I started my working career, way back in 1976, clearing offices in London for a property management company, which paid well for a young 17-year-old, and lasted the whole of that very hot summer. It was however, short lived and by Christmas of the same year, I was broke and still living at home with my mother, so my father who had left our home for some years earlier in pursuit of a happier life, found me an apprenticeship with a company called Carter Pocock, which entailed becoming a shoe wholesale representative! This role started off in the warehouse, which I had to endure for 6 months, to then progress into the office and learn about sales ledgers, which ultimately led to the inputting data into the newest of technical equipment, a computer; not one that you would recognise today, but one that would calculate and co-ordinate both sales and purchases, all of which was presented on a massive roll of perforated paper, which was spat out with all the relevant customers and costs details, which then had to be checked manually in order to confirm that the right items had indeed been ordered for the right shoe store outlet. It was mind numbing work, but ironically it was my first introduction to the pre-digital age! However, I was not happy with the role, so I decided to look for something different.
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