1988 was a strange year for me. I spilt up with my wife, I’d made an inter-departmental transfer within the company I was previously working for, started a new job, obviously,  and also threw off, outwardly at least, the shackles of being a Punk. This latter event saw me actually going to work in in a shirt and tie, and that probably was the most traumatic event of 1998, TBH;-) Note that I said outwardly there. Once a Punk, always a Punk, IMV!

So, I start this job as a Communications Technician. Up I stroll in my white shirt, red tie, smart trousers and DMs (natch) , I get my own desk, my own phone (on the desk, no such thing as a mobile in those days!)  and everything. There’s five of us crammed into a rather small office, all but one of us a newbie and the current encumbant, Adrian, turns to us and says, ‘Bloody hell, four of you. What am I supposed to do with you all?’. Or words to that effect;-)  Having got to know Adrian over the years, I do know he would have said considerably more than that as he could talk. And talk. And talk. Over the first few months, we got to learn that if we wanted to waste an hour or two, we just get Adrian talking about, well, almost anything, and he’d give us our wish!

So, I start this job as a Communications Technician. It would be no word of a lie if I said that I knew nothing about comms. Nowt, nada, zilch! I didn’t even know what a modem was, for a start. RS.232? Wassat? Co-ax? It’s what you used to plug in your TV to the aerial weren’t it? As for anything remotely concerned with an IBM mainframe, forget it! All this, and more, I would learn over the next few months, and years.

So, I start this job as a Communications Technician and it would be pretty accurate to say that I really lucked into this role. For this I must really thank, from the bottom of my DMs, the two chaps that interviewed me and offered me the opportunity, believing that I could actually do the work required of me, despite my total lack of experience. I must also give Ade a huge back-slap and high-five for everything he taught me over the years. Good on yer mate, and if I do ever catch up with you again, the first fifty-odd pints are on me:-)

Anyway, enough waffle[1], let’s get to the nitty gritty.

[1] Sorry, I don’t why I said that. There will definitely be more waffle.