Just About Me 40

I started out in 1956 and have now reached 2011, when I think of the innovations in my reasonably short existence it just amazes me, In England where I live, one thing that has been consistent is The Queen, one of them, we have gone from two black and white TV channels to over 100 in colour some are HD and some are 3D, three lions have won the football and rugby world cups, four major conflicts involving the British Army, the VHS Recorder has been and gone along with the CD player, spangles, the aztec bar, baggy trousers, brutus shirts, crombie overcoats, three wheel vans. I have had ten addresses, lived through 11 US presidents and 12 Prime Ministers, I have owned a three wheel tricycle, subbuteo, spirograph, a Johnny seven gun, Bjorn Borg socks, at least eleven motor cars. I have seen my football team go from being fairly good to absolute rubbish and now they are considered one of the top teams in Europe. I have seen my daughter grow into a young lady going into her second year of high school, and watched my wife grow from a shy seventeen year old girl into a confident forty five year old woman. I am lucky that I sill have my Mum and Dad with me, and can honestly say that I have never fallen out with my two brothers in the whole of my adult life. I have in my eyes lived a really exciting life, I have earned fortunes and spent the lot, they say you can not take it with you, I have also heard the saying money does not bring you happiness, but never from a rich person. The future, who knows, I just hope my daughter has a long and happy life with her health intact, but as my friend David Draper always says "There's a lot of football still to be played"

Just About Me 39

In May 2008, we decided to go to Australia, the 3 of us and my Mother In Law Annette, the plan was to come back via Disneyland in Florida, USA. We made enquiries about it and I asked my work if they were OK with me taking my holiday all in one go, they were not only in agreement but we were offered the chance to visit South Africa as well, we were offered Holly's own house in Hermanus, near Cape Town, well it would have been rude to refuse wouldn't it, so we booked up to first go to South Africa onto Australia and finish up in the USA oh and then home. Hermanus was a two hour drive from Cape Town and it is a stunning drive at that, the house is truly amazing and the area is wonderful. We visited some amazing places whilst there, Simons Town where you have penguins on the beach, to vineyards and the Birkenhead brewery to the wildlife we saw, Antelopes, Zebras and Ostrich's. On to Sydney, Australia for 2 days, we saw Sydney Harbour Bridge and had a cup of hot chocolate near enough on the steps of the Opera House, and I absolutely loved Darling Harbour. Moving on to Brisbane, Australia. We stayed with Mandy's relations Jill and Charlie and their family, they took us around Brisbane and we visited all the families houses which have to be seen to be believed. We went to a place called Childers for a wedding and visited the Bundaberg Rum Distillery. A short 10 hour flight to Los Angeles for a one day stop over, we went on a guided bus tour of the city, seeing Hollywood Boulevard and all the golden stars in the sidewalk. Finally 3 days in Orlando, USA and all the major Disney parks just for Laura. And then to Gatwick and home to Carshalton, over too soon if you ask me.

When I started to use public transport again to get to work it was a bit of an eye opener, the first couple of days, I stood at the 80 bus stop with about 4 other people, and not one person spoke a word to another, the next day was the same with the same people, the next day I had had enough, I carried a bag to work and promptly dropped it on to the floor, it landed with a loud thud and I now had  everyone's attention "Right" says I "This is my third day here, I will be here everyday and my name is Paul" we all struck up a conversation, probably about the service or the weather, now in 2011 I get on the bus and sometimes the driver knows my name. I speak to at least 25% of the other passengers, some have become real friends, among them are office worker's, chef's, printer's, decoraters, pensioners and school children and you know what they all talk to each other, I consider this a job well done, and hopefully proves that sitting next to the nutter on the bus is not such a bad thing after all.

Just About Me 38

This was painted by a lady named Tin Odulakowski, it is life sized (6ft 3ins and not so Fat) it was sold to somebody in America for £5,000

Just About Me 37

In July 2004 I was to be honest on the edge of depression, I was in bed one morning at about 10am, the phone rang, on the other end was my friend Nick Pomeroy, he asked me what I was up to, I replied nothing, he then said that a friend of his, Holly, was moving offices and wanted me to look after her, I said that I had a friend named Holly, he then shocked me by telling me it was the same person. I told my wife that Holly was really lovely, that she wanted me to watch her furniture and stuff being moved, and that she would probably pay me a couple of hundred quid for doing so. Holly Bellingham saved my life quite frankly, she asked me to visit her at her office in Lime Street, EC3. I waited in reception and her husband Simon Turner greeted me with a friendly "Hello mate", Holly came out carrying a painting, I gave her a cuddle and kissed her cheek, we went into her boardroom, by the way Holly was the Chairman of a major Lloyds of London Underwriting Insurance Company, it is called Marketform, it was in the boardroom that Holly showed me a painting of a building in Lloyds Avenue, London.The artist responsible for the painting was her mother. It was the building that her company were moving into, she spoke of my smiling face on her door and how nice to be greeted in the mornings etc. It became clear to me that she wanted me "Your offering me a full time job" I said " Of course I am you silly sod " she replied, I explained that I thought it was a one off removal job and she started to laugh. Well once again, I nearly cried, somebody had had faith in me, and as far as I am concerned she saved me from a life of Benefit's, and yes I mean the dole queue. Let me introduce you to my friend Holly, she is a wealthy woman in her own right, although to talk to her it is no different to talking to your mate down the pub, she is the most generous giving person I have ever met, she never ceases to amaze me, I was with her once and witnessed her paying for a family of four to go on a holiday abroad, a holiday they had never had because one of their children was recovering from leukemia and they just could not have afforded it.
She is everyones Mum, but dont you dare take the piss out of her or you know about it, from her I mean.
I started working at Marketform in October 2004, at first I can not lie, I hated it, I was used to night hours and all the things that happen in London at night, I am the front of house security man, and people would be telling me how much better off I would be, I thought they were mad, but you know what, even if the wages are a lot less than Raffles I really do enjoy it. And I would like to record here and now just how grateful I am to the people who work at Marketform for making me feel welcome every day.

Just About Me 36

 In January 2003, a lady came into Raffles and put £1,000 behind the bar, this was to ensure that her daughter and her guests had a great time at the young ladies 21st birthday after party drinks gathering, the next night a group of about twenty young people came in, all of them were incredibly polite and either shook my hand or inthe girls case kissed my cheek, at the back of the group were 3 forty something year old men. I thought it a bit strange that these 3 were hanging out with the youngsters but hey this was Raffles and I had seen funnier things. My receptionist was quite excited about one of the young men, I thought she fancied him and was making fun of her, She told me that it was Prince William, I said not to be silly, I would have noticed him. So off I marched into the main bar area, as I opened the door the 3 older guys all stood up as one and gave me the once over, and there at the bar talking to an oriental "lady" was indeed Prince William, the party was for his now wife Kate Middleton, He was a really nice young bloke, he came and sat at the door for a few minutes and we had a chat, he supports Aston Villa so we shared a bit of banter, at the end of the evening the group wanted to walk along the Kings Road, this really pissed the 3 older guys off as they followed in there Range Rovers, a memorable evening by any standard.

So now we lived in Carshalton, Surrey. It was 2003 and things were looking good for us, I was still earning extremely good money, so I spent another £10,000 on improvements to the house, so in about a year I had laid out approx £30,000 in cash, this was fine until April 2004, I was called to a meeting with the owner of Raffles and another guy, they told me that they were going to renovate Raffles and that it would reopen in a different way, they said I would no longer be the doorman and that I was to be a greeter, in hindsight I should have refused and told them that I was happy with my terms and conditions and that I would remain in my doormans role, but I sat there and thought that as a 41 year old man this maybe the future for me. So I accepted, I was told to have a holiday and come back in June for the reopening. I then hired an enormous villa in Portugal for a week and the 3 of us escaped to the sun. We had a great time, our own pool, electric gates, orange and lemon trees in our own garden, Laura even got her own job in the local pub, she was only 4 but every night she would pick Lemons and go behind the bar to serve the locals. And then came the grand reopening of Raffles, they had given my job to two very flash young yuppie girls with clipboards, about 6 miserable looking eastern european security men complete with ear pieces, and me standing there in my dinner suit and black bow tie. People were turning up who came there on a regular basis and these 2 silly girls were refusing them entry, I stood there in disbelief and was told to mind my own buissnes by the guy in charge, we had quite a row but I was by now a bit concerned, then something happened that made up my mind, a young bloke in ripped jeans and trainers tapped me on the shoulder "Hello Paul mate" he says, he was a bloke who I had known since he was about 12 from the estate I had lived on, nice enough fella but this was Raffles the home of Lords, Ladies and Millionaires. If this was the future then I was most definatly the past. I came home at 2am and I am not ashamed to say that I sat in my front room and cried my eyes out. After about 17 years and doing the door single handedly with only a handful of troublesome incidents, I would not allow any, I was a washed up old has been. I never went back to Raffles and I never will, I am just not interested and truly believe that my time was the best time.

Just About Me 35

Some years before, we had bought a four bedroom house in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk. Mandy's mum lived there at the time, we bought it to let out for holidays and was charging £200 pw, it was all going to plan until my mother in law decided to move back to London, I did not blame her as all her kids live in London, we rented the place out anyway. Forward on to 2001, the three of us were now living in a one bedroom flat in Fulham, so Mandy went to the council to enquire about a two bedroom place, she was told to come back when Laura was 12, she asked what would they do if we had another child, they told her it could sleep in the bath. Well I don't know about you but I think that is slightly unreasonable. Before we carry on, all you people who are thinking, why not move to Great Yarmouth, well I worked in the Kings Road, Chelsea, a three and a half hour drive away on a clear road. So we decided to try and buy our one bedroom flat as well, I knew a chap who was quite high up in the Abbey national and he arranged another mortgage, we bought the flat for £72,000, it was valued at £110,000, we somehow qualified for the full discount. So now we owned two places. Why would you want to buy a one bed flat Paul, I hear you ask, simple if you sell the flat within three years you have to pay back the discount, but you can live in it for one year and then rent it out, So that's what we did. In 2002 I met a chap who worked in Southgate who arranged mortgage's, he sorted one out for us and told us to go and find a house and let him know about it, we found a 3 bedroom house in Carshalton, Surrey. He not only sorted out our mortgage of £151,000 after I had paid a cash deposit of £17,000, he also arranged the sale of the house in Great Yarmouth. So we now owned two places within a five mile radius, the flat in Fulham will hopefully one day pay off my mortgage in Carshalton with a bit over, only time will tell.

We also in 2000 bought a chalet in Leysdown, Isle of Sheppey, Kent, it cost us £3,000 and we went halves with my Mother in Law Annette Sime. It was never really my cup of tea although I did have Sky TV fitted and an air conditioning unit, we had it converted from calor gas to all electricity, and a bit of landscaping, all in all it probably cost us about £6,000 in total. Mandy,Laura and Annette loved it, they would go down most weekends and sometimes stayed the week, it was great for Laura as there was no traffic on the site. It was fairly near to all the major Kent towns, and some really lovely villages. We sold it in 2005 for about £4,000 as the yearly charges became too much for us.