II: Bollocks
Start at the start.
I graduated from university back in 2007 and decided to have a good summer, so I quit my job and spent the time with my friends in a house in Derry, Northern Ireland. I had recently purchased an Xbox 360 and we spent our time drinking, smoking and killing zombies in Dead Rising. I had recently split up with my girlfriend and decided I wanted to live a little, so I went on holidays with my sister to Crete, a holiday that my ex and I had booked before we parted ways.
Crete was good fun, we met some lovely people, had a good time and continued our tradition of smoking and drinking ad diabolicum. Upon returning, me and my flatmates continued to destroy our lungs and livers with suicidal gusto. The smokes were cheap, the drink was rum and the mornings were a painful haze of loud blending machines and forced smoothies. Once, I drank a whisked egg. It didn’t help.
The novelty didn’t last. Money was running low and jobs were hard to come by. The recession hadn’t really started, but it was beginning to take root here and there. We needed jobs and we needed them post-haste. Either that or stop our vices. It was a difficult choice.
Micky was starting back to university for his final year and our lease was running out on the house. We needed a new place and, upon finding one, we continued our horrid ritual of painful mornings and forgotten evenings. Bank accounts were in the red and tempers were flaring. It was cold in our new house, three stories of single glazing and poor insulation. With Micky gone, we took on Mark, my best friend, who was doing a Master’s in Psychology. His bar experience led him to a job, but a washing machine incident caused him to be fired. He refused to use it all year.
Adam survived solely on oven chips and chicken nuggets. I had to live off pasta and cheap sauce. Shit was going down, big style. Dishes were piling, controllers were getting greasy and three guys living off of one internet connection was troubling. My new girlfriend left for London to finish her degree and being apart wasn’t as easy as I had expected. I had to get out. I couldn’t go to my parents, I had signed a contract for the house. I couldn’t get a job because nowhere was hiring. I had to do something constructive. I started driving.
Driving was fun, even though my instructor was awful, but it really tipped the scales on the money situation. I broadened my horizons. I looked elsewhere, away from retail. I had nothing on the horizon, I was just taking a “gap year”. I looked for office work.
Fucking call centres.
