Felix, Mike & me Greetings reader, thanks for visiting. This post starts with an apology - October has been a rather quiet month in terms of blog posts; I have been flat-out busy in my new job and putting in extra hours on a daily basis to get up to speed quickly and deliver to expectations. To be clear, I am not bemoaning this situation at all, in fact it’s all been quite exciting.
Much has happened since my last post, the sad loss of Lynda Bellingham, the life threatening injuries to Jules Bianchi sustained at the Japanese Grand Prix, and reports of the amazing recovery of Wilko Johnson – apparently now free from the cancer that was expected to kill him. All events worthy of a post in their own right.
I have actually watched some shout at the telly stuff on the BBC rather than Channel 4 (admittedly BBC 3). “Hotel of Mum and Dad” followed some teenage couples aiming to set up home away from the comfort and protection of their parents’ homes/money. Watching the mollycoddled teens with their unrealistic expectations and selfish behaviours annoyed me so much, I had to walk away and do something else; though Mrs Baldwin continued shouting at the screen in my absence.
For me, knowing that my licence fee was contributing to the making of this programme irked immensely. There was plenty of potential for a specific blog post but the initiative was lost with the passage of time.
Following on from my post on job hunting, an excellent comment was added from a colleague called Chris Tucker about his experiences at the mercy of the recruitment industry. This month also saw me exchanging messages with Dave Childs the publicity representative for the Droopsnoot Group (DSG). Having read my post about the 40th Anniversary of the High Performance Firenza, he got in touch and sent on a copy of the special anniversary newsletter.
On to more current affairs - the focus of this piece will be the big night out had on Saturday (25th October) with some of my old school friends.
During the course of 2014, a larger than life character from my past, a chap by the name of Richard Davies, took the initiative to use Facebook to pull together a group of friends long separated by events, the act of living and geography.
For me, school reunions have never held much appeal, school (mine was Hitchin Boys’ School (HBS)) was just like a production process that you followed from start to finish and then left without ever looking back - I didn’t hate school but I don’t recall it with any affection at all. My old secondary school has an old boys’ society and the likelihood of me joining it…zero!
The fact is that there is a large group of individuals from my formative years that I’d take active steps to avoid. If any of these people had organised a get together or were even joining in, I’d have opted for Ebola instead of attending.
But because it was Richard, I was intrigued and accepted an invite. Saturday night was the third event (out of four potential) that I have got involved in. All have been an absolute hoot.
The night out in Hitchin included a few beers in the Bricklayers and many more drinks in the Hermitage bar/restaurant.
Including myself, Saturday night saw five fellas turn up. One of our number, an old pal called David Hurley, I hadn’t seen or talked to in 25 years. The good thing was that despite the elapsed time our group all fell into easy going companionship so much so that in one bar we all got chatting to a group of female teachers who thought the five of us were in a band (to be fair, within our complement, a few of us were rather flamboyantly dressed, Felix particularly (see photo)). I reflected that if the analogy had been a company then Rich would have been sales, Felix design, me marketing, Mike operations and Dave engineering.
On the subject of outfits, and if you are interested, I was wearing a cream 1970s wide collar shirt, open at the neck; large, gaudy, red stoned, gold plated cufflinks; a complementing brown reefer style, button closing, button pocketed, wide lapel leather jacket. I didn’t expect it but people actually came up to chat to me because of my retro apparel.
My observations from the get-togethers are these:
Funnily enough on that kind of subject, David, who has a cosmopolitan, at times glamorous, international lifestyle that I admitted to being envious of, was actually envious of me for having a long-term, stable marriage and children. We concluded that the lesson “appreciate what you have rather than what you don’t” was as useful as most things we actually learnt whilst we were at school.
Much has happened since my last post, the sad loss of Lynda Bellingham, the life threatening injuries to Jules Bianchi sustained at the Japanese Grand Prix, and reports of the amazing recovery of Wilko Johnson – apparently now free from the cancer that was expected to kill him. All events worthy of a post in their own right.
I have actually watched some shout at the telly stuff on the BBC rather than Channel 4 (admittedly BBC 3). “Hotel of Mum and Dad” followed some teenage couples aiming to set up home away from the comfort and protection of their parents’ homes/money. Watching the mollycoddled teens with their unrealistic expectations and selfish behaviours annoyed me so much, I had to walk away and do something else; though Mrs Baldwin continued shouting at the screen in my absence.
For me, knowing that my licence fee was contributing to the making of this programme irked immensely. There was plenty of potential for a specific blog post but the initiative was lost with the passage of time.
Following on from my post on job hunting, an excellent comment was added from a colleague called Chris Tucker about his experiences at the mercy of the recruitment industry. This month also saw me exchanging messages with Dave Childs the publicity representative for the Droopsnoot Group (DSG). Having read my post about the 40th Anniversary of the High Performance Firenza, he got in touch and sent on a copy of the special anniversary newsletter.
On to more current affairs - the focus of this piece will be the big night out had on Saturday (25th October) with some of my old school friends.
During the course of 2014, a larger than life character from my past, a chap by the name of Richard Davies, took the initiative to use Facebook to pull together a group of friends long separated by events, the act of living and geography.
For me, school reunions have never held much appeal, school (mine was Hitchin Boys’ School (HBS)) was just like a production process that you followed from start to finish and then left without ever looking back - I didn’t hate school but I don’t recall it with any affection at all. My old secondary school has an old boys’ society and the likelihood of me joining it…zero!
The fact is that there is a large group of individuals from my formative years that I’d take active steps to avoid. If any of these people had organised a get together or were even joining in, I’d have opted for Ebola instead of attending.
But because it was Richard, I was intrigued and accepted an invite. Saturday night was the third event (out of four potential) that I have got involved in. All have been an absolute hoot.
The night out in Hitchin included a few beers in the Bricklayers and many more drinks in the Hermitage bar/restaurant.
Including myself, Saturday night saw five fellas turn up. One of our number, an old pal called David Hurley, I hadn’t seen or talked to in 25 years. The good thing was that despite the elapsed time our group all fell into easy going companionship so much so that in one bar we all got chatting to a group of female teachers who thought the five of us were in a band (to be fair, within our complement, a few of us were rather flamboyantly dressed, Felix particularly (see photo)). I reflected that if the analogy had been a company then Rich would have been sales, Felix design, me marketing, Mike operations and Dave engineering.
On the subject of outfits, and if you are interested, I was wearing a cream 1970s wide collar shirt, open at the neck; large, gaudy, red stoned, gold plated cufflinks; a complementing brown reefer style, button closing, button pocketed, wide lapel leather jacket. I didn’t expect it but people actually came up to chat to me because of my retro apparel.
My observations from the get-togethers are these:
- All of us are still recognisable despite the ravages of time – increasing age, grey hair, hair loss, crow’s feet, weight gain etc.
- Most of us have had similar experiences, university, marriage, children etc. and therefore still have much in common
- Getting together helped the years fall off all of us – at least for the night (I can’t comment on hangover issues on the following day)
- No one was interested in the kind of one-upmanship I hate – no comparing salaries, cars or other status symbols.
Funnily enough on that kind of subject, David, who has a cosmopolitan, at times glamorous, international lifestyle that I admitted to being envious of, was actually envious of me for having a long-term, stable marriage and children. We concluded that the lesson “appreciate what you have rather than what you don’t” was as useful as most things we actually learnt whilst we were at school.
David Hurley and yours truly
A most excellent evening was had thanks to a combination of drinking, chatting and flirting. Thanks to Rich for organising the event and to Felix for initially hosting us at Farleys. Felix is the proprietor of Farleys, which has to be the coolest place you can get your hair cut in Hertfordshire. Going to Farleys is not just about the haircut, it’s about the ambience, the music, the artworks, the eccentricity and the experience. If you like 50s/60s kitsch, or are a fan of Vladimir Tretchikoff or Joseph Henry Lynch, you’d be mad to get your hair cut anywhere else (although I do but only because I live some distance away).
Fellas, if you read this, roll on the next occasion!
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