I was born in North Somerset, and spent nearly all my life in Portishead until 1982, when I lived in Bristol for several years, then went back to Portishead, but I have lived in the Nailsea area since 1992.
I am the eldest by over a decade of three brothers, so I was an only child until my early teens, so I became a bit of a loner. Little did I know that being that way was a trait that was to blight my life, although I have made good friends along the way.
It was only in recent years that I discovered for sure that I had dyslexia: my Mum told me that I never crawled as a baby, as dyslexics don’t have an innate crawling action, which also explains why I never learned to swim.
I am also one of the many adults who have struggled through life with an autistic spectrum disorder (ASD): despite an IQ of 140 and a natural musical talent I have difficulty with some aspects of life, and to make life more difficult I have long-term ME/CFS, but hate being stuck indoors on my bad days as I get bad claustrophobia.
I have discovered that I have a form of ASD called Asperger’s Syndrome, or just Aspergers, a form of high functioning ASD. See here for info on why we have troubles socially: http://www.myaspergers.net/ Being an “Aspie” can be difficult and other people may have difficulties understanding our ways and habits, but we are nice people really, often gifted.
Despite all this, I am an optimist who enjoys cycling when I have a good day, and being with other people.
My work
I used to do various practical jobs, like servicing typewriters and working in engineering and factories, but always wanted to get into music in some way, and learned to play accordion and keyboards over the years after starting on harmonicas. When I was working in an aerospace factory, I considered leaving to go travelling by motorbike, but a recession in the 1970s made me hang on, which was the worst thing to do, as after a period of unexplained sickness, I had to leave my job and couldn’t ride the bike after a nasty experience, so had to sell the bike. I moved around a bit in the Bristol area and worked in a school for a while, but in 1996 while on a government training scheme I fell ill, and got diagnosed with what was then dubbed “yuppy flue”, known in the UK as ME and the US as CFS (look here for info: http://www.afme.org.uk/ ). I landed up “on the sick” again and had no end of trouble with the benefit system, but lobbying of the government has finally produced a recognition that people with ME usually cannot hold down a job, but don’t have to be totally useless. I found more time to pursue my musical interest and have done voluntary entertaining, mostly on the accordion, a much-maligned instrument in some quarters, but it has the advantage of being (relatively) portable! However, I am having problems finding anything to do with it, paid or unpaid! I’m seriously considering going to another country, definitely somewhere warmer, as I cannot tolerate English winters any more with my ME!
