Timeline

1st Pet Fred

Strictly my nan and grandad's dog, but as we lived with my nan & grandad for the first few years of my life, Fred the Hienz 57 dog was my first pet, and he guarded my pram jealously. Fiercely l...

1st Family House

My mom Parents my father moved away from Walsall and settled in Norton Canes when I was 2. Soon my twin sisters arrived Ann and Sheila 3 years younger than me. Multiple births run in our family, my...

Arty Farty

From a young age I found out I had a bit of an eye for design artwork illustration, and my mom, aunty Enid and Uncle Rob encouraged me to pursue it from the earliest of my years. Although I do reme...

Derby County

First game I can remember playing was Football at the age of 5. Most kids follow their fathers team and because my father wasn't around, I picked mine from a football annual on which kit I liked th...

First School memory

First Day of school at Norton Canes saw me sitting next to a fellow Ginger, 4 year old Alica who had the brightest of red hair. Two ginger nuts together

Parent Split Up

My earliest memory of my father John Smith Senior was of a tall slim dark haired man. My most vivid memory was of him and my mother arguing together when she had found out about his affair with a w...

Chu Chin the Ginger Tom

The first Pet I can actually remember was the coolest of Ginger Cats, Chu Chin. Lived to the ripe old age of 19 and ruled the neighbourhood

Rugger Bugger

As soon as I moved to Walsall aged approx. 8, I met Tom Andrews at school who asked me to come down to Walsall RUFC. As my mom loves rugby she encouraged me. I said that I had played before at scru...

Chess

My uncle Rhoddy taught me to play chess at the age of 8. Alongside my younger cousin Fraser, who became my fiercest rival. Got really into it, and actually started beating my uncle, but Fraser star...

Cheez Balls - Food from my youth

Dusty fingers from these cheesy balls. Very moorish, and I'd eat them until I was sick. Full of E numbers!

Shotokan Karate

Joined a karate club after being invited to do so by my scout leader Peter Richards . Really enjoyed it but wasn't passionate about it. Shotokan style and I got yellow belt but eventually gave it u...

New Boy at Bluecoat

At the end of my 2nd year junior school term at Norton Canes, I left to move to Walsall to join my mom and two sisters who had moved to my Nan and Grandad's in Cobden Street Palfrey some months ear...

Guitar Hero

Junior school, about the age of 9 my Nan and grandad got me a guitar which to be honest was to big for me and I never really got passed the E, A, D level (not much changed there) this phase lasted ...

Sweets from the past

Dib Babs, Golden Nuggets and Lovehearts, just some of the reasons kids of my generation were hyperactive lunatics

Spam - Food from my youth

Spam is a brand of canned cooked meat made by Hormel Foods Corporation. It was first introduced in 1937 and gained popularity worldwide after its use during World War II. Still available these day...

judoka

The sport I loved the most. Made national team aged 15-19 AJA. Also National champion aged about 38 but that was BJC MAC

Sea Cadets

Joined Sea Cadets as a pre curser to me going to join the navy. (That didn't happen) Within 6 months, I walked after being told to clean the toilets with a toothbrush. Shortly afterwards I met Rob ...

Rome

First Time I ever went abroad, was on a school Cruise on SS Uganda when I was 10. It was with Blue Coat Juniors and we flew to Rome and had a day trip around the sites including Trevi fountain, St ...

Tunis

First stop from Rome on SS Uganda. It was a third world country then, managed to buy a tom tom drum off one of the local traders for 1000 lira which sounded good to the bloke but was intact worth a...

Spain

The 3rd destination of our school cruise - Don't remember and awful lot about this visit to be honest apart from falling head over heels with Danielle Malbourne and having my heart broken when she ...

Lisbon Portugal

Lisbon to be exact. The 4th and final leg of our school cruise. It resembled a bit of a building site to be honest from what I remember. I was ready to go home now as I had the most violent project...

You aint gonna believe this - French Horn!

When the musical instruments were given out in senior school aged about 11, I had chicken pox so by the time I got back to school, all the cool instruments like the trumpets were gone, so I ended u...

Best Mate

Stuart Cristian and myself at this age did everything together, Golf, caddying, football, cricket, wagging school! My mom loved him and he came on holiday with us which is where this baby faced pho...

Kaiser Bill

Looked like a small Doberman. Very Loving and was a great dog who lived to a ripe old age. Never scared of a scrap with dogs twice his size.

Queens Silver Jubilee

Street party in Cobden Street Walsall 1975. Of course I wore my England football kit, although it was the cheaper imitation version not the expensive 'Admiral' badged version (my mom couldn't affor...

First Musical Influence - Saturday Night Fever

Although my first record I ever had was "Long haired lover from Liverpool" by Jimmy Osmond, the first real music I got in to was the Saturday Night Fever Album. John Travolta, what a cool dude! The...

Winston

The single most disobedient dog ever. A rescue job, he was crafty as a cart load of monkeys - he would escape from the back garden and run and run and run and run the streets of Caldmore/Palfrey un...

6th Form at Larry Joseph Comprehensive

This was the 6th Form A level Physics class, I'd be 17-18 and you can tell my rebellious side by the refusal to wear complete school uniform. I'm still in touch with a lot of these guys - we had a ...

Relationship with Sisters

Ann was always the quieter one, but more physical (She did Judo with me) Sheila, everyone knew Sheila. She was the extravagant one, at an early teen stage we used to fight like cat and dog. She was...

Jenna Russell

In a year above me at school and had no idea that she liked me, she was a mate's sister's best friend, and there was no one more surprised than me when she got her friend to call me up to say that ...

Helena Bateman

When I met this girl in a nightclub, I told her I was a 20 year old Australian commercial artist when in fact I was still in 6th form. In this age of Kylie Minogue, Neighbours, Castlemain xxxx to b...

Sarah Barclay

We were both in 6th form when we got together. It was never going to last, totally incompatible, far to volatile a relationship, I dont think I every dated another Scorpio! She went on to have a hi...

Dan Grade at Judo

My 1st love in sport. Introduced to by my uncle when I was about 9. I was never all consumed by grades, I was more interested in competition and medals! Running my own club now in Brownhills and pa...

The Flat

Made the Young Ones look Hygienic, I was 18 when I moved in with Ken Simonds and by the time we were kicked out, I had 5 sub tenants, one police raid (where they had cordoned off the roads) and a p...

Victoria Bladon

Bit of posh girl from the velvet end of town. Think she was just interested in a bit of council estate rough tbh. Once she had enough of that I found out she was seeing a much more suitably wealthy...

Jennifer Steel

Big musician, played keyboard in local band. From Great Barr, another girl who was a bit posh for me TBH, I was batting well out of my league

Valerie Mansfield

Valerie was a very brief relationship. However some 12 years later I found out she had a son called Richard and guess what, yep he was mine. Richard and I are good mates now but it was a bit of a s...

Olivia Woodwood

Lived with Olivia for a year or so, she was graduating as a music teacher. Refused to teach me the piano because all I wanted to do was learn great balls of fire. She insisted I learnt the scales!....

Chris Evans Lookalike

Early 1990s I was spotted by a model agency and persuaded to do Chris Evans Lookalike jobs. These varied from opening nightclubs to TV appearances. It was a mad, mad 18 months which culminated in c...

Pamplona Spain

International Judo competition - unfortunately they held it in the evening. I say that because in the afternoon, our hosts took us into town plied us with drink and made us run with the bulls. The ...

Mort Terry Pratchett & Discworld

I love reading books and always have as far back as I can remember. Starting back in 1990 I developed an almost unhealthy love of the Discworld series of books, with my favourite being Mort. The hu...

Isle of Mann Judo Tour

Visited the Isle of Mann Judo association with the BJC MAC national team. Beat my counterpart in a tough tandoori session

Marrying Soulmate

The best decision of my life, and she's been an angel to put up with me at the time of writing for 27 years. The comparison picture in this gallery below shows a purely co-incidental photo taken 20...

Honeymoon in Paris

Honeymoon in 1990 was paid for by the Express and star who I worked for and they unknowingly financed a telephone bill that myself and a colleague ran up trying to win a premium rate telephone comp...

Lizzy Charlotte Born

First Born Lizzy Charlotte arrived on April 24th 1994 by emergency caesarean at Stafford Hospital. Karen was under general anaesthetic so I was the first to hold her and I cried buckets - Incident...

Belfast - Chris Evans lookalike

Full Service Ad Agency

John Doe arrived at the agency and my old partner left the business after Nigel Lynn Recruitment took us for £60k! The company didn't go bust but we rebranded to and this company continued until 20...

Monty the Dalmation

When this dog went it broke my heart. Fantastically stupid and mad as a box of frogs. In his time he knocked himself out twice, ate my Sunday lunch when I wasn't looking, escaped at 1am in the morn...

Galway work visit to Slendertone

Saw Accident playing live

I got to play alongside my 16 year old daughter Elizabeth when she stepped in to play bass for our works band Saw Accident. Want we lacked in talent was made up in stage presence

UEFA Championship Charleroi

England game vs Romania with my mate Bill Rogers. Last minute decision saw us travel over business class on swiss air. We lost a terrible game, and ended up sleeping on the luggage travellator in ...

Its Not About the Bike

Published in 2000, this factually unsound autobiography by Lance Armstrong tried its best to cover the truth about his drug use. Non the less i found it truly one of the most inspirational sportin...

Martha Born Jan 22nd

Martha arrived by caesarean section on January 22nd 2000 complete with a shock of dark hair which she never lost This one I was there for and my wife Karen was awake unlike the emergency caesarean ...

BSA Racer

First proper road bike was a BSA bought by my grandparents at the age of 8, I fell off it on my maiden ride infant of a milkman. My Grandparents purchased it for me - as they did all my bikes....

Eindhoven International Judo

BJC MAC National squad travelled to Eindhoven - I was older than some of the coaches, and although I came away with no silverware, I won 3 fights by clean ippons before being dispatched by highly t...

Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown

A murder in Paris' Louvre Museum and cryptic clues in some of Leonardo da Vinci's most famous paintings lead to the discovery of a religious mystery. For 2,000 years a secret society closely guards...

Rugby World Cup Final 2003

Spent 24 hours in Sydney - arrived Friday evening flew out early hours of Sunday morning. And in between we saw England's greatest achievement beating the Australians in the dying seconds 20-17 wit...

Qualified Rugby Referee

2 day course. I thought after playing since I was 8 years old, it was about time I learned the Laws. Passed with flying colours (hardly rocket science) and ever since been hassled to fill in on no ...

MG Roadster

it was a1976 USA import and was converted from a left hand drive and I sooooo loved this car. I put mini moke alloys on it - looked the dogs. Leaked like a sieve and steamed the windows up but tur...

Pog the JRT

Complete nutter livewire. Part crocodile, with an obsession with rocks. Seriously, he will nudge a rock as big as his head around the garden growling at it because he cant get it in his mouth. Thin...

Geri Halliwell the ginger Doberman supermodel

Beautiful but a bit dim. Thinks she's a lapdog. You are in more danger of being licked to death than bitten by this Doby

Fraud in company

As reported in press: THIS is fraudster Michelle Ayliffe-Jessup who stole £200,000 from a Midland company to fund a luxury lifestyle and lavish holidays. The company treasurer used cash stolen from...

Digital Design Consultancy Ltd

c2011-2014 After the fraud in the business, I foolishly bought out my old partner and Robert Marx arrived, bringing a bag load of bollocks dressed up as a sales ledger.... This did as much damage a...

Edinburgh to London on a bike

The end of the inaugural Ride of Britain, Edinburgh to London 2011 for SSAFA. 500 miles in 5 days was immensely satisfying - all in aid of SAFA, which is an ex forces charity

Playing in a Band with Martha

My 12 year old daughter played drums for us at a friends 50th birthday party. Immensely proud of her, and she rocked!

Brescia finish for Giro d'Italia

Travelled for a long weekend with my Martha and Karen to see the final day of the Giro. It was here in Brescia that Mark Cavendish needed to win t secure the sprinters red jersey and he did it with...

Ginger Development Incorporated

2014 - 2016 Out of the ashes of the Software development company came Ginger Development. Myself and 2 developers started and established the company 

Vets Team Skipper

I introduced the ginger socks for all genuine veteran players who represented Cannock over 35s. Had couple of seasons at it and thoroughly enjoyed it, great craic and finished the time undefeated....

Ginger Coms

2015 - to date Integrated marketing including websites, digital PR, design & print - this is where I am at the moment. I ran this alongside Ginger Dev until one of the senior developers left. S...

White Collar Boxing

Gave it a go as it was for charity but soon realised that throwing a punch was not my forte. After Graham Alderman beat me on points, I think the only thing I can safely say is I can take a punch, ...

Half a Century

My 50th birthday co-incide with the Wales v England rugby game. But we held it at the Rugby Club anyway, 80s theme with Karen dressing up as Pris from Bladerunner, and me as Axel Rose

Moscow for Glenns 50th

Cycled Across Ireland

From Dublin to Puk Fair Aug 2016. Bren Purdey Chris Purdey , John Moorston and myself. Chris was driving support van and the rest of us cycling, although Bren and John spent more time in the van th...

Vegetarian Convert

With a vegetarian wife and daughter and the other daughter being vegan, we tried Christmas meal as a meat free option. It actually went down well and since then I've been vegetarian. Mainly because...

Food of the Gods

Chilli con Carne is my number one meal ever. With some crusty bread and butter it is mana from heaven. 2017-18 and as I write I am vegetarian and although the Quorn versions are good, the old meat ...

French Language

I passed my level French with a C, and I'm sure I could have done a lot better had I paid attention more in class and not sat there gazing in teenage love at Mrs Davies. However I have done and pai...

Motorbike and Scooter

Can you be a mod and a biker? Cause you can, they are two types of cool. Out posing with the scooter boys on a Sunday morning on my 1962 Lambretta or roaring along the A5 on my 650 Suzuki Bandit - ...

Full Bike License at 51

Midlife crisis in full effect I did a crash course (no pun intended), passed my big bike test and immediately went out and bought a 650cc Suzuki Bandit to compliment my Lambretta. People often ask ...

DNA test Results from Ancestry

Explains the Red hair anyway! A distant relative must have been accosted by some Western European/Scandanavian maurauder

A message from a Brave Woman

Holly Butcher was a girl who died at the tragically young age of 27 from Cancer - I found her words tremendously inspirational, I hope you do to:It’s a strange thing to realise and accept your mort...

Undercover trip to Perth

My sister needed some moral and physical support during her family court case. So I nipped over to Western Australia for a week and gave evidence, although I did manage to get a days sight seeing i...

Iggy Rock plays Cannock Fringe Festival

Iggy Pop covers band - we played a 30 minute set and got the biggest cheer. Probably the fact I had to rip my shirt off