had the foresight of registering with an temping agency, and this proved beneficial because the Council decided to concentrate the housing benefits at their offices in Kingswood, and they adopted a policy of "last one in first one out".  I was the last one in ....

The agency then secured for me a placement at the Bristol & West Building Society as a legal secretary in the repossession sales department.  Thus started a career as a legal secretary in conveyancing.  Most of my jobs thereafter were in this role.  I also registered with two agencies in the centre of Bristol - namely Office Angels and Law Choice, the latter specialising in legal secretary appointments.  From that point on I was hardly ever without work, and my spells out of work were short.  There is one big downside to temping though - when its sunny and people want holidays, that's when temps get jobs; so instead of enjoying the sun I would be found in an office, or a typing pool, producing conveyancing or commercial property documents.

When I moved to Horfield I also switched my allegiance from the Salvation Army in Bedminster, to the one in Horfield.  Apparently people were talking about this unbeknown to me, and when I walked into the hall in Horfield I was "expected".  I was to be involved in the Horfield Salvation Army until 1998.  At that point I transferred to the Salvation Army in Staple Hill where I felt very much at home.

I had a number of holidays during my time in Filton Avenue.  I had a lovely week in Penzance, staying with former officers from Horfield who I had gotten on well with, and had a day trip to the Battle of the Flowers in Jersey.  Since we travelled by coach it was a very very long day!

The next year, however, I booked a week long holiday on Jersey, and had a superb time.

During the Christmas break in 1999, with the Millennium approaching, I really had a hard think about my future.  I was in a job I hated, working for an employer that didn't give references as a matter of policy.  I arrived in that job because I had temped with them, and after a short while they offered me a permanent place.  My boss however was a crude rude woman who used to swear a lot.  I decided I would have to quit.  On the first day back in 2000 I handed in my month's notice.  Quite a rash thing to do when I didn't have a job to go to.  However one of my temping agencies proved good and on the Monday after I had left on the Friday I had a short assignment in the north of the city.  However because this job "I went to" came to the end of a contract I was not penalised by the social security.  I had three places I would like to move to.  One was Bournemouth, a town I love and had good employment prospects (and quite often good weather), an other was Edinburgh, another place I love, and the third was Manchester (where I was born). 

Over the Easter period I went to Manchester and stayed with some friends, and decided that this would be where I would move to.  I made an appointment with a legal temping agency in the city, and went to see them, and they said I was to let them know when I moved up.  I put myself on the council waiting list.  After six weeks I was offered a council flat.  Then followed a whir of goodbyes and packing.  On the day I was to sign for new flat my Uncle Ray's funeral was to be held, and I had been offered the day before a permanent position at the firm I was working for at the time.  Talk about mixed emotions!  However, I signed for my flat, and at the end of June 2000 I moved to Manchester.

The road to 2013 part 12

In September 1982 I went to college.  I had an interview at Torbay College to do "Hotel & Catering Management".  Whilst I was in Torquay my mum received a phone call from Gwent College and on the basis of their conversation with my mum offered me a place.  To my parents minds it was settled - it was "God's will" that I went to Gwent College to do "Business Studies".  I found out two years later that the next week a letter had come for me from Torbay College offering me a place, but my parents kept this from me.  Had I known at the time, I would have not hesitated in packing up my belongings and moving to Torquay to take up that place.  Perhaps my parents sensed this and wanted to prevent such an open flouting of "God's will".  There was a lot of tooing-and-froing during the first half term, and no-one would have thought badly of me if I had gone to Torbay.  However, it was not to be.

I must say I hated Gwent College, and came to loathe the town of Newport.  I did do some touring out and visited Monmouth amongst other places.  We had a course trip to Brynmawr on the day that the new pound coins came out; very excitedly we found a bank in Brynmawr and got our first pound coins.  Then £1 had spending power, nowadays £1 is loose change.

I also took the opportunity of being in Newport to get involved again in the Boys' Brigade, and became a non-commissioned helper in the 1st Newport.  I was privileged to be able to attend the 1983 Centenary Service in Llandaff Cathedral in Cardiff.

I did not flourish at college.  I scraped through the first year and eventually (after retakes) got a first year pass - which they tell me is an A level equivalent.  I dramatically failed my second year, and my one A level (or this A level equivalent) remains my highest academic qualification. 

Famously I stood for the college executive for the post of Executive Officer Clubs & Societies, standing openly as a Liberal Party member.  I got elected with 23 votes, that was over half the votes cast, and there were two other candidates.  I think most of my votes came from my course members and from the Christian Union; but 23 votes was a pitifully small total.  There were three campuses to the college - Caerleon (where the halls of residence were, and the teacher training site), Allt-yr-Yn (where my course was based, the Business & Technology site) and the Art College.  Only 2 votes were cast ALL DAY at the Art College - both of whom were Christian Union members, so I presume I got both the votes.

Speaking of the Liberal Party I attended my first Assembly whilst at college, which was in the Winter Gardens in Bournemouth. That was fun!  I made some good friends some of which I am still in touch with.  I was also on the by-election trail (which may have accounted for me doing so badly at my studies), and went to help the Liberal Party candidate at a number of by-elections.  The first was in July 1983 at Penrith and the Border, followed by Chesterfield (March 1984), South-West Surrey (May 1984), Stafford (May 1984), Portsmouth South (June 1984) and Enfield Southgate (December 1984).