The school day is a little over six hours long and at first not working was very enjoyable. After dropping my son at school I would walk home, have a coffee, read the paper, do some housework, and maybe take a nap. A perfect day. But it could not last because it soon became boring. Having spent the better part of my  life working 60 or 70 hour weeks in the catering industry my days were beginning to feel a little empty. I had to think of something I could do for work. Part-time while my son was at school, but it had to be flexible because I would be the only one able to look after him if he was sick. Also, there would be the occasional appointment for speech, language, and occupational therapy, and of course doctor and dentist. I was told that on top of everything else I could also get a carer's allowance, meaning I would not have to work at all. But to me that was not an option, I had to have a contrast to the job of looking after my son. Something to take me out of myself you might say.

So what to do? There are not a lot of employers out there willing to give work, all be it part-time, to someone who may or may not phone in and say he's unable to come in because he was looking after his sick son. About one in several thousand, I would wager. Again good friends came to the rescue. As luck would have it, two friends of mine shared the ownership of a black taxi cab. They offered me the day shifts and told me not to worry about only being able to work six hours; if there was an emergency they had no problem with me making a late cancellation. The only thing I had to do was pass the 'topographical exam' and fill all the other criteria required by my local council to obtain a taxi drivers licence. With the remaining money from my redundancy I set about acquiring said licence. It involved a great amount of study and it was a few weeks before I got my sluggish brain into gear. I also attended night classes twice a week to guide me to eventually passing the exam.

The first hurdle was leaving my son with my nephew while I attended my night classes. At first it was very difficult to leave him at my nephew's flat. My son would wrap his arms around my legs and he had to be prized off me, then I would run to my car and head for the night class. Ten minutes later I would receive a text saying everything was fine. In fact over time my son started to look forward to these evenings because he  was the centre of attention among my nephew's girlfriend and two other flat mates.

Seven months later I was the proud owner of a taxi drivers licence ...