Maureen and I have now been married for 30 years, and life has been very good, we started off as a married couple knowing each other, fully, and the only thing Maureen said for the first year, was that if I went off the rails, I would find my gear in black bin bags on the doorstep. But like I told her. "I am a one woman man, and as, like all men, I will look at other women, but you have the right to stop me crossing the road to talk to her." But as I proved, Maureen was and is the only woman in my life, and over the years we did everything together. we went camping for two summers, we bought a camping trailer which we used for a couple of summers, then my wife said. "I have had enough of going on holiday, but still having to do the washing up, so next year, I want to go to a hotel and have a proper holiday." We went to Malta for a week. The only problem we did have, was flying, I am not the best when it comes to flying, Totally no problem if I can see those propellers going round, but jets, forget them, ok I did go to Hong Kong with Liz, but we flew with the R.A.F., and as they were the very best and the third service, after the Navy and Army, I felt very safe. Anyway we flew to Malta and as I said had a good holiday, but it was not long enough, by the time you have unpacked your bags and repacked them, you were lucky if you got five days.
Maureen bought me a computer for Christmas that year, and I went out and bought myself Flight Simulator and over the coming weeks I learned to fly, I passed my flying test, and then went on to flying jet aircraft, Airbus and the Boeing 737, both aircraft that I found very easy to get on with, so when I was not working, mainly at weekends, I would fly to Malta from Bristol, even putting the autopilot on so that I could sit down to dinner, then I would land at Luqa airport. The big thing with this was, on the Sim, yes, I was in the left hand seat, but it was all the noises that you could hear, like the wheels being locked in place, the wing extensions being closed up, noises that on a real aircraft, can make you wonder what the hell is going on.
The following year, we flew to Malta for a two week holiday, the flight out was fantastic, as we took off I heard all the noises on the aircraft, and although I was not upfront, I knew what was going on, so in some respects, I was in control. We had a great holiday, we are not beach lovers, although I do like to swim, because Maureen cant, we tend to spend our time site seeing, and we set up a nice routine, up early, breakfast, out and about until just after midday, back to the hotel room after a spot of lunch in a nice little cafe across from the hotel, then get our heads down for an hour, I would sleep a little longer, and when I woke up, I would find the wife on the balcony sat reading a book. Then it was into the shower together, a little slap and tickle then dress for dinner. After dinner, we would go for a walk around the bay, arm in arm and at a leisurely pace, stopping to maybe watch a polo match, or just sit at one of the shoreside bars and have a nice cool drink, we would watch the youngsters heading for there disco clubs, while we sat relaxing and enjoying the lights from the streets shining on the clear blue water.
Money was good for us, we were both earning, and we didn't go mad, but we did like our holidays, so we spread our wings, we went to Spain in the summer, and Malta for Christmas, after getting fed up with Spain, we went to Malta for summer and Christmas, and always to the same hotel, The Plaza Regency on Tower Road, we did that for 14 years, but with everything, prices were rocketing, what started as a £400 holiday, ended up costing some £2000. We decided that enough was enough, we could not afford this sort of holiday any more, we both felt, we had given this hotel 14 years money, and what we got back, was not worth the £2000 we were paying out. So after some long evenings talking over the holiday situation, we decided to hire a cottage in France, near Roscoff and Morlaix, we stayed for 10 days and had a fantastic time, ok I could not speak French, in the local supermarket I got my potatoes and apples mixed up, but we got by, and we both loved it, the following year we invited my parents to come with us, but at first, they refused, but then father said. "We will come if we can split everything down the middle." and mother piped up. "And Michael, that includes food." So in the October, again we set off, two cars heading for Plymouth, we stopped for a cup of coffee on route, getting to the ferry port in plenty of time. Onboard with both cars parked up we made our way to the lounge and found seats to sit down on. I then left the family to scout the ship, as an ex sailor, and having taken Maureen on day trips to France from Southampton, for a £1, I always looked on her safety as paramount, so would leave her sat in her seat while I looked for the quickest route to safety, and where to pick up any life jackets when needed, and of course, on this trip, I did the same, in the R.N, you had to learn about your ship, and the quickest route to safety, so after 18 years of having that drilled into me, and drilling it into others, on a ferry, the routine still applied as far as I was concerned, when it comes to a ship sinking, or hitting something, I want to be in a situation, where both my wife and I can if needed can jump over the side into the water and I can drag my wife away from the sinking ship, better to be a wet holidaymaker, than a dead holidaymaker. So once I had done my rounds, I came back to Maureen and told her that if anything did go wrong, to grab my hand and follow me.
The trip over was a little rough, we were on an old ship, that had been refitted, but she was a bit of a bugger in rough weather, as she lifted her stern out of the water, she did a sort of corkscrew, action which was very bad for people who tended to get seasick. But five and a half hours later we were in calm water heading into Roscoff. As we all headed for our cars, I reminded my father that we now had to drive on the right hand side of the road and that he should follow me, all was going well, Maureen and I were happily talking in our car, and I was keeping an eye on father behind me in the rearview mirror, then Maureen said. "Michael the roundabout, you didn't tell your dad about the roundabout. So I carried on driving, hoping that father would follow me, he didn't, as I went round, he came round the other way and we met in the middle bumper to bumper, we didn't hit each other, I, as I saw him beeped my horn and father stopped. We made it to the cottage with no more mishaps and once settled in, started a fantastic 10 days holiday, we did go halves on everything, including the food, Maureen and I cooked one day and mother and father the next, in the huge kitchen we sat around a very big oak table with the log fire going playing cards and making small talk. And every day, along the two walls of the kitchen, were stored more and more bottles of wine, we all took a load home with us, and the following day, I had a phone call from father saying what a wonderful time they had had, and would we be willing to do it again next year, I rang the owner of the cottage and asked him if the cottage was free on those dates, and it was, so I again booked a 10 day holiday for the four of us, and again, doing as we did the first time, splitting everything down the middle, we all had a great holiday.
When Maureen and I got to retirement age, well I got to retirement age, we hit a few problems, I don't was to go into detail, except to say, I was made redundant just before Christmas, and was told by some female at the job centra laughing in my face, that I was too old to work now, and to go for pension credit until my real pension came through in the June, so I went for it thinking I would get at least enough for the wife and I to live on, but with her pension, my small naval pension and my even smaller M.O.D. pension I was given £17 a week, with a wait time of 13 weeks. I did the right thing, I wrote to my mortgage people, I wrote British Gas, plus a couple of credit cards I had, and all agreed to wait for my proper pension to be sorted, and then we could start paying our bills again. I got my old age pension on the 28th June, and after some telephone discussions I was able to sort out all my finances, apart from the mortgage, they demanded double what I could afford to pay, and I was told If I wasn't prepared to pay up, they would sell the flat over my head and kick us both out. I wrote to the Woolwich, now part of Barclays and pleaded with them, but I am afraid to say, Barclays is the biggest bank in this country, and their attitude to the little man in the street, is to crush him if at all possible, and that is what they did. I must have someone up there that loves me though, A man I have never met came to me and said he would buy my flat, and let Maureen and I live in it for a nominal rent for the rest of our lives, we shook hands and the agreement was signed. So Maureen and I still live in our little flat, we pay our rent monthly by direct debit, and life is good, We hope one day, to win the Thunderball, and then we hope to buy the flat back, we were told at the sign over, that if we could raise the £65000, we could buy it back, but as of yet, we have not been that lucky. Yes lucky to still be living here, and lucky to have a roof over our heads, something that Barclays don't care about. And to be honest, every time I have to pass that particular bank in Taunton, I feel angry, and want to get my own back on what they did to us, but, I am a law abiding citizen and have no wish to go to prison for thinking what I would like to do to that banking organisation, Accept to say, I will never set foot inside the local branch, I refuse to use their cash machines, and when I get emails from them regarding mortgages, I advise them, that they are the lowest of the low, and not to write to this email address again, And I now think they have gotten the message. for what it is worth.
The only other company at the time of our problems was Littlewoods, they told us, that they would not accept the deal, and if I refused to pay as agreed when I started to shop with them, there would be forced to add interest to interest, the bill at the time was around £600, By April, it was £3000, I was advised to take it up with the Ombudsman, I sent all my paperwork to him, and he did sort it out, he told me over the phone, that they had broken the law, and my bill stood at £150, Littlewoods sent me a letter as well, and I agreed to pay it in three instalments, once paid I was able to put that mess behind me, then I got a letter from Littlewoods saying, thank you for clearing your debt so promptly, we are giving you a credit note for £150 to spend on anything you like. I wrote back and told Littlewoods to take their credit note and stick it where the sun don't shine, I never got a reply, in fact, I have never heard from that company since. Oh, happy days.
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