Tuesday 13 - Wednesday 14 Oct 1997 – That "Know it all" Nat’s Birth

After 12 years of trying and after 42 weeks of waiting the day was finally here. We went to the Royal at 8.00 AM on Tuesday morning to deliver our two week overdue first child. We already knew that it was a boy and had decided on the name Nathaniel (Mr Sinister in the X-Men's original name). It was going to be a very long day and night as Nat was already two weeks overdue in in no hurry to leave his warm hidey-hole. The first day passed with little happening, Deb lay in bed reading another Patricia Cornwall book while I fussed about somewhat. There were various tests through out the day but basically, if I recall correctly, it was a question of waiting for the the drugs to kick in and induce labour. Nat was going to be a big baby and the medical staff had decided it wouldn't be a good idea for him to get any bigger inside of Deb.

We had left the three dogs at home, Jasper, Sprout and Mumbles so I couldn't stay at the hospital full time. During the day i had to cycle home to feed and water and pot them. I can't recall if I spent the night at the hospital, I'll have to ask Deb, but the bottom line was that nothing happened on Tuesday and it wasn't until Wednesday morning that the little monster began to stir. Things developed slowly but eventually Deb was taken into the delivery room and things got moving. He did prove to be an enormous baby because he was finally delivered at 12.15 PM by Ventouse after the medical staff had cut deb down below to try and make more room. They finally pulled him out and the delivery room resembled an abattoir. Deb needed immediate attention to stitch her wounds so Nat was taken to the resuscitation room, accompanied by me, to ensure that he was OK. He was fine and after a few moments I got to hold him for the first time; he weighed in at a massive 10lb 12oz. I carried him back into the delivery room and passed him to deb who suddenly forgot about all the pain and established AN UNBREAKABLE BOUND WITH HIM THERE AND THEN, there was no post-natal depression or such like in this case; she'd waited far too long to allow that to spoil things.
While deb had Nat I left the room and found a phone; I immediately rang Deb's parents and my Dad but don't remember in which order. Deb was moved onto a ward and she and Nat rested. Later I went home, again to see to the dogs, before returning later in the afternoon. Below is the first photo I have of Nat and I together.


07/06/2010 by mysickbones on Zooomr

Deb and Nat remained in the hospital for the next few days and I visited twice daily, I think I had the week off work but I can't actually remember, until they were given the all clear to come home. I think they were released on the Saturday ( confusing because Han definitely came home on a Saturday) and Alf and Doreen, Deb's parents, travelled over from Redditch to see their first grandchild and bring him home.
After this life was never the same again and gradually, actually rapidly, one forgot that one had had a life before this child arrived. Nothing's Changed!

Mothering Sunday at The Chequers...300 Meals at Lunch

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It turned out that that first day did prove to be a baptism of fire; I'd not worked behind this bar before, didn't know what beers we served, the prices or where anything was. We served 300 meals and didn't close until 5:00pm when we cleaned up, Barbara prepared everyone something to eat, steak in my case, and we prepared to open for the evening. I've never, before or since, ever worked in a busier bar that that one that afternoon; it was brilliant  I loved it! I started there at 11:00 am and we didn't finish closing up and clearing up until gone midnight!
I worked there for almost a year and gradually gained the confidence of the landlady. I took over the control of the stock and managed to end the petty pilfering that was going occurring. I stayed until they left and new tenants took over. I didn't really get on with them, by then I'd got use to virtually running the pub, as being relegated back to the position or A.N. Other barman made the job awful. Got drunk there one night, drove home, met the police, lost my driving license and that was that! I'll never know why I didn't knock on Andy's door and kip there...oh yeah it was because I was totally arseholed and coherent forward planning insn't something you do in that state.

Another Night in Rugby

Drove to the Chequers and again to Rugby where I filled in for a second night. Luckily I only worked there for two nights and never ever went there again. Unfortunately it meant was that the next day, Mothering Sunday, was to be my first actually working day in the Chequers itself. I'd got the job there because a fried, Andy, lived in a flat a few doors further down the road from the pub and he had worked there for a while in the evenings. He wasn't able to continue doing so and had suggested that I might want to take his place. The Chequers was a food orientated country pub and very popular with the Sunday lunch crowd. Mother's Day was always one of the busiest days of the year. Tomorrow, it appeared, was going to be a baptism of fire.

First Night The Chequers, Ullesthorpe - Diverted to Rugby.

This was the night I was supposed to start work at the Chequers pub in Ullesthorpe but it turned out to be a very different evening all together!!! When I arrived I met the landlady Barbara and her husband, can't remember his name. Her husband ran another pub way out in the sticks somewhere near Rugby. He had injured his back and needed someone to go to his pub and run it for him. It seemed that yours truly had drawn the short straw and  I was to follow him there in my car. This was to be the first problem; he was driving a high performance car, something with a Rolls Royce engine in it if I recall correctly, and drove like a maniac whereas  I was driving an old banger. Keeping up with him was almost impossible and a few times I thought I'd lost him. Eventually we arrived at his pub, I don't recall the name, which was a small village local in the middle of nowhere. It was virtually empty until 10:00pm but shortly afterward the regulars started putting in an appearance; apparently licencing laws counted for nothing. I eventually shut up shop at about 1:00am and, somehow after clearing up, managed to navigate my way home. I think I made it home for about 2:30 am and I'll never know how I managed it in the dead of night from a place in the middle of nowhere that I'd never been to before! What an interesting first night!

Our Wedding Day - Not At All a Traditional Wedding NOT COMPLETE

Deb Job interview am
lads around in the morning
Registry office polkingtons walk
Mispronounced my name
The DeMontford Hotel Reception
Meal

Nick, Nick, Andy, Racheal, Mum, Dad, Tess, Ray, Doreen, Alf, Deb, Me - The Whole Party

Ian Hamiltons Funeral

This was going to be our wedding day; Deb and I thought it would be amusing to get married on Friday the Thirteenth but my Mother, the superstitious atheist/agnostic, was absolutely against it because of the possibility of it being bad luck...people I'll never understand them. It turned out to be a much different day to the one we had planned. Ian Hamilton, the permanent full time Secretary of the Leicester University Students Union and an absolutely lovely bloke, came into work the previous week complaining of a headache. It got so bad that eventually he went to the Royal Infirmary who checked him over, gave him a paracetamol and sent him home. He collapsed of a brain hemorrhage on the hospital steps and never regained consciousness and died three days later...he was Forty One Years Old!
At approximately One O'clock, on the day we had planned to get married, we instead found ourselves in the University's official church St Nicholas attending Ian's funeral.

 After the service we drove to Saffron Hill Cemetery where Ian was cremated. This was the same crematorium where twenty five years later Duncan Hastie, a friend and colleague at British Gas, was cremated after he committed suicide on 3 Oct 2006.

Approx September 1981 - Price Waterhouse, Skipworth Street, Proposal

Started work at Price Waterhouse as a trainee chartered accountant but didn't appreciate that finally I was doing something that would actually require me to sit down and study so didn't qualify and left after two years.
 Deb working as a traffic warden after being let down by the solicitor who had promised to article her.
After much to-ing and fro-ing between the builders and the vendor the purchase of 14 Skipworth Street finally completed and we moved out of the flat on Evington Road and into our new terrace house. At this time the interest rate was at 12+% and our repayments on an £8,000 mortgage were huge. Within a year they had halved. Nice place to live, great corner shop unfortunately a young black guy moved in next door and over a period of 20 months, due to the drugs, changed from a nice block into a total c*ut who I often fantasised about killing. Eventually he forced our move from the property thus bollixing our plan to keep and rent out the house as a start to acquiring a rent property portfolio. Mind at the time getting a buy to let mortgage was impossible, if you couldn't get the money from family you couldn't get started. this is why most of the people doing this in Leicester are Asian because this is what they did; pooled family money.
At some point during this period I suggested to deb that it might be a good idea to get married for the tax relief so we did the following month on the twentieth.

Registering at University - My First Hangover - Incomplete

Woke feeling dreadful
Worked down queens rd
Victoria park
Elm Trees
Meet the campus
Registering took allday
Hangover gradually goes
Queueing
Back to College hall
Dinner in the Hall
Can't remember the Warden's name
bar games

I Start At University...Approx Date...Incomplete

Parents

Cardiff Station

Maths Boy in cafe - dad impressed..cheers dad

On Train - feeling of relief..away at last...no more arguements

Arrive at leicester railway station

Picked up by coach

CollegeHall*

Sown my room 2nd floor A Block

Sherry reception,

Stealing bottles of sherry and back to A Block - start as you mean to go on

My Room 2nd floor A Block

Steve King president - georgeous girl friend

College hall bar

Party sevens

Party SK room

Threw up on my Duffle Coat

Mick from Sheffield, Dickey Downing, Martin leftly, Lenny Lyons, Steve Jones bargoed arsehole, Dave Armstrong, John - weird picures, Bob fogg
..............................................................................................................................................................

*COLLEGE HALL, Knighton Road, Knighton, Leicester, LE2 3TR.
College Hall opened in 1947 as a women's Hall of Residence housed in buildings on the University's main site. In 1960, the Hall moved to purpose-built premises in Knighton, approximately one mile (1.5km) from the campus. The Hall became mixed in 1970 and now houses some 282 students in a combination of wings, detached houses and a main building. The wings A,B,C,D and E contain 180 single study bedrooms, together with appropriate utility rooms. The Hall also comprises six houses on Knighton and Carisbrooke Roads nearby - Spire, New House, Gardiner, Forster, Latimer and Herrick - which are similarly equipped, though with fewer single rooms. The main building contains the rooms for common use: the Dining Room, Library, Music and Games rooms, Senior and Junior Common Rooms etc. Also located here are the Offices of the Warden, Hall Secretary and Hall Manager.

It appears that College hall has been closed and is now derelict. The only film I could find of it was taken in 2008 after it's closeure and is embeded below: