Click the Picture to see Al in his heyday as a 20 yr old. 

So in the oh so early days (1984), a little around 24 years ago (yes even then I had my dashing good looks, charm and body of a god, ok so a god on a very bad day), I started college on day release to become an engineer. This was back in a sleepy little town called Hemel Hempstead (famous now cos some monkey decided to smoke a ciggy at the Buncefield Depot, tossing his butt end to the ground and thinking to himself that its christmas soon and all the wonderful overtime about to come my way, how little did he know eh).

So my first day at college was awful, I had left school, hating every minute of it, never wanting to go back and knowing that I was a worker now, I would never need to go back (oh boy little did I know that I had 5 years of this crap to endure). I sat in this cold awful building with a bunch of strangers, who were from such places as BAe and Lucas Aerospace, everyone seemed to know everyone else and I just sat there wondering what on earth I was doing here.

Sat in the corner on his own was the chappy seen in the picture, he appeared fairly quiet and normal, so we started chatting, the name “Barton”, “Allan Barton”, who at the time was catching the bus from St.Albans to Hemel or sometimes cycling over. We became friends over a period of time, he even managed to get a car on his pittance of a salary (slightly better than my paltry £30 per week). I thought this guy was a bit on the cool side (well only slightly cooler than me anyway) at the time since he liked different types of music (Nina Simone, ok so someone had to like her), 50’s and 60’s stuff, he always seemed a little aloof but a good guy to be around.

The college at the time was a good bit of a laugh with the tutors Mr Budd and Mr Bott (we always suspected Mr Bott was batting for the opposition) and such interesting individuals as Nigel Palmer (who spent his time driving up and down the high street in his Escort whistling at all the girls, whilst wearing drainpipe trousers, white slip-on shoes and tight sweaters), Spencer Dyke (who rode to college on his Lambretta and then eventually upgraded to a Mini Metro) and a woman who I think we nicknamed Shergar, can’t honestly remember why?

Well college continued and we finished 3 years at Hemel in 1987 and then it was time to move to the big leagues oooh yes Watford Technical College for another 2 years. Suddenly the atmosphere changed at this place and it was not much of a laugh and fun anymore, it was serious business. Mr Barton decided part way through that first year that he didn’t want to continue with this stuff and left. Oh boy how many times did I wish I had left that place, I hated it more than school.

We stayed in contact over those years, whilst I moved through various jobs, McDonnell Douglas working in Purchasing and the ill fated Coffee Machine selling stint that I tried (with the world’s most unreliable car that you had to start by hitting the starter motor on the middle lane of the M40 motorway). Al was seeing a wonderful girl called Belinda and I had my first serious relationship, with a married woman 16 years my senior (oh what a hussy am I).

I eventually moved to the grim north of England after falling for an unmarried girl (made a change I guess), but we kept in contact ever so occasionally over an 11 year period, always sort of starting where we left off and then loosing contact for another few years. Over the last few years Mrs Fogg and I have met up many times, with Al, Bel and their beautiful daughter Hazel and now we are very good friends that stay in touch and meet up from time to time.

24 years is not a bad time to know someone, Al is my oldest friend and I welcome him to the wonderful 40’s club that I joined a few months back (although I am still more handsome, that has never been disputed).

Unfortunately we can’t get down to Hemel to help Al tip over into his 40’s, so this weekend I will raise a glass to a really good friend and wish him well on his ventures into Kidulthood (that is where we move from being a kid in the 20’s and 30’s and start the transition to be an adult around the 50’s to 60’s).

Happy Birthday you OLD GIT!!!

Just a few memories for you to ponder over (providing you can remember them of course):

• Timmy your Triumph Dolomite
• Hemel College and the computer classes for extra credits
• Driving your car without a certain legal piece of paper
• Playing games on the oh so cool Amiga 500
• My crappy Vauxhall Astra Estate (complete with starter motor spanner)
• Going to Aikido drunk!
• Westerdale and Betty Bouston
• Spending lunch hours from college walking down Hemel and Watford High Street
• The wierd physics teacher at Watford with the pinstripe suit
• Dressed as Elvis at our America BBQ
• A heavy night out followed by your head down a toilet after too many Mud Slides
• Lake Bala and Tyddyn Yr Helyg
• August 2007 BBQ
• Bartenga

Here’s to the next 24 years of friendship.