About me

This is me. Well, me on a good day. Fatter than I want to be, slightly greyer but smiling and generally happy which is my intended default state.

 

Where do you start describing yourself, when you have 63 years of life experiences to bore people with? Well I suppose with generalities and basics.

 

Born in Wales in 1960, spent my childhood as an army brat, travelling with my family from posting to posting in Cyprus, UK and Germany, never more than 3 years in one place. I guess that's where I developed my interests in travel, never happier then when I am exploring what the world has to offer.

 

 

When I left my 8th and final school at Sixteen after Ten years of education, (the benefits of being an Army Brat mean learning to adapt to change and fit in quickly), I had 2 clear career paths in my mind. One was teaching, the other to be a Policeman (yes we really did call them Police men back in the 70's). At that time there was a lot of information all over the news about Teachers qualifying from college and there not being enough jobs, so the decision was more or less made for me.

 

Then commenced 28 years of Police career, boy and man, starting off as a police cadet at 16 and graduating to a Constable at 18.5 years old. There are lots of stories I could tell about that time, some funny, some sad and some that can never be told but suffice it to say I was blessed with a wide and varied career which left me retiring on a Temp Inspectors pension. I may expand more on some of those stories here at a future date.

 

I then became a Civil Servant, working for the Home Office in London on a little project known as Airwave, before crossing to the dark side and Joining Airwave UK as Head of Service. following restructure I retired from that role in 2010 and was deciding what I wanted to do next, when I was approached to come out to Australia and help establish an Australian arm of Airwave. Then followed 12 glorious year growing and developing the Critical Comms business within what became Bai. That brings us up to date, with me retiring at the ripe old age of 63. My Linked in Profile is... well... linked below should you wish to see more.

 

I have been married twice in my life. My first marriage last 26 years from childhood sweethearts at 17. It was in the main a good marriage that ended calmly, where our respective outlooks on life and interests just drifted us apart. It did provide for the one thing I am most proud of in my life, my son Robert, now 26 years old and living in the UK.

 

My second marriage was to an incredible lady - my Ursula -  who I met through a mutual friend when arriving in Australia for the first time. We had an incredible 11 years together, full of life, laughter, fun and adventure until she sadly passed away in March 2022. We crammed 20 years of living into those 11 years and I can say without doubt they have been the best years of my life so far. I miss her very much.

 

Throughout my life, the one real passion that has sustained me is music, in all forms. It drives my engine and I use it for everything from reflection, mood control, motivation and relaxation. Spotify is one of the most used Apps on my devices and you can get a flavour of the varied things I listen to here.

 

I love to sing. I know all the words to all the songs and sing them loudly, just not necessarily in the right order. I find it fascinating that if I am asked to write down the lyrics of a song I struggle to do it.... but play the song and the lyrics are immediately in my head ready to be sung. There has to be a way to exploit that in teaching and learning somewhere.

 

My other 2 passions are Travel and Animals. Its a source of sadness for me that one conflicts with the other. In the past I have been used to having dogs at home but my nomadic lifestyle now means it would be cruel and unfair to keep a pet of my own. I do miss their company, animals give their love nd affection freely without agenda, something we can all learn from.

 

Should you be curious, you can hear examples of my average singing abilities on my My Dulcet Tones page on this site. They were recorded using Singsnap and Smule. Best listened to with headphones on... you don't want to scare the cat!

 

If you made it this far, congratulations on your perseverance. I hope you found it vagually interesting.