Let me start by stating that this is not a c.v. but I believe, if I want you to take what I am writing seriously, it is only as well to let you know somewhat of the person on the other side of the keyboard, having said that, If anyone wants to get in touch on matters pertaining to computers and computer systems I will be happy to oblige at my usual rates.
I arrived in Spain 8 years ago via the rest of the world. If asked 8 years ago where I thought I would be spending the rest of my days, Spain would have been at the bottom of the list. Having been to places like Benidorm as a child I, like most people I believe, had no idea whatsoever what the ´real´ Spain was like. Why did I come? Simple sun, sun and more sun. The moment I crossed the border from France into Spain the sun came out for the first time in 3 very wet and miserable months and that was me hooked. I came to escape the winter and will probably stay for the rest of my life.
So why Fuengirola, of all places? This may be difficult for many to understand, but I had been travelling the world for 20 years, I was tired and wanted a place to rest, but also I had a craving to speak English again and to experience many of those so typically English things, full English Breakfast, warm flat beer (in a pint glass), you know what I mean. The thing is I did not want to do this in England, so where´s the next best thing? Yep, the Costa del Sol. And Fuengirola was, on that warm November day, the only place which was open.
I will not bore you with a list of my working experiences, only to say, having designed and build more computer systems than I´ve had hot dinners, although probably not cups of coffee, I am left with a very analytical approach to life and have become very much an information junkie. Anal retentive? Control freak? Maybe not quite that bad, but I bet I´m one of the few that reads an instruction manual from cover to cover (and can understand, or at least figure out, the gobbledygook that they usually contain), before unpacking whatever may be in the box. This, I hope, will be to your benefit as well as mine in the weeks? months? years? to come as I try to buy my house.
As to the writing, I have, for many years, written works of a technical nature for trade publications around the world and somewhat more light hearted pieces for various magazines. My other blog ´A Cynic in Spain´ contains some of these pieces and, when I get round to posting them, many others.
At this point I would like to thank the deceased and gone to join the choir invisibule (sic) Python(Monty), the late Douglas Adams and the extremely unwell Sir Terry Prachett for their unwitting influence over the years, you will find, in the following writings, many quotes, references and allusions to their works which I hereby acknowledge in the hope of avoiding any future litigation or screams of plagiarism. Thanks guys, without you I would have been forced to make up my own funny stuff, which would not have been half as good.
On the domestic side, I live with my girlfriend of 4 years and her daughter, who will be leaving home real soon now, although she doesn´t know it yet. Oh yes and I´ve got a pet dog who, of course, could be named nothing else; Eric.