The Bipolar Lock keeper

This song is quite apt as it literally was a “Once In a Lifetime” opportunity, except THIS IS MY BEAUTIFUL HOUSE 😎

I was born in Radcliffe, Lancashire & spent my childhood in Bury. I’m a BGS Old Boy, I even got a “Free-place” scholarship having blitzed the 11+ exam. Class of 1977-1984 if anyone is interested.

From there, I went to The University of Nottingham to study Maths with Engineering. I say study, I spent more time in the variousmusic venue & clubs. Rock City & The Garage particular favourites. It was “Party Central”. I made some of my closest friends, who are still my friends today. We all share a passion for music & live music in particular.

It was at Uni, that I earned my nicknames – The Count & Greybags. My friend’s still use them today.

Unsure of what to do when I graduated, I went to work for my dad who was writing software programmes for the manufacturing sector using Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet. Pre Windows & Excel. Good old MS-DOS.

I lucked out when my mum found an advert for an English Editor at Lotus Development UK in Windsor (software – not cars). After a 9 month initial contract, I moved into Customer Support (we called it the Hotline) then IT. Absolutely loved working at Lotus, it was a fantastic place to work.

Things started to go awry when IBM acquired us in 1995. Initially leaving us alone for a few years, the inevitable integration to “Big Blue” meant we became IBMers. Over the next few years, the bits of my job that I enjoyed got eroded and I ended up stressed, depressed and unable to work. I was signed off sick for 2 weeks by my GP in 2011. 2 weeks became 4 and then 8 and I never returned to IBM full-time taking redundancy in 2012 (24 years)

After trying to find a similar role, I decided I wasn’t feeling the passion and took a complete different direction to move into the State – Education system as a School Data Manager, which is what I still do today. Lots of Excel spreadsheets. I’ve been doing it for almost 12 years and an on my third school.

After my divorce, I always wanted to return to The North West and it was my retirement plan. It was brought forward when I found the house I wanted. I got my house down South valued.

You get so much more for your money up North. I had a 4 bedroom semi in Berkshire and bought a 3 bed detached old Lock-keepers cottage besides The Rochdale Canal at Lock 24 and pocketed some change.

I asked my school at the time if they would support me working full-time from home. They said NO, but a former manager offered me a data role at his school in Reading. The Head signed off on the full-time work from home.

If anyone is interested in my work journey, my Linked.In profile is https://www.linkedin.com/in/grahamjons

So I end up working from home in an office which overlooks Gauxholme Highest Lock (Lock 24). Happy Days 😎