Rogues Gallery: Jon Wright

Gallery entry number five brings me to my friend and ex-housemate Jon. To be honest while I count Jon amongst my best friends these days, about 20 months ago I barely knew him. Back then Tony and I were living in seperate flats on either side of Priorswood Road across town. It was on a walk back from the cinema, that we hit upon the idea of looking to rent a place together, as we were perpetually in one flat or the other anyway, and were paying out way too much in seperate bills for either of us to be comfortable with.

So we started looking, and quickly realised that with house rental prices as they are, we would need a third housemate to make it worthwhile. Enter an old friend of mine Ashleigh Garland, who was living with his parents, was around the same age as us, and who could have done with moving out at long last. Unfortunately, he proved to be very inconsistent, never turned up to view houses, wouldn't submit to a credit check with the letting agency, and we lost the house we wanted. So we washed our hands of him, and were about to start looking for a new third man, when Jon appeared.

And I mean literally he came out of nowhere. I barely knew him and Tony didn't know him at all, but he had just split up with his slightly nutty girlfriend, and been forced to move back in with his parents, which was driving him slowly crazy. He had heard (and I'm still not sure where from, but my guess would be either Dan or my Mum) that we were looking for a housemate, and he wanted in. For our part, Jon was way more outgoing than either of us, and we figured this was a good thing, as we needed a little dragging to get out of our shells so to speak.

So this was the second house we viewed, we all fell in love with it instantly, and after the viewing was done, went to the pub next door, had several drinks each and we were united over beer that the house must be ours. Fast forward a month, with credit checks done, and we all moved in on August 1st 2004. Jon was to share the house with us for the next eleven months, before moving out at the end of June 2005 to share a flat with his then girlfriend Lorraine.

So what can I say about Jon? Well he is slightly shorter than me, and a couple years older. He shaves his head, cos he looks odd with long hair. He is a divorcee with two great kids (Bethany and Joseph), who stayed over at the house a few times, and who I actually got on with.

He loves movies (though he has a habit of falling asleep during even the most action packed of films, a habit that drove me barmy), and will watch pretty much any genre, even horror (Lorraine's influence) which frankly terrifies him. I have never seen a man so wide-eyed as when Jon got back from watching The Grudge. I got him to take notice of American TV too, weening him on shows like the new Battlestar Galactica and Firefly, and he is now a big fan of the series Charmed. Jon is also a lifelong fan of Doctor Who, and can relate the most obscure facts about the characters, monsters, plots etc.

Bread and ham are not safe around Jon, this man can put away sandwiches like nothing else. I have seen him devour almost an entire loaf of bread in one sitting before now, each slice barely smeared with margarine and then a slice of freshly cut ham (no pre-pack stuff, he likes to buy from the Deli counter) slapped between them. Despite this voracious appetite, Jon is probably the leanest bloke I have ever seen. I genuinely envy him his physique.

He can also be pretty anal about tidiness, which led to a few clashes with Tony and myself, as we are considerably more laid back. Still he had his influence on us, and us on him. My regular sales on ebay, selling all the old comics and toys and books I no longer want, are in part inspired by his more minimalist lifestyle (when he moved in here, he had no furniture). He is a amateur photographer (he took his own photo for this entry), though he has not been practicing that hobby as much as he'd like too (I'm still hoping to see those pics of me you shot someday Jon!).