Mark's Questions

Here are the answers to some very reasonable questions from Mark
I enjoyed answering them.

1. What's the best part of your job?

Going home would be my glib and facetious answer. The real best part is when I hear that a former service user is doing well, is on track and sorted. It doesn't happen that often.

2. What's your fondest memory of childhood?

Playing in Paddy's Field near our house. Paddy's Field was actually four small meadows with a hazel wood and a good sized stream running through it. There was a wooden bridge, three cows and a little wooden gate just wide enough for a cow to pass through. The meadows hadn't been tilled in over a hundred years which meant it had every variety of wild flower. That sparked my interest in horticulture. The fields (and cows) were owned by Paddy, a great friend, who was happy to let us run wild in his fields.

3. How did you meet Bert?

I met Bert in a pub over 20 years ago. I had been on a daylong cycle trip and had called to the bar to see a friend who worked there. In walked the Wee Manny, his new South African bride and Bert. I'd known the Wee for years and he introduced us. Bert was doing a lot of travelling at that time. He'd just returned from living on an Israeli kibbutz and he was planning to spend a year in Australia. His hair was longish and sun-bleached and despite it being a warm summer evening he was wearing his grandad's out-sized tweed coat. I remember thinking he had a huge nose. I didn't meet him again for about two years. We got together some months afterwards and have been with each other for over 19 years.

4. Where's your favourite place in the world?

You mean apart from Cullybackey? The place that I have visited and would most like to return to is South Africa. That place got to me. I loved the heat, the dust, the big sky, the flora and fauna and the smell of it. Unfortunately some of the people I met there, the fairer skinned ones, were arseholes.

5. Still keeping to your keep fit regime?

That's gone a bit astray. I'll get back to it when my life steadies up again. Meanwhile I'm concentrating on keeping my mind and soul fit. The body will follow.

Questions set by M.Harrigan