About me
Short History
I grew up in Hersham, Surrey, in the south east of England. I was born on 1st April 1982, and spent the first 19 years living there with my parents, and for some of the time, my two older brothers. I went to Rydens comprehensive school and also did my A-levels there. Following this, I attended Kingston University for a one year Art Foundation Course. I then moved to Coventry in the West Midlands to study Transport and Product Design BA Hons (with Professional Enhancement) at Coventry University. I graduated in June 2005 with a 2-1. During my A-levels and Uni years, I worked at Safeway/Morrison and ASDA filling shelves (oh how exciting!), and then moved on to office temping at Securicor, Fed-Ex and Coventry Building Society. In March 2006, I pretty much ran out of money and decided to come back to Surrey to live with my parents and that is where I am now, trying to start my career!
I am now working in tech support for a chin'n'pin machine company called Hypercom
Download my CV
Christianity
Christianity is huge part of my life. I was brought up in a christian home, and had been going to church from birth. Though being a christian at school was tough, I stuck with it and it made my faith stronger rather than weaker. I grew up going to Living Water Church in Hersham, which my parents run. Later when I moved to Coventry, I joined the Christian Union and a great community going by the name of New Horizons Church. In my time at New Horizons I made a lot of good friends, and learnt what it really means to live in community. I learned a lot about God in my nearly five years there. Now back in Surrey I am part of what I believe to be the largest church congregation in the UK, Hillsong London. I normally go to the Leatherhead service, as it's closer to me than central London.
Interests
I have very varied interests and I tend to get really into something for a few years, and will then often completely go off it after a while, but I'll always be into some things (i.e. God!). When I was a kid, I used to draw ALL the time, especially machines, buildings and things that moved. I was into trains, planes and cars. I have always had a creative side. I used to have a model railway, and loved making the houses and recreating real life in miniature.
As I got into secondary school I was a car freak, and really wanted to do Car Design when I went to Uni (which is what I eventually did). At age 15 I started getting into photography, briefly contemplating doing that at degree level instead, until I decided on my foundation course that the money in photography wasn't so good, and went back to design. Now I've graduated, the difficulty of finding jobs in the real world has driven me to learn about how to make money outside of employment. Naturally, being a bit of a geek, I've turned to the internet, so here you can see my first attempt at a website.
Over the last yearI have been learning internet marketing, so watch this space: I have plans for internet, and eventually world domination!
Music
The other HUGE area of interest in life is music. I started hitting pillows at the age of 3, which quickly turned into a passion for drumming. My parents stupidly bought me a kit at the age of 8, which only made me want to do it more! The rest is history. See my page on drums. In my second year at Uni I took took up bass guitar to cover a shortfall in players at the Christian Union. I really enjoy playing bass, but I have realised I'm never going to be the worlds best bassist, and have gone back mainly to drumming, which is my first musical love.
Most days I can be heard listening to music. I often listen christian music from NFI, Hillsong, Kingdom Faith, Matt Redman, Tim Hughes, Chris Tomlin, Martyn Layzell and Michael W Smith. In the secular world I'm a lover of funk music and rock too. Some bands/artists that get me going are: Athlete, B.B. King, Billy Joel, Coldplay, Crowded House, George Winston, Gomez, James Brown, Joss Stone, Keane, Lenny Kravitz, Maroon 5, Michael Jackson, Muse, Neil Young, Norah Jones, Queen, Radiohead, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Stevie Wonder, The Average White Band, The Beatles, U2 and Zero 7. As you can see, quite a range!
Travel
I love travelling. My favourite continent is Europe, although this may be because my only trip outside it was to LA! I've done a lot of travelling in Europe though. I've been to (roughly in date order): Majorca, Menorca, Caen, Florence, Sienna, Venice, Lucerne, Zurich, Lake District, Brussels, Bruges, Ghent, Suffolk, Bonn, Snowdonia, Corfu, Salzburg, Los Angeles, Poitiers, Paris, Madrid, Stockholm, Lake Como, Lake Maggiore, Lugano, St. Moritz, Dordogne, Amsterdam, Geneva, Bern, Cornwall, Isle of Skye, Nice, Monte Carlo, Cardiff, Kiev and Rome!
For the past 2 years I have haven't had any money to travel, but someday I'd like to discover more of Eastern Europe, Canada, New Zealand a bit of Australia. Also maybe the Himalayas, Chile, South Africa and the good old USA. Hopefully my new website will help me to get there!