The Concrete Jungle

"on the outskirts of nowhere, on the ringroad to somewhere..."

After escaping a town which was famous for many a joke, Bognor Regis, I really moved up the world as I arrived in...Slough!
Now this place was indeed a concrete jungle and was a real shock to the system!
Famous for 'The Office' and the local area being part of Ali G's territory (Langley/Staines massive!), Slough was an experience if nothing else. But from what I've learned any experience is good experience, be it a good, bad or an indifferent one, and anyway I really believe that you have to experience the bad to appreciate the good.
Not that Slough was all that bad. It was a great base to live, with a good motorway network (M4/M3/M25) on your doorstep, as well as the rail station and Heathrow Airport nearby, and the funny thing is that you could go a short distance in any direction and be in a better place - Windsor to the south, Maidenhead to the west, Uxbridge to the north, and Ealing Broadway to the east. You could jump on a train and be in Reading or London via Paddington in either direction in about quarter of an hour.
Withe regards to the motorways, I did hear but I don't know how true it is, that the Queen insisted on the M4 being built as this would block out Slough from her view from Windsor castle!

Before I moved into my own place in Slough, I did live with a lovely girl first as a friend, then as a girlfriend in nearby Langley. She was just what I needed after 'Physco', as she was very loving and very generous. She looked like Sarah Jessica Parker from Sex & The City somedays, whilst other days she definitely resembled Uma Thurman, especially the character she played in Pulp Fiction. We remain friends to this day, and we never argued but after a while I could sense I was slightly invading her space, so chose to break off the relationship in order for us to remain friends. It was just too soon for both of us, as she too had just finished a ten year relationship.

So, after leaving my brief Langly residence I moved into a tiny studio flat in a rough area of Slough (Chalvey) but was fortunate that is was right next to the local Police station, and suprisingly I stayed in this place for three years, before moving to one of the few upmarket areas of Slough (Sussex Place) and leasing an expensive flat for only a few months before moving yet again.

But back to Slough in a minute...

As you may recall I was in a hotel in the New Forest wasn't I.
The reason for this is that I took a job with the retailer TK Maxx in Slough, but when I arrived at the branch I found a building site! The shop hadn't been renovated yet, and I was to return to the Southampton branch in the meantime...the only thing was nobody had bothered to tell me, and I had no place to stay as I had left my home behind in Bognor.
The company kindly me put up in a hotel for the duration of my stay, initially in the New Forest, and then in the Dolphin in Southampton.
Living in a hotel may sound pretty luxurious but believe me the novelty soon wears off and the boredom soon sets in. Fortunately, it was the summer and Ocean Village was nearby, so I spent my days off and evenings down there in the various tapas bars, whilst watching the millionaire jet-set attending their yachts docked in the marina!

After a few months I returned to life in Slough and soon got accustomed to the locals.
There is a very heavy Asian community present there, which after living for nearly 30 years in Bognor was quite an adjustment. But adjust is what I did and life was good.
I experienced my first interacial relationship with a sweet Maylasian woman, and built up some great friendships with various people of differing cultures and backgrounds.
The one thing that I didn't like with the Asian community though, was that they weren't encouraged to integrate with the rest of society. The local council insisted on setting them up in their own estates and this tended to create mini colonies which was a shame.

Working in Slough also brought me together with my new Irish family!
Glenn & Ruth Courtney made the trip over from Ireland to forge a career in the UK, and if I felt I was experiencing a culture shock then god knows what they made of it!
Glenn, Marty (another Irish lad), and myself were the only members of management originating from Europe who worked at TK Maxx, so we quite naturally bonded and became the three amigos!
We remain close to this day, even though Glenn & Ruth have since returned 'home' to Ireland, and an open invitation is always there for me to visit, as after all I am now classed as family to them.

After a while with TK Maxx, I got head-hunted by BHS to work for them which was rewarding to start with as it meant training in Bath. I fell in love with the place and vowed to return one day...which I did a few years later as I'll write about in a future blog.
But my heart wasn't in retail anymore, so I took a position with an accounts/payroll company called Nash-Williams and suddenly I was enjoying life to the max. I did take a pay cut, but my quality of life rapidly improved, as I was now working Monday to Friday, 9 to 5 and the world was my oyster at weekends...well Berkshire & Bucks was anyway!

Shortly after moving into the second lovely apartment in Sussex Place, I was given an ultimatum by my new employers - either become redundant or take a transfer to their head office in Bournemouth as they were closing the local office due to my manager's imminent retirement.
Well, a guy like me with no commitments, ties or attachements, who could place his entire belongings and possessions into the back of a Peugeot 106, didn't have much of a choice... Bournemouth here I come and a lovely new home by the sea was awaiting me!

But before that I had to break the news to my Irish friends in Slough that I would be leaving...

Nomadic Steve