Hi Rupert, thanks for your reply, I had and still have an enquiring mind.
Even before I could ride a bike I was interested in anything mechanical or electrical, (like most young lads I guess). My first passion was sailing boats and ships, the automatic steering on yachts fascinated me no end. I sailed the Irish Sea solo at the age of 11!
My next, and biggest passion, was aircraft and flying. After the war there were many airfields in Britain, many have gone now. At home we didn't have a car, so to visit as many airfields as possible I had to do cycle many many miles, my strong basis for becoming a world cycling champ. By the age of 13 I could cycle from Brum to Heathrow in 5 hours, just to admire the aircraft! (I will have to keep this short or it'll become a book).
At this age my one ambition was to get in the RAF. I joined up with the ATC (Air Training Corps) learned navigation and communications, at the age of 14 I could take off and land a DH Chipmunk, without the pilots help. Did a three day test at RAF Halton and was accepted into the RAF as an apprentice instrument fitter, all I needed was my mom's signature on my papers. Guess what, she woudn't sign!
I then put all my time and energy into skating but ended up as a racing cyclist.
The point of all this is that I had, and still have, many facets to my life. I can be very passionate about the things that I take up, but not fanatical to the point were only that one thing counts. I took up engineering because I love anything mechanical and did studies to get to know the finer points, not to make it a career. The same for electronics, studied it because I wanted to know how it all worked. In 1974 I built a huge powerful mobile disco show from scratch, with 1000 watt speakers and 1000's of watts light effects. Nothing these days but then it was revolutionary here. Designed and made all my own mixers, amplifiers ect. from components and chips. Set up a local radio station, where I was chief engineer and DJ! Did programmes in English and Flemish, also wrote the scripts for other DJ's. During all this time did a full time job in industry, restored two MG's from scratch, did a three year science course raised three children and one wife.
Will have to stop now. I hope that this has lifted the curtain on my life a little bit, you did ask, I hope it's not been too boring.
Graham.