Montpelier Exchange

"live in the moment, or you'll never be free ~ choose life, choose living ~ choose essence..."

Picking up from where I left off last time, the decision between returning to Bath or moving to Cheltenham wasn't very difficult in the end.
I had spent three years in Bath and had left heartbroken, so why would I want to go back there when I could live somewhere new, exciting and welcoming.

Jimi & Denn had moved to Cheltenham a few years previously, and they very kindly invited me to join them with their family one Christmas. On Boxing Day we went around the town and it felt like a place where I could live one day. So whilst scheming up my plan to move away from Bradley Stoke, I started visting the town and exploring possible letting agents. Cheltenham was directly north up the M5 from where I lived and worked, and the journey took about half an hour irrespective of whether you took the train or drove a car.

By May 2008 I was ready to move on and viewed a couple of properties in Cheltenham courtesy of a letting agent located in Montpelier Exchange. This area was about a ten minute walk from the town centre, but was a lively place in its own right. The alure of a gorgeous parade of boutiques, wine bars, reastaurants, and bistros was very enticing, and the second property that I viewed had the added bonus on being just a stones throw away.

Lansdown Court was a large, beautiful, listed building, which kept all the period features on the facade, but had been converted into 24 apartments inside. My flat was on the first floor, which you reached by climbing a grand, wide sweeping staircase. Inside featured a small bathroom, but with the best shower I've ever used, a fair sized living room, a modern galley style kichen, and a large bedroom. The rooms had high ceilings and the windows didn't have curtains, but internal wooden shutters instead. These were a god send to me, as for the first couple of months that I lived there I was still working my notice period from my warehouse nightshift job, so these shutters completely blacked out the light during the day, which enabled me to get some quality sleep at last.

Initially, I only really had the weekends to explore the town further, but by the end of August I had finished work and suddenly I was a man of complete leisure. The first thing I did was visit Glenn & Ruth, who by now had returned to Ireland to live.
I then decided to use September and October to recharge my batteries and get aquainted to Cheltenham and a normal lifestyle after four-and-a-half years of nightshift work, and in November I had my adventure to New Zealand to look forward to. I also felt that after working continually for 25 years, I was entitled to a break, and this would be a great opportunity to re-evaluate my life and try to work out where it was going. I also wanted to try to catch up with some friends who I hadn't seen in a while, and maybe build a few bridges with some people who I had lost touch with for one reason or another. This included catching up with my best mate from school, Martin Kirk, who by now was living up in Stoke-on-Trent with his second wife. He had left his first wife at the same time as I had left Psycho, so as we both sort of did a 'runner' we totally lost touch with each other. But like all good friends, the time apart didn't matter once we finally met up, and it was just like I last saw him yesterday - cheers mate!

A typical Cheltenham day as a man of leisure:
Between 8am and 9am I would go on an hours walk around varying routes of the town.
After a shower, I then walked into town for a Starbucks or Costa breakfast.
Whilst in town I would then spend an hour at the local library on a PC reviewing my e-mails and any facebook messages.
I would then return home around midday to catch up on any mail and watch Sky Sports News for a little while - back in the good old days when it was still on Freeview!
After a spot of lunch I would head back into town again to watch a movie at the local cinema, before heading back home making sure that I enjoyed a pint of guinness at the Montpelier Wine Bar, which was my nearest watering hole.
The evenings were spent either catching up with friends on the phone or in person, or making plans for my impending trip to New Zealand.

Walking away from work and quitting my job, although probably slightly irresponsible, was still the best thing that I ever did up until that point in my life. I had definitely lost my way and was feeling pretty low.
I had become totally disillusioned with life around this time, which was why I needed to escape to New Zealand and remove myself from the chaos in this country, not to mention my personal life.
My idea was to go away for a month, whilst keeping my flat in Cheltenham as a good base, and then come back with my batteries recharged and ready to take on a fresh challenge.
Little did I know at the time that I had decided to take a career break in the midst of a recession and god knows what I'd be returning to after my travels abroad...but for now I didn't care - I just wanted to experience New Zealand and realise my dream!
As it transpired, I only actually resided in Cheltenham for six months, and on my return from overseas I was to enter a difficult time in my life...but let's forget that for now and remember New Zealand instead!


Nomadic Steve