Everything happens for a reason ..

Everything happens for a reason - so they say - and, after the day I've just had, I can only nod my sad, tired head in agreement!..

What happened? I found a negative I've been looking for for ages! Hurrah! It's this one, the shot of my cousin fixing my old car .. without his shoes on! It's so funny! Been looking for it for ages ..

The reason I found it? The entire shelving system in my office fell down!

I can laugh about it now, but at the time it was terrible (©Morrissey 1984 .. ish!) ..

Yes, all the shelves in my office fell down and I don't know why. Well, apart from the fact that they were stacked chock full of negatives, prints, magazines, picture frames, empty beer bottles - or important souvenirs from travels around the world, as I call them -  sample wedding albums, Florescence table mats (Heavy!) Joy Division prints.. etc, etc., etc ...

All I can say is that my office floor looked rather tragic on Monday evening. Broken glass, torn magazines, scattered prints and ... whoa, hang on! I've been looking for that neg for ages!..

So, guess what? What happened happened and now, with hindsight and a negative filed in its rightful place, I can breath again and smile. The irony is that the car my cousin is trying to fix lead eventually to me being 'laid off' from Cheshire County Newspapers. As the junior photographer on the 'paper in '82 I was expected to supply my own car. Everyone else had a staff car. However, I was never in a position to afford a good enough car to do the job. Out you go, O'Neill! Being made redundant was one of the worst things that had ever happened to me, but it resulted in me going freelance and, er .. the rest is history.

Everything happens for a reason, eh?...