NORTHERN PLANNER

I think it’s the people and experiences that define places for us, and it’s amazing how little triggers can bring some of those experiences crashing back.One minute I was on the way to a meeting, then a saw this sign. Suddenly I was in my twenties again.

I was a student in Leicester, which seems an age ago, (Since I graduated in 1996 I suppose it is. What have I been doing for the last 11 years?) and a proud member of the swim team which passionately hated nearby Loughborough.  In my final year, we had a ‘friendly’ at their pool – and we were lost in Loughborough when we found this very sign.

I had persuaded the men to shave their heads to mark the occasion. We looked looked very threatening and the psychological warfare proved so effective they utterly trounced us. Though few of us cared in the bar later on when the girls got interested in feeling our stubbly heads, leading to me finally resolving three years of sexual tension to and get off with a girl called Jennifer. I made an idiot of myself in front of her in the first year and had just never dared. Just shows – if you don’t ask you don’t know. Thank you Bic (and that’s why I’m not too bothered at being bald for real now).

As for Ashby…. I Worked in a Leicester nightclub to earn beer money and I met some great people -bouncers not included(if you’ve ever asked a creative to make the logo bigger you’ll understand what they’re like). It did include some people from Ashby who became close friends. Much of this I can’t really talk about, but seeing that sign brought all sorts of things flooding back, some great, some not so great, experiences that have made a great deal of difference to where I’ve ended up today, the sort of stuff that makes you grow up, whether you want it or not.

Funny how things you haven’t thought about for ages can suddenly leave you breathless, I guess it shows how important all that stuff in your subconscious really is.They say dreaming helps you sort out the day’s events into your memory banks – and if you don’t dream you go mad. No wonder.