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Starting at the Beginning

 I suppose the best place to start any story is the beginning, not always of course, sometimes an author might start a story in the middle, or even at the end, but, I think for this 'story' the beginning is, indeed, the best place to start.

I  grew up in the 1970s and early 1980s on the Wirral.

I had a pretty good childhood.

No real issues or problems, lots of fun, lots of happy memories.

I didn't particularly like school, but did OK, getting plenty of O levels, then A levels, then heading off to the University of Salford to study Aeronautical Engineering.

I had plenty of fun at University, no real problems or issues there either. I achieved a BEng (Hons) and got a job with the MoD at the, then, Royal Aerospace Establishment Bedford, an active Flight Test and research airfield. I would be working with the VAAC Harrier team on developing and testing new flight control schemes for a possible future replacement to the Harrier, what would go on and become the JSF F35B.

Pretty much my dream job, and the main reason I studied Aeronautical Engineering, I got to 'play' with fast jets.

Though I was nervous about finding somewhere to live near Bedford, nervous about moving down there to start a new life working in the 'real' world, I was less nervous when the time came to move than I had been when starting University.

I was looking forward to it, looking forward to having some money and being an 'adult'.

Ha, I didn't know then that it was a 'trap', that being an adult is a long way from what you dream it is as a child, but then isn't that true for all of us?

I even got to go flying on my first day of work, I couldn't believe my luck.

So, a fairly good childhood, a good education, a good job, a decent (for the time) income. A good start point then for 'Life'.

Perhaps, we'll see.

This blog will be, largely, a chronological account of my 'Story', though there will be some 'excursions' along the way. If you want to follow my journey to where I am now, then it will be worth reading each post, though of course you can just wait for the 'good stuff', where I start imparting what I have learned, and how that might help you, or you can just dip in and out, entirely up to you.



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