1. London – summer 1991
My first work-related trip down south was to attend a
training course just outside London. I can’t remember the name of the place but
it was just one stop on the train heading west from Richmond which is where I
was booked into a hotel for two nights. Unfortunately I was coming down with a
cold and the guy running the course very kindly moved things around so on the
second day we covered the topic I needed to learn about in the morning and then
I was able to head back to the hotel and go to bed.
But I was in two different hotels. Why? Well because
the place I was supposed to have been staying for both nights had double booked
my room so for the first night I was sent along the road to another hotel.
While obviously a bit pissed off with this, it actually turned out to be a much
nicer establishment. It was a slightly unusual building and I remember thinking
that I almost needed a map to find my way back to reception from my room. But
the room was fab. It had a four-poster bed and one of the longest baths I’d ever seen – it must have been about 6 foot long as I could float in it without
touching either end!
One good thing about staying in Richmond was that one
of my aunts and her partner lived there so I was familiar with the area. My
aunt was away that week but I went and had supper with her partner, no doubt
having a medicinal whisky or two to help with my cold.
I’m not sure of the exact date but I do remember watching one of the final episodes of Twin Peaks on TV that first night lying on the large bed in that hotel. The other place was quite plain in comparison but at least my bag had been brought along from the first hotel when I got there in the early afternoon.
I was sent to Manchester for a course which lasted a few days and I stayed at a hotel on Eccles Old Road. I remember it as being quite an old
building with a slightly eccentric but friendly owner who was disappointed that
I had plans to go out on two of the nights I was there. I think he was hoping
that I would be propping up the hotel bar every night of my stay. The training
course took place in quite a new development which I think must have been near the
Manchester Ship Canal. I remember it being a fairly short taxi ride there in
the mornings. I couldn't tell you what the training course was on but I was working as a programmer and we had moved from a mainframe-based language to its new PC-based alternative so it was probably something to do with that.
My two nights out were both spent at the Manchester
Academy as it turned out that a couple of my favourite bands were playing there two
nights apart. First was The Stranglers supported by an Australian band called
The Killjoys. Looking on Setlist.fm there were songs from just about all the
Stranglers’ albums with half a dozen from In The Night which
was the first recorded by the post-Hugh Cornwell line-up of Paul Roberts on vocals and John
Ellis on guitar.
The gig two nights later was less good. The Damned were touring with yet another new line-up, Dave Vanian and Rat Scabies being joined by
Chris Dollimore and Moose on guitar and bass respectively. I remember being
less than impressed with this line-up and even shouted out at one point,
“Where’s Captain Sensible?” which got some laughter and agreement from other punters around me. They played a lot of new material which no-one knew as
I don’t think their new album had been released. The most fun part of the
evening was the chorus of “Scabies is a Wanker” which Rat wasn’t very happy
about asking why we didn’t call any of the other band members a wanker. Well,
probably because we didn’t know the two new guys and we didn’t think Vanian was
a wanker. I left before the end and headed back to the hotel.
My other trip south was for some sort of meeting or
seminar rather than a training course. As it started first thing in the morning, my line manager and I got the sleeper down from Leuchars station in Fife. I
hadn’t been on a sleeper before and it wasn’t a great experience. I think we
had a meal and a drink or two before going to our compartment but I got very
little sleep.
Having some time to kill at Kings Cross we went into a hotel to have a coffee and use the facilities before going on to the meeting. But in the Gents I had the rather startling experience of a tap coming off in my hands when I turned it on. There was no-one else there and I tried to dry myself off as best as I could but I could do nothing about the water shooting up and landing on the floor. When I came out of the Gents I found a member of staff who seemed not to believe me when I told him what had happened despite me looking rather damp. Just at that moment my colleague appeared and said he had been in the Gents but that he hadn’t seen what had happened to me and that everything looked normal. I was somewhat dumbfounded by this but maybe he decided the best thing to do was for us to make a hasty exit and not have to be faced with a bill to pay for the damage though it was genuinely a freak accident.
But we made it to the meeting without anything else dramatic happening though I recall feeling half asleep sitting in the well-heated conference room after my bad night on the train. I don’t think I took in much of what was being said but the trip gave me the chance to stay on for another night or two and see one my relations in the big smoke.
I did go on one further training course a few years
later and had to travel all the way down to Exeter which was a long train
journey from Fife. It was at the university and I was staying in student accommodation.
There was a friendly bunch of people on the course and we explored the campus one
evening and went into the town centre for a beer or two the next night.
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