My Grandma claimed to be a medium, she was certainly very wise, and she told very convincing stories
My Mum’s Grandad was Major of Lincoln
I grew up with tremendous freedom roaming the countryside, building sites, abandoned airfields and gravel pits and reading
My parents were amazing, I don’t ever remember being put under pressure, or ever feeling that I needed to work to gain their love and approval
I grew up in a house with a huge garden and 50 tree orchard, the source of endless play
I was a slow starter at school, I was 13 before I actually started to move up the sets, and never really found my feet academically until I was doing my first degree
I suffered badly from acne as a boy and still suffer a bit now at 41, but I learned not to let that sort of thing bother me, and learned to be happy with myself
I suffered very badly from Migraine and Hay-fever as a child and remember spending lots of days debilitated by one or the other
When I was about 4 I woke up one morning in the spring and a wasp was crawling up my bed, I could not get out of bed and still don’t remember what happened. I have a phobia of wasps to this day
When I was about 14 I had to read Shakespeare out load, I had an asthma attack from the nerves and could not read at all fluently, people laughed. I still have a fear of public speaking, although 10 weeks of speakers club helped a little
I always remember working, my childhood jobs were gardening, apple picking and selling, washing up, preparing fruit and veg for bulk freezing, running errands for old folks, pumping water from the well, window cleaning round, school librarian, school lab boy, school odd-job repair man. I was never short of money!
From a fairly young age I had an allowance for, and bought, my own clothes and food
I love home backed bread and other simple foods
I used to help my dad repair cars and we also refurbished an old army ambulance to make a camper, it was great fun and I wanted to be a mechanic
I had two childhood pets a tortoise called Micky who turned out to be a girl (she laid eggs) and a cat called Scamp who had to be put down due to injuries from a car or dog (I never found out which).
I had my finger sliced open at school by a closing door, I was accompanied to the hospital by a careers teacher who said he thought I could do better than be a mechanic, from that day I decided to be an engineer and have never tinkered with cars since
On one of our holidays in the camper the big ends went in Kendall. Dad and me tried to fix it but we only got 20 miles before it failed again. We got home by train and Mum bought a copy of Here’s Health at the station and her life started to change. Ours changed as well but to a lesser extent.
On another holiday shortly after, Dad broke his ankle rock hopping, this was the beginning of a string of bad luck with his health that partly drove Mum and Dad slowly apart, (drinking and smoking didn’t help either)
I was shy at school and still am, especially in social situations. Years later a Vice President at work said “did I realise I probably had mild Asbergers Syndrome”. I looked it up, realised it was true and have never felt bad about being shy since
I have always been very positive
I have never been religious, for three main reasons. First I can not accept something so profound based on so little evidence, I can not accept the concept of a vengeful god as described in the bible and I can not accept the concept of a god that would want to be worshipped.
I have always been content with myself and never felt the need for a God to make me whole
My Dad spent most of his spare time working in the garage, or more truthfully tinkering. My Mum was always busy in the house and garden. I promised myself I would spend all of my spare time with my wife and kids
I had plenty of friends at school, but few that I really wanted to spend time with outside of school
I got 8 O Levels (4 A and 4 B) and took 9.
I decided that I was never going to get a good mark in German so I decided to sacrifice it, and that it would be better to get ungraded because that did not appear on the certificate
At A Level we were taught the wrong Maths syllabus so I got an E, I didn’t have the patience for Tech Drawing so I got a D and I got an A in Engineering and a B in Physics. I got an apology from the school for teaching me the wrong maths, but lost my place at Loughborough. So I went to Trent Polytechnic
I never regretted for a moment going to Trent, it was a great course and I met my wife
My wife’s name is Debbie, we were on the same course at Trent – Mechanical Engineering – I really got to know her when she got glandular fever, she had to go into hospital for a week or so and I popped in to see her, I decided on the way home that we would be married. I had to win her away from her boy friend so it took a few months before we started to go out, we were married shortly after graduating
My Dad had a bad accident on his motor bike, the front of his leg was ripped off by a car that hit him. I am pretty sure it was not his fault – although we don’t talk about it. He was on hospital for a long time, had grafts etc. The leg never properly healed. Dad was never very keen on exercise after this.
I started to mentor people seriously during my time at Trent and have continued ever since
My first real job was working for Debbie’s Dad on work experience one summer
Then I worked for a GEC company called English Electric Valves, who decided to sponsor me. Debbie was already sponsored by British Aerospace
Debbie and I lived together during the 3rd and 4th years at Trent, it was a great time. We were both sponsored so we had plenty of money
My Mum, after a life at home, decided she would lease a market stall and sell whole foods. It changed her life, but my Dad didn’t change and they grew apart and separated shortly after I graduated
I graduated second in my year with a First, Debbie also got a first and came 4th. We were both pretty pleased
I got offered all of the jobs I applied for, but decided to be near Debbie so took a job at the same British Aerospace site – Brough near Hull.
After a very boring year working in Airframe Systems, I applied for an internal PHD in IT, this fell through but the IT department offered me a job and I never looked back
We had two kittens Salt and Pepper, both black and white and brother and sister
I was sponsored to do a part-time MBA in Engineering Business Management at Warwick University. I did pretty well.
Debbie and I had our first child – Stephie
We also took on two more kittens, one I found at work after her mother had been poisoned. She was a wild cat we called lucky. The other was a friend she made at the Cat Protection League – Joshy.
Three of our cats died in car accidents, lucky is still with us, and still pretty wild unless she wants feeding
I worked mainly in IT systems to support manufacturing engineering doing development and systems integration
I learned to programme in Modula 2, Fortran, Pascal, Visual Basic, DCL, Perl, Python, VB Script
I was a very early adopter of Windows NT 3.1
I moved to do IT systems in support of engineering design
I moved to do IT infrastructure architecture
We had our second daughter – Jenny
I decided there was no future in Brough so we moved directly across country to Warton
The happiest I have ever been was in a small flat in Lytham St Annes, we put most of our stuff in store and lived a simple uncluttered life by the sea.
I have lived in 14 different homes so far
I have only ever had one job that existed before I took it, my first. I have had 10 jobs since and every one I have either invented or has been invented for me
I moved to do IT solution design for major programmes
I have Adult Onset Stills disease, It took 4 more years to get it diagnosed.
I have Twins Tessa and Anna
That’s 4 girls if you don’t count the cat
Debbie, decided to re-join a church, just around the corner, after years away. It has made a great difference to her life, and continues to be very rewarding from both a spiritual and community perspective
I once wasted a lot of money buying a posh car, and then deciding a year later to buy a practical one. The practical car kept cutting out on me and failing to start again for an hour or so, after a year they gave me a new one. I don’t bother about cars these days
My life has been changed by Stills Disease, it means I have to work from home and only on specific types of work but it has changed my life for the better in many ways
I live with daily pain
I like gadgets, especially IT gadgets
I like to make my own rules, that comply with the principles that underly the applicable rule book. I don’t feel compelled to follow “stupid rules”
I rarely give in, I have spent too much time debugging thorny problems, that always have a solution in the end
I know that most problems are probably my problems, I have spent too much time debugging my own code!
I don’t like it when things don’t work properly
I dislike conflict and competition that is not friendly
I have strongly held opinions
I like to work in small teams
I like to mentor/develop people
I read a lot, all sorts of books, even more variety since I decided to join a reading group at the Library
I like to go to the cinema and theatre
I love to walk and do so most days
I love to swim and do so several times a week
I love to cycle and do so once or twice a week, but wish I could do it more often
After 12 years Debbie and me finally found a reliable baby sitter and now manage to go out once a week
I like to build things
I am a perfectionist at work and a “good enough” bodger at home
I'm retired from work as a business and IT strategist. now I'm travelling, hiking, cycling, swimming, reading, gardening, learning, writing this blog and generally enjoying good times with friends and family
You seem to be a very interesting person. By reading about you we don’t have much in common. I am turning 40 in a few months so we are close in age and I was also sort of diagnosed with Adult Stills this past February. I also have Lupus and am confused at times on which pain and trouble comes from which disease. I know others with Lupus but have never talked to anyone with Stills. If you ever have the time to write maybe you could give me some insight on the daily trials you go through. I have been Ill since December and am waiting for remmission to kick in. How long have you had it and do you have times where you get glimpses of the past when the pain was no where around? I will leave you with that for now. I am at work, my husband has his own company so I try to make it here for a few hours every afternoon to make myself usefull. My name is Karen and you can e-mail me at RogersKM908@aol.com I am looking forward to hearing from you but will understand if you take your time. Thank you. K
You seem to be a very interesting person. By reading about you we don’t have much in common. I am turning 40 in a few months so we are close in age and I was also sort of diagnosed with Adult Stills this past February. I also have Lupus and am confused at times on which pain and trouble comes from which disease. I know others with Lupus but have never talked to anyone with Stills. If you ever have the time to write maybe you could give me some insight on the daily trials you go through. I have been Ill since December and am waiting for remmission to kick in. How long have you had it and do you have times where you get glimpses of the past when the pain was no where around? I will leave you with that for now. I am at work, my husband has his own company so I try to make it here for a few hours every afternoon to make myself usefull. My name is Karen and you can e-mail me at RogersKM908@aol.com I am looking forward to hearing from you but will understand if you take your time. Thank you. K