Daniel Hoffmeister-Thrill asked:
I take it no more Debden based madness for you now?
What is this Debden of which you speak. It seems like a lifetime ago, a world away. My ex-corner of the Universe is now a barren worksite – all mud and bricks. The tree marking Chez Lock, cut down and removed. They call it progress, I call it man’s folly.
But where am I now? I am living on a main road in a village about one hour forty-five minutes from that there London. There is an airport approximate one minute’s drive away that claims to be an international airport, but I can’t see it myself. The nearest city is a mere three miles away and is one of England’s historical centres. I kind of regret leaving Loughton because the majority of people around here are a bit, ahem, simple. But that’s what happens when you move to a small village – we’ve swapped one lot of inbreds in Debden for another lot.
The best bit is getting up at five in the morning and lugging bales of newspapers into the shop in all weathers. If this doesn’t make me a man, I don’t know what will. I’m still poor and we are still struggling, but at least my working-class heart beats out a proper day’s work and so I sleep with contentment, too tired to worry about how we are going to pay the bills. Bliss…