Born into a working class family, I enjoyed my early years with my parents living in a second
top tenement flat with a large drying green out back, air raid shelter, and Sycamore tree.

I went to a local primary school, King Street, and during one summer discovered the joys of working down on Aberdeen beach as a deck-chair boy, earning tips carrying the chairs and wind breaks for the holiday makers across the sands to their desired location. Those tips went towards buying my first bike, my golden retriever dog, second bike ( racing bike with ten gears), Premium Bonds, and money for a holiday in Arbroath.

Soon after learning to swim at the age of seven, I joined the BonAccord Swimming Club, held every Friday night in the old Beach Baths, where I received excellent tuition in all strokes apart from the butterfly. I also started attending all the Dons home matches, (Aberdeen Football Club) at Pittoidrie, just up the road, with some of my school friends.

Secondary School

After primary school, I attended Aberdeen Academy for six years, located then in Schoolhill. It was, and still is, a mixed school, but now is located out at Hazlehead, on the western outskirts of the city.

Sport at school meant playing rugby (left –wing –forward ) every Wednesday afternoon and Saturday morning during term time. I continued swimming every week, and during the first three years of our school swimming galas held at the much-loved, art deco building, the Uptown Baths, I always won my races, contributing valuable points to our house “GreyFriars”.

When not studying, I developed interests in playing chess, snooker, singing (soprano), song writing and writing poetry, music, playing tennis, and trying unsuccessfully to play an acoustic Spanish guitar.

I worked hard at School work and left with four S.C.E. Highers, with an “A” pass in Mathematics (a subject I loved), and three “O” levels, to study for an Honours degree in Electrical Engineering at Aberdeen University.

Career

After graduating from Aberdeen University in 1970, I had to move to near London to follow a career as a Software Engineer, first on a permanent basis, and then, from 1977 onwards, on a freelance basis.

As a freelance I worked mainly on real-time contracts down south and abroad in Europe, using the minis and mainframes from the American Digital Equipment Corporation and low and high –level languages such as Macro -11 and Fortran.

In 2006 I managed to land a short term contract in Norway, doing Electrical Maintenance work, and went on to do this on Diving Vessels, Drill Ships, in dry docks and offshore platforms in Abu Dhabi, offshore India, Singapore, Brunei, and finally Grand Canaria.

Retirement

Since retiring I have attended four London conferences on Internet Marketing. I have tried to learn as much as possible about all aspects of Affiliate Marketing. I understand most of the Business Models used, and now I try to manage my time better focusing on one project at a time, to get it up and running by driving traffic to the web site consistently.

My other interests include learning to play bridge, be a better cook, collecting books and records (still have all my vinyl), photography, promoting my 14 track album, “From My Pen”, preparing a collection of 35 poems for publication, and watching interesting T.V. programmes. Still a Dons fan!