he spent a year teaching in a secondary school in the south of france as part of his academic degree course. while in nice he spent a great deal of time busking with bagpipes and developing a lifelong interest in the belgian singer jacques brel. while hitchhiking back to nice from aix-en-provence he learned of the singer's death and shared stories with the belgian lorry driver who had picked him up, an episode which would later become the subject of a bbc radio documentary and subsequent play.