I lived in Lancaster from 1984 to 2003. It was the longest I had lived anywhere. As a family we lived in 2 houses, then I got a place of my own. 37 Watery Lane was a stopgap house till we found a nice Victorian terrace which were all over Lancaster. We tried to move for 3 or 4 years but in 1989 moved to 21 Portland St, our Victorian terrace. I got busy stripping floors and doing fireplaces up and gardening. Loved it.
Our marriage ended and I moved to 71 Portland St., a much smaller Victorian terrace, with a yard. I shared my house for a couple of years with a guy called Cen, who had a small child part time, and I had Ant half time. I needed Cen’s rent to make ends meet (or so I thought).
I really liked Lancaster. We did things there. What springs to mind is Buddhism. Sue and I joined a Buddhist group, which had Buddhist teachings from a lay monk once a fortnight and more eclectic teachings on the week in between. Sue left the group as she became more serious with a different Buddhist tradition and our group focused more on the tradition we got teachings from. I visited their centre a few times for weekends and we studied their guru’s books more. I met Josh. We formed a chanting group separate from the Buddhist group and more for fun.
I stopped Buddhism when the tradition I followed got really serious and it no longer sat well with me. I am still Buddhist at heart and would follow Theravadan traditions if I have another go.
Pottery also springs to mind. I went to night school at some amazing studios in Lancaster which were part of adult education but totally dedicated to ceramics. Carol ran the course and we were taught beginner skills for the first term, but all I wanted was to go on the wheel. Eventually in the second term she taught me to throw and I never looked back. Adult ed funding changed and everything moved to one building with a much smaller studio. Carol left but Brendan came. He was a really good production potter and taught throwing at a different level. Brendan went and the next tutors were not so good and my throwing skills were used to help others who wanted to throw. Eventually Sue came who was more into a tradition of portfolios and projects which was what I needed next to challenge me. When I moved in with Sandra I kept money back to buy my own kiln and wheel to set up my own studio. This eventually happened.
Another good thing about Lancaster was the men’s group. When Sue went to NZ I realised many of our friends were her friends and I had few of my own. I met Ron, who invited me to join a men’s weekend, which gave rise to a men’s group he ran in his house. Ron was a very good therapist and the focus of our group co-incided with the mytho-poetic mens movement of the early 90’s. We met fortnightly and had weekends in the wild in a valley near Lancaster with a camping barn. We did men’s stuff. Ron left the group, moving away and we ’employed’ another guy, Pete, to focalise the group, meeting less frequently. Pete moved on too and the group continued without a leader until I left Lancaster. Also part of the men’s group story was work around personality traits about being cautious in life and not feeling welcome. This was the focus of a Rights of Passage week we undertook at Cae Mabon in Snowdonia focalised by Alex Wildwood and Ron. It was a fantastic week in an amazing place. Here I met Joe.
After the Millwheel folded, I worked in the NHS in Linen Services as Patient Clothing manager. After a few years I was asked to manage the laundry which was a huge challenge, but the resolution of vague ambitions of production management, which I held when I left university. I was good at the job with eventually 70 staff over 2 shifts washing around 300,000 items a week with about a quarter going back to individuals and the rest going to 2 different health authorities. It was late Thatcher era, with competitive tendering and outside contracts, so we washed for the university twice a term for the halls of residence. The job was 7:30 – 5:00 and incredibly stressful but I survived well and dealt with knife fights theft and a legacy of mild corruption. I decided that my work life balance was out of order and needed a new career. I chose teaching because I had enjoyed giving work experience to people from the local college.
So I trained to be a teacher gaining a place for a PGCE at Bolton Institute to teach Business and Management. On the first day I met Joe, who I’d met at the Rights of Passage week. After a hug in the very busy entrance to the Institute, he asked what I was doing there. I told him and he said I should do his course instead. He convinced me switching was easy which it was so I ended up training to teach Inclusive Education. I got work experience for myself at Lancaster and Morecambe College working in special needs. Whilst there I got a part time job 3.5 days a week running a new course for people with physical and learning disabilities doing computer course. I had been introduced to computers way back learning to print labels for my shop on a BBC Acorn computer and tried to learn as much as I could in the meantime so I was quite good. I had to rush myself through some basic qualifications but it was all OK. I did this for 4 years the moved to teach ICT elsewhere in college still part time.
The part time work enabled me to spend more time with Anthony and especially when training I could be there for his final year in junior school doing the school run more days than not.
I went full time the last year I was there to make my CV look good in order to get work in Halifax, and I needed more money!