Living in London
In early 1976, bored to tears at work, I decided to seek my fortune "overseas". As it happened, my English girlfriend, Sue, was returning to England after a working holiday in South Africa, so it made sense to follow her. In early July I flew to Luxembourg and caught various buses and trains to meet Sue on the Isle of Wight where she was helping a friend run a wine bar. Perfect!
My first priority was to find a job, so off I went to London and walked the streets banging on doors. I had recently completed my MSc in structural engineering and chanced upon a company (in fact, a computer bureau!) that thought I was just the man for the job. They undertook to get me a work-permit and told me to expect a call when it arrived. With nothing else to do and seeking adventure I went on a package tour to Greece for two weeks (or so I thought!).
My time in Greece was certainly an adventure, especially being deported back to Greece after my holiday (all of which is recounted in the story of Greece above).
So here I was back in London, 20th October 1976, right in time for winter. I had a job at SIA and a girlfriend (Sue), but no money, indeed, a few (British) pounds of debt. I started work immediately whilst looking for a place to live and eventually found a place in Putney, sharing a flat with an older woman called Barbara. We didn't get on very well, possibly because she was way out of my class. I continued to see Sue but since she lived in Knightsbridge and neither of us had transport, we didn't see much of each other. Inevitably we drifted apart (Sue had many old friends in London) and on 30 March 1977 Sue flew to Corfu to start a new job and I took over her room in a communal flat at 1 Egerton Terrace in Knightbridge.
My primary objective for being in London was work and my position at SIA proved to be a dream: I loved the work and my fellow engineers were fine people. Best of all, I could walk to work which was just oppposite Victoria Station and behind Buckingham Palace. On Saturdays I would often go to work, mainly to have unimpeded access to the giant mainframe computers, but also because I simply enjoyed what I was doing.
On Friday 26 August 1977 my dad died and the following week I flew home. I missed his funeral by a day and frankly there was little I could accomplish by hanging around, so I went back to London. Whilst home I did however renew an old aquaintance, Judie, and she came to stay with me in London over Xmas and New Year. We spent a delightful few days in Paris.
In February 1978 I started French lessons and it was here that I met Anne. Anne's mom lived in the Cotswolds and we spent several weekends with her, including Xmas 1978. In September we packed Anne's Mini stationwagon and went on a three week camping trip through France.
In early 1979 my colleague Keith Neill and I were chosen to open a new office for SIA in Holland. We started by doing regular 3-day sales trips. These were an adventure in themselves, in particular our weekend in Maastricht joining in the Carnival in February. My goodness, what a wild weekend!
The business in Holland was deemed good enough to open an office and so at the end of July 1979 Keith and packed our bags and moved to Holland.