Leaving the military is traumatic for a lot of people, some go loopy, some hit the bottle any many end up getting divorced.
So when I left the army I thought fk it, lets do all three.
We had a daughter who was aged four then, and I went for custody as part of the divorce proceedings, which, for various reasons, I won.
So there I was, unemployed, a single dad living in a council flat in Bootle.
Now living on the dole was tough, very tough, and I really struggled. One time it was two days before giro day and I was skint, I had no 'borrowing potential' and there was no food. My daughters friend was due for a sleep over and there was nothing in the larder, I was starving, my @rse was snapping at the seat. I had a shilling, so I spent it on a big bag of monkey nuts for the kids.
So, only one thing to do, I waited till 2am, put my combats on and headed for the local bread factory. Up and over the fence, I worked there as a lad so I knew exactly where to go, and how to avoid the two allies they had on patrol. Got a couple of french sticks, back over the fence, over to the allotments, up and over the fence, found a nice allotment. Got down and burrowed under the potato plants with my fingers and flicked some spuds out
then back over the fence and home.
I dont know if you ever cooked chips with fresh spuds, but they are really nice, much better than you might expect. So next day I made chips, put them on the butties and told the kids to get stuck in.
The daughters friend says to me 'mum doesnt really like us eating chips all the time'
'Ah but these aren't chips they are , er, frittes liberationne. French. you know.'
'wow'
'And later we are not having ice cream or chocolate cake or any of that rubbish, its fresh monkey nuts from , er, Gambia, African food. you know'
'double wow'
'still in the original shells'
I could see my daughters street cred going up several notches.
Next time I saw the kids mum at the school she said her daughter hadnt stopped talking about how she wanted to stay over again, and the exotic food, and could I give her the recipe.
'Ah well, I do try to do my best for them' I says.
So when I left the army I thought fk it, lets do all three.
We had a daughter who was aged four then, and I went for custody as part of the divorce proceedings, which, for various reasons, I won.
So there I was, unemployed, a single dad living in a council flat in Bootle.
Now living on the dole was tough, very tough, and I really struggled. One time it was two days before giro day and I was skint, I had no 'borrowing potential' and there was no food. My daughters friend was due for a sleep over and there was nothing in the larder, I was starving, my @rse was snapping at the seat. I had a shilling, so I spent it on a big bag of monkey nuts for the kids.
So, only one thing to do, I waited till 2am, put my combats on and headed for the local bread factory. Up and over the fence, I worked there as a lad so I knew exactly where to go, and how to avoid the two allies they had on patrol. Got a couple of french sticks, back over the fence, over to the allotments, up and over the fence, found a nice allotment. Got down and burrowed under the potato plants with my fingers and flicked some spuds out
then back over the fence and home.
I dont know if you ever cooked chips with fresh spuds, but they are really nice, much better than you might expect. So next day I made chips, put them on the butties and told the kids to get stuck in.
The daughters friend says to me 'mum doesnt really like us eating chips all the time'
'Ah but these aren't chips they are , er, frittes liberationne. French. you know.'
'wow'
'And later we are not having ice cream or chocolate cake or any of that rubbish, its fresh monkey nuts from , er, Gambia, African food. you know'
'double wow'
'still in the original shells'
I could see my daughters street cred going up several notches.
Next time I saw the kids mum at the school she said her daughter hadnt stopped talking about how she wanted to stay over again, and the exotic food, and could I give her the recipe.
'Ah well, I do try to do my best for them' I says.
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