Hi,
Like Joy I have never met anyone off the internet, and I probably never will. I do not possess a video cam or even a headset, but that’s me. My wife is different to me, she’s 6 years younger and plays console games and chats away to friends, but she is very careful what she says. Come to think of it I have never left the UK, nor passed my driving test – Epilepsy stops me from driving, because you have to surrender your Driving License to the DVLA. I can only get it back if I go a whole year without no seizures, that’s wishing with me. LOL
Anyway, I’ll start off my autobiography…
Okay, my mother went into labour in the worst snowstorms back in 1963 – a cold night, in a village miles from any hospitals, and the snow was coming down fast. My father, did have a car back then, old by today’s standards, but managed to cope with the icy roads and snow. I ended up being born in Cheltenham (Yes, the Centre of The Cotswolds). I attended all 3 schools in the area, but since I left, all of them have been demolished. My last school is now a large college and housing estate, my junior school, that is just more houses and my infants school, is just more houses. I moved out of parents house in the early 90’s and settled down in a large village, not far from where I am now.
My career is very different that most peoples – I was not in to reading books unless they were scientific and this was when I was around 8 years old, I was reading adult books on science, chemicals and electronics. Most children at the age were playing, or reading books for their age group – but that to me seemed senseless and time-wasting. I would rather be gazing at the stars through a telescope, tracking planets, and sunset and sunrise times. Throughout my school life, I had many hobbies electronics, chemical experiments, astronomy and art. I used to find drawing portraits of people and animals easy, sold many to public houses and others framed my work. I had paintings in the School Art Gallery from the age of 5, displayed in the Cheltenham museum – but to me it was just a hobby, nothing more. When I was 10 or 11, I designed a radio receiver in a small plastic box which was 2cm x 2cm x 1.5cm, many people were impressed how I could design something that small! I did develop other things, usually things that I would want, but never seen. When Satellite TV first come out, people were stealing the actual dishes, apart from mine! I built an alarm system to detect tampering.
When I eventually left school in 1980, I already had a job and asked the company if it was okay to take my ‘O’ Level’s, back then you had to pay for exams above CSE’s – I ended up with 7 CSE Grade 1’s and 2 ‘O’ Levels Grade 1, basically I couldn’t get higher grades if I tried. My first job was boring, not engaging or making you want to do more, so I asked the CEO (Boss back then!) if I could do a job that would be more taxing on the brain, he said he would give me a trial of testing electronic digital tools next week. I spent 2 weeks on a trial, and passed – anyway 6 months later, a job come up for a Prototype Thermocouple Test Equipment Designer, capable of measuring temperatures at -247 degrees kelvin and the operating output would need to be fed into an Apple II. They included a college course, but what they were going through I already knew anyway, so I asked my CEO doesn’t the college just do exams? I’m finding the course boring to be honest. Anyway, a few hours went by and the CEO called me in to his Office, and he had another guy with him that I didn’t recognize, anyway the guy turned out to be one of College Tutors whom put people through with high enough grades. He asked me if I had ever been graded before, I assumed it was to do with the course my CEO put me on, but I was totally wrong.
He gave me an exam sheet and asked me if I could just look at a few of the questions, well I looked at it and asked him and said this is not to do with college has it? He said ‘no’, and grinned. So I asked him what it was for, and he stated your answers you have given in College courses namely the Technical Drawing aspect ratios were answered in a way he had never seen before, but everyone was correct. Then he pulled out a briefcase and said this is a special test, and if you can, complete it in under 15 minutes. So, I did the test in front of my CEO and this guy I had never seen before – they were whispering between themselves but not loud enough for me to hear. Anyway, at just over 13 minutes I had completed it. The guy seemed shocked, I asked if it was wrong and he said no, and told me he was from a group of people whom can complete Psychometric assessments very quickly, but the tests vary and so do environments to the applicant. He said if you want you can join Mensa, I thought “ah that’s what it was to do with by the questions” – so ended up finding out my IQ, which I already knew from a previous Mensa test I did. I told him, to be honest I do not want to join – last time I took the test I had an IQ which caught someone else’s attention, and was picked to take part in further tests. The trouble is I do not want to do work outside my boundaries, which at some point would. I stayed at that company for another 2 years before moving on, when companies were making redundancies. I started working for a much larger company, globally based and easy to get, but with one big difference it was in the Telecommunications Industry, doing contract work for BT.
I worked there a few years before having the accident that ruined my life, well ‘no’ not ruined because I have a lovely wife and 3 children, and in a quiet area. Okay, we have hard times and I must admit it is my wife that does help me a lot. I cannot write now, due to arm and hand spasms – at night times I am a nightmare, every morning I wake up in excruciating pain you wouldn’t believe, all muscles spasm and stay like it for at least an hour or more before I can even get out of bed. I have many disability aids to help me, but I am very difficult to manage, even my son and my wife strain to get me to hospital appointments, got 2 more of them before Christmas.
The possibility of me working is virtually none…. It’s taken me hours and a sleep to type this up! Do I ever wonder what would life had been if the accident could have been avoided, sometimes yes – I guess it’s down to depression sometimes, still missing family that have passed on… Maybe one day things will become easier.
Regards,
Les.