Just About Me 31

Around 1997, the LBHF had had a big review of the caretaking service, and they had changed the working hours and the way we worked, frankly I hated it, I had no end of arguments with the boss and decided to take a bit of time off, a bit developed into a lot, but I still went to work at Raffles every night.
One day I got a phone call from somebody I knew in the trade union office telling me that someone from the council had sat in a restaurant opposite Raffles and had videoed me working. Now the rules are that if you have worked as a residential caretaker for ten consecutive years and you leave, they have to rehouse you, if your sacked you have to get out of their flat and rehouse yourself. So I beat them to it and resigned, the bosses faces was a picture I can tell you, but in fairness they were to win the day eventually. I received a letter one day from LBHF telling me I had to vacate the flat in Sulivan Ct immediately, I took great pleasure in reminding them that I had in fact worked for them for twelve years and to think again. They then informed me that they only had to make us one offer take it or leave it, we managed via fair and foul means to receive five offers, I managed to refuse the first four one bedroom flats on the grounds of dampness, location too far away from our mums (Mandys lived in Great Yarmouth) we even turned one down for being on the top floor of a tower block, and we may have become suicidal and jumped off, not good publicity for them. Between the fourth and fifth offers they told us we going to be evicted, now that was a bit frightening I must admit. During all of this a friend of mine from Raffles, a man named Nick Pomeroy not only put me in touch with a friend of his, Mary, a QC/Barrister who gave us some advise, but he also paid her as well, I will never forget what Nick did for us, anyway eventually a fifth offer came, this time they had done there homework, a third floor one bedroom flat in Lancaster Court, Fulham, SW6, in an identical position to our two bed in Sulivan Ct. We were snookered and had to accept, so really I guess, it was honours even.

Speaking of Nick Pomeroy reminds me of the 1997 FA Cup Final, Chelsea beat Middlesborough 2-0 to win, that night I went to work in my Dinner Suit as usual, with my black bow tie, but worn around the neck of my Chelsea shirt,  any kind of dress code went out of the window as I let anyone who turned up in Chelsea shirts in for the evening and into the early hours. Nick and his friends were amongst them and we all sang football songs all night, it was a truly memorable occasion and one which I am sure all Chelsea fans present remember with a big smile. You must remember that the majority of these people were not run of the mill working class people but very influential quite wealthy folk, I discovered in my time at Raffles that all people are the same, rich or poor, we all just do a different job of work. 1997 FA Cup Final What a great night!

I never really noticed the loss of wages from the council, by now I was running approx 12 cabs and with commission and extras was averaging £800 pw, time moved on and in 1998 Mandy became pregnant, we were ecstatic but ever so cautious. We went to the first scan and to say that I was nervous is an understatement. All was well and to hear our babies heartbeat was miraculous, to think that little noise keeps on going for around about 80 years truly is a miracle.