Who was there? Jerry Gardner
After Brum, I skived around the States for six months, mostly in Indianapolis, before returning to London to start making in-roads into the student overdraft. I had a couple of dodge-pot jobs selling advertising before ending up with a small IT and telecoms consultancy called Ovum, doing database admin. In 1991 I met an Irish nurse called Breda, in 1993 we married, followed in 1995 by number one son, Fionn. I ended up staying at Ovum for eight years, going through a range of marketing roles, until the glass ceiling became unbearable, and I jumped ship to Connect Voice Messaging, becoming European Marketing Manager. I spent a couple of years there before getting the big heave-ho on the day Breda discovered she was preggers for a second time. Timing was everything: this pregnancy turned into twin girls Orla & Ciara in 1998. Third daughter - and fourth child - Iona arrived in 1999. After Connect, I worked as European Market Development Manager for a telecoms billing company called Kenan for a few years – fantastic time, the best job and the best people I ever worked with. All good things come to an end, though, and we were taken over by Lucent, an American telecoms behemoth. The meddlesome politics and bloated middle/upper management all got too much, so I left to become Marketing Director for a small telecoms building firm based in Leeds, although I spent most of the week working from home in London. It was fun, but fairly hairy and scary at times, as it turned out that the MD was being charged for fraud! Sadly Tommy Takeover raised his head again, and it was time for redundancy number 2, although at least this time I got a decent pay-off… which very soon disappeared in the six months it took me to realise that the telecoms market was going seins en haut, and that I wasn’t going to get a job easily. So in 2003, in semi-mid-life-crisis mode, Breda and I decided to up sticks to Co Kilkenny, and set Breda up as complementary health therapist, offering iridology, homeopathy, muscle testing and so on. Meanwhile I reverted to the role of househusband, which also includes doing all the marketing, admin, financials etc. for the business. And that’s where we are now: Breda’s business is thriving, and we don’t miss the crap of London one bit.
After Brum, I skived around the States for six months, mostly in Indianapolis, before returning to London to start making in-roads into the student overdraft. I had a couple of dodge-pot jobs selling advertising before ending up with a small IT and telecoms consultancy called Ovum, doing database admin. In 1991 I met an Irish nurse called Breda, in 1993 we married, followed in 1995 by number one son, Fionn. I ended up staying at Ovum for eight years, going through a range of marketing roles, until the glass ceiling became unbearable, and I jumped ship to Connect Voice Messaging, becoming European Marketing Manager. I spent a couple of years there before getting the big heave-ho on the day Breda discovered she was preggers for a second time. Timing was everything: this pregnancy turned into twin girls Orla & Ciara in 1998. Third daughter - and fourth child - Iona arrived in 1999. After Connect, I worked as European Market Development Manager for a telecoms billing company called Kenan for a few years – fantastic time, the best job and the best people I ever worked with. All good things come to an end, though, and we were taken over by Lucent, an American telecoms behemoth. The meddlesome politics and bloated middle/upper management all got too much, so I left to become Marketing Director for a small telecoms building firm based in Leeds, although I spent most of the week working from home in London. It was fun, but fairly hairy and scary at times, as it turned out that the MD was being charged for fraud! Sadly Tommy Takeover raised his head again, and it was time for redundancy number 2, although at least this time I got a decent pay-off… which very soon disappeared in the six months it took me to realise that the telecoms market was going seins en haut, and that I wasn’t going to get a job easily. So in 2003, in semi-mid-life-crisis mode, Breda and I decided to up sticks to Co Kilkenny, and set Breda up as complementary health therapist, offering iridology, homeopathy, muscle testing and so on. Meanwhile I reverted to the role of househusband, which also includes doing all the marketing, admin, financials etc. for the business. And that’s where we are now: Breda’s business is thriving, and we don’t miss the crap of London one bit.
posted by Hazel Hall at 3:32 pm
<< Home