Tag: Newman Harris

Left My Job At Newman Harris, Moved To Clanricarde Gardens And Started Work For Binder Hamlyn Management Consultants, 18 November to 1 December 1988

The end of 1988 was a momentous time for me. I’ll have quite a lot to write about those weeks on Ogblog.

The brace of events I am recalling in this piece, reflecting briefly on that time thirty years later, are the core happenings. I changed job and moved house within the space of a couple of weeks.

Clanricarde Gardens

A few doors down, picture linked from (and clickable to) Philip Wilkinson’s wonderful blog piece about our street

There is a superb blog piece about our street by Philip Wilkinson – click here.

I shall write up my flat hunting experience on a separate piece in the coming weeks. Suffice it to say here that my Clanricarde Gardens flat was the first place I saw and that I liked it straight away.

It was only the fact that I had nothing with which to compare it that kept me flat hunting for several more days. I have some interesting yarns to tell about some of the other places I saw. I asked to take a second look at Clanricarde Gardens on the Thursday and took Bobbie Scully with me to help me decide. “What are you waiting for? Just take it,” is a reasonable paraphrase of her sound judgement.

By way of context, I should explain that I was renting, not buying in late 1988. Some friends at that time thought I was bonkers by not jumping on the home ownership bandwagon “before it is too late”. But then some friends suffered some serious negative equity for several years after jumping on that bandwagon when it peaked back then.

Unusually, when I decided it was time for me to buy, in 1999, it was also an opportune time for the owners to sell, so I was able to buy the flat I had been renting for over 10 years. Try before you buy.

From Newman Harris To Binder Hamlyn Management Consultants (BHMC)

Again, I shall write more in separate pieces about these events over the coming weeks.

With the benefit of hindsight, taking just eight working days off between jobs with a view to:

  • finding a flat to rent;
  • moving into that flat;
  • learning to drive;
  • seeing friends and family in relatively large quantity;
  • going to plenty of theatre & stuff;
  • doing exam marking for Financial Training to help pay for all that…

…was a little ambitious, to say the least.

I rather like my only diary note on the day I started at BHMC:

Started at BHMC today – drink at lunchtime

Frankly, I probably needed a drink after that fortnight. But what a very 1980’s tradition for a new joiner at a City firm – the drink at lunchtime.

At Binder Hamlyn (BDOC) c1992

BHMC soon changed its name to BDO Consulting (BDOC). Five-and-a-half years after I joined the firm, Binder Hamlyn “merged” with Arthur Andersen (AA) and I concluded that the latter firm would not like my hairstyle. Michael Mainelli, who had not recruited me to BHMC but with whom I was mostly working by then, felt similarly about not wanting to persevere in Andersens, although not for hairstyle reasons…

…and thus Z/Yen was born.

I don’t remember meeting Michael on that first day or two at Binders – my memory of meeting him really starts at the Christmas lunch on 14 December. But Michael is pretty sure that he at the very least spent a few minutes saying “hi & bye” to me (probably to check that I didn’t have two heads or something) before packing me off the following week on a tough assignment with Save The Children Fund…from which the rest is history.

Reflecting On Those Weeks And Events

Further, when I look at my diaries and see what else I did during those momentous weeks, I still see many familiar names and activities.

Here are just two examples.

I went to Jacquie and Len’s place for dinner with Caroline on 30 November 1988. Janie and I are going to dinner at Jacquie’s tonight (1 December 2018) and only a couple of days ago, Caroline got in touch to arrange a get together.

27 November 1988, had John, Mandy, Ali, Valerie and Bobbie to lunch

I’m still in touch with most of them and am seeing John on Monday.

Those two momentous things I did in late 1988 have in essence been sustained for thirty years and still going. Also many of the people who were central to my being back then are still there too.

So I shall soon write up the many and various events of those frantic weeks.

Some of the tales will be about characters who entered my life only fleetingly – such as Larry the Drummer, the larger-than-life character I met through the Streatham Hill Driving School people, who became Larry the Man With A Van to help me move.

But some stories will benefit from the reflections of those people with whom I am still very much in touch.

And although, if I recall correctly, Michael Mainelli and I didn’t actually meet until I had been at the firm for a couple of weeks…

…1 December 1988 was, technically speaking, the date we started working together. So happy thirtieth anniversary, Michael.

Pearl factory, Wuxi, China

My Last Day At Newman Harris – Eating & Drinking To The Fore, 18 November 1988

Left NH & Co. SB took me for lunch…

NH & Co is Newman Harris & Co, SB is Stanley Bloom. I don’t recall where we went for lunch.

Had leaving do in eve. Drinks at Phoenix. Meal at Melati.

I’ll write more about Newman Harris elsewhere no doubt. The Phoenix on Cavendish Square was often the pub of choice by virtue of being the nearest, not the dearest. Thirty years on, a Google search finds the description…

…Shabby chic pub with worn-in tables…

…which surely applied back then too.

Melati was one of my favourite South-East Asian eateries back then – gone now it seems:

https://www.allinlondon.co.uk/restaurants/restaurant-1104.php

The location would have pleased the several South-East Asian colleagues I had at NH&Co and also would have pleased me as an echo of my “leaving do” ten years earlier when, as a 15 year old finishing my first holiday job, at NH, we went to a Malaysian restaurant named Rasa Sayang – I believe long gone and unrelated to any current restaurant of that name.

I cannot remember who joined me for the 1988 leaving do, but I shall list a few names of those I am pretty sure would have been there. Ashley Michaels, Mike and Sandra King, Dilip Vora, Terry, Duncan, Lelash Shah, Varsha Yadav…

…perhaps someone who was there and who has a phenomenal memory will stumble across this piece and help fill in the details.

Keele Student’s Summer Working In London 1983, Part Two: Work, Friends, Music & Car Theft, First Half Of August 1983

Photo by Kieran White from Manchester, England, CC BY 2.0 – image not Paul’s actual car I hasten to add…

I was working, I was going out a lot, I was making, receiving and listening to mix tapes for and with Paul Deacon – I even found time to do some studying it seems, according to the diary.

Let me transcribe and explain the highlights of that first week of August

Monday 1 August 1983 …met Marianne [Gilmour] for lunch…

Wednesday 3 August 1983 …Paul [Deacon] came over in evening…

I attribute Paul’s wonderful Summer 1983 mix tape to around this time. I have posted two pieces about this mix tape with embeds of the tracks – you can click through the image links below to see those:

Paul Deacon’s Summer 1983 Mix Tape, Side One, c.August 1983
Paul Deacon’s Summer 1983 Mix Tape, Side Two, c.August 1983

Thursday 4 August 1983…had Chinese lunch [probably at the wonderful Lee Ho Fook No 2 in Macclesfield Street] with the chaps

“The chaps” would be my fellow Newman Harris accounts clerks, several of whom were of Chinese origin – mostly Chinese Malaysians

Friday 5 August 1983…work OK – drink after with Michael …

…Michael King, who would doubtless have joined us for the Chinese lunch and who ended up marrying Sandra, who was one of the Chinese Malaysian clerks. We might have deemed her to be “one of the chaps” back then – she was, I think, the only female in that clerks’ room at that time

Saturday 6 August 1983…met Jilly [Black] in eve – went Rasa Sayang – v nice

In Soho, but not to be confused with the Rasa Sayang currently (40 years later) in Macclesfield Street (coincidentally, I think where Lee Ho Fook No 2 used to be) – the Rasa Sayang I frequented back in the 1970s and 1980s (thanks again to my Chinese Malaysian holiday job colleagues) was on the corner of Bateman Street and Frith Street. Mentioned in the book Waterloo Sunrise as a place frequented by students…well, yes!

Sunday 7 August 1983 – went to Anil’s [Biltoo] 21st in afternoon & evening – much booze

Anil, cousin Shahil Soniassy and me, four years earlier to the day

…and now the second week…

Monday 8 August 1983 – …met Simon [Jacobs] for lunch,,,

Wednesday 10 August 1983 – …Paul [Deacon] popped over in evening

Thursday 11 August 1983 – …Chinese lunch…

Friday 12 August 1983 – …had drink after work [that will have been with “the chaps”]

Saturday 13 August 1983 …did academic work. Watched films in eve…

…film watching will have been on the TV with dad. Judging by the on-line listings, I think we saw The Last Married Couple In America followed by Arsenic & Old Lace.

I must say, reading this 15 August diary entry caused me to make a sharp intake of breath and sense that “oh no” feeling I no doubt had at the time. In truth I only vaguely recall Paul’s car being stolen from outside our house, but I suspect that Paul has stronger memories of it. Any thoughts to share on that, Paul?

1982 Summer Subsides: Sandown, Spurs, Shule & Sleepy Start To My Second “P Year” At Keele, Late August To 3 October 1982

Sandown Park, photo by 80N, CC BY-SA 2.5

21 August 1982: “Went To Sandown Park In Afternoon, Very Nice”

As part of my summer job that year, I was doing a fair bit of work for Laurie Krieger’s businesses – a link that sustained through much of the 1980s for holiday jobs and beyond for several years after Keele. Laurie had recently divested Harlequin Records and was entrepreneuring with several other interesting things in the 1980s.

I think Laurie and Betty had been invited to some sort of guest enclosure charity thing and at the last minute couldn’t go. Laurie gave me the tickets. It was too last minute for me to rustle up a date, so I took my mum with me.

This was my first visit to the horses since Mauritius three years earlier:

Another Day At The Races In Mauritius, This Time In the Press Box, 12 August 1979

I remember having a very enjoyable afternoon. We were both utter rubbish at choosing winners (I have never got the knack of betting on horses – I’m not sure there is one).

Sandown 21 August 1982 TelegraphSandown 21 August 1982 Telegraph 21 Aug 1982, Sat The Daily Telegraph (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Mum and I probably read the above tips in the Telegraph before we set off.

On one occasion, after I had placed my bet on a horse with a name that rang true to me, we went down to the paddock to see our picks and I remember mum saying:

I think yours is limping…

…which it was, to which I said,

…maybe we’re supposed to have a look at the horses BEFORE placing our bets.

These are the ways some of us learn our lessons. Mine all came in last or second to last. I don’t think mum’s did much better. Mercifully, we were only betting pin money because we knew we were rubbish.

The next day, Sunday 22 August:

Doris & Stuart [Kent – second cousins from Grandma Anne’s side of the family] popped in unexpectedly. Paul came over in the evening.

I think Doris & Stuart told us how going to the races is supposed to be done, but my next visit wasn’t to be for another decade or more, so I don’t suppose the advice helped me much.

Late August Early September – Not Much Going On – Some Socials As Well As Work

25 August 1982 – Work OK – went to Pam & Michael [Harris – aunt & uncle] in evening for coffee etc.

28 August 1982 – Birthday – shopped in afternoon – Drew [presumably Andrew Levinson] came for dinner in evening.

9 September 1982 – Not bad day at work – lunched with Michael – went to pub after work briefly.

10 September 1982 – …pub after work…

11 September 1982 – Footy & Barbie

Football has not played a large part in my life, but on this particular day it most certainly did.

Saturday 11 September 1982 – Played football in morning – went to Spurs in afternoon with Duncan -> David’s barbeque party – came home late – a very nice day

We (by which I mean some work friends/colleagues plus some of their friends) played some sort of rudimentary five-a side game in a North London park local to Duncan (out Finchley way if I remember correctly), before going mob handy to see a fairly star-studded but perhaps a little superannuated Spurs lose. I have even managed to find a clip from that very match.

Mid To Late September 1982 – Some Socials As Well As Work Part Two, Plus Some Shule & Mum’s Ungodly Fall From Grace

Sunday 12 September 1982 – Angela & John [Kessler – cousins] came to tea. Paul [Deacon] came over in evening.

Friday 17 September 1982 – Lunched with Marie-Anne [Gilmore] – last day at work – went to pub after with the lads – came home quite early.

Sunday 19 September 1982 – Shule in morning [Rosh Hashana – Jewish New Year] – nice lunch, lazy afternoon. Pam & Michael came over in evening.

Tuesday 21 September – …met Jimmy [Bateman] in evening

Wednesday 22 September – went over to Wendy’s [Robbins] for the day -> Grandma’s -> Croydon etc. -> got home quite early.

Thursday 23 / Friday 24 – did some work/taping …Paul came over in evening.

Saturday 25 September – went up to meet Caroline [Freeman] for lunch…

Sunday 26 / Monday 27 September – …Col Nidre…Yom Kippur [Day of Atonement] – mum fell down stairs.

I shall write up the Paul and Wendy tapes from that late summer separately.

Mum’s ungodly fall on Yom Kippur was entirely due to her choosing not to go to Shule (in those days I was still going to Shule on such days to keep dad company). Apparently she put the Col Nidre prayer books on the stairs in advance of putting them away, forgot they were there and slipped on them.

Irony.

We spent the next couple of days nursing mum.

Dad very kindly agreed to take me up to Keele and then return home – my parents’ plan had been to drop me off on their way to the Lake District for a short break.

30 September 1982 – I Return To Keele In The Dad-mobile

Finding the above diary entries makes me realise that the “dad’s ultra-embarrassing moment” that I wrote up as a 1981 memory, was in fact on this day in 1982. I have redrafted that piece accordingly – in any case I have subsequently been reintroduced to Cathy who was the protagonist in dad’s sort-of #METOO moment. If you haven’t read that story before it’s probably well worth a click/read if you want a laugh.

My Top Embarrassing Parent Moment At Keele, 30 September 1982

30 September 1982 – Rose early – left for Keele – arrived, lunched – dad left 2:00ish. Did some unpacking & a little work. Went to Union in evening – OK. Pete’s [Roberts] for coffee after.

Keele Prior To A New Academic Year: Calm Before The Storm 1 to 3 October 1982

Friday 1 October – did a little work – shopped etc. Went to Union in evening. Disco etc. v quiet

Saturday 2 October – did quite a bit of work – got some things sorted out. Went to Union in evening. Quietish time.

Sunday 3 October – stayed in most of the day – did some work. Went to Union in evening. Very quiet indeed.

Have no fear, dear readers, if this calm before the storm makes you think that my P3 year might have been a bit dull. The story starts to get more interesting pretty rapidly from 4 October 1982 onwards!

From https://www.studentcrowd.com/hall-l1004515-s1043587-barnes-hall-keele_university-keele

NT In Evening With Party, 18 August 1982

National Theatre, From Wikimedia Commons

My recollection of this evening is thin to say the least. My guess is that it was an impromptu works outing, the diary simply reading:

Work busy – went to NT in evening with party

I am pretty sure we didn’t see a show. Danton’s Death was showing at the Olivier at that time but I’m pretty sure I didn’t see that and in any case I don’t think they even put the show on that Wednesday evening.

I am similarly sure that I didn’t see the production of The Caucasian Chalk Circle at the Cottesloe back then. My Cottesloe days were still way ahead of me.

In any case, had I seen a play I am sure I’d have at least noted what we saw – I was already enough of a theatre freak for that. So we didn’t see a play.

No.

I think we must have gone to the NT as scavengers that night. The press night for the Lyttelton production of Way Upstream, scheduled for that night, infamously had to be postponed because a water tank flooded.

Newman Harris had a fair smattering of luvvie clients so I suspect that we were invited along to help mop up, hospitality-wise…certainly not to help mop up the Lyttelton Theatre itself, I’d have remembered that better.

I wonder who was in that “party”? Probably a similar bunch to those I nailed in a short piece about the Phoenix & football from 10 days earlier…

Phoenix & Football With Fellow Workers, Newman Harris, 6 & 7 August 1982

…except some of the more senior folk might well have joined us midweek – Stanley Bloom even, possibly, as he had taken over a chunk of Harry Newman’s luvvie portfolio.

Phoenix & Football With Fellow Workers, Newman Harris, 6 & 7 August 1982

6 August 1982 – Work OK – went to Phoenix briefly after work.

The Phoenix was the best pub for the staff of Newman Harris in Cavendish Square, with the sole criterion to determine “best” being “nearest”. We went there a lot. It transpires that my friend from later years, Charles “Charley the Gent Malloy” Bartlett, worked nearby back then and similarly frequented the Phoenix.

7 August 1982 – Played football in afternoon/evening. Got home quite early.

A plan no doubt hatched in the Phoenix the night before. Who were the football nuts at that time? Dilip Vora I should imagine. Duncan was often the ringleader for that sort of thing. Mike King – had he started yet? If so it would have been before he was always too busy with Sandra to join in this sort of activity. Lailash Shah – probably. Roy Patel I think was too senior/important/old to join in with our weekend activities. Ashley Michaels possibly would have done, though.

It won’t have been great football, but I seem to recall such events also turning into impromptu opportunities for a few beers and sometimes a barbeque, although the diary note implies that this occasion was lower key than that.

On Return From Keele, “Hair Brutally Severed”, Early Summer 1982

Ronnies – Photo with thanks to Graham Gower Collection 1972

On return from Keele University in late June, but before starting work in early July, I sorted myself out, including, by the looks of it, a hair cut:

Thursday 1 July 1982 – had hair brutally severed – went to G[randma] Jenny in afternoon

I suspect I treasured my student mop, while recognising that I needed to look “young professional” for the summer weeks of work.

I never much liked having my hair cut.

My childhood memories from Ronnies in Leigham Avenue, Streatham (depicted above) involve my mother cajoling me into going to the place.

Under normal circumstances, a very patient, younger barber named Oliver would cut my hair while distracting me with the sort of chatter that kept a reluctant kid calm.

But occasionally Oliver would not be available and Ronnie himself would cut my hair. I didn’t take to Ronnie’s methods, which invariably (probably because I was an unwilling participant) seemed painful and not to my aesthetic taste. Mind you, my aesthetic taste at that time would have been to have hair as long as I possibly could get away with and on no account to present myself at any barber shop.

My haircut reluctance probably upset my mother a good deal, whose father, my Grandpa Lew, had been a barber all of his working life.

Grandpa Lew & Grandma Beatrice, both sadly predeceased my birth

My good friend Rohan Candappa had a much happier relationship with his hair and wih his barbers – he even wrote a performance piece about it: The Last Man Cave…

…here’s a cut from a performance of it (did you see what I did there?)

But Rohan’s early visits to the barbers would have been in Thornton Heath and Bromley – not Ronnies of Streatham.

I am pretty sure that Oliver had left Ronnies before my childhood ended. I am not sure whether Ronnies was still there in 1982 (knowledgeable folk on the Streatham history FB group might be able to confirm), but I have a feeling it was still there and that I probably went there for my brutal severing.

I don’t think I’d have made a fuss about it in that post-Keele cut of 1982. I took my revenge in my diary – suspecting that, at some stage in the future – say 40 years hence – I could publish the diary entry and the phrase “brutally severed” would no doubt take off as “a thing”, once and for all to expunge the despised hair-cut from the cultural canon.

I raised this matter with Rohan Candappa the other day, who suggested that Brutus Severus would be an excellent light-hearted name for a modern barbers. It’s probably just as well that Rohan’s days in advertising are now over.

Sadly, I have no pictures from 1982 to depict the exact “before and after” look, but I do have some from two or three years earlier, which probably will give the casual reader a reasonable idea and will give old friends a recognisable glimpse back in time.

Before Severance
After Severance

The Last Four Weeks Of My 1981 Summer Job, Including New & Old Friends, Preparing My Return To Keele, A Near Miss & Losses, 30 August To 26 September 1981

Satays – Alpha from Melbourne, Australia, CC BY-SA 2.0

Sunday 30 August 1981 – went to Rasa Sayang for birthday treat – walked town – lazy evening

I’m guessing this will have been an outing with mates from work – I wouldn’t have “walked town” with my folks.

Several of the Newman Harris juniors were from Malaysia and they had introduced me to Malaysian cuisine at the Rasa Sayang in Chinatown three years earlier when I did my first summer job. [A link will be inserted here when I write up that seminal event.] I had fallen in love with that cuisine and would often choose it as a treat…still do 40 years on.

Malaysian style food became a significant part of my cuisine at Keele, not least because I shared flats at one time or another with Mohammad Mohd Isa from Malaysia and Hamzah Shawal from Brunei. Not only did I enjoy the food prepared by the Malaysian gang at Keele but I learnt to cook some Malaysian dishes myself – satays becoming one of my signature dishes. Grilled chicken thighs in a Malaysian-style marinade was another of my specialities. Here’s a link to a not dissimilar recipe, except that my marinade had a secret ingredient or two…naturally. 😉

In August 1981, Sandy Yap will have been involved in the trip to Rasa Sayang no doubt, as would Andrew Choo. I think some from the Alan Prince, Dilip Vora, Lailash Shah, Mike King and Duncan group would have been party to that too.

The word “lazy” features a great deal in my diary for the next few weeks, as does the word “work”, which I was apparently starting to find “tough” by that stage of the summer. I think the managers had worked out that, if they gave me more and increasingly challenging work to do, that I would actually knuckle down and get it done.

Paul [Deacon] gets a couple of mentions that first week; bank holiday Monday at ours and then the Saturday at his place. Caroline for lunch midweek (Thursday).

Sunday 6 September 1981 – Went to Wendy’s [Robbins] in afternoon -> BBYO thing in evening.

I think Wendy was top banana at Streatham BBYO at that time – just coming to the end of her tenure before going off to Leeds Uni. I have no idea what the “thing” that evening was about or even where it took place. I think the club might have been meeting in Norwood by then.

Thursday 10 September 1981 – Hard work today. Went to Hillel after work – met Lloyd [Green] – saw the lads.

Meeting Lloyd Green at Hillel I think was connected with the Anti-Fascist Day we were involved in organising for the coming term at Keele. There had been a groundswell at Keele against a small but venal outbreak of extreme right wing, racist activity on campus and a committee had been formed dedicated to an education campaign against that sort of thing. Joe Andrew, I recall, was heavily involved with that group, as were several other academics and the University chaplains.

The idea morphed latterly, partly at my bidding, into a more positive idea – the International Fair, which became a twice-yearly feature in the Keele calendar and my small part in it was one of my proudest achievements. But at that early stage, the idea was to have an awareness day. Lloyd and I had taken on the task of mining Jewish resources for educational materials against racism; a worthy but thoroughly depressing task.

“Saw the lads” will refer to the students who resided in Hillel House, with whom I had lived briefly the previous summer while filling the inter-regnum in the BBYO office.

Sorting Out A Problem Kibbutz, BBYO Hillel House, 21 to 24 July 1980

Friday 11 September 1981 – Work tough. Ashley [Michaels]’s last day – lazy evening (phone etc.)

Yes, part of my hard work those weeks might have been related to helping Ashely Michaels (who was Stanley Bloom’s manager and who had supervised much of my work that summer) finish off his jobs before leaving Newman Harris. I think he had already returned to the firm by the time I went back the following summer. Ashley was certainly a feature there throughout my articles in the mid to late 1980s.

Saturday 12 September 1981 – Lazyish day – shopped in afternoon – bought suit – lazy evening

The purchase of a suit towards the end of the summer suggests that I knew by then that I would return to Newman Harris and work several more summers, which I did.

These last few weeks of the summer were of course punctuated by that summer’s saddest and most significant family event; the death of Grandma Anne:

Twenty Days Of Summer Holiday Work During Which Grandma Anne Died, 10 to 29 August 1981

While the diary for the first couple of weeks of September didn’t show it, the diary for the second couple of weeks did.

Sunday 13 September 1981 – Went to [Grandma Anne’s] flat to clear -> Knipes -> home for supper – v. tiring.

“Knipes” meant Dr Edwina Green and her husband, Don Knipe. I have written about our family’s unusual relationship with the Knipe family elsewhere – see here or below.

Strange Case Of Dr Green And Mr Knipe…And Beluga Caviar And Scotch Whisky And A Bust Of Hitler, c22 December 1981

Thems was strange times.

Tuesday 15 September 1981 – Work OK. Met Jim [Jimmy Bateman] in evening at UCL -> The Sun.

I have written up similar evenings elsewhere.

Perseverance With Work & Meeting Up With Friends, 28 March To 10 April 1981

Thursday 17 September 1981. Work OK, Met Caroline for lunch. Lloyd came over in the evening.

Friday 18 September 1981. Work OK. [Sandy] Yap’s send off after. Relaxing evening.

“Yap’s send off” was probably in The Phoenix on Cavendish Square. We were working in this building…

Harcourt House – Nigel Cox / Cavendish Square, W1 / CC BY-SA 2.0

…which made The Phoenix, just across the square, the nearest pub by a long chalk.

Sunday 26 September 1981 – OK day. Pincus family came to tea – easy evening.

Monday 27 September 1981 – Work OK. Met Helen [Lewis] for lunch. Easy evening at home.

Arnold Pincus and his family were long-standing “lands-leit” friends of the Harris family. They probably came to pay their respects regarding Grandma’s passing a few week’s earlier.

Wednesday 23 September 1981 – Discovered we’d been burgled in the morning. Got to work late. Busy day and evening.

My beloved Sony TC377 and all the hi-fi was gone

The thieves took all of the hi-fi. The big loss for me personally was the Sony TC377, which I loved. We replaced it with a Phillips, which was good but not the same. Years later I bought a second hand replacement (depicted above). We stuggled even more to replace the rather grand Yamaha amp and preamp that dad had bought in 1973; the mid-range Sansui replacements were not of the same quality.

Good…but not great.

My prevailing memories of the burglary are two-fold.

Firstly, I remember my strongest emotion being relief that none of us had been disturbed by the burglars. I could imagine mum going downstairs and confronting intruders, which might have just scared them away but might have been truly disastrous.

Secondly, I recall dad telling me a story from later in the day, after the police had arrived and long after I had gone to work. Dad bemoaned to one of the policemen that the burglars had taken all of our lovely hi-fi, but had left behind the TV which, as it happened, had recently broken down and was awaiting an expensive repair. The policeman said,

if I’d been in your shoes, I’d have taken that TV out the back and put my foot through the screen before the police got here…

…which absolutely horrified dad, who simply wouldn’t and couldn’t have conjured up that dishonest thought.

Friday 25 September 1981 – Last day at work – OK. Went for drink after -> home for dinner & lazy evening.

Saturday 26 September 1981 – Lazy day. Went over to Anil’s in evening – got back very late…

…looks as though I was starting to ease myself back into student-style life as soon as I finished my summer work.

Testing Times: Working, Seeing Alleyn’s & BBYO Friends, Then The Headingley Cricket, 5 to 21 July 1981

A Few Weeks Earlier: John Sutton / Trent Bridge Test Match, 1981: Alderman to Gower

Once my placement in the Far East (Braintree) had been curtailed, I was able to resume my more habitual holiday job routine, which seemed to have more to do with seeing friends for lunch and evening get togethers than head down graft in the audit and accounts factory that was Newman Harris.

A Social Whirl, 5 to 19 July 1981

A few mentions of busy days and hard work, but mostly a catalogue of non-work events:

  • Sunday 5 July – “visited grandma [Anne]”
  • Tuesday 7 July – “popped in to see Andrew [Andy Levinson] in evening”
  • Wednesday 8 July – “met Helen [Lewis] for lunch. Met Anil [Biltoo] and Jim [Bateman] for drinks in evening”
  • Thursday 9 July – “met Caroline [Freeman, now Curtis] for lunch”
  • Friday 10 July – “Wendies [sic – Wendy Robbins’s] ->Grannies [Wendy’s granny] for dinner -> Wendies [sic] for night”
  • Sunday 12 July – “met Jilly [Black] in town early evening
  • Tuesday 14 July – “-> Hillel [House] -> Streatham [BBYO}’s installations -> Lauren [Sterling] & Jenny [Council] coffee”
  • Wednesday 15 July – “met Caroline [Freeman, now Curtis] for lunch”
  • Saturday 18 July – “Mays [George and Winifred] came in evening”
  • Sunday 19 July – “visited Grandma [Anne] in afternoon”

A few local/Alleyn’s School friends at the start of this period. Andy Levinson lived in our street, so “popped in” really did mean walking two minutes up the road. Anil Biltoo & Jim Bateman for drinks was probably at UCL (where Jim did his summer jobs) and/or The Sun, as described in earlier articles.

Helen Lewis, a couple of years earlier

I’m pretty sure that lunch with Helen Lewis was the occasion that she presented me with Schubert The Sheep. He was named Schubert because there was some classical music playing in the restaurant where we took lunch. Neither Helen nor I could identify the piece but we both agreed that it was not Schubert.

Schubert still lives with me forty years on…in the depicted cupboard

Schubert’s 15 minutes of fame came a few years later, when he appeared on University Challenge as the Keele Mascot. A story for another time.

Visiting Wendy would have been in part as a fun catch up but also probably to help her plan the impending Streatham BBYO installations. I think she must have been outgoing President at that time. With apologies, I cannot recall who succeeded Wendy, but someone might well be able to help jog my memory.

Wendy, a couple of years earlier, at Nightingale

Lauren Sterling and Jenny Council will have attended that Streatham event in their capacities as Regional Grandees. I would have been there in my capacity as a local elder and former National Grandee, now so far past it, I can’t have offered much insight to the local club.

The Grandma Anne visits on Sundays at that time would have been to Nightingale. She had taken the death of Uncle Manny very badly and I think, from memory, that her cleaner/informal carer went away for a few weeks, so she arranged a temporary stay at Nightingale for respite and also as a bit of a tester for possible future need. The latter didn’t materialise as Grandma Anne died later that summer, but I do have an amusing tale from the end of her respite stay at Nightingale – watch this space for the next “forty years on” piece.

And So To Headingley, 20 & 21 July 1981

Hundreds of thousands of people claim to have been at Headingley for the dramatic turnaround and conclusion to the 1981 Ashes test match there, even though only a few thousand people actually witnessed the events.

I am not one of the people making false claims about my attendance…nor am I one of the people who actually attended Headingley on that Monday or Tuesday.

In fact my diary reads as follows:

Monday 20 July 1981 – Work OK did nothing in evening

Tuesday 21 July 1981 – OK Day. Lazy evening.

But I do remember following the cricket at work very clearly, especially on the Tuesday.

I was working in the large, high-ceilinged, “open plan”, Dickensian-look office at the front of 19 Cavendish Square. In that office, there was always a senior whose role it was to supervise/keep order amongst the junior clerks therein.

By the summer of 1981, Newman Harris had replaced Roy Patel (who I think had been promoted to a more interesting role) and hired instead a bespectacled, middle-aged chap, I think he was named John, who spoke with deep-voiced, nasal tones. I don’t think he much liked the idea of summer students – I remember him taking great pains to let us know that he was, “a graduate from the University of Life” and (although not a qualified accountant) he was “qualified by experience”. His management and mentoring style reminded me of Blakey from On The Buses:

Several people in our office were cricket lovers, but in truth there was little interest in the match for most of the Monday. I think word reached us that Botham was scoring runs for fun towards the end of the Monday, but it wasn’t until the Tuesday, after people had seen the highlights on Monday evening, that the interest levels really kicked off.

There were 10 or 12 of us in the office that day – perhaps half of us were interested in the cricket. John was one of the cricket lovers but was also there to maintain order.

Terry, the errand boy, did not reside in our office and I think he kept a small transistor radio in the cubby-hole where he did reside. Terry kept us appraised of the score a couple of times during the morning.

In those days, there was a telephone number you could call to hear the cricket score. It was a sort-of premium rate line. “Dial The Score On 154”.

As the match started to build to a climax, one or two clerks, unable to control their impulses, dialled the score. As a summer lackey, I was too timid to do that but grateful to the others for the news.

John berated the diallers. He explained that there was expense involved in making those calls and that we should all be concentrating on our work. John said that he would dial the score at suitably-spaced intervals and keep us all informed. I think he had 15 or 20 minute intervals in mind.

But as the match came to its climax, John was “Dialling The Score” compulsively, giving us close to ball-by-ball commentary in terms of the score as it progressed. We cheered when John announced that England had won the match. Then he told us all to put our heads down and concentrate on our work for the rest of the day. Goodness knows what John’s dialling did to the Newman Harris phone bill.

My lazy evening will have included watching the test match highlights…probably in black and white on the spare room TV, as neither of my parents cared a fig for cricket.

In case you are wondering, the denouement of that match looked like this.

This is what it looks like as a scorecard and Cricinfo match resources (lots of super pictures).

Below is the Guardian’s take on the matter the next day – a very rare “front page news” day for cricket.

Brearley Bounces CriticsBrearley Bounces Critics 22 Jul 1981, Wed The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

The First Week Of A Working Summer: The Joys Of Braintree & Wimbledon, 29 June to 4 July 1981

Rob Croes / Anefo, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

In truth, any summer job would have seemed like an anti-climax after the last few weeks of my first summer term at Keele.

A Very Special Week, The Last Week Of My First Year At Keele, But There Was A Catch… 21 to 28 June 1981

Being sent out on audit to a furniture factory in Braintree just brought home the lifestyle contrast.

Travel broadens the mind…even a daily commute from Streatham to Braintree

Strangely, I remember rather liking the commute, as I had acquired a taste for reading on the move during my National BBYO period (1979-1980) and was reading voraciously by the summer of 1981.

Only one night out during the week that first week – the Tuesday – an evening with Jimmy (Bateman), a friend from Alleyn’s School. I have described a similar evening with Jimmy in an earlier piece, from my Easter holiday job:

Perseverance With Work & Meeting Up With Friends, 28 March To 10 April 1981

I say in the diary that I was summoned back to the office from Braintree before the end of the working day on the Friday. My mum had complained to “the authorities” (via my Uncle Michael no doubt) that my lengthy commute was too onerous a duty for her little one. Her motivation for this unwanted intervention was the delay my long commute caused to the family meal. Dad’s drive from the shop to the house only took 10-15 minutes.

I was really irritated when I discovered that mum had intervened, but the die was cast and I was back in the office for the rest of the summer, with only London-based clients in my auditing-orbit. That did enable me to socialise with my friends a bit more, I suppose, which I most certainly did that summer.

On the Saturday I spent much of the day watching Wimbledon finals day. In those days, the whole tournament was a week earlier than it is today and the men’s finals day was on the Saturday.

That Borg/McEnroe final was an absolute classic and I remember it well. I also remember watching the subsequent doubles matches too. In those days, my mum was keen to watch and probably watched much of it with me.

Below is David Irvine’s take on it all from The Guardian on the following Monday.

Wimbledon Finals Day 4 July 1981 Reviewed In GuardianWimbledon Finals Day 4 July 1981 Reviewed In Guardian 06 Jul 1981, Mon The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

I also mention taping charts and Paul (Deacon – also a friend from Alleyn’s) visiting in the evening. There’ll be some more playlists to follow in the fulness of time, but for now I shall sign off this piece, exactly forty years on.