Trafford Close was my first home away from my parents. I moved in here in a bit of a blur in September 1982 at the tender age of 24. I can faintly remember my mum seeing me off at Pontypool Bus Station to go up to matriculate at NELP. I have no idea how that worked or why I didn't drive up. And I guess I must have stayed over at Trafford Close but I don't know how I got hold of keys or anything. As I say, it's all a blur.

I must have driven up at some point because I had all my stuff to bring up - computer, bedding, music stuff, etc., but I think this must have been closer to the start of term. In fact now I come to think about it, I drove up with Rachel Williams, whom I was seeing at the time, as she was heading to North London Polytechnic. I think she stayed with me for a while, our "thing" gradually dwindling away as we found our new feet.

After a couple of weeks I was at a party over the road from my house when I met a blonde girl called Cas on the stairs. We talked for ages and it turned out she lived next door. The following Saturday we took the tube up to town and walked alongside the river together. I was kind of in love. This was not what I had intended at all and was much complicated by the fact that I was still carrying a torch for Helen whom, if the truth be told, was the reason I was up in that London in the first place. It all got a bit messy when Helen came over and stayed the night, especially as Rachel had only just left the scene. I had acquired a reputation with my housemates having spent the night with three girls in the space of about a fortnight… In the end the convenience of having Cas next door seemed to outweigh any other considerations but repercussions inevitably followed with my unfinished business with Helen forever causing disturbance in the force.

My four housemates at Trafford Close were a varied bunch - I can't remember all their names but there was Iain the punk who was on the Business Studies course, Alf a black Christian guy studying I know not what, another guy called Nick who was training to be an architect, Billy (a girl) who was heavily into pornography and had a boyfriend with similar academic interests - Billy memorably on at least one occasion hauled a couple of local geezers back from the pub to indulge in noisy afternoon delight across the landing from my room.