I bought my first property, a first floor one bedroomed flat no bigger than a shoebox, for £9400 in 1981 with a £500 deposit that I borrowed from my father who, three weeks later, asked me when I was going to pay it back. In week one I wallpapered one wall of the living room with Hessian, it was all the rage, and visited DER in Whitley bay to rent a TV set and a Ferguson Videostar top loading video recorder. In week two I went to a pet shop in Cullercoats and bought, for £20, a six week old