Category Archives: housing

Goodbye to PETRA

Posted on September 18, 2015 by odeboyz

After seventeen years of developing and nurturing PETRA – our Tenant Management Organisation I set up all those years ago with Jan (my wife) and four others who jumped ship about seven years ago, I feel it is now time … Continue reading →

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Mornington Crescent

Posted on September 4, 2015 by odeboyz

“I’m sorry – I’ll read that again, or I’m sorry I haven’t a clue” the popular radio programme chaired for years, by Humphry Lyttleton, had been running for decades. I never did find out the rules to the panellists starting … Continue reading →

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Revisiting old memories

Posted on August 14, 2015 by odeboyz

Just on a whim, the other day I decided to revisit the place in Islington North London, where I and my family lived from the late forties to the mid sixties. A tedious tube journey mostly on the District line … Continue reading →

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Housing in the mid 70s

Posted on July 30, 2015 by odeboyz

Raised in Islington until in my early 20s, as young man in those days, I met a girl, a very pretty girl, and fell madly in love. How fickle she turned out to be? When she told me I was … Continue reading →

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Housing

Posted on June 5, 2015 by odeboyz

1972  to 1990 Note: All names  have been changed to save rows and recriminations. I had been married to Angela for eighteen years and thought we had a good life together, but out of the blue one Saturday, a mutual … Continue reading →

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Old Housing and Working Conditions

Posted on May 21, 2015 by odeboyz

1953 to 1963 Gibson Square Islington. Raised from 3 years old, in what was then a slum area – a large ten roomed Regency terraced house situated on one of Islington’s now prestigious squares, nearly each room let out to … Continue reading →

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Just Moments in Time

Posted on May 7, 2015 by odeboyz

Well over sixty years ago my best friend was a boy named Paul Brewster. Paul was a big lad even at the age of nine or ten where I was comparatively small. Paul and his Mum and Dad lived on … Continue reading →

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My very good friend, Lew Hawks

Posted on April 17, 2015 by odeboyz

I first met Lew in the mid-60s when we were both employed as plumbers by Hackney Council. Lew was a big dour man, seldom bent to smile, even less so after his wife died suddenly after a very brief illness. … Continue reading →

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The Real World

Posted on March 19, 2015 by odeboyz

On the estate where we live, there are petty crooks, drug addicts, alcoholics, perverts and general low life, all mixed in with angels, professional people, artists, musicians, and sweet older people who like us, despair at the way our world … Continue reading →

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The £50 Adventure: Chapter 4

Posted on January 9, 2015 by odeboyz

We finally ‘went live’ in April 2003, but we were still negotiating the MMA (Modular Management Agreement) and it would be a further 2 years later before this was finally signed off. I thought we were continuing to cope with … Continue reading →

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