My mate
I first met Tony Newman when I worked in an office in central Manchester. I had an office to myself and I like to think that the bosses put new people in with me becaue I would keep an eye on them and make sure they did their work. But as Tony would tell you, that was definitely not the case.
Before long we got to discussing motorbikes, me already having one and him having had one and before much longer we were off window shopping for another one for him. Shortly after that he bought himself a not so young Suzuki 250, gold in colour, but not for long. He soon repainted it with black hammerite!
At the time he was working evenings at the Pear Tree and one night when he came out it was gone! Somebody really desperate must have taken it. So off to the shops again, and this time a brand new Suzuki X7 250 was purchased.
Over the few years that we worked together in that little office in Manchester, between us we must have put many miles behind us on one bike after another. Me in front, him on the back but I'm not going to bore you with story after story. For one thing, my memory isn't what it was and for another, he told stories much better than I ever could.
I got made redundant from that company and so Tony became just my mate, no longer a colleague. He sallied on with the company for far too long, well past the time when it was a pleasure to work there. Eventually they made him redundant too.
Meanwhile he had met Ann, and had two lovely daughters and between them they turned them into two very self-sufficient young ladies.
Over the years Tony and I met infrequently, but we were always there for each other. We attended each other's weddings, we went to Ann's funeral but in between we rarely met socially, we didn't have that kind of relationship. Our shared passion was for books, whilst he held the Lord of the Rings as being the very pinnacle of writing, I had a lesser opinion of that august tome and persuaded him to broaden with many a pulp fiction sci-fi novel.
One book that springs to mind that we could both quote verbatim was "Next of Kin" by Eric Frank Russell and if anyone reading this has access to a copy, then I would recommend reading it, as it gives a very clear indication of the kind of writing that was our passion. By the way, there was a movie made called "Next of Kin" but it had nothing to do with this book, so don't get mixed up.
Before long we got to discussing motorbikes, me already having one and him having had one and before much longer we were off window shopping for another one for him. Shortly after that he bought himself a not so young Suzuki 250, gold in colour, but not for long. He soon repainted it with black hammerite!
At the time he was working evenings at the Pear Tree and one night when he came out it was gone! Somebody really desperate must have taken it. So off to the shops again, and this time a brand new Suzuki X7 250 was purchased.
Over the few years that we worked together in that little office in Manchester, between us we must have put many miles behind us on one bike after another. Me in front, him on the back but I'm not going to bore you with story after story. For one thing, my memory isn't what it was and for another, he told stories much better than I ever could.
I got made redundant from that company and so Tony became just my mate, no longer a colleague. He sallied on with the company for far too long, well past the time when it was a pleasure to work there. Eventually they made him redundant too.
Meanwhile he had met Ann, and had two lovely daughters and between them they turned them into two very self-sufficient young ladies.
Over the years Tony and I met infrequently, but we were always there for each other. We attended each other's weddings, we went to Ann's funeral but in between we rarely met socially, we didn't have that kind of relationship. Our shared passion was for books, whilst he held the Lord of the Rings as being the very pinnacle of writing, I had a lesser opinion of that august tome and persuaded him to broaden with many a pulp fiction sci-fi novel.
One book that springs to mind that we could both quote verbatim was "Next of Kin" by Eric Frank Russell and if anyone reading this has access to a copy, then I would recommend reading it, as it gives a very clear indication of the kind of writing that was our passion. By the way, there was a movie made called "Next of Kin" but it had nothing to do with this book, so don't get mixed up.
posted by Alan at 6:48 AM
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