I was born in Burnley, Lancashire and was rudely snatched away when my father bought the Scrap Yard in Oldbury Road opposite what was then the new Fire Station and the family moved to Tewkesbury in 1959. No motorways! It was an 8-hour car journey. Where had we gone to?
I stood out with my "strange" accent but in going to the Barton Street Junior School made a few local friends (Bill Treen, Chris Coutts) that eased my integration.
I passed the 11+ much to the surprise of the headmaster, and thus in September 1963 (the cold long winter!) started at the Grammar School.
Living at the top of Priors Park by then (Somerset Place numbers 2 and 10) I could easily cycle to school - well it kept me fit for all those school sports I didn't excel in! Robert Harris (1964-1971?) was a neighbour and friend along with his brother David.
Whilst at the Grammar School I went to School Camp in the Lake District each year (although one year it was to Innsbruck in Austria). I think it was both there and, on the Football, and Rugby pitch that I got my nickname of "Tank". Perhaps I was an immovable object on the field?.
Academically I was mostly middle of the road except for Geography and the sciences. In retrospect this was as much due to the teaching as to my abilities. In adult like I gained a strong interest in history which was lacking in school. The same came to languages where I can now see our teaching was in the ark.
After getting just not enough A levels to got to University, I left school in 1970 and fell by accident into a HND Computer Studies course at North Gloucestershire College. That was the start of real like for me. I took to computer technology like a duck to water and learnt much about all the ancillary skills I would need in my career.
Being a sandwich course meant that I spent 8 months in 1971 in Bristol working for ICL, and the same duration in 1972 working for Univac (now Unisys) in London. Upon successfully completing the HND in 1973, ICL found me my first job at Sun Valley Poultry in Hereford.
Three weeks later I got married to my wife of 50 years, Tamar, and moved to Malvern where we still live. We both agreed we did not want children, a decision we have not come to regret (see later).
Subsequently, life has had its usual ups and downs but in general it has been good. Highlights were joining Round Table in Malvern, which led me to having many Swiss friends and learning to Ski in my mid-thirties. Through that route we have been adopted as Godparents by the sons of a Swiss Tabler we have known since the mid-80s so perhaps that counteracts our own earlier decision.
Work took me from Hereford to Gloucester and then Worcester, followed by contracts all over the UK before joining ICL full time in Birmingham in 1988. After 10 years with them I spent time with AT&T, Sema Group (now Atos), and IBM before in 2004 starting my own business in Internet Marketing (this is why I do the OTS website).
Sailing has been my one constant sporting activity in my life inspired by reading Arthur Ransome’s Swallows and Amazons. I managed to use sailing as a way to avoid Athletics and Cricket during the school summer term after the short swimming (and freezing) season was over. First, I crewed a local neighbour in his International 14 dinghy. Changing “driver” in 1980 we won the national championship in Torbay. In the mid-90s, I moved across to sail Flying Fifteens with my brother-in-law; an activity that I do to this day (see image).