Most of this site is about what's happened to me, what I believe, who I am in the real sense of the word. This little bit is about the boring physical stuff, ie where I was born, live, etc... Actually, it covers some interesting stuff, so only skip to the next section if you really don't want to know about my life to date!
I'll try and be brief!
I was born in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, England. I spent the first 9 years of my life living in the small village of Potter Heigham with my parents and sister, Helen. We went to Potter Heigham First School which finally hit the news in January 1998 when all the parents took their children out of the school following a damning OFSTED report, and years of dissatisfaction with the level of teaching. At last I have an excuse for my abismal speling adn writting..
For our last few years in Potter we had a boat, Pamela, on the Norfolk Broads which brought many days of pleasure and a host of exciting adventures. The broads were the inspiration for Arthur Ransom's Swallows and Amazons books.
For several years we enjoyed holidays in the beautiful rolling hills of Dartmoor, staying in a lovely converted barn in the picturesque village of Lustleigh. We spent our time walking on the moor, exploring and discovering a whole new world. We fell in love. With Devon that is! So, after four or five holidays Dad found a job in Totnes, Devon and after a summer of fun the rest of us joined him in this small but active town.
Totnes was a great improvement on Potter, there was so much here, so many people, the beautiful countryside and coast, even a river. I had two wonderful years at the Grove Primary School, at last some real education! After that I joined my sister at King Edward VI College (KEVIC - now King Edward VI Community College). Here my interest in maths, science and computing grew and was encouraged. I was involved in lots of activities at school, including Recycling In the School Community (RISC), the Computer Club and the annual Language Fair where I helped to produce the winning entry in the Newspaper Competition. I was also an active member of the 3rd Totnes Sea Scouts, where I learnt a lot about discipline as well as rowing, canoeing and the maintenance of boats. I was part of the 6-man team which successfully completed the famous Ten Tors event, as well as gaining the role of Patrol Leader. Sounds a bit soppy now, but the Cubs, Scouts, Brownies and Guides (as well as the Boys & Girls Brigade) give a great grounding to children, I'd recommend them to anyone.
In the VIth form as well as tackling 4 'A' Levels I set up a small business with a friend of mine, Trevor, making and selling candles. Originally under the name Illuminations but developing into Mad Wax. We gave a percentage of the profit to Amnesty International. I became involved in the local AI group, taking on responsibility for the Peru campaign that was starting around that time.
I took as many opportunities as I could at this stage to see Shakespearian plays all around the country, often accompanying the 'A' Level English group on their trips! I also spent time programming and developing my design skills. Oh, and going to gigs!!
Strange things had started to happen at home, my parents had both become Christians, and since my sister was at Uni in Cardiff I was left alone with these two weirdos! So I'm sure that you can imagine that I was quite pleased to escape up to London as I committed the next three years of my life to Imperial College, embarking on a Chemistry Degree. Or so I thought...
Getting to Imperial was a refreshing change, new life, new independence, new and almost overwhelming workload, and best of all, new friends. I was so blessed at College to meet and share my life with such wonderful people. I won't go into the details, but you can see most of my best friends by visiting the holidays section of this Web site.
Having sailed through my 'A' Levels, achieving the best marks in my year I was somewhat surprised to find that at IC I was in the same boat as everyone else. Everyone was the top in their class or year, and everyone found the level of study at IC challenging, some rising to the challenge better than others!
The course was split between Lecture weeks, and Lab weeks, each with their pros and cons. I really enjoyed the Lab aspect of the course, even if I didn't always know what I was doing! That's where Sara & Simon came in, to help me. Well, Sara would help me, Simon always seemed more interested in reading his newspaper...
During the year a few of the good friends that I made were Christians, and they even managed to drag me along to an (absolutely awful!) Christian Union meeting, and an Alpha Supper Party. Never quite got me to a Church service though!
After the stressful exam period I shot off to visit my sister in Italy where she was studying. We had a great time travelling around, and were then joined by our parents for a couple of weeks camping in Tuscany (totally beautiful). It was during this time that I started to think about God, did he really exist? I read a book, Chasing the Dragon, by an amazing lady called Jackie Pullinger, it talked about the power of God to change people, and his Holy Spirit which works in peoples lives and gives them gifts. Many of the people in the book had been set free from their addiction to drugs, especially heroin. Normally without the horror of cold turkey.
This made me think, for the first time, about how God could be involved in my life. I wrote to my friend Katy, letting her know what I was thinking about and asking for her advice. When we got back home to England, Mum & Dad were going off to a Christian Camp for a week. With the help of a few friends I'd developed a strongly atheistic view, not hating Christians, but certainly not thinking much of them and trying to avoid too much contact. So a week with 4,000 Christians would be the last thing I wanted. But something strange happened, I had this really strong feeling that I wanted to go to this conference! I didn't understand it, and Dad was rather surprised when I said, "Maybe", and not, "No chance!", when he asked me if I'd like to go with them. And go I did. And regret it I did!! I thought that a few days around these losers would once-and-for-all show me that I was right, and that they were just clinging on to something to bring a little interest to their otherwise dull lives.
But I was surprised by one thing. Whether what these people believed was right or not I didn't know, but I did know that they really believed it - you could see it in their eyes, in their actions, in everything. And when you see 4,000 people who believe something with all that they are it's a powerful thing. And to hear them praise their God, it was wonderful!
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