About Alan

Alan’s Corner

Master of Arts – Master Mason – Master Snorer

My initial career foray into the big wide world of work pitched me into the house building industry. On a three year management scheme, I rose from tea maker and convenient driver of Directors cars when they went in for service, to building site supervisor, then site project manager on multi-million pound jobs. I did some globe trotting during this time, saving up my holiday time each year to strap on a backpack and explore far flung geography and its inhabitants ( I hereby apologise to anyone I shared a tent with, for my snoring). A change in government policy flattened the house building industry, I was made redundant a couple of times (some of the tradesmen who worked with me lost a lot more than a job) before looking for a job elsewhere to pay the mortgage.

Career change followed, into the passenger transport industry, gaining my PCV licence enabled me to pay that mortgage driving double decker buses in and around north London and Hertfordshire, England. I started volunteering around this time with BTCV (British Trust for Conservation Volunteers) and gained a more balanced view on how we treat the planet. The bus driver (steering wheel attendant) is a curious and diverse creature, with a particular version of dark humour and camaraderie all their own. One fine day in the canteen a fellow driver (who had a spent time in the Special Air Service, we had a sprinkling of our number with military backgrounds) asked if I believed in a supreme being, if yes, was I interested in joining the Freemason’s. I pondered this over my egg, sausage and chips, curiosity won. At that time I viewed the Mason’s from the outside as a combination of lesser mystery school and gentlemen’s club. This was the start of my journey into the ‘Society with Secrets‘, which would progress through the three ‘Blue Degrees’ and then on to ‘Companion of the Royal Arch’.

As a Fellowcraft, you are charged with ‘exploring the hidden mysteries of nature and science‘, I was already doing this, it’s just part of what I am, but not many of my Masonic colleagues seemed to take this approach. I began studying psychology, major philosophies and religions (especially Taoism and Buddhism) as well as hypnosis, to broaden my palette. Back at the shed (bus garage) I decided to get more involved with union as well as sports and social activity. The bus industry is traditionally heavily unionised, during my time as senior branch officer we had around 96% of the drivers as paid up members. This was also into the era of privatising the bus industry, effectively breaking up bargaining power for wage deals into small units, as opposed to say the tube drivers. The bus company was bought out, then bought out again by a management buyout, then gobbled up by a multi-national company. During this time the social side of the job vanished, but we did get the company involved in a learning project that had access to government funding via the TUC (Trades Union Congress).

Despite appealing to all faiths and treating all Mason’s as brethren, their exists a hierarchy in which you find the landed aristocracy, the old money, fast tracked into grand lodge, just look up who the current patron is. My pick axe of curiosity had delved to a point where seams of information were manifesting, regarding Masonry going back beyond the changing of ritual and workings to suit the incoming Georgian monarchs of Britain and Ireland. Time to step away from an organisation that seemed to have as its main purpose, its own continuation. Meanwhile, back at the shed, our learning project had moved from stage 1, our learning bus, to stage 2, two bricks and mortar learning centres. I was selected to set up and run one of the centres, at the same time re-negotiated my own terms and conditions, enabling me to tackle a Masters Degree after work at the London Metropolitan University.

Both Learning Centres and the bus were going great guns, I became a kind of Swiss army knife for the local management with my dual union and learning centre role, until a change of government became imminent and the company knew the match funding would dry up. Time for another enforced change of career. I had now my Masters scroll and qualified as a Hypno-analyst, so self-employment seemed the new way to go. To add another arrow to my employment quiver, I qualified as a TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) tutor to go with my union tutor qualification. Along this path I augmented my hypnosis with Reiki energy healing, combining the healing with progressive relaxation. A Golden rule of hypnotic suggestion (self or with a hypnotist) – keep it positive. Next step was to volunteer for a couple of years with a mental health charity as a Crisis Counsellor. During this time I began writing poetry, a natural outlet to balance the time connected with those reaching out, I still enjoy the spontaneous creativity of writing in poetic form, Tanka, Haiku, or epic in length, I give them all a good go. Gradually a hobby of family research inspired by my maternal grandfather was taking more of my time, I find it feeds into a lot of what has gone before, a natural progression into something I really enjoy has grown into a profession, this time my change of career has not been forced, maybe I learned the right lesson last time round.

Sometimes in life doing a job of work that you enjoy comes early (rarely) other times later or not at all. During my time as a union rep I witnessed the good and bad within the union, also went to too many funerals of colleagues who died just prior to retirement. Being really good at what you do can be inspirational for others, being a Swiss army knife can give you the flexibility and resilience to go with the flow when the going gets tough. Whatever you chose, bring an element of creativity and enjoyment to the table if you can, it will transform your experience.

A Poem of Alan inspired by Robert E Howard