Intervention

Fate often tries to step in - but once in a while it does you good to tread on it's toes! MW and I are currently sitting in limbo waiting to hear which school our son will be attending next year. Having done all the Fate-bashing we can on his behalf I'm put in mind of my own transition from primary to secondary school.

At the time my home was in Benfleet, Essex at the bottom of the famous Bread and Cheese Hill (not my claim but that of a group I once saw on Facebook). The slopes of the hill are covered by a cemetery, which is apparently slipping slowing down the slope (not so much your walking as 'luge-ing' dead) and a large wooded area called Coombe Wood. I attended a primary school in Benfleet and the base of the hill was the playground of my youth: Rhoda Road North where we raced (and crashed) go-carts, the waste-ground just before the cemetery and among the graves themselves (it amazing what a lack of game consoles and nine million cartoon channels reduced us to back then). Occasionally we would travel further to seek out the pond at the heart of Coombe Wood...

About a year before leaving primary school my family moved - a short hop up the hill to Thundersly (now that is famous - check the lyrics to Billy Bragg's 'A13, Trunk Road to the Sea' if you don't believe me). When the time came for secondary school my parents thought I should attend Thundersly's King John but I was adamant about going to Appleton back down in Benfleet. My sister was at Appleton already and the majority of people from my primary school would be going there as well. The distance to both schools was roughly the same, however to attend Appleton would mean coming back up Bread and Cheese Hill each day. But I dug my heel into Fate's plates and got my way!

Thing was I never really enjoyed it once I got there. Whether this would have been my reaction to any school or just this one I'll never know. My arguments for attending fell apart quite quickly. My sister, being that much older than myself, left almost as soon as I arrived. As to my old friends I lost track with most of them partly because even if I saw them at school the hill got in the way at night, cutting me off from 'Playing Out'. The hill became a barrier between me and my old life (and Fate sniggered all the the way to the podiatrist!)

Thankfully It wasn't all bad. I came away from secondary school with good grades and an interest in acting (which would shape my future). And I can't feel any animosity towards the hill, which was one of the great stomping grounds for my dog and I. In fact Bread and Cheese Hill became quite lucrative as I would invariably pocket the bus fare home and walk back though Coombe Wood.

Moral? Can't think of one. But if you find yourself stuck up a hill, don't bitch - just enjoy the view...

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