Mike is thinking about where he was a decade ago today, then two decades ago.

Since I have fewer than three, I’ll have a little think about where I was five years ago, etc.

Roundabout the end of September 10 years ago was when I first came to Nottingham – now I’ve been here a decade.

October 2001

As an excuse to stay with my friends in Nottingham post-degree and maybe to postpone still further growing up and finding a real job, I decided to do a part time MA in Film Studies and get a part-time job to pay for it.  For much of 2000, I was working at an adult IT learning centre, both as admin then later tutor.  Whilst doing the course, and the day job, I also got on the number 10 bus to Ruddington very occasionally to volunteer in Nick Clegg MEP’s office. After a while, I applied for a job there.  So by October 2001, I was working there part time, and just back from my very first Lib Dem conference, in Bournemouth, where I worked on the Gazette thinking up duck puns, and falling head over heels with a rather nice young man working for the party on his first conference too.  Didn’t last, didn’t go anywhere as he was a wee bit innocent back then and I definitely wasn’t, but I spent the week embarrassing myself, turning red at the drop of the hat and following him around with puppy-dog eyes.

October 1996

This would have been something like my third week at university, staying in self-catering accommodation with four lads.  I came out to them within a few days of getting there, and to everyone else not long after that, which was one of the first nerve-shattering things to do.  I didn’t go to any of the Fresher’s parties, but I did sign up to LGB Soc (those were the days before the T) the G&S Soc, the bellringing society, and eventually made friends.  I was  horribly homesick for the first few weeks, but settled in quite quickly, and quicker still once I’d learned to love beer.

October 1991

This would have been a few months after joining my third secondary school.  My parents moved house, something I saw at the time as ruining my life, taking me away from the people I knew and the established life I had with clubs at school, art lessons on Saturdays (a way of getting us out of the house, as I really cannot draw or paint at all – and much preferred to tennis lessons, which were awful!). The second school was a disaster, and I as a delicate flower didn’t do well.  Transfer to the third by virtue of singing in the church choir, and a bus journey to school.  Horror of horror — all the PE lessons are rugby, not just some 😦

October 1986

At 8, I was happily ensconced in primary school, romping the fields behind my house with a mate from over the road, using his penknife to cut small trees for bows and arrows, playing endless games on the climbing frame, our territory extending from the house, to the fields, to the school, to the park that was miles and miles away, to the shop in a portacabin halfway to town.  But not allowed past either of the main roads.

October 1981 

At three, my life has been turned upside down by the arrival of a younger brother, who’s not yet quite managed twelve months. Sibling rivalry manifests itself initially in pinching the baby and making it cry, and pinching Mum who pinches back.  I don’t suppose I’ll quite have figured out reading yet but it won’t be long before road signs prove puzzling (“Red Juice Speed Now?!”) and I’m spending all my time wrapped up in detective stories, and not quite getting why gay is supposed to be an insult.  Plus ça change, eh?