Born on 16th April 1941 I was raised In Eastcote in Middlesex, a few miles north of London.
This was me Growing Up
My parents were Eric and Fluff which portrays them together, while individually, they can be found on seperate links – Eric and Fluff with much more information about my Mum as Dad died at just 52.
I left home at 18 and spent the first part of the ‘swinging 60’s’ in flats in London. I emigrated in 1965 to live and work in Barcelona, and since then I have spent well over half of my life overseas, in Spain and Hong Kong.
I met Valerie while I was working in Barcelona in 1967, and ‘inherited’ two lovely small children, Jan who was about five when we first met and Don who was nearly three. Valerie and I married in the UK in 1968 and along came Diana in 1969. Due to the fact that from the 1970’s the use of cameras increased we have two pages for Diana. Until her Marriage and the Rosie Family
We emigrated in 1973 and then spent ten years in Hong Kong before returning to the UK in 1983. Sadly we divorced in 1990.
Like Valerie and our three kids, I have moved around a lot and since leaving home at 18 I have lived in over thirty Homes. before retiring when I was 58.
Although qualifying as a Chartered Accountant, I resigned after a few years realising that designing and implementing computer systems was far more interesting – and also I was better at it.
In my career I have worked for Price Waterhouse (in Barcelona), the Swire Group (in Hong Kong) and finally Royal Insurance, now Royal Sun Alliance, (in Liverpool and London). designing Integrated Insurance systems, financial and executive information systems and implementing worldwide email etc. These activities with Royal Insurance, mainly based in Liverpool but much of my time in London, gave me the opportunity to visit Barcelona (again), Madrid, Genoa, Lisbon, Singapore and Charlotte in the USA.. More detail is on my Career page.
After my divorce, I lived alone for seven years until I met Jo in 1998. I did have a life in those years which I will make notes of later and describe in Between Marriages
The following year, in 1999. and both self-employed, Jo and I retired, married, put our UK properties on the market, and left to live in Spain. We purchased a 150-year-old finca, called El Garroferet with 4,500 m² of land, in the Montgo Natural Park, near the small village of Jesus Pobre, south of Valencia. We also later converted two adjacent one-bedroom flats into one apartment with a huge terrace in the Port area of Javea nearby. We sold the finca in February 2020 and now live in the apartment in Jardines del Sol.
Over the years I have had a few Hobbies
Bored initially after retiring quite early Jo and I set up an internet real estate business, called Javea Online in 2000 which was extremely successful. With business slowing down in 2008 due to the property recession in Spain, I looked for other interests and selected exploring my Ancestry and writing a series of novels, Chinese Circles.