A Brief History of how and why I became a Grumpy Old Man

So here it all began

Rock & Roll 1979

My first jaguar at 21….cool jerk!

The end of PB Auto Engineering after 30 years

2009 J900 Fotografii

Don’t take any crap

 Grumpy old man or mouthy critic? Those that really know me understand my black humour view on life

On the 30^th of April 1959 a beautiful little baby boy was born (blonde hair and blue eyes, a little brother for L who was 3 years old) to Sheila and Peter Brash of Galleywood in Chelmsford, Essex. Peter was a Radar Engineer at Marconi Works Baddow. He was born on 11^th June 1925. His father was an army officer in the first war and he served in Oxford & Bucks Regiment during the latter part of the second war. After this he joined the Observer Corps as a service in his spare time. Sheila was a working mother most of her life too. In 1965 the family moved to All Saints Close in Springfield, Chelmsford as they sold the house in Galleywood as did Peter’s father, Rex, sell his house in Baddow Road and the family became 5 and three generations.

By now myself and my older sister were attending St Phillip’s Priory in London Road, Chelmsford. Life was amazing during the 1960’s, still many stories about both wars, more aunties and uncles than you could imagine, always playing outside whatever the weather!!! In 1970 at the age of 11 I became a little cynical and felt slightly cheated for the first time. I had been made big promises that if I studied hard and passed the 11+ exam that I would get the choice of three secondary schools. I kept my part of the bargain and passed, 1^st choice King Edward Grammar, 2^nd choice Chelmsford Technical College, 3^rd choice Maldon Grammar…………… Thanks to the wonderful Labour government of that era wanting to mix children of all abilities I was sent to Boswell’s Comprehensive in Springfield. This at 11 years old was the start of my hatred for socialism and the seed of my right wing opinions.  

 It was so so, I hated sport, I loved English, History, Geography and Sciences. I began to rebel as a teenager, I began smoking at 15 and tattooed myself at 16 so as to look cool, win friends. By 1976 as student of the lower sixth I took a beating outside the school gates which drew a crowd of over 100 spectators wishing to see blood. That they did, the guy was a boxer and splattered my face. My reward was to get pulled into the Head Master’s office and asked politely to never come back to Boswells. What on earth to do next? Take a job? no…………..go to Chelmsford College of Further Education where all the lost souls went to retake ‘O’ levels J  I went for 2 weeks, had a family holiday and then returned. What a nightmare, I felt totally confused and suffered anxiety attacks. Rode in on my Yamaha FS-1E and then rode out again after 1 hour. I stayed home for weeks. Lucky for me after the Christmas a good friend Steve looked out for me and encouraged me back, my confidence and self esteem rose and life became cool again. That spring I passed my driving test and had my first car at 18, it was an amazing hot and long summer that followed. I left there with a few passes………..now I had 5 O levels in English and Sciences, some lower grades in Maths and French. I had been developing and printing my own films and pictures for 3 years and photography was my top hobby. My dream was to work with scenes of crime for the police or in industrial photography and/or journalism. Sadly nothing was around locally on the job front and my other love, cars and engineering led me to work in a small garage for one year. At the age of 19 now full of testosterone and wanting to chase any girl that lived in the Chelmsford area I left my dodgy boss and became self employed. It was 1978, Punk was the order of the day……….Sex Pistols, Clash, blah, blah. After a brief miss guided few months of this I was drawn into the Rock & Roll revival scene by a group of great friends. So Paul rebel without a cause (James Dean), jack the lad was created. Cars from the 50’s, ice blue drainpipe jeans, fluorescent socks, white t shirts, hair in a DA………..Buddy Holly, Johnny Kid & the Pirates, Gene Vincent, et al.  A Triumph Herald Convertible with an orange furry dash and “Don’t laugh your daughter might be inside” painted on the rear valence. Then came the Escort Van with a Thrush Oustsider exhaust pipe that sounded like thunder around Springfield and Chelmsford. I was a bit of a pain in the ass to the neighbourhood, an embarrassment to my mother and father at times (by now he was a high ranking officer in the Specials ….Hobby Bobbies). But hey, I was having great fun……….progressed to Jaguar XJ6’s and American cars by the age of 21………the car hi fi got louder and the rock & roll better. Then in 1980 illegal AM CB radio came to England. Wowwwwwwwww! A new way to be an anarchist and stick two fingers up at the system J Yup, “Black Panther” was born yet another local CB radio hero and outlaw. What a great time and never ending party that was for us all. Essex CB Club meetings once a week, marches and demonstrations to get damn CB legalised and even a 40 foot float in Chelmsford Carnival. Of course it all ended with a bang as in 1981 the government legalised CB radio but on completely different channels and frequencies to the rest of the world. That wrecked everything that we had campaigned for. All our sets were still illegal and what we had fought for ended up being a yet another consumer product that was available to Joe Public and “nice” people that could afford a set and licence, plus more revenue for the state. Us die hard AM CB’ers tried to continue with our club and social activities but we were the criminals by then. I had a knock on the door one night and there were 2 home office guys, one telecom guy and two policemen………Yup, I was BUSTED!!! I defended myself at the following court appearance supported by a good crowd of AM Breakers. I lost £200 worth of CB kit and took a £120 fine (paid by the club). This was nearly 30 years ago, LOL. Compare that to theft, criminal damage or drugs in 2010…..an ASBO maybe?

Sooooooooooooooo…. As the family were at a Police Headquarters dinner the night I got busted and the old bill said I had “over modulated” on the Police frequency I was kinda stuffed. Father said behave or find a new place to live and run your autoshop….I behaved, no more illegal CB, quieter Rock & Roll and no more virgins

I guess at 23 this was good, I worked harder, bought more equipment and built up my local garage service. By 1988 I had the sign written van and an Escort Cabriolet plus the wax jacket and green welly boots. My local reputation as an excellent motor vehicle engineer and restorative welding skills were well respected. In late 1989 I took a part mortgage on the parents’ house as they retired and wanted some capital released and I needed investment and more responsibility. The plan was for 2-3 years until the property market lifted and finances were better. Not so long after this came the recession, whoooooops! A business that had been built on and had survived on reputation and recommendation suddenly became slower so I launched an advertising campaign. This brought clients in by offering free give aways with a full service; although times were a little hard the business picked up and survived that bad period quite well.

On August bank Holiday 1993 I did a bungee jump at the Mill beach pub in Maldon, this was not so good as I didn’t dive properly and suffered a lot of whiplash and spinal compression. Two weeks later I was hit with a bad chest infection which a course of amoxicillin did nothing to cure. I had terrible migraines, muscle pains and fatigue, by the Christmas I was coughing up blood infected sputum and my dear doctor blamed it all on smoking and stress. For two and a half years I pushed on in a living nightmare with no constructive help from my doctors (they were ME/CFS disbelievers and put my problems down to being of weak character and stress) I was very ill but somehow with the help of friends and family continued to run my small vehicle repair garage at my pace. I finally got diagnosed after 30 months by a very knowledgeable micro biologist with an illness known as Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. The NHS didn’t have so much support in place for the disease back then and I waited a further 2 years of living and working hell to see a Professor at St Bartholomew’s Hospital in London. He was an outstanding man and showed 100% understanding and support for the illness. I carried on working on a part time basis dreaming that my health and business would improve and that I would finally reduce my debts. By 1998 I should have ceased trading and concentrated purely on trying to regain my health, however mainly due to pride I carried on. During the following period I helped nurse my elderly father for 2 years until his heart finally gave up, that was 2002. By 2007 the situation was so hopeless with my health and ever growing debts that my mother and I sold the family home of 42 years and paid off my mortgage and some of my debts. That was the end of my auto shop business after 30 years.

I didn’t ask sympathy or charity from anyone, I never had and I never would. I made my own choices in this life…..They will write on my tombstone “He was honest, kind and proud, a true Brit…. but very stupid”. The rewards of struggling to work with poor health were many. I had slowed down over those years to the pace of a snail, this meant I had time to chat with clients, get to know them and most I considered to be kind, solid, good friends. I discovered who my real friends were inside and outside of the working domain. I had in 1993 bought my first computer and within 2 years of course had it in pieces to upgrade it. My interest in anything computer and internet related had begun! I was building and upgrading computers for friends and autoshop clients, making simple websites and become a star at researching, playing detective and finding most things on the internet. Also back then I bought my first digital camera and began to experiment with graphics software. For me this was heaven as I only ever had a black & white photo lab/darkroom years earlier. From this point I developed many skills including scanning and restoring old photographs, tricking pics , special effects and much more.

 I thought maybe finally a break from working would restore my health. I took a year (from January 2008 to January 2009) doing very little. I didn’t claim any benefits as I had some money from the house sale. By January 2009 and after much pressure from family and friends as I had paid a lot of money into the system in the form of Taxes, National Insurance and bank Interest over 32 years, I decided to apply for Employment and Support Allowance.  What a nightmare this last year has been, so much bureaucracy just to get £79 a week from the “Scottish Jerk & his wonderful Government” that has slowly destroyed our beautiful country during their term of office.

 I began travelling to Bucharest, Romania 7 years ago. My first visit yes was to meet a young lady that I had spoken to on the internet with for about a year. This was my first trip overseas alone at the age of 43 and my first vacation in about 12 years. There was no sudden romance or falling in love, it ended with me losing the girl after an argument (totally my fault) but gaining a country……….my love and passion for Romania had begun. Also a true bonus is that the young lady and her sister have since become amazing friends to me

After about 25 visits and 5 years of making a home there I finally went to stay for longer in September 2009. My dream was to make a small commercial photography business taking enough money to live a very modest life….eat, sleep, piddle and poop and maybe finally regain some level of better health. I would of course had I made my first penny and being an honest chap of informed DWP so they could stop my benefits and give the money to a more deserving cause in the UK. The winter in Bucuresti was very hard and I learnt in much more detail about how tough life can be for some people in Romania. Even for me it wasn’t easy eating on a tight budget and spending too much time in isolation as the city was frozen. I did lose 10kg which is a good thing! I came back to UK late February to address some issues here and re think the big plan.

 I still have a love for Queen and Country but feel very happy in Romania. I think because I feel free like I did in England in the 60’s & 70’s. There is so much going on all the time. The food is second to none; I walk next door to Felix’s shop and can buy fresh (organic, well natural) fruit and vegetables. Much of the music (another love of mine) is still very raw and people “play” instruments. The good people are full with naked truth, kindness and wonderful hospitality. The city clean of litter and in seven years I never saw a crowd of drunken youths or heard much loud mouthing.

 The problem? Maybe I am a misfit in the UK, not normal. I am 50, I smoke cigarettes, I don’t drink beer, do drugs or follow any sport that involves a ball, I never married and as far as I know didn’t burden society with any bastard children. I think fox hunting is ok. I like women, but don’t have one at present, still working on that! I have no desire to shag a man, become a Muslim or recycle plastic while China builds so many power stations every month(sarcasm).

I believe the labour government destroyed the country I knew, loved and belonged to all those years. They made Political Correctness a disease like a Cancer on our society. I am a British Bulldog and proud of it. I will die BRITISH but more than likely in Romania where I can smoke after a good meal in many restaurants call a gay Mr Gay, socialise with younger people without being looked upon as a pervert or old man trying to stay young and also have freedom of speech.

 Whether I am right or not I do sometimes feel that I would be accepted better in England if I was living in a bubble like so many others. Working hard, paying taxes, conforming and keeping my mouth shut. I want adventure, I seek fresh knowledge, I love life to the full and try not to tread on the toes of others. These are my choices, my freedom that I worked hard for all my life.

 Follow your heart & soul, try to balance things with your mind when led by dreams and passions in life because judgements can be clouded and lead you into false hopes but ignore anyone that is sanctimonious and tries to control you for maybe they have no soul or emotion for whatever reason.

 To be continued………….