A Journey to Nottingham

 Today's Journal entry could be about a trip to Nottingham to see a car.

I suppose, in some ways, it is, but it is also about me and Nottingham. A little of my back story, if you like.

30% and I hit the road after a leisurely breakfast and were soon heading up the M42. As we neared the city we both commented about how we used to drive this route regularly over twenty five years ago.

30% used to have a fling with a chap who lived in West Bridgford, and me, I lived and worked up there from the early 1990's through to early in the 2000's.

Back to the car. We saw it. We loved it. We struck a deal and we bought it! ... I'll be driving this route again at the end of next week when we go to collect it.

Now back to me and Nottingham. 

After graduating from Wolverhampton Polytechnic, I had a series of laboratory assistant roles. These ranged from animal feed quality testing through bee disease diagnosis to road construction materials testing. 

One day my father bought home a newspaper clipping that had been clipped and proffered by one of his colleagues. It seemed that the Administration Group of the Inland Revenue were recruiting and he thought I might be interested.

To cut a long story* short, I applied, was accepted, and started work with the Inland Revenue Superannuation Funds Office in Hinchley Wood, Surrey in October 1987.**

In the late 80's the Inland Revenue made a strategic decision to move their Administrative Group out of London. As a result I found myself relocated to Nottinghamshire in 1991.

At that time I was in a long term relationship with TP's mother.*** We initially rented a little cottage in Sutton Bonnington before we settled in a fixer upper in Chapel Lane, Granby. 

Over the next few years we made the house liveable, got married and had a child, before TP's mother decided that she could find a far better life companion than me. 

We separated, and later divorced, and I found myself living a few miles down the road in Lime Grove, Bottesford.  This would be 1998/99.

And there I lived, swapping between bachelorhood and parenting, depending on whether TP was in residence, or not.

The separation and move to Bottesford coincided with me leaving the Inland Revenue and joining a local cable TV company called Diamond Cable. Over the next couple of years that company was part of a number of mergers and acquisitions and became a company called ntl: It later became the core of Virgin Media.

I worked in ntl's IT Department and our roles were outsourced to IBM in 2001. I was eventually redeployed to work on an IBM Account based at their offices in Worcester.

It was during this time that 30% and I became reacquainted and a couple. As our relationship developed we started to live together and eventually sold our respective houses and settled in another fixer upper ... The Pile in September 2004.

So that's a potted career history and a tale of a return journey to Nottingham.

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* Eleven years

** The Monday after the 1987 Hurricane struck the South of England.

*** Biological. It was 30% that did the nurturing stuff!