The change and the chip shop

Moving ever onwards

Well this was time when things started to change and we moved to a new place. Theo my mothers BF the Greek Cypriot decided to take on a daring risk to start up a business venture. You see my mum met him while working in a chip shop which was the kind of stereotypical place to find a Greek man in England. Well after a while of working in one he decided to find somewhere to start up his own chip shop and with his first for money and power he did just that. He used his mothers house to put into the business which contributed to around 60 thousand pounds worth of business. Theo was around 10 years younger than my mother but I never really took that into account and didn't even see the age gap. So he must have been around 17/18 when he started it up. It was a booming business on Farnbourgh Road a lively road just on the outskirts of a huge estate in Clifton Nottinghamshire. I heard it was pulling in thousands a week on most occasions.

Well so being the person I am actually just went with the flow and thought brilliant a great fresh new start. It was an amazing property with living quarters above the chip shop and a great big playing area that was walled off to the side. It was really a nice place to live at first and we would get chips when we wanted but not to many and we could sneak down to grab cans of apple tango and coke when ever we wanted. I remember that in my bedroom I had created my very own base which was just some cupboard and I did a scene of some sky scrappers to put inside it. I would sit in it to get away from the overwhelming experiences of this new way of living and while traumatised by it all took it under much pressure.

The worst thing was changing schools and I got sent to a school not to far away called High bank which was actually a really nice looking school and I will bike there soon as I expect to get some haunting flashbacks of it all. The head teacher seemed to welcome us well and I slotted into the class with ease actually as I didn't really take much notice of the other kids, well I did but their actions were unreal and so I would just try and focus on the work. I remember once there was some really messed up gal who lost her temper once and started throwing things around in class and would get angry and all stressed. This action seemed to work in her favour as she was given much attention for them actions which I would not have dared do. I used to walk around into different spots of the school and remember getting into a few friendships with the freaky cool kids like myself. One lad used to draw graffeti and vampire fangs which inspired me.

I also made friends with a quite lad who lived not far from the chip shop and he was very quite but yet easy to relate with. I forget the lads name now and have often seen people who look like him but would never build up the courage to ask them especially after how long it had been since we parted.
Me and my brother would go on walks to some park not far from the school and play for age's. A girl once started chatting to me and taking an interest but I just kind of went along with things without giving much thought to her. She later found out that I lived at the chip shop near to hers and took over really. What I mean is she would come looking for me while I played football outside the shop and it worked she took advantage of my innocence. It wasn't anything out of the ordinary because she just used to try and snog me not kiss but snog which was really startling and bewildering physically. The wet mushy sensations of her soft lips grasping on to mine were unsettling and invading my comfort zone but I went along with it without really understanding it. I remember thinking why me and what is all this about and in the end I would avoid her at all costs and even attacked her verbally for it which I had know control over and I regret my actions for that but I guess I wasn't ready to understand the pleasures of kissing. She told me after some time that she had a boy friend and he could drive which was bizarre but she may have been a bit older than me about 12 I think she was. That did hurt me in a strange way but I couldn't figure out why I think it was my ego that hurt yet I was glad to see the back of her.

There were a few people around the area that were odd and would look up to us for living in and owning a chip shop and would use me and my brother to get free chips in return for false friendships. I remember on one occasion i was in the bath and heard shouting from outside so I got up to the window and it was the so called friends who then started to laugh because they could see my genitals for which I was unaware. I'm not sure how I felt about that but I do think I was embarrassed or shocked that it mattered to them for there amusement.
I used to listen to Michael Jackson stuff back then and ended up somehow having the whole lot of albums. Thriller and beat it were my major favs at that time. My youngest brother was born at Clifton and his name was Luke who I will speak about further on.
Then all the caos came along and messed it all up as my step farther Theo started mixing with a bad crowd and would go out to casino's trying to live the high life. My mother took it for so long but she got sick of his deceit and lack of living like a family which is what she liked. Now I can see it from two sides really I mean Theo was young and wanted to get out and live in the high road and my mum was a bit insecure around that period. Although my mum was a loving mum she demonstrated at times some very aggressive and mentally fragile performances that were very frightening. On one occasion she attacked Theo and got out a knife I think to threaten him and being my mums son we could only empathize with her and protected her. Theo deserved the threats but that was a little extreme to witness and Theo left for a time. I think thinks patched up but not for long. Some of the staff in shop noticed the fragile relationship they had and how fragile my mums mental state was so they used to say that Theo was seeing other women behind her back and things which might have been the truth as later who will find out. One night my mum had enough and we caught some bus's to my grandparents where we lived for a bit. That was the end of Clifton and I remember feeling much safer for me and mainly my mum. I think in the long run it was a safer route for me because I think Clifton was a scary place and it all seemed to much in the end. I learnt then that living in the high life was not something great and how friendships were not real if people would use you for what you had.
Just to mention a few strange occasions that happened while I lived there, firstly I got knocked out once by a lad on the park who hit me so hard in the jaw area that I fell to the ground which dazzled the life out of me. Once I was walking through the playground and a ball hit me on the head and I scored a goal from a very long distance which was a good thing. I made friends with a very butch lesbian women who was fond of my mum and she was like a big kid which was freaky. I used to drink that was called monster drink or something and was buzzing with e numbers but I loved the marketing value of it and its design. I think it was around 1986 because I remember something to do with football in mexico 86 I think. My friend the lad had a mum who would easily talk about how her house was haunted and she could see someone hanging from the ceiling on occasions at night which freaked me out loads. I had some kind of accident once and my mate came to hospital with me which was nice. and thats mainly the highlights of living at Clifton which had its ups and downs and I always never seemed concerned from losing friends which was a shame.