it would have been, was at five o’clock when the pub across the road opened. A liquid lunch and back to the theatre to check in cast and crew. Then the show ; and dinner was a few more pints and a curry at the Peoples Friend.
There were two these in the City. They had plain tables and chairs, plain white hard plastic plates ( most with a Swiss red cross symbol painted on the rim s) and no alcohol license but the food was absolutely fabulous. It was cheap, hot, served with a smile and the restaurants were always busy; a good sign.
The n after a quick meal, find a way to Kings Cross and get home . With no work the next morning I could sleep later, have a decent breakfast and feel refreshed to get the train in for the next two o’clock start.
I realised then that I was not a morning person; I enjoyed the late nights. I worked better, I felt more alive and in a better frame of mind the next day. Even now I am happier working in the early hours of the morning. In fact the lack of a routine or set working day such as we call the ‘nine to five’ was to me the intellectual and working freedom for which I had been seeking. The daily life of the average City worker did not fit easy into this open ended scheme of things.
By now I had been at Smiths Office, 1 Princes Street for about three years after leaving Cheapside . During this time I got a month attachment to City Region Administration. I quite enjoyed this and it is a way for senior managers to look at the performance of staff with a view to their further promotion. So it was quite important to impress.
At the end of the month I was called in to see the senior Manager and received a bucket of cold water over my head. I had done nothing wrong, I had achieved a high measure of approval from my superiors but he then suggested that if I wanted to further my career then I should look outside of the City. He went on to emphasise this by stating the obvious; that the staf f I had been working with were a few years younger than me and a few more steps up the slippery ladder of promotion than I was.
Of course he was right but a few weeks later the Bank announced the closure of two prestigious City Offices. The Bank had already began a process of removing senior staff by offering early retirement if you were able to afford the extra years contributions on your pension payments.
What had happened to me was that someone had writ the message large on a very big wall. This was the future of the Bank and years later I heard of more large Office closures which meant fewer staff required and on looking in at branches of the Bank, there were few elder members of staff working in them . One staff member told me, ‘they got rid of the over fifties, now they’re working on the over forties’ This cull continued and not many more years later National Wes tminster Bank plc was acquired by the Royal Bank of Scotland.
In short, the time had come to move on to a form of employment where the work and hours suited my temperament and abilities better. Which is what I did but not for another year.
Rehearsals for the double bill continued. Tony Siddall was back in the UK having played the nerd Eugene in Grease and now played the lead role of Andrew Crocker-Harris; Peter Davis the supporting role of John Taplow.
We were all quite pleased with the set for The Browning Version. Harlequinade posed a small problem. It is about a small touring company who are to perform Romeo and Juliet. This tragedy as we all know requires a balcony.
Colin Wootton and the stage crew had constructed a balcony at stage left. I’m not sure that it was used for anyone to stand on such as Juliet , as the play within the play never got that far, but it had to be solid.
We stood around looking at our efforts and no one was sure it was safe in its current form. There is only one way to test such things and it fell to the director Ken Wirdnam to be that man. He jumped up,
There were two these in the City. They had plain tables and chairs, plain white hard plastic plates ( most with a Swiss red cross symbol painted on the rim s) and no alcohol license but the food was absolutely fabulous. It was cheap, hot, served with a smile and the restaurants were always busy; a good sign.
The n after a quick meal, find a way to Kings Cross and get home . With no work the next morning I could sleep later, have a decent breakfast and feel refreshed to get the train in for the next two o’clock start.
I realised then that I was not a morning person; I enjoyed the late nights. I worked better, I felt more alive and in a better frame of mind the next day. Even now I am happier working in the early hours of the morning. In fact the lack of a routine or set working day such as we call the ‘nine to five’ was to me the intellectual and working freedom for which I had been seeking. The daily life of the average City worker did not fit easy into this open ended scheme of things.
By now I had been at Smiths Office, 1 Princes Street for about three years after leaving Cheapside . During this time I got a month attachment to City Region Administration. I quite enjoyed this and it is a way for senior managers to look at the performance of staff with a view to their further promotion. So it was quite important to impress.
At the end of the month I was called in to see the senior Manager and received a bucket of cold water over my head. I had done nothing wrong, I had achieved a high measure of approval from my superiors but he then suggested that if I wanted to further my career then I should look outside of the City. He went on to emphasise this by stating the obvious; that the staf f I had been working with were a few years younger than me and a few more steps up the slippery ladder of promotion than I was.
Of course he was right but a few weeks later the Bank announced the closure of two prestigious City Offices. The Bank had already began a process of removing senior staff by offering early retirement if you were able to afford the extra years contributions on your pension payments.
What had happened to me was that someone had writ the message large on a very big wall. This was the future of the Bank and years later I heard of more large Office closures which meant fewer staff required and on looking in at branches of the Bank, there were few elder members of staff working in them . One staff member told me, ‘they got rid of the over fifties, now they’re working on the over forties’ This cull continued and not many more years later National Wes tminster Bank plc was acquired by the Royal Bank of Scotland.
In short, the time had come to move on to a form of employment where the work and hours suited my temperament and abilities better. Which is what I did but not for another year.
Rehearsals for the double bill continued. Tony Siddall was back in the UK having played the nerd Eugene in Grease and now played the lead role of Andrew Crocker-Harris; Peter Davis the supporting role of John Taplow.
We were all quite pleased with the set for The Browning Version. Harlequinade posed a small problem. It is about a small touring company who are to perform Romeo and Juliet. This tragedy as we all know requires a balcony.
Colin Wootton and the stage crew had constructed a balcony at stage left. I’m not sure that it was used for anyone to stand on such as Juliet , as the play within the play never got that far, but it had to be solid.
We stood around looking at our efforts and no one was sure it was safe in its current form. There is only one way to test such things and it fell to the director Ken Wirdnam to be that man. He jumped up,
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