One morning in early January 2009, I walked out of my house and headed for the library around the corner. Lily Allen’s ‘Fear’ was playing in my ears through my iPod.
It was a miserable time of year. The economy was in freefall. Experts still didn’t know ‘where the bottom of the market was’. The world was on its ass. I was rock bottom too. I’d lost my job and had racked-up huge debts thanks to a failed business venture. I was missing the perks of a full-time job — the salary, mobile phone and a computer. So I was off to use the library PC and WiFi.
The library had two PCs that you could use for 20 mins. On that morning, one PC was not working, so the library was busy. I looked around and could see a large group of men. They weren’t saying much, but their body language suggested there was something else at play.
I walked towards the group and was about to swoop down into what looked like a vacant chair when some of the older men looked at me suspiciously — warding me off. I pulled back like a pilot aborting a landing and circled looking for another chair. There were other men sat down reading and talking. I noticed that some of them hung their coats on the back of their chairs and were up browsing the bookshelves. On the empty chairs, there…
