3. Belfast Simon Community 1978 - the layout of the building

After young Adam had shauchled halfways up the stairs to pass on his message about my arrival to the staff, and sloped off to who knows where in the building a member of staff did appear.

A tall clean cut Englishman with hair that was neither short nor long and John Lennon specs, very helpfully took the weight of my case and my heavy bag off of me. He parked them outside the office door and led me inside.

My workplace had three floors. The office stood alone on the top floor.

The bedrooms were mainly on the first floor and some were on the 'mezzanine' floor a bit below. I did not of course know the word mezzanine then as it had not yet travelled to England and I had not yet travelled to Milan (only got there 6 years ago!). I would have called it a 'sort of landing'.  The big comfy bathroom was also on a sort of landingy bit.

On the ground floor were the kitchen and the sitting room where people generally sat and watched TV as Northern Ireland has less warm sunny days than Milan or even North London where I was from.

How little did I know of the North of Ireland. First time for everything... I knew there was a sort of war on because they were always on the news and that it was about the Protestants against the Catholics because life was sort of unfair for the Catholics but what was all this religious stuff?

Weren't they all just Christians? I am a Jew and to me anyone who is not one of our lot and who is  does not look sort of Sikh or Rasta  or Buddhist or Muslim - in those days I would have said 'Mohammedan' - is a Christian. 

Apart from wanting to do my bit to help society the main thing that poked my interest in Northern Ireland is that we had piles of Northern Irish students back at Stirling Uni where I had just completed my second year of an Honours degree.

They were all sorts. There were hippies, sporty ones, disco dancers, quiet sensible steady students who got their head down and did teacher training as part of their degree. I never botherered to ask if they were Prod or Taig.

They were all just students like me except that they were from Northern Ireland. 

That much I could tell from their accent.

Like I said - Aren't we all just in the same room?

anyway I slept like a good un.

There were four beds in the room.  Big Pat who did loads of cleaning and was very chatter boxy and nervous slept in the bed on the right side of me.

Petite Belle blue eyed , tight permed and a talkative drinker slept  in the far bed and poor Peggy, gingery grey and an honest dame who started on Guinees when she was expecting and was now hooked on booze and ciggies slept beside me.

I guess big ginger yankee Kate slept in the office that night.

How green we all wer.

I was aware of who was in the same dorm as myself but I never thought stock of the mens bed hopping or of what went on in the burnt out side of the house that later moved from back to the front of the yard

this is probably why I have never qualified as a CQSW that us a FullyQualified  Social Worker.

I decided that the social life would just about finish me off.

All the happy clappy wee students down the boozer with their arch little wisecracks about other peoples wives husbanfs grannies and christ kens what.

That us the state of the situation today.

Scotland gets to the point far quicker.

They make the social workers do the probation service.

They also have children's hearings with a panel of three to sort the mums and daddys out and to judge whats happening.

I have a grear respect for scotland.