| Tigers at Layer Road 21:11 - Sep 23 with 54596 views | SparkfilmsTV |
In a strange twist of events l found myself in conversation with a young lady who had attended Layer Road for a match against Hull City in our first season in The Championship. The 5-1 encounter.
We were attending a promo evening for a band called The Datsuns in North London in 2008.
During the evening she explained that she had been present at a party that made the national news due to the tragic death of someone by the name of Mark Blanco.
The incident occurred in December 2006.
This incident will be shown on Channel 4 on Monday night at 22.00 in an hour long documentary and several people known to me have made contributions.
It may be of interest to some.
I am very much hoping that the police will reinvestigate the death of Mark Blanco as a result of what will be included in the content.
I know that what l was told by this young lady 15 years ago has been instrumental in the making of this documentary.
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| Tigers at Layer Road on 16:03 - Oct 30 with 1520 views | SparkfilmsTV |
It was about my fourth night in hospital.
I recall a male patient shouting from a bed nearby - 'Nurse, Nurse, these are the wrong pills, mine are pink'.
I had just taken a couple of pink tablets and mine were usually white.
They didn't take long to kick in, within minutes there was a whoosh and l was transported on my bed through a window and out into the night sky. A magic carpet ride on a hospital bed above the rooftops of Colchester is highly recommended.
I was hanging onto the side of the bed with all the covers fluttering around me. The journey took in Turner Rise and moved towards the Balkerne Hill area, l went over Jumbo and then down the High Street in close proximity to St Helena perched on the top of the Town Hall then it was onto the Greenstead roundabout and above Tesco at The Hythe before heading back towards Colchester General and taking in The Jobserve Community Stadium on route.
That was when l saw witches on broomsticks flying over the ground. | | | |
| Tigers at Layer Road on 21:53 - Oct 30 with 1474 views | noah4x4 |
| Tigers at Layer Road on 16:03 - Oct 30 by SparkfilmsTV |
It was about my fourth night in hospital.
I recall a male patient shouting from a bed nearby - 'Nurse, Nurse, these are the wrong pills, mine are pink'.
I had just taken a couple of pink tablets and mine were usually white.
They didn't take long to kick in, within minutes there was a whoosh and l was transported on my bed through a window and out into the night sky. A magic carpet ride on a hospital bed above the rooftops of Colchester is highly recommended.
I was hanging onto the side of the bed with all the covers fluttering around me. The journey took in Turner Rise and moved towards the Balkerne Hill area, l went over Jumbo and then down the High Street in close proximity to St Helena perched on the top of the Town Hall then it was onto the Greenstead roundabout and above Tesco at The Hythe before heading back towards Colchester General and taking in The Jobserve Community Stadium on route.
That was when l saw witches on broomsticks flying over the ground. |
Ah, the pink pills. That’s the Bedknobs & Broomsticks fantasy Ray.
Had you taken the blue pills it would have been Mary Millington rather than Angela Lansbury dressed in the nurse’s uniform…. |  | | |
| Tigers at Layer Road on 20:46 - Oct 31 with 1421 views | SparkfilmsTV |
| Tigers at Layer Road on 21:53 - Oct 30 by noah4x4 |
Ah, the pink pills. That’s the Bedknobs & Broomsticks fantasy Ray.
Had you taken the blue pills it would have been Mary Millington rather than Angela Lansbury dressed in the nurse’s uniform…. |
I would have taken any colour pills to catch a glimpse of Emily Sheffield in nurse's uniform or any other attire.
The gentleman whose dosage l had mistakingly been given was a few beds away. I had heard him through the day and night but hadn't caught sight of him.
Later in the week we met ...he was passing my bed on a walking frame and taking steps of not much more than a few inches at a time. He was headed to the bathroom and the journey there and back which covered a round trip of about 15 metres took about half an hour.
Later that day l went his bedside and sat next to him.
He told me how his carer had found him unresponsive on his kitchen floor and had applied CPR to revive him. She had made an emergency call and paramedics got him into hospital.
That was quite some conversation.
I still think about the people l shared a ward with, especially him. [Post edited 1 Nov 8:07]
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| Tigers at Layer Road on 23:02 - Nov 1 with 1361 views | SparkfilmsTV |
Somewhere, way back on this thread, l refer to birthday links and how they have followed me throughout my lifetime.
Ian Holloway has just taken over as Manager of Swindon Town and l have always found him to be entertaining, absorbing and interesting.
As with a long string of people who l have encountered throughout my lifetime Ian Holloway was also born on March 12. So that is someone else to add to a growing list that includes Pete Doherty of The Libertines and Steve Harris of Iron Maiden.
Not forgetting Emma somewhere in Wellington House in Butt Road, Colchester and Allison in Thorpe Bay, Southend.....( who appears in a poetic piece on here ).
Shame l never got to meet Jack Kerouac. | | | |
| Tigers at Layer Road on 21:27 - Nov 3 with 1277 views | SparkfilmsTV |
I mention visions of witches on broomsticks with the medication that l was given in error while in hospital.
I could have done with more of those. It was quite a trip.
Way back in time l found myself at a house party at 172 Newport Road, Cardiff ( or 176? ). We drove over there in one hit from Colchester to arrive around midnight. My girlfriend used to go to uni in Leicester with these dudes and promised a fun time.
It was there that l was very greedy and munched on a plate of magic mushrooms that were handed to me while sitting on a landing.
A while later l was laying on the Newport Road where all the Victorian houses were melting and turning into a multi coloured lava flows There were people with giant chicken heads, witches on broomsticks flying above.
It was a monster headxxxx never to be repeated.
The party turned into a Romanesque orgy which l believe l was unable to take part in.
This would have been 1977.
In 1983 l was in New York standing on top of the Empire State Building looking down at the yellow cabs making patterns.
I was travelling alone and having some fun.
There were a couple of girls in their twenties a few yards away. We got talking. They were from Cardiff and l mentioned the Newport Road super party.
One of them had lived a few houses up from where that party took place and we exchanged phone numbers - a Colchester STD and a Cardiff STD.
No mobiles back then.
Change of subject.
I once answered a phone where l was staying abroad in 1988 and it was Henry Kissinger on the line. He lived until he was 100. He should have auditioned for The Fun Lovin' Criminals - wonderful vocal tone.
Unsurprisingly it wasn't me he wished to speak to but l wrote down that he had called in a book by the phone.
NB. Henry Kissinger had formed Kissinger Associates which was a kind of Linkedin set up before it was ever thought of. I was out in Hong Kong. This was 1988 and they were wearing face masks out there due to the air pollution.
[Post edited 3 Nov 21:53]
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| Tigers at Layer Road on 09:43 - Nov 6 with 1182 views | SparkfilmsTV |
Random thoughts and memories.
I was thinking about this yesterday while l was cutting the grass.
Our brains store vast volumes of unrelated life experiences that don't lend themselves to logical writing sequences but Burroughs used a cut and paste method for displaying written works.
Part One.
We were about 13 or 14 years old, about half a dozen of us up on what is now known as Turner Rise which is North of the railway line in Colchester.
We used to look for detonators to explode - for some reason that l do not recall we sometimes found them in that field. Throw bricks on them. Bang! Make an explosion.
It was an evening. Spring or summer.
We were scanning the grass. We were being watched from the top of the field. A large black bull. He starts to walk towards us. We look at one another and begin walking down the hill away from him.
He breaks into a sprint and we can hear the thud of his footsteps getting closer and closer.
We run for our lives and when we get to the stile at the bottom of the field we don't have time to meander through the thing. We dive over it and escape the beast by inches.
We looked back at him.
He seemed annoyed.
We didn't return. [Post edited 6 Nov 22:57]
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| Tigers at Layer Road on 19:53 - Nov 6 with 1135 views | SparkfilmsTV |
Random thoughts and memories
Part Two
I was about six years old. A few of us used to sit on the kerb and discuss what Bill and Ben - The Flowerpot Men were up to. Very few cars back then.
We were in Margaret Road, Colchester and down on Kings Head Meadow a circus had arrived. Chipperfield's.
I think it was a Sunday. We took a walk down to the meadow - didn't feel the need to mention our excusion to our parents.
We peeped through an opening in the huge tent. There was a lady on a trapeze practising. We were enthralled.
She spots us and waves. We wave back.
She releases herself from the trapeze and walks towards us.
She invites us in and gives us a guided tour that was dreamlike.
We met the elephants and hand fed them. Tigers next. We didn't feed those.
I hope we said thank you to her.
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| Tigers at Layer Road on 22:51 - Nov 6 with 1106 views | SparkfilmsTV |
Random thoughts and memories
Part Three
Summer 1993
It's a Saturday afternoon. I am driving through central London. There are two girls in my car who are making some kind of delivery.
I jump a red light. About two seconds later a police officer appears in front of my car with a hand halt sign. I break hard, he is leaning over the bonnet
The girls had a shoe box with them that had been rattling all the way from Riverside Estate, Colchester. The contents are all over the floor in the rear of my car.
The officer chastises me. I apologise. He gives a stern warning but allows us to continue.
I ask the girls what is on the floor.
They said it was about 7,000 ecstasy tablets. [Post edited 6 Nov 23:04]
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| Tigers at Layer Road on 00:05 - Nov 7 with 1087 views | SparkfilmsTV |
Random thoughts and memories
Part Four
Location is an art studio in Wells Street, London W1 in 1985.
We were working on the Marks and Spencer Charge Card design launch. Myself and an Account Director had a team of about twenty putting the work together.
We had been working flat out from around 10 in the morning until about 2am. Gradually as the work was completed we had an arrangement to release the staff and get them taxis home. Some of the journeys were in excess of fifty miles but we had the budget for it.
Just after 2am l said to my colleague we could head for a hotel we had booked.
Then l realised that we had no key to lock up. But it was even worse. We were locked in. The presentation of the work that we had completed was due at 9am at Marks and Spencer Head Office in Baker Street the following morning.
We were on the fifth floor of a big building and found doors to a stairwell but those were locked too.
I thought the only thing we could do was sleep on the sofas in an office. We had one each. The Account Director was a female who l had worked with on this project over several months.
By around 2.30am we were still talking about the project and got the munchies. We raided the kitchen and found some pizzas in the fridge and put one in the microwave. We ate that one then decided to eat another.
It was around 5am before we fell asleep.
The next thing l remember is someone standing over me and daylight coming in through the windows. I looked at the clock and it was 8.40am.
.
Caroline was fast asleep on the sofa opposite. I shook her.
We had 20 minutes to get to Baker Street with three large art bags and we ordered a taxi. We arrived for the meeting with about 30 seconds to spare. God only knows what we looked like.
The presentation lasted an hour or so and they loved it.
We returned to our agency and told management about getting locked in and the pizzas.
They laughed. [Post edited 7 Nov 0:16]
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| Tigers at Layer Road on 23:22 - Nov 7 with 1031 views | SparkfilmsTV |
Random thoughts and memories
Part Five
Red Square, Moscow 1979
I am staying at the Intourist Hotel. It was possibly the biggest hotel in the world at the time.
The design of the hotel meant that floor watchers were placed around the building in view of every room.
The watchers were uniformed women who all looked stern and incapable of smiling. They were quite intimidating.
They appeared to be scrutinising every footstep.
After a few days one of them was beckoning me towards her. I went across to the reception desk set up and she pulled out a bottle of vodka from underneath that she wanted me to buy. I declined, best l could.
In the basement of the hotel was a bar.
The currency they wanted was anything other than russian. They preferred American dollars or European currency.
The bar area was fairly dark and cold. The music was a strange mix.
I met a Russian girl there called Maria. She spoke minimal English.
We arranged to meet in the hotel reception the next morning around eleven. After a breakfast that included tea without milk which was their custom l sat in reception.
It got to about 11.15 and l thought it unlikely that she would appear, but suddenly she comes flying in through the revolving doors. She spoke even less English than l recalled from the previous evening and we were both having to use elements of sign language.
We go out into the street and walk a while. Next thing we are on the Moscow Metro. We change lines. Everything is in Russian. All of the people appear to be Russian.
We leave the Metro by way of a long and steep up escalator and are back in daylight.
We walk for another 10 minutes and there are numerous white tower blocks on a hill.
We reach the one where she lives. The lift was broken and we climb around eight floors of concrete steps.
Her parents are at home. And her little brother.
Her father spoke a few odd words in English.
They prepared a basic lunch with bread.
I remember thinking that l would never find my way back to the hotel but as it happened l was given a lift back and it was quite some distance.
Maria and l exchanged addresses and l promised to write even though l was not sure if she would understand much of it.
I wrote to her when l returned to England. I think it may have been intercepted and never delivered.
I kept her address and admired her handwriting which was in dark blue italic with the interesting characters you see in the Russian alphabet.
It occured to me that if she frequented the bars in Moscow she would have opportunities to meet people from Europe or beyond.
To this day, l recall her stunning dark features.
. [Post edited 7 Nov 23:35]
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| Tigers at Layer Road on 09:47 - Nov 8 with 978 views | SparkfilmsTV |
Random thoughts and memories
Part Six
Without checking l think this was 1987.
I am on a train from Colchester to Liverpool Street. It was unusual for me to travel First Class.
I am going through some work on the table.
Sitting opposite is a man in his forties with dark hair and a beard. I recognised him.
The train stopped at Shenfield and we were there for an hour or so.
My travelling companion and l strike up conversation.
He asks me what l am working on.
When l tell him it is design work he is very interested.
He says that he has recently sold his marketing company in London and was looking for a new adventure of sorts.
I reply that l was aware this new adventure included having recently purchased Colchester United Football Club.
That was a subject that would lead to an association between myself and Mr Johnathan Crisp for several interesting and productive years.
Mr Crisp explained how Arsenal and then Ipswich Town were his preferred choices for investment but neither the Arsenal board or the Cobbold family at Portman Road were accomodating.
Next stop Colchester United.
Maurice Cadman was only too pleased to discuss a change of ownership.
The following few years were extraordinary with an ill conceived Members Only plan and relegation from the Football League.
I can confirm that Johnathan was pumping all available cash that was required to keep the club afloat throughout his ownership.
I was occasionally the conduit from getting the cheques delivered to the bank.
He was a larger than life character. Highly educated and well read, kind, generous and always wonderful company.
He had a wide circle of friends, many of whom l met.
They came from a variety of backgrounds. Entertainers, musicians, show business, international footballers, British and European football managers, farmers, welders, journalists and any walk of life.
He treated everyone the same.
Johnathan decided that football club ownership was just a little too taxing on his pocket and stress levels and l was present when the club was sold to James Bowdridge after several roller coaster years. [Post edited 8 Nov 9:52]
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| Tigers at Layer Road on 14:09 - Nov 8 with 936 views | SparkfilmsTV |
Random thoughts and memories
Part Seven
Canary Wharf, London 2001
I get invited to a book publishing reception type party in Canary Wharf. The invite comes through on email a few days before.
It is scheduled for the Saturday night from 8pm.
I go up by train and trek along to the big tower in the sky.
Once in the reception l see a board with directions to the event that l would only experience for around a minute.
Two large double doors open up in front of me and there are several hundred people who look like the party had been running all day.
I was about five metres inside and a female walked in my direction. She appeared to be unsteady on her feet.
She got closer and closer and grabbed out at me to hold her up.
I thought this must be a case of mistaken identity.
She said she had drunk too much and could l take her home. I like adventures and my immediate instinct was to go along with things.
I asked her where she lived and she replied that it was Muswell Hill. I thought this a good omen because Ray Davies of The Kinks had written Muswell Hillbillies and it sounded like a good scene.
She had a suede jacket and a bag of some kind that was hanging like a long necklace.
We made it onto the tube and changed lines.
After a while we are waiting at a bus stop. A bus arrives. We get on. We find a seat and within seconds she has fallen asleep on my shoulder.
I try to wake her. I have to shake her. She opens her eyes and looks out of the window and leaps up. We get off at the next stop.
For the next few hundred yards l am almost carrying her but l have no idea where we are headed.
Eventually we see a sign for Grand Avenue which she seems familiar with.
We arrive at her home.
I have no idea what to expect.
It is quite a property.
We are on the doorstep and she is fumbling for a key in her bag. Then she says she may have left it in the kitchen.
There is a top window open on the bay. I offer to climb in.
She insists on undergoing the task and to my amazement has climbed in and is reaching down for a catch to open a side window.
She gets the window open and manages to crawl in.
I was impressed with this especially considering her condition only minutes before.
She opens the front door.
It was a property l became familiar with over the following months.
It was only when we were in her kitchen drinking coffee and having toast and marmite that l learned her name and her circumstances.
A couple of years ago l looked up the property on Rightmove. There were images of every room. The garden. The summer house.
I thought of the car chase we once had when her ex husband had threatened to kill us both.
It included her having to drive up on pavements across North London and going against the grain of traffic to get away from him. We ended up staying in a hotel that night in Slough.
She was a Pulp fan. Me too.
And she was aptly named Deborah. [Post edited 8 Nov 21:27]
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| Tigers at Layer Road on 21:25 - Nov 8 with 887 views | SparkfilmsTV |
Random thoughts and memories
Part Eight
Advertising Agency, Mayfair, London. 1980.
I had been working for this advertising agency for about three weeks as a Studio Manager.
The agency had some great accounts.
One of which was Seagram's.
The agency Creative Director had suddenly left her position.
We were having to re pitch for a large segment of the Seagram's account that included Captain Morgan Rum.
One of the partners came down to see me and invited me out to lunch as he wanted to discuss something confidential.
We went to The Hilton Hotel on Park Lane which was close to our Derby Street office.
He explained that he was bringing in three Creative teams from other London agencies to moonlight on our pitch and that at least one of the teams was working on the pitch for their own agency.
That was something l had never heard of.
The moonlighters would be in an office that was private and hidden from view. They would come in through the back of the building.
He said he wanted me to work extra hours in the evening and the agency would put me up in a hotel for a week.
I used to leave at 5.30 and the moonlight shift would run Monday to Friday from 6pm until around 11pm.
He also asked me to get in a team of however many freelancers l thought we might need to put the presentation together.
I agreed to all of this.
The work duly took place and it was a wonderful experience to see how these guys put concepts together.
They really were some of the elite of the creative scene back then with multiple awards between them.
One of the things that amazed me was that what they produced as images and copy was virtually scribbled on pages of an A2 layout pad and there was plenty of scope for me to get involved in the design.
We held on to the account, and Seagram's gave us other brands to work on including a Polish vodka.
The agency were great fun to work for and we had a bar there stocked up with hundreds of bottles of rum and vodka which was open on Friday evenings and completely free to members of staff.
A few months after the moonlighting the new Creative Director invited me to get involved in writing headlines for some clothing brands we had just won.
It occured to be how an entire advertising campaign can evolve from just a few words. [Post edited 9 Nov 12:03]
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| Tigers at Layer Road on 12:19 - Nov 9 with 831 views | SparkfilmsTV |
Random thoughts and memories
Part Nine
Life in Mayfair Adland continued.
It is Friday lunch time. I am being taken to lunch by a rep from the typesetting house the agency has been using for the past few years.
This was about my fourth week at the agency.
We set off in a taxi and find ourselves in a seedy strip club which l think was called Jacks.
We sit at a table a few metres back from the flesh and Brian hands me a plain brown envelope.
I open it up and there is several hundred pounds in crisp new notes. I ask him what this is about and he says that it is the arrangement that has been in place for Studio Managers who place the orders for typesetting and prints.
I give it back to him and make it very clear that l do not work that way.
I continued to use the South London based typesetters for several months more but when their work was not up to the standards that l required l dropped them and placed the work elsewhere.
In 2006 while working for Sky News on The Suffolk Serial Murders l was offered thousands for information relating to the case. I had a journalist and photographer from a tabloid red top in my home who were on the phone to the
editor and discussing payments.
I declined all. They were quite put out by it.
They left. I never saw them again. | | | |
| Tigers at Layer Road on 17:34 - Nov 9 with 793 views | SparkfilmsTV |
Random thoughts and memories
Part 10
Colchester High Street, 1995
Most unusually l was wearing a black suit and carrying a briefcase. I turn the corner from Head Street into High Street and bump into a business associate of sorts who is also in black suit and carrying briefcase.
Last time l saw him was in a national press story after an epic court case from the previous year.
Despite being found guilty he evaded a prison sentence.
He invites me to join him for coffee in The Britannia Building Society.
We take a seat at a table and my associate beckons a member of staff over and puts in an order for two coffees and biscuits.
About ten minutes later he asks for a refill.
They oblige.
When we have consumed the second coffee he gets up and leaves with me following.
We get outside and l say that l thought he had an appointment at the building society.
He just says Best Coffee in Town and laughs.
He was a class act.
He had become a client to my Graphic Warehouse business in 1989. He ran a business at the time that was based in Colchester and was ground breaking by way of pirate software and surplus hardware that had been commissioned from BT and the army.
In addition to that he employed an array of females from all parts of the UK.
😳😳😳 [Post edited 9 Nov 17:35]
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| Tigers at Layer Road on 19:44 - Nov 9 with 772 views | SparkfilmsTV |
Random thoughts and memories
Part Eleven
I am an eight year old attending North County Primary School in North Station Road, Colchester
We have a practice run for the egg and spoon race at the school sports day. Instead of an egg we had a bucket of potatoes.
I was in the second heat of six and got pushed out of the way of the bucket by some bigger kids. I got the last potato which was a bit mouldy and an unusual shape.
I placed the potato on the spoon and it was Ready, Steady, Go ...off l went, l noticed that the potato sat comfortably on the spoon and was wobble free. I won the heat.
I went home that night and sat prayer like in my little bedroom hoping that the mouldy potato would be in the bucket when l had my race the next afternoon.
My mother came to the sports day which was very well attended.
I had butterflies as the race grew closer.
Then it happened.
Once again l was last in the bucket but felt elated when l saw the mouldy potato that everyone had left.
I won the race.
My mother was clapping.
Next we had the sack race.
I came 5th. | | | |
| Tigers at Layer Road on 20:20 - Nov 9 with 765 views | SparkfilmsTV |
Random thoughts and memories
Part Twelve
1991. Transition from marital home to new life.
I had acquired quite a few properties by 1991 including a selection of houses and flats in and around Colchester.
I was going to live in Victoria Road, Colchester but had a car stolen from there and the property burgled while l was at Cheltenham for a weekend to take in the Cheltenham Town v Colchester United match during our first season in The Conference.
I rented it out to the individual mentioned in the Britannia Building Society post.
I moved to Carlisle Close in Colchester and had been in the property about 24 hours.
It was around eleven in the morning.
I was in the kitchen at the sink by the front window.
A big white van pulled up. Then another.
About six police officers from each van jumped out with some kind of equipment and went to the side, back, and front of the house.
They knocked on the front door.
I opened the door and an officer said the words Brendon John xxxxxx.
I said that is the name of the family l have purchased the property from.
They accepted that and l cannot recall if they entered the property.
They got back in the vans and drove off.
About a week later my friend and l met two girls in a nightclub at around 1.50am.
We invited them for a coffee at my new home.
I was in the kitchen trying to get my new coffee machine to percolate when l heard this thumping noise and screaming.
The girls were fighting.
My friend was trying to break it up and caught a kick where you don't want it and was writhing on the floor.
I tried to break it up and they both started on me.
Next thing one has run out the front door and the other is chasing her screaming her head off.
They are a few doors around the corner and fighting in a front garden. I pull one off and she bites me on the hand. My friend comes around the corner, best he can and he has his hand over his testicles.
Eventually things calm down. I even gave them a lift back to Langham . They were cousins.
Never saw them again [Post edited 9 Nov 20:23]
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| Tigers at Layer Road on 20:59 - Nov 9 with 759 views | SparkfilmsTV |
Random thoughts and memories
Part Thirteen
December 2006. Carlisle Close, Colchester.
I have been working for Sky News on the Suffolk Serial Murders and almost the entire crew converge on my home over several hours to use as a base while we visit other properties. There are a number of vehicles outside including one or two with large dishes on the roofs. It was quite a spectacle.
I also have two members of a production team from Channel 4 and various other media folk present.
Despite it all l manage to arrange coffee for the guys.
My youngest daughter was living with me but stayed in her room throughout the mayhem.
By the next morning the coast had cleared but in the rush quite a bit of equipment had been left on kitchen worktops and in the living room.
There were several laptops and some sound equipment scattered around. By the following lunchtime they had all been reclaimed.
REFERENCE TO WORKING WITH SKY NEWS
Like many of the British public l had followed the tragic murders of Holly and Jessica in Soham by Ian Huntley.
This might seem quite strange but from the moment l saw Huntley interviewed by Jeremy Thompson on Sky News l knew for sure that l would work with him on something in the future.
I told him as much in 2006. We worked closely together and l still have the film work we did live from the streets of Ipswich.
Jeremy was the news anchor on Sky for many years and a superb presenter who shared some incredible insights of his career with me on downtime between location work.
I was up all night on Tuesday watching the US election on Sky News and Mark Stone was prominent throughout the night. Mark was a production assistant in 2006 at Sky having just left Norwich University.
He has forged a great career for himself.
Gillian Joseph still reads the news at Sky.
These people have a talent to present in a real pressure cooker environment.
Big respect to them. [Post edited 9 Nov 21:03]
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| Tigers at Layer Road on 08:57 - Nov 10 with 708 views | SparkfilmsTV |
Random thoughts and memories
Part Fourteen.
1991
We are on the pavement outside my former marital home in Colchester.
Apart from myself there is a property agent, an interpreter, and a Bosnian family who have been in the UK for about a week.
We have been inside the property and l was discussing the local school and shops and the like.
To this day it is the only time in my life that an interpreter was required.
I recall the property agent saying to me the day before that the family didn't have a single word of English in their vocabulary.
So we are standing there and this young lady is coming up the road in a very revealing dress.
We are still at a period in life where most humans had natural bodies and features.
I glance towards her and so does the Bosnian father of two young children.
It would appear he may have a secret catch phrase that he had acquired as he suddenly said Lovely Jubberly and his face lit up having been quite dead pan moments before. | | | |
| Tigers at Layer Road on 12:28 - Nov 10 with 675 views | SparkfilmsTV |
Random thoughts and memories
Part Fifteen
Hong Kong, 1989
I am out there designing a beauty exhibition.
I had no idea that this would lead to me doing an impersonation of a lion from a high rise in the dead of night.
In 1989 office hours in Hong Kong were from around 8.30am to 5.30pm, Monday to Friday and l think 9am until 1pm on Saturday morning which came as a bit of a shock when compared to the UK.
On one particular mid week evening l made a decision that l still regret some 35 years later.
I set off alone to sample some of the bars in the area which was in the central business district.
As l key this in l realise how l decided to make the choice of drinks that l sampled that night.
I liked to sample different colour drinks, Midori was green etc.
In Hong Kong bars all colours of the rainbow appeared to be available and l spent several hours with the kind of colouring book that l would not recommend to anyone else.
I had the address of where l was staying to show a taxi driver, l don't even recall taking a taxi but somehow got to the tower block where l was staying with an English couple .
Being unable to find the lift l made my way up the stairwell as l headed to somewhere on about Level 12.
I was violently sick. After picking myself up from the concrete steps l found a side window which l was leaning out of and projectile vomit was dropping down on cars and possibly anyone down there.
By my very good fortune Derek Worth who l was staying with had heard what he thought was a lion roaring and came to my rescue.
I was unable to walk and crawled in on all fours into the apartment where l was staying.
Derek's wife had awoken and she had a fixed expression of disgust and horror.
Usually when one is sick you tend to feel a bit better. This was not the case. I continued to make animal noises for quite a while longer.
Back in the UK many years later Derek said l had made the animal noises of the entire contents of the zoo in Hong Kong that included a Rhino and a Bison. | | | |
| Tigers at Layer Road on 12:54 - Nov 10 with 665 views | SparkfilmsTV |
Random thoughts and memories
Part Sixteen
East Hill, Colchester 2002
Anyone who has known me since 2002 will not have seen me drink any alcohol and here is why.
I meet a business colleague on East Hill around 1pm. We go into The Goat and Boot and have a pint.
We go on a pub and bar crawl for 10 hours.
It is only interrupted by a few visits to the cash machine.
I make it home somehow and get attacked by the downstairs bathroom that somehow flings itself at me from differing angles. I am punch-drunk, on the floor, battered and bruised. Or was it the ceiling?
About a week later l catch up with my drinking partner.
I ask him how he got home. He said he tried to drive home but knocked down a wall in Maldon Road and collided with a series of vehicles and his car was a write off.
His wife found him asleep in a bush a few doors down from where he lived. | | | |
| Tigers at Layer Road on 15:41 - Nov 11 with 575 views | SparkfilmsTV |
Random thoughts and memories
Part Seventeen
Budapest, 1980
I take my by now common law wife on a four day Euro City Flyer - or however it was branded.
Around day two we meet a couple from London at breakfast. The man is a cabbie but l don't recall what his wife did.
He mentions that he was hiring a car and would we like to join him on a trek across the Hungarian outback.
Off we go. We are headed towards Czechoslovakia.
We reach the border. There is border patrol up on a raised platform. Our driver gets out of the taxi. We follow. He had a camera and starts clicking the thing. It is pointed at the check point and the armed guards that were on patrol.
They come running towards us. He is photographing them.
Within moments we are in a ground floor area that had seating, desks, maps of Europe, flags and framed pictures on the walls of various military and political personnel.
There are about six guards who are not speaking any English other than the word 'Passport'. I try to explain that in Eastern Europe passports were usually handed in at the hotel reception desks.
I should mention that the guards had guns and they were waving them around quite a bit.
One of them is on the phone and appears to be explaining that he has detained two men with two women.
They were not threatening as such but after about two hours we were feeling the heat a bit.
Then the door opens and what appeared to be a senior Hungarian official in striking uniform walks over to us.
He speaks some English but it is quite limited.
We explain about the car hire, passports and the place we were staying which was actually The Hotel Budapest.
The film in the camera was destroyed.
We were told we would be given a two vehicle escort all the way to the hotel and that on arrival we would be subject to confirmation of our booking in addition to the officials inspecting our passports.
That all happened.
The round trip lasted about 10 hours and for several hours of that we had reason to be concerned.
Having said that it is quite likely the border guards enjoyed having something to do. [Post edited 11 Nov 16:13]
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| Tigers at Layer Road on 17:59 - Nov 11 with 543 views | SparkfilmsTV |
Random thoughts and memories
Part Eighteen
UK roadtrip, 2004
I had just released a book and it had made it's way into retailers across the UK. I spent several weekends driving to towns and cities visiting bookshops - Waterstone's in particular. I think l managed about 80 with a whistle stop tour that had some challenging multi storey car parks to negotiate.
I took a travelling companion.
We are driving North after visiting Preston and she has fallen asleep in the front seat of the car.
I decided to go to Glasgow next and put my foot down.
As she had been awake most of the previous night l let her sleep it off.
It is snowing.
I see a sign for Gretna Green. I look across at her, and l think, yeah, l could marry you.
My intention was to do just that but l didn't know if you had to pre-book in advance. As it happened l took a wrong turning and we actually ended up in Northumberland.
I don't think l ever told her about that.
She had agreed to everything l had suggested over some crazy months so l think she would have gone along with it.
She had been the subject of some of the material in the book.
I liked observing her movements.
Making sandwiches
She could do body flips
Gaze at the stars like she owned each one. [Post edited 11 Nov 18:02]
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| Tigers at Layer Road on 21:03 - Nov 11 with 522 views | SparkfilmsTV |
Random thoughts and memories
Part Nineteen
Colchester, Spring 1991
Things are not good at home. We are living separate lives. Sleeping in different parts of the house. Avoiding one another and going out on alternate evenings. This has been going on for months now. Much of it was torture. Especially with three young daughters.
We both knew it was the end and it was going to take a major reorganisation of lifestyles.
I was running a business and involved with Colchester United as a club sponsor and as an Associate Director.
I was 38. There was a new life on the horizon but l had no idea where it would take me.
Over the previous eleven years l had not really frequented pubs or bars and certainly not nightclubs.
I had enjoyed home life. I was content. Contentment can be enough.
There were a couple of builders doing some work on my office premises. They had recently gone through marital break ups of their own. We spoke about it one day..
They mentioned going out to nightclubs. They had been on the circuit for a year or so.
That was the beginning of an adventure that l was sceptical about initially but would lead to life experiences that went some way to accepting that we have to be prepared to move on and allow a new life pattern to evolve.
I was introduced to an Over 25's night on Tuesday's at Dukes Nightclub in Chelmsford. The first few visits were fairly unspectacular. On about my fourth trip out to Chelmsford l began to get the lay of the land and met a 5 foot three inch, size 10. blonde from Southend who was a receptionist at an insurance company.
I had been watching her dancing.
We hadn't had any eye contact.
Next thing she is standing just a few feet away drinking from a straw. I don't know what came over me at that moment. I just asked her for a phone number.
She didn't say anything. Turned to the side a little. Then l saw her writing on something.
She gave me a little folded piece of paper. I looked at it.
It said 'Julie' and had two Southend numbers on it, one a home number and the other her work number.
I looked back, she had gone.
On the Wednesday morning l was in my office thinking about her.
I nervously dialed the work number and a female answered. It wasn't Julie but another receptionist. She took my number and said she would get Julie to call back .
About half an hour later Julie phoned me.
The call was quite short but we agreed to go out on the Friday evening.
It was like being sixteen again. I couldn't wait for the time to pass to the Friday evening.
I was nervous driving to Southend. I was picking her up from her home.
I rang the door bell. She came to the door. She looked amazing.
After that night we spent an entire seven days and nights together. It was my very good fortune that she had a week's holiday. | | | |
| Tigers at Layer Road on 23:38 - Nov 11 with 509 views | SparkfilmsTV |
Random thoughts and memories
Part Twenty
This is actually a follow up to Part Nineteen.
I think l picked up Julie in Southend about 7.30 on the Friday evening. I don't think we had arranged anything in particular. We went to a wine bar in Westcliff and the first few minutes were electrifying as she gave me a little background into her life which was in it's 24th year.
She had aspired to be a dancer and had completed a course in dance and drama but taken a position as a receptionist for a company in Southend somehow.
I cannot recall how l mentioned Phantom of The Opera to her but when l did her hand slipped into mine and she said she would love to see it.
I had the Phantom cassette in the car and we parked up on the sea front for a while.
I think it was four days later when we were watching Phantom in London. There is a moment in the production when the deep keyboard kicks in and the entire theatre seems to vibrate. I could just sense how thrilled she was.
I am writing this out of sequence because as l am keying it in l am recalling how the evening panned out.
It got to around 11.30 and Julie said something like 'l don't want to go home'. I must have asked her if she wanted to come back to Colchester because we got back to a property l had just bought in Victoria Road about an hour later.
The property was a converted flat in a building that was virtually or possibly completely uninhabited as the flats had only just come into the market.
The flat had minimal furniture but l had a stereo system there and played the Phantom cassette.
Julie was dancing barefoot to some of that.
It was quite cinematic.
It was escapism for both of us for similar reasons as it turned out. We were each other's therapy.
I had candles and incense burning.
We drove back to Southend at 6am. I waited outside for about five minutes and Julie left a note for her parents saying she was spending a few away and returned to the car with two carrier bags of clothes. [Post edited 11 Nov 23:46]
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