Chapter 21

The rest of that weekend I was on a high. On Monday I phoned Zoe, Sandra, and Jenny, arranging to meet them all on Wednesday evening at the gym. We thrashed through various matters. Zoe needed to give a months notice before she could start, but Jenny and Sandra were available more or less immediately to work part-time while their children were at school. They agreed to get the advertising and membership up and running before Christmas. Sandra had a contact at the local radio station and organised an interview and radio ad campaign. Since I didn't have the time to do the interview, and since it was a women only gym, Sandra and Jenny agreed to do the interview. That kept me out of the limelight and wouldn't alert Peter or Diane to what I was doing.

"We don't have enough management and reception staff to cover our opening hours, working seven days a week, at the moment." Jenny offered. "Bryony is very interested but she only wants to work part-time."

"If we took her on, would the four of you be able to cover the tasks," I asked.

"Well Zoe and I can cover most of the daytime hours, Jenny prefers to fit her hours round Jimmy's shifts. Bryony would probably prefer that too. It would ease the child care." Sandra put in.

"Now that's an idea" I suggested, "how about a creche?"

"Let's walk before we run. No point in increasing costs before we know it is giving us a return." That from Jenny.

Zoe was concentrating on the total staffing. "Look, I know there is a lot to cover, but actual management is not going to demand a lot of time so we can double up as reception staff. There are enough trainers to give us one person throughout the day. If membership increases we can recruit more but I think we have enough. I'll draw up a rota, while Jenny and Sandra get the publicity under way. We need maintenance and cleaning but I think we can use contractors for that. As Jenny says, we go with what we've got, until we see we need more. Oh, and we need an emergency evacuation plan."

From Sandra "When does the equipment arrive?"

"Next week. The franchisers have that all organised and once it is in they will give everyone the necessary coaching."

"Well I think we need to be there for that too. Best to know in case someone is misusing it"

I became fairly redundant in the conversation. The trio had a fairly good handle on what needed done.

"OK from Monday we kick of the recruiting, and we open on the first of January, with taster sessions for the first week."

"Yes, but on production of the flyer. Otherwise we have no control of it. Have you thought of a website, Jack?" asked Jenny.

"No, I hadn't to be honest."

"I can set up a basic presence fairly quickly. We can develop it later."

I gave the girls keys for the building, and we wound up the meeting. From the buzz they were generating, I was very confident that they would make the project a success.

As we were leaving, Zoe stopped me. "Thank you for not holding the child protection case against me, Jack. I really appreciate you giving me this opportunity."

"Zoe, you were caught in the middle of something not of your making. You did your job and used your common sense. There's nothing more to be said. But I have to ask, why are you leaving social services?"

"I've been doing that for fifteen years. Quite honestly, I'm burned out. It isn't the job I went in to do. It is bound down with politically correct bureaucracy, arse covering and box ticking. In other hands, your case could so easily have become a witch-hunt."

"So I'm lucky it fell in your lap?"

"Partly, but Sam Willis warned me there was more to it. Somehow I don't think he'll go too far in the police. He thinks for himself."

"I know what you mean. He doesn't toe the party line."

"Exactly."

The house purchase went through without any hiccups. Diane now had the money to buy the share in the boutique. Peter was pushed into the background, and his concerns about his gym were starting to fray his nerves. Naturally, Diane was caught up in her own little world and had no time for him. Additionally, having the children around him so often didn't help. Things came to a head just before Christmas, and he told Diane to get out. She had nowhere to go except the flat above the shop. It had been used for storing stock. Now she had to get it habitable. There was only one bedroom so she couldn't take the children at weekends. They didn't seem to mind.

The weather was still fairly mild, so I got hold of an old caravan and parked it in the garden of the house in Plymouth. The kids and I took a couple of weekends down there so I could get the inside cleared out. I didn't want the house to get any worse. Once we got the rubbish out I restored the electricity and hired a couple of dehumidifiers to dry it out a bit before the bad weather set in. Harry and Georgie really enjoyed the adventure of staying in the van, but we needed extra thick quilts at night.

December ran through into January. Bryony had come on board and between the four of them, the gym opened on January the first with a queue outside the door. Membership applications were steady. We also had a pay per use system in operation. I didn't appear at the opening, leaving it to Bryony, Jenny, Sandra and Zoe. As expected the first month was hectic. What surprised me was that the usage figures remained high. We actually broke even in the first quarter.

I was still going to Peter's gym and noted the change in clientele. There were fewer women about. Also the gym itself was starting to look a little "tired". It was definitely in need of refurbishment.

"You could do with a bit of a makeover Peter."

"Yeah. We've lost a bit of business to that new women only place, and my partners aren't to keen on spending the money to bring us up to the same standard. To be honest they aren't actually interested in the gym as such. They are more interested in it as a business. They won't try to develop it, they just want the income stream. If I could buy them out I would."

"Surely if the business is sound, you could get a bank loan."

"It is sound enough, but they are stripping the profits out for other projects."

"Even so, they should show it is viable."

"Yes, but I would have to buy them out, have the money to refurbish the place and buy new equipment. That is one of the reasons that new place has attracted so many of the female customers away. And since it is a franchise they'll replace it as soon as it looks tired. The franchisers buy equipment in bulk and get it at a fraction of what we would have to pay."

It wasn't just the gym that looked "tired". The pressure was taking its toll on Peter as well.

It wasn't just the exercise that left me with a spring in my step that day.

My plans for my social life had taken a bit of a hit since the Harry and Georgie were at home a bit more. But I had been thinking about the night in the White Hart. I had checked out the Yellow Pages and DD Music Promotions was a bona fide company. So to fill the dark evenings, I had started practicing again on the piano and guitar. Harry and Georgie joined me. I had taught them a bit when they were younger.

I phoned Doug more out of curiosity than anything else, and he agreed to get me a couple of gigs at local folk clubs, just to see how things went. So I became the guy that sings to an empty room on a Tuesday night. First on the bill, filling, while the room does the same. There was no money in it, usually just enough for petrol, but I was developing a bit of stagecraft.

However! I would hang around the bar after a gig and there were always some ladies who wanted to talk to one of the acts; especially one who had all his own teeth. I wasn't actually to bad looking. Granted my self confidence had dipped when Diane left me, but I wasn't to bad looking for my age. Maybe not at my fighting weight but trim enough, and fairly well turned out. Being approached by the occasional woman though was helping.

I had done about four gigs when, "Jack, it's Doug. I'll make this quick. How do you think it's going?"

"I really wouldn't know. I'm really only a warm up act."

"Well, the places I've sent you are pretty discerning. If you are crap, they'll be down on me asking why I sent you. As it is all four have asked for you back and offered Fridays and Saturdays. That's big brownie points. Its time you decided whether you want to give it a serious crack. I know you have kids, a job and all that, but I can work round all that. If you are interested I think you should consider getting an agent. Think about it and let me know."

The past year had been one of the most emotionally demanding of my life. During it all, I had barely had any time to think about what I wanted my future to be. Everything I had done was reactive. Even setting up the gym and buying the house were reactions to what Diane had done, particularly to me, and to a lesser extent, the children. Suddenly I had been presented with an opportunity that was for me alone. I was in my mid forties, being given an opportunity that any twenty year old would grab with both hands.

I needed to think this through. I still had Harry and Georgie to consider, but I could see no reason why I couldn't fit gigging around the weekends that they were with their mother. First I needed to talk to them.