Cheers Fraser. You are always spreading the love which is nice to see.
TBH from about 13-16 I was a massive prick and at 18 when I joined the RAF I was probs just a mediocre prick.
I was always quite intelligent but was just into all sorts. I can't even blame it on 'being in with the wrong crowd' as I instigated most of it.. I had 2 real turning points, the first was when I was 16 and my mum kicked me out. I roughed it for one night then went to live with my nan in London (from York). This made me wake up a little but I was still going out drinking 5 nights a week and getting into loads of fights. Once I joined the RAF I still had the 'cheeky chappy' mentality but the old adage of they break you down to build you up again is true, it just took them a bit longer with me.. Basic training was 9 weeks I think, normally everyone has been straightened out by the end of that time, it took them about 3yrs to sort me out.. Glad they did though.
My time in the forces was centred around Iraq and Afghanistan and it wasn't too long before I found out that someone I had joined up with had been killed. I was fortunate to never actually witness anything first hand, although I did actually volunteer to go to Iraq but my deployment fell through at the last minute.
Stuff like that does have away of making you become humble pretty quickly.
I thnk you and I must have been separated at birth reading your prick scales. However, I had longer spells at massive prick, with short periods of remission.
From 14-27 I was a massive prick, and then gradually got better as the years went by.
Lke yourself I was always quite smart(yes, really), and actually got moved up a year at school when I was younger. That didn't work out too well though, the older kids picked on the new geek, and after a short while I started lumping them. This problem was solved when the dad had a word with a member at the club, who happened to be headmaster of the secondary school on the other side of town. I shouldn't have been allowed a place, because I lived directly opposite the school I should have attended, but it got worked out.
Things were ok at the new school and I did reasonably well from there on, with only the odd scrap like all kids. However, by the time I hit 13 I was spending more time at the snooker club. A regular weekend for me, would be a few snooker matches best of 3 for a tenner and the light, followed by a game of Pontoon £2 max bet with the locals. I did pretty well at these, normally nicking on average £100 a week, and was probably the richest 14yo at my school.
By this time I was smoking, hanging out in an arcade and also trying to run a book on football at school. I didn't have a clue what I was doing, but the manager at the club used to run one and I would just copy his prices
I coasted through the rest of school, and managed to get 8/9 grades at A-C in my GCSEs, despite not attending much of my last year at all. I actually remember doing the whole of my year 11 History coursework over about 36 hours the day before it had to be handed in. Sad really, but I was off the rails, without causing enough aggro for them to be at my parents constantly.
Somehow managed to blag my way back into 6th form, started A-Levels in Law/Business and English Literature. That went ok for about 6 months until I got bored, and my attendance fell to around 30%. They jogged me on after 1 year, I was too lazy to ever have any shot at making it as a snooker player, so I went tp help my old man out at his office for the summer.
By now I was an absolute nightmare, in the same vein as Millidonk. Fighting, drinking and just being an absolute helmet really. Anyway, the old man suggested the navy, and after hearing how he spent most of the 70s on the piss I was sold.
What could be better than getting paid for playing sport and going on the piss?
He had told me how he missed out getting his Chief Petty Officer rate, after having a clash of personalities with one of his bosses. His branch had to get 3 years consecutive reports that were good, but his boss had sent him on a 3 month course, so he was awarded 'SUT' Satisfactory under training. Given that I was rather outspoken and opinionated, he said it was nailed on something like that would be hazardous to me. So he told me to look at joining as an Artificer, which was a tech branch where you got promoted after passing exams.
I have never been that into engineering and all the 'Tif' branches were based around engineering, be it weapons, marine, air. There was a branch which did appeal though and that was the communications branch, where they employed 'Communications Technicians', or CTs for short. I read it through once and was sold, the branch looked the business. Mostly landbased, you got promoted after passing exams, and could expect to make Chief in 5 years!
Off to the careers office I went, took all the exams and told the officer that I wanted to join as a CT. He told me that they only took 32 probationary CTs a year across the whole country, so it would depend on my scores and 2nd interview. Long story short, I had aced the tests and the officer was happy that I had the aptitude for the CT branch.
This was Sept 98, and as they only took 32 a year, I had to wait 9 months until I joined up the following June. So I was working for the old man at his Mortgage Brokerage, doing all his admin and eating too much. I was still fighting a lot when out, so to keep me out of trouble my dad sent me to stay with his brother who ran a pub in Welling around November that year.
Story for another thread, but I basically got into more trouble those 3 months in London, than I could have done in a year at home
Just realised how much I have rambled on, without even getting to my time in the mob!
CliffsMassive prick for most of younger life.
Prick for majority of adulthood.
Grew up a bit over the last few years and not such a massive prick anymore*
*may or may not be true
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