So, I've been born, walked, talked, played and lived a little. Picking up where I left of, I'm now 11 years old, and the biggest thing to happen next was "Senior School". The best years of your life. My Arse!! Read on..........
1986
As I said, main memory this year was starting High School / Senior School whatever you want to call it. Being one of the younger ones in my year I'd not long turned 11, but for some reason looking back now I can remember thinking what a man I was!! LOL 11 Years old!! I have one child nearly that age, and another one almost two years older and they are still my babies!!
Starting "Big School" was a real eye opener, going from a primary school with about 200 kids in, I'm now in a school with nearly 1500!! Nobody knew me anymore, I didn't know anyone else - well apart from a few at primary school. Were the rumours true? Were these beings known as "Fifth Formers" really going to "Bogwash" me? (Flushing head down toilet) Did everyone have girlfriends? Did everyone smoke? These were the things I'd heard. Thankfully the "bogwashing" never happened, I've still never tried smoking, and I did not meet my future wife aged 11 in a chemistry lab! Nothing ever really did prepare me for my 5 years at Lincoln Christ's Hospital School but I did live to tell the tale.
No 1 Song on my birthday was George Michael - "A Different Corner"
1987
Aged 12! Last year before becoming a teenager. Really settled in to school now, discovering girls!! They were not as keen to discover me but still good times! Started "Going Out" with a girl called Gina. First Love! The girl I "Went Out" with until I was nearly 16!! (I apostrophise went out because we never actually went anywhere in 4 years!) School was good, doing different stuff now like woodwork, acrylic work and cooking. I'd already decided that I was going to be a chef by this age, and I stuck with it. First thing I ever made at school was Raspberry Buns. Also, I remember attending quite a few 13th Birthday parties this year, It was as if 13 was the new 21! Everyone seemed so old, even only a few months older than me and I tried imagining what it would be like when I got to 13! Wow, if aged 11 was like becoming a man, to what honour would I bestow teenager-dom!! LOL Starting to get out a bit now, town on my own, me and my mate would go to Newark (20 Miles) on the train as it was only a quid return! He was bit of a trainspotter, not a geeky one, it was just that his dad worked on the railway and he was into it I think.
No 1 song on my birthday was Madonna - "La Isla Bonita"
1988
The year I became 13! Remember I said that 13 was the new 21? that becoming a teenager was some big thing?.... I was sorely let down!! It was just another day!!... Well almost! .......I'd entered a spot the difference competition in the Lincolnshire Echo some weeks previous, and on my birthday the letter came... I'D WON!! A 3 day mini break to Ribe in Denmark with DFDS Seaways Unlucky for some 13? Not me!! Great time for nowt eh? Other memories that year were first holiday to Spain with family, that was cool, well Hot but you get my drift!! Too hot when I had to spend a day in the apartment with Prickly Heat Other 1988 memories were Me and a mate spending a lot of time in Eastbourne As I mentioned earlier in my blog that was fun, loved my skateboard, loved the independance in Eastbourne! We had the run of the place!! The whole adventure started on the train, on the way there. Kings Cross first where we saw Eddie "The Eagle" Edwards on the downward escalator which was just too ironic! Calling at Gatwick Airport en route to collect his sis who had been to some far flung place. We had to wait at the Airport for about 6 hours to meet her. Guess What... We had the run of that place too!! At one point we saw this crowd gathering, and being inquisitive and considerably smaller than the mostly drunken Scotsmen that formed it, we got to the front. I saw this guy sat in a Celtic shirt, I told him I was a Bhoy too and asked him what all the fuss was. In a broad Weegy accent he told me "The Hoops Were on their way back" Whaaaat!!! I could not believe it!! We were at Gatwick Airport, by chance, and I was about to see first hand some of the team I'd supported since being a (wee) boy!! Frank McAvennie, Pat Bonner, Mick McCarthy, Tommy Burns & Paul Mcstay to name a few! They came through this door, all together on the way back for a pre season tour of Italy I think. It was their Centenary year.One of the old boys gave me a pen and paper, one of the team gave me a scarf, and I got to meat some of my then heroes! What were the chances!!!! Getting to Eastbourne later that night my hols really started! Me and my mate "Leggie" making our own way in his home town! I loved that time away, I think it matured me, and put me in the right frame of mind to deal with life in general!
No 1 Song on my birthday was S'Express - "Theme From S'Express"
1989
Fourteen. This was to be the year I discovered fishing. One of the lads in the street where I lived (For Now) got me and a mate into it. He seemed to know what he was doing. Talking of "Hook Sizes" and "Breaking Strain" that was enough for me, I now knew 200% more than I did! Growing up a few hundred yards from a river helped too, I'd watch the fishermen and talk to them and learn a bit from them too. I bought my first rod and some tackle from a shop in Mablethorpe with my holiday money, whilst on holiday with my Gran & Grandad in their caravan. When we got back I went to the tackle shop down the road, got a few more bits of tackle, and some bait then me and my mate went fishing. Stamp end locks was our main haunt, catching weeds and eels mainly! We had many a day not catching a thing, some days getting disillusioned, but still having fun. Looking back at that picture you can see the tower block "Shuttleworth House" where I did most of my paper round, which paid for more bait and tackle. That was a long summer. Very early mornings until it went dark, just by the river. I would not dream of letting my kids stay out that long these days! Sign of the times? SOmetimes we'd take a packed lunch, sometimes chips from the nearby chippy, that was the life!
No 1 Song on my birthday was The Bangles - "Eternal Flame"
1990
A new decade. It felt it too. The Eighties really had finished. Everyone wanted to see the back of them Not more so me. After my parents having their house re-possesed the previous year due to Maggie wrecking the country we had to move house. I was starting the new decade miles away from my friends, although I still saw them at school, sharing a bedroom with my brother, in a house VERY like This One and it was the start of a miserable year. A lot of my friends all seemed to grow up real quick this year, drinking booze, stopping out all night and, well.....growing!! I was left behind in so many ways! I still looked about 12, and combined with everything else that had just happened with moving etc, made for a pretty miserable year. I started mucking up at school, parents called in etc, and I did not really fit in any more. I was still doing the things I was doing when I was 12! The only good thing this year was Work Experience in Harvey's Restaurant, Lincoln. (Now the Magna Carta) Reassuring me, even though I was treated like crap, I still wanted to be a chef.
No 1 Song on my Birthday this year was Madonna - "Vogue"
1991
I've said it somewhere before on here, but 1991 was the year my life began. I could not get out of school quick enough after finishing my GCSE's. After a short spell in the kitchens of Harvey's Restaurant I enrolled with the Hotel & Catering Training Company, and took up residence at RAF Swinderby - The then RAF School of Recruit Training. I was there as a civilian, a trainee chef. I lived there too. A block full of civillian caterers was to become my home for the next 3 years almost. Graham, My college tutor drove me up there one evening, I was to meet another trainee chef, David who would show me around etc. I arrived to a cold room with just a bed, sink, and wardrobe. I saw his room with kettle, TV, Hi Fi, all mod cons! I could not wait to do the same with mine!! I dumped my kit off and we went to what would become my new workplace - Lancaster Hall (Junior Ranks' Mess) I remember the meal waiting for me. A chef called Jimmy had saved some chicken curry and rice knowing I was coming. We sat and ate it in a huge deserted Airmans mess, white melamine tables in a dining room swamped in plastic flowers. A dining room in a mess which that night hosted me and David, and yet tomorrow over 1000 people would be eating in it! I can still smell it now. The chef went back to the kitchen as he was "Duty Cook" - employed to work thru the night, preparing suppers and readying food for the next day. A shift still employed now by most Airmans messes in the Air Force! I could hear him clattering about and singing. I swear the radio was playing the same music back then on duty cook shift as it did when I worked those shifts at Waddington in 1999! We ate our tea and I quizzed David on what I'd be doing etc. For something that should have been daunting, - leaving home at 16, new job, strange people, big wide world, I felt strangely at home, and relaxed. My life truely had just begun..............
No 1 Song on my birthday was Cher - "The Shoop Shoop Song (It's In His Kiss)" but I flatly refuse to link to that! My song of the year had to be Bryan Adams - "Everything I do, I do It For You"
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