Adams & Safeway

Don’t Panic

Douglas Adams – ‘The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to The Galaxy’

I enjoyed Christmas. I enjoyed New Year. I enjoyed that period after Christmas and New Year when it is still close enough to the holidays to fool yourself into thinking they have simply overrun. Popping my head out of wishful-thinking-land, I was jobless and almost broke, looking down the slope into a year when I’d promised myself travel, and at least some point to the gap year. I needed to get myself organised. The time to spare had shot from over a year down to just nine months, and the summer didn’t seem all that far away at all. I needed a job, and I needed it quickly.

One of the points behind taking a gap year is that it is the gap between two things. School, and something else. I had to get into a university and, well, sooner rather than later. I took my A-level retakes that January, keeping my fingers firmly crossed. I wasn’t enormously confident. I hadn’t put in the imagined hours and hours of dedicated study, where it would all become so much clearer than the exams the previous summer. I had cleared up a few things, but that was it. My place at university, at any university, was boiling down to the result of the retake. I wasn’t too chirpy on the bus on the way home from the exam. After working all the crap nights, and all the worrying about never getting to go to university, I’d allowed myself to get into an uncertain situation.
Arse.

Leeds was another university I wanted to have a look at, and by virtue of being unemployed (how many times can you say that in your life?) I was free to go up and peruse it at my leisure. I spent three decadent student days and nights in Leeds, staying with an extravagantly beautiful pen-friend.
I landed a job in the same supermarket as Gemma, in the centre of the Island. This seemed a good idea, as they were crying out for people to work, and could guarantee work actually in the day (score!).
On a less fun note, I’d been moved from working in the cafeteria with Gemma to being an ‘Ambient Replenishment Assistant’. No matter how grandly it was dressed up, I was shelf-stacking again. It turned out to be a lot better than stacking shelves before, because there were customers around, and no-one’s music tastes were inflicted on me. I was also working as part of a team of eight, and my supervisor was a middle-aged lady, so even if she had thought to pipe out a few of her favourite tunes, they would probably have been of a slightly more laid back variety.
“Erm, I was wondering if it might be possible to have a few more hours?”
“How many would you like?”
I liked her enormously.

9th February 1999 I filled in my final decision form for UCAS this morning. Warwick and EDAT (Engineering Design and Appropriate Technology) as my first choice, with Leeds and Energy Engineering take the insurance choice position.

It was a difficult decision to make, especially seeing as staying with Julia and her friends in Leeds showed me how great living in a city can be, while I have very few impressions of Warwick other than a tour round the campus on a drizzly day. Still, I believe I have made the right choice for me. What more can I do?

I’ve worked only a week and a day of Safeway – no work today due to a morning headache/ stomach ache combination. Not working in the Coffee Shop has been a bit of a blow, but I’ve gotten back into the rhythm of shelf-stacking a little too fast to complain about ‘start-of-work’ anxiety, and the very intensity and bulk of the hours I have already worked gives satisfaction and anticipation for the coming travels. This Sunday is Valentine’s Day, and Gemma’s 19th birthday. We plan to go out on Friday night, as she has tickets to Colonel Bogey’s. Only months away, Europe literally lurks below the horizon- a palpable presence. Have to work first though...

7th March 1999 Funds are definitely on the up and up. After five weeks at Safeway, a week in hand and £100+ tax rebate expected by April, my fiscal situation is rocketing grand-wards. Hurrah! Hours at Safeway have come fast and furiously. I’m practically doubling my contract hours every week, which whilst getting very tedious very fast, is also giving an ‘end of week’ buzz. Gemma is now half-way through her two week break, which takes away my regular ‘remember what you’re working for’ jolt, but I’m coping. God knows where in the country she is right now!

Quite a lot has happened since my last entry.

Gemma and I attended the ‘Work Canada’ BUNAC info-session in February, and discovered that Canada might yet be possible. I would have to get my application in as soon as possible after receiving my results, and then wait to see if we got off the waiting list in time.

We worked out that if our applications weren’t off the list by the 24th of April, then we wouldn’t have enough time to do what we wanted to do, and so we’d pull out and tour Europe instead. On the flip side, when we go to Canada we’d be working in pretty similar jobs to those we have now, AND we’d have just three weeks in which to tour the country.

My big doubt is that it would cost us all of our savings so far just to get across the Atlantic to start working again. But it would be an amazing experience. We’ll see how the dice fall.

I’ve started going out with Miranda Williams of Year 11 fame, after bumping into her in Safeway when she came to the Island to house-sit for her Dad on a week’s break from university – King’s College London, where she is studying Law. She stayed with me last weekend, and in another two weeks she breaks up and is coming to spend a week in her house again, and I’m going to stay with her, which should be interesting!

We’ve both changed so much since Year 11, and being with her is amazing – she’s funny, intelligent, and attractive, and the whole thing rests easy on my mind, with no worries at all. Which is weird considering that I feel I care for her even in this short time. One thing I’m uneasy over is the fact that she more or less wants to call it a day when I go away. Practical, admittedly, but it feels bizarre, unromantic.

The university Easter break looms, and Dave desperately wants to come home and drink beer. Good stuff. We might be going to see Ocean Colour Scene in Ryde – which would be great, but I’ve a feeling that I’ll have to earn more than £1000 before leaving Safeway if I still want to have that much by the time we leave, as everyone wants to do stuff all the time when they come back.

At home, things are starting to get a little different. I’m beginning to resent the fact that I don’t have the same freedoms as my university friends, even though the occasions when this is apparent are infrequent. Heigh ho.

I’m looking forward to both travel and university more each day. Honestly – Warwick won’t know what’s hit it if I go there! People at uni are looking for houses at the moment, in preparation for their second year. The incredibly adult activity that it is, everyone hunting for a house is bringing it home to both them and me that we’re not kids any more.
Thank God.

I’m looking forward all the time, and while the shifts seem aeons long, the weeks are flying by.

11th March 1999
I got my Maths retakes results yesterday. Both Warwick and Leeds gave me conditional offers on a ‘C’ in maths. The results arrived outside Safeway during my lunch break courtesy of Parental Express. I opened the envelope to be confronted with two numerical scores. To find out what I had for the A-level entailed ringing Keith at home to read out all the maths exam scores I’d ever had. After a desperate moment or two’s scribbling, a quick bit of mental arithmetic gave me the overall score.

A ‘C’ needed 360 out of 600. I got 354.

Six marks short of a clear path to Warwick, possibly Canada. I have to send them my documents so they can assess my case. If they need to do that, there’s a possibility they have a ‘failure margin’. 1% is almost bound to be inside it, I hope...

I’m not looking forward to telling Gemma that Canada is now practically out of the picture – I was kind of hoping we’d be able to go, but it’ll take at least two weeks until this is sorted, then I have to do the BUNAC application, which would have just 3 weeks to get off the waiting list by the 24th of April.

27th April 1999, Tuesday.
After what seems like an eternity of coming down to check the post every morning and ringing them up before work every other day, Warwick replied in the affirmative. Funnily enough ( if you have that kind of sense of humour) the written confirmation from UCAS arrived on the date Gemma and I had set as our BUNAC cut-off – the date we had to be off the waiting list by.

C’est la vie.

As I now have confirmed student status, I can get an International Student Identity Card which lets Gemma and I get free admission to museums, discounted flights (not that we’ll be flying anywhere on our budget!) and other goodies.

Today is exactly one week since I handed in my notice at Safeway, and so it’s the last time I’ll don the vaulted bow tie and badge. Shame!

I was going to go and stay with Miranda in London tomorrow, but she can’t get back ‘til Thursday night, so I’ve been trying to get hold of Ahmed, but he wasn’t in at 10:30pm last night, nor at 08:45 this morning, so it looks like I might have to alter my ticket.

I bumped into Dave George yesterday (we’re going to see ‘The Faculty’ this eve) and he’s extended a welcome for Gemma and I to stay with his family in Crete while he’s there, and now we’ve been invited to his cousin’s wedding!

Now there’s something I’d like to go to... We’ll see what Gemma says.

Gemma’s friend Kate wanted to come with us round Europe for a while, as she’d had her time in Africa cut short, but now seems to be Malawi bound once more. Miranda was keen on coming for a while as well, but thinks it wouldn’t be fair if was her, Gemma and I, and I agree with her.

Now if I’m not going to London ‘til Friday, perhaps I should work a couple of extra days? Not that I want to, I’m just really aware of Gemma and my difference in funds. I’ll just go and try and get hold of Ahmed again...!

28th April 1999, Wednesday My last day at Safeway passed without hitch, unless you call a short, uncomprehending, non-communicative work experience-type chap a hitch. Never mind. I managed to get the London conundrum (kind of ) sorted out yesterday –I’m going up on Thursday evening now, and meeting Miranda then.

Writing yesterday, I forgot to outline our plans as they stand. We depart on Monday the 17th of May, spend a couple of days in Calais/Caen, then our first Interrail ticket kicks in, and we go to Paris for the weekend. After that, Spain seeing Barcelona and Madrid (and anywhere else we fancy) on the way South to Morocco, with Casablanca and Marrakech as ‘must-sees’.

Back up into France (with the possibility of a day or two in Portugal) to Grenoble, where we have a house placed at our disposal (wow!). A couple of weeks gap, then our second Interrail comes into play and off we go again.

Italy, with Rome, Naples and Verona (only because of Romeo and Juliet!) on the list, a free ferry to Piraeus, Athens’ principle port.

A few days in Greece’s capital, then the overnight Suda ferry (not free) to Crete, Dave’s relatives and a full-blown Greek wedding! A day or two on Crete, back to Athens, and the race to Northern France ensues. We think that if we still have some cash (v. v. unlikely) or jobs, we might stick around for a few weeks in Northern France for a bit. But only if we want to!