...You make your own (part two)

What happened is we took a two-week holiday to Holly’s mum’s apartment in Tenerife. The accommodation was free (thanks Lyn) and the flights were paid for in advance, but even so we went feeling very poor.

It’s a wonderful place to go for a holiday. The weather was near-perfect. Every day we went to the beach to build castles and sea defenses with flags and moats, and played in the pool. Dylan made us all jump in, holding hands, time and time again. He made lots of friends with the lovely Spanish children who played in the pool and shared their toys and swam like fish. I wrote Little Horrors and read more than half of Adam Levin’s brilliant epic The Instructions. We ate well and watched the Saints day parade down the main street of Puerto Santiago from the Chinese Restaurant where they know us (well, Dylan) well from previous visits, and then we watched the fireworks. And I made very good use of a prepaid international SIM card that I’d had hanging around since I was made redundant.

What happened is I started writing to companies and offering to work for free (for the experience) with no real success. I started using LinkedIn to connect with various Directors and Heads of Internal Communications, and writing to them directly—which got me an interview with the newly formed TSB bank in Bristol and lead me to briefly consider working part time in Aberdeen. I also registered to various websites, including Nationwide’s, to receive job alerts. It’s pretty demoralizing when people don’t want you to work for free.

Shortly before we went to Tenerife, I received an email from Nationwide, inviting me to apply for a role as Corporate Communications Business Partner. My instincts told me to ignore the job because (a) it was exactly the job I was after and (b) it was well paid. Eventually I applied to make up the numbers on my job centre report, and thought nothing more of it.

What happened is I received an answerphone message while we were in Tenerife from Nationwide. I called back and was invited to interview for the job. I laughed about it with Holly. We got home on the Wednesday and on the Friday, I went to my cousin’s wedding in Milton Keynes. On Saturday morning, my brother-in-law drove me down to Woolacombe for the middle two days of a four-day stag weekend, and we had an excellent time getting drunk outside a pub on the beach while the stag party were bowling in a nearby town. On the Monday morning, I researched Nationwide on the internet and saw that they’d been in the news for technical, financial reasons involving phrases like Basel III and leverage ratios. These are things I understand because of my previous job. I drove to Swindon that lunchtime, articulating my pitch – my one shot – in my head on the journey, and arrived for my interview a quarter of an hour late.

The following day, the interviewer called to tell me they wouldn’t be making any appointments until the end of November. She asked if I could start straight away on a temporary basis while they completed the recruitment process.

What happened is I wanted to laugh and cry and whoop for joy all at the same time.

I started work 24 September 2013, shortly after Dylan started going to nursery three days a week. I coordinated the internal announcements of the interim financial results and the launch of Core Capital Deferred Shares, and received rounds of applause for both. That’s never happened to me before. I like the job and the team. I miss Dylan like crazy but he’s busy all week and we make up for lost time in the evenings. I like the fact that I’m working again. I’m setting a good example for him. I guess we’re both embarking on brave, new adventures.

On Sundays, I took to cooking two big meals: a roast, which we ate with Dylan (it turns out he’s mad for my junior toad-in-the-holes, which he calls ‘toad-on-the-whole’), and a casserole in the slow cooker. Between the left-over meat and veg from the roast, and the casserole, we had good, real food to get us through the week without too much effort. The best thing I’ve made in the slow cooker is Jamie Oliver’s Cowboy Chili. Google it, try it, and I’m sure you’ll agree that other chilis don’t quite cut it in comparison.

What happened is I set up appointments with four of the local schools and Holly went to their open days. All four schools are good but three of them stand out and these are the ones we’ve put on the application form. In September 2014, my little boy, who used to wear nappies and crawl backwards and call his dummy a ‘Dodo’ is going to go to school. And he’s really excited about it.

What happened is they offered me the job, on a six month temp to perm basis, and I started on 9 December. Christmas was back on.

Christmas 2013 was about ice skating outdoors with Dylan at the mall. I push him around on an orange seal, literally racing around as fast as I can go, until I need to turn sharply to avoid a collision. The orange seal and me go left, and Dylan slides sideways across the ice on his shoulder. It was also about the office pantomime. Lyn drops Dylan off at Nationwide House and we head to the restaurant to watch a suspect performance of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, performed by a three man theatre company. Between that, the balloon animals, the visit to Santa and the (real) reindeer we find outside when we leave the office, it’s Christmas come early for the boy but for me it’s just a really long day at work. On the way home, I say ‘Thank you for letting me watch the pantomime with you, Dylan,’ and he says ‘That’s okay Daddy.’ I guess this means we’re going again next year.

If I still have a job. Oh God I hope I still have a job.

A couple of weeks later, Dylan is onstage at the Salvation Army hall, dressed as a sheep, to play his part in the Nativity. He’s the youngest member of the troupe. The other children are shy but Dylan is in his element. He sings loud and out of key and dances with abandon. He practices his tumble tots moves on his chair and parades around with his cotton wool ears pulled down over his eyes. And I bet there isn’t one adult in the audience who hasn’t noticed this angel dressed in sheep’s clothing, who is bringing innocence and joy and quite a lot of style to the original Christmas story.

That's my boy.x

When it comes to luck...(part one)

Just days away from Christmas 2013, we take our seats at the front of the Salvation Army hall and the lights go down. The music starts and a procession of children make their way from the back of the hall, dressed as angels and sheep and other characters from the Nativity. The youngest of the children, dressed in black, with a white cotton wool vest and ears on elastic, follows the other children onto the stage. For a moment he looks unsure, then he smiles, breaks rank and runs to the front to wave and shout ‘Daddy!’

A couple of weeks later it's January 2014 and the question that lingers is this: whatever happened to 2013?

What happened is that my short story, Lost & Found, was shortlisted for the Plymouth and Bridport short story prizes. Both shortlistings are achievements but the Bridport one is huge, even if shortlistings don’t pay.

What happened is we finally got to see Carrie Underwood perform live, who was stunning, and Brantley Gilbert, another of my New Country heroes. The second day of the inaugural C2C Country to Country festival at the O2 Arena in London was a little slice of heaven for us country music fans. Whispering Bob Harris said we were in for a treat and he was right. Darius Rucker and LeAnne Rimes were also excellent. My other big gig of the year was Springsteen in Coventry. Mum and I sat near the back of the Ricoh Arena while Springsteen dedicated the whole of the Born to Run album to the late, great James ‘Tony Soprano’ Gandolfini, who had died the previous day. It was an emotional moment.

I played fewer gigs in 2013 but there were some good ones. I was invited back to play the Pucklechurch Revel, and Tara Humphris joined me onstage to sing She Will Be Loved by Maroon 5. I was the first act to play on the new bandstand in Page Park (after the official opening ceremony) and, once I’d played my new song ‘In Page Park’, Ant Noel joined me for Blues Highway and The Weight. Seconds before we played The River he leaned over and whispered ‘I may have forgotten my harmonica.’ Moments like this make it all worthwhile.

Playing fewer gigs gave me the opportunity to record and release a second EP, called Echoes. The songs were inspired by The Civil Wars’ If I Didn’t Know Better, but I ended up producing the title track in the style of Joe Bonamassa’s Sloe Gin. Ant played piano and organ, Alex Pearson played double bass, and Alec and Phil played electric guitar and drums respectively. They were all brilliant.

 

 

I was invited to play a set of Springsteen covers at the Curzon cinema in Clevedon, following the premier showing of the new movie, Springsteen & I. It’s probably the most enjoyable gig I’ve ever played. The lighting was great, the audience (in cinema seats) all faced the front and there was a huge floor fan on the stage to keep me cool. My set included Worlds Apart, Soul Driver, When the Lights Go Out, State Trooper and Darkness on the Edge of Town. Jerry Turner joined me and Ant for Thunder Road and then Alex joined us for The River. It was a once-in-a-lifetime thing and I’m so grateful I got to play.

What happened is Dylan started going to nursery three days a week. He's been awarded four badges in Tumble Tots and one badge for his swimming. He can’t go to playgroup anymore so we take him to Sunday school instead. His nursery tell us he’s exactly where should be developmentally except with numbers. Three years old and he’s already top of his class in maths.

What happened is I’ve started taking Dylan to the cinema. His first film is Monsters University, followed by Despicable Me 2 and Planes, and his favourite bit is choosing the sweets before we go in. My favourite bit is the cup of tea and the chance to close my eyes, knowing my boy is quite content in the seat next to me.

The summer was long and hot, and we spent countless afternoons at Horseworld, Slimbridge Wetland Centre, and Vassals Park. We visited our friends Nick, Abigail, Joshua and the newest member of their family, Emilia, in Woolacombe, and Dylan and I spent the night in the motorhome. We spent a wonderful day on the canals with Grandad and Nanny Dinosaur. Grandad Choo Choo took us out in his motorhome, and we rode on a steam train and have a picnic on a diesel.

 

Back home, we had barbeque lunches in our garden and played with Dylan’s tunnels and tents, making dens and paddling in the swimming pool. We invented a game where I ask Dylan if he wanted a biscuit and, when he said ‘yes’, I cupped my hands under the surface of the water and threw as much water as I could into the air. Instant rain. Dylan thought it was hilarious and asked me to do it again and again, requesting ‘cake’ and ‘doughnut’ alternatives. I grew potatoes, sage, figs, grapes, strawberries, courgettes, lettuces and multiple types of tomato, including Golden Sunrise and Marmande. One lovely afternoon, Dylan said he didn’t want to play in the garden, he wanted to go to the park, and we headed over in time to see the air ambulance helicopter land next to the swings. Summers should always be like this.

Another afternoon we took him to the aquarium but, before we got there, we saw one of the eighty Gromits that had been distributed around Bristol. Dylan was already best friends with Roger the rainbow-coloured Gromit who lived in Staple Hill. We asked him if he wanted to go to the aquarium, or if he wanted to hunt for more of the colourful canines. It was a warm day and he made the right decision. He ended up in the Millennium square fountains, soaked from head to toe. Three or four visits to Bristol later, and with no map or guide, we’d seen forty Gromits. It was one of the highlights of the summer.

 

 

What happened is my redundancy insurance ran out. Dylan’s extra days in nursery were going to cost us another £250 a month, even with government help. From September 2013, we were going to be £500 a month worse off and my savings were nearly all gone. I have two stag dos and four weddings to attend in October and November, the last of which is in Jersey.

There’s no way we can afford it.

(to be continued…)