The Threat of Nuclear War - The Cold War Is Far From Over

As everyone knows the world as we know it isn't quite right in the head, is it? Ever since nuclear weapons were created during World War II and used by the American's against the Japanese which ended the war, countries have stock piled nuclear weapons as a deterrent to other countries in an attempt to make sure that nuclear strikes don't happen against them. Bring on the Cold War between the former USSR and Allied Countries with both sides not striking against each other through fear of a retaliation strike, no one wants their country to be irradiated, do they? Or so you'd think.

At the end of 1991, when the USSR collapsed, the Cold War was brought to an end and seemingly the threat of nuclear strikes was over. America was left as the worlds only "Super Power" and Russia along with the countries it used to rule were no longer considered to be a Super Power as each country begun to rule itself.

Everyone has seen what nuclear radiation both at the time of the explosion and fallout after the event can do to geographical areas, human life and wildlife, just look at the only two cities nuclear weapons have been used against, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and you can also look at nuclear power station meltdowns at Chernobyl and Fukushima. The effects of nuclear radiation can be catastrophic, the area around Chernobyl and Pripyat cannot be inhabited for several thousand years, people are dying from radiation related cancer and children have been born with radiation related defects from people who were affected by the radiation.

Even though the Cold War is (apparently) long over, no one has got rid of their nuclear weapons. The following countries have got them:

USA: 6,970 in total / 1,750 active

Russia: 7,300 / 1,790

UK: 215 / 150

France: 300 / 290

China: 260 / N.A.

India: 110-120 / N.A.

Pakistan: 120-130 / N.A.

North Korea: less than 10 / N.A.

Israel: estimated 60-400 / N.A. (undeclared)

It strikes me that with all of these nuclear weapons, especially with over 3,000 active and that's just counting the active weapons that America & Russia have got, so you can understand why I personally believe the Cold War never actually ended.

Relations between Russia and most of the world have been getting more and more tense lately, most NATO countries have never fully trusted Russia and Russia have never really trusted NATO countries, which is probably why America and Russia have kept so many weapons active. Russia and China have been getting somewhat cosy, and while it's not known how many of their weapons that China have active, you can be assured that Russia will protect their new friends if none of the weapons are actually active. Then take North Korea, while it's known they have a handful of weapons, it's thought that they don't have the capability to launch any and if they can, it's thought they won't get far, but can we actually trust Kim Jong Un? He's a bit crazy, just like his dad, Kim Jong Il, and I believe he'd be willing to use any nuclear weapons he has, and I wouldn't be surprised if he has more than is claimed.

I don't know about other countries, but after the official end of the Cold War, the UK seemingly stopped using their nuclear bunkers and their ROTOR communications network, the bunkers were sold off, including the one that the government would have used at Kelvedon Hatch in Essex. I've been around the bunker at Kelvedon Hatch and a lot of the equipment is rather outdated, even for the 80s and 90s. If I was a government adviser, I wouldn't have decommissioned the bunkers unless the government had other bunkers at the ready with more modern equipment, it would make sense, especially if the enemy had found out where the other bunkers were before the official end of the Cold War, and with so many weapons still active on both sides.

Everyone has been pre-occupied with the latest terrorist incidents being lead by ISIS and previously from Al Queda, people have been shunning my suggesting of a nuclear war, but recently America have moved weapons from their base in Turkey to a base in Romania. It's said to be a move because of increased tensions between America and Turkey, but the base in Romania is 500 miles closer to Moscow and further away from ISIS. With the terrorist threats from them, nobody wants them to get their hands on nuclear weapons, they're even more crazy than Kim Jong Un and Vladimir Putin, and while I've said about people being pre-occupied with ISIS, I don't want to suggest that the threat from ISIS is any less real, they do present a very real threat, so it's easy to just concentrate on that.

With so many active weapons, a nuclear war is a very real threat, the total lack of trust adds to this threat, so please do not dismiss it as me being overly worried, don't tell me that I should wear a tin foil hat, the Cold War isn't over. Nuclear War will annihilate the human race and destroy the Earth as we know it.

Bunkers at the ready everyone.

Download Festival 2016 - Muddy BUT Epic!

LET ME HEAR YOU SCREAM, DONINGTON!!!!

Well, what an epic weekend that was!! Many words could be used to describe how I feel about having been to my first festival for ten years, given the fact that during the ten years up to and including Download 2006, I'd been to 8 festivals: Madstock 96, V98, V99, V2000, V2001, Reading 2003, Download 2005 & Download 2006. Not to mention numerous stand alone gigs.

Thanks to coming into some money just before Christmas, my girlfriend (Fliss) and I decided to book tickets to this year's Download Festival, buying tickets for ourselves and Fliss's son (my step-son) George and announce to him that we've got him a ticket for his main Christmas present. That's when the excitement started, you should have seen George's face when he opened and read the card telling him that he'll be going to go to his (and his mum's) first music festival, I've never seen anyone so excited.

We knew a few of the acts that had been announced at the time, including the three headliners, Rammstein, Black Sabbath & Iron Maiden. It was my first time seeing Rammstein & Iron Maiden, so as an overgrown 36 year old child, I was pretty excited too. I loved every moment of the festival and didn't let the bad weather dampen my spirits at all. I also take full blame for the soggy & muddy weather, if I'd kept my thoughts to myself, it might have stayed dry, but I had to go jinx it on my friend, Kerry's status.

So yeah, my fault, sorry guys! But it didn't stop the fun times.

The bands that I went to see included Baby Metal, Killswitch Engage, Korn and Rammstein on Friday, Megadeth, Skindred & Black Sabbath on Saturday, then Shinedown, Disturbed, Nightwish and Iron Maiden on Sunday. That might not sound like a lot, but when you consider we camped, had the whole festival experience and saw bits of other bands too, it was well worth the money paid. Fliss & George went to see Skillet when I was at Killswitch, which they enjoyed before returning to the Lemmy Stage to see the end of Killswitch's set.

Obviously Motorhead were supposed to be at Download, between Killswitch and Korn, but after the sad passing of their lead singer, bassist and total legend, Lemmy, they pulled out of all booked gigs. In their place, the organisers organised a tribute video to be played on the screens. Stood near the front of the crowd, I'll admit, I had tears in my eyes when I was watching it. Lemmy and Motorhead influenced a lot of the bands that I like and it was sad that I never got to see them. Thankfully, the organisers renamed the Main Stage, the Lemmy Stage in his honour, which I think pleased a lot of the festival goers.

I honestly cannot pick a favourite band, I was too busy having a good time with Fliss & George, we met up with my mate Kerry and her mate Luke and made friends with a lot of people in the Gold Camp, around where we'd pitched up, so big thanks to the Katie's, Dave, Jack, Gemma, Josh, Matt, Georgia, Jessica & Warrior and to Kerry & Luke (hope I've not missed anyone out), you were all part of what made our festival a great one (and to everyone else who we bumped into but didn't get their names).

Was hoping to meet up with my mates, Jason & Nick Nack, but we always seemed to miss each other, but it sounded like they had a good festival too.

I had to buy some wellies on the Saturday as my trainers just weren't hacking the muddy conditions, but I have absolutely zero regrets (other than jinxing the weather). Great music, great company, great food from the various food stalls we went to and the cakes that Fliss baked and handed out. I cannot fault anyone or anything. Feel sorry for anyone who didn't have a good time, for whatever reason that might have been for, but I never had any issues, apart from the possible theft of toiletries and George's drinking horn, which just seems weird as we can't imagine why anyone would steal those but nothing else, but we didn't have them when we came home, sadly, so can't really explain it.

I won't end this blog on a negative note though, on the whole, the festival was epic, I think Fliss & George have got the bug for festivals & gigs now, and we're looking forward to seeing Forever Never later on this year. Hope everyone enjoyed themselves as best as they could. Catch the highlights on Sky Arts at 8pm on Saturday 25th & Sunday 26th June. May go again, so if we do, we'll see you all again, stay safe, enjoy yourselves and have fun!

Film Review: Pandorica

My girlfriend and I went to see new film Pandorica last night. You may or may not have heard of Pandorica, just in case you haven't it's a relatively small budget British film, billed as a post apocalyptic "Future Reset", staring Marc Zammit, Jade-Fenix Hobday, Adam Bond, Luke D'Silva, Laura Marie Howard and Bentley Kalu. The film was directed by Tom Paton, who's experience in directing has been mostly with music videos, but he decided to extend his talent to feature films.

Filmed primarily in Billericay in Essex, with additional scenes filmed in the Lake District, British actors, British director and British crew, this film is a truly independent British film. One of the refreshing parts of the film, trying not to give too much away, was the fact there was a very strong female lead character, which is lacking in a lot of high budget Hollywood made films, a female character that doesn't rely on a strong male character or romance in one way or another is a great feature of the film. The fact that the actresses involved in the film aren't experienced in acting, this being their first acting roles, but did a fantastic job portraying their characters.

Set in the future when reliance on technology has ended, remote civilisations survived and returned to simpler ways, in one tribe, three young adults were chosen to take the trial to become the next leader of the tribe, under the supervision of the currently leader, only one will leave the forest as the leader. In a way the film has a Hunger Games meets Vikings feel to it, Tom did a great job in directing the small group of actors on a small budget and on a short time scale. The actors themselves also did a great job, bringing the less advanced future to life. The cinematography of the film was great too, brilliant close action shots, amazing aerial shots and medium distance shots brought the atmosphere of a much bigger budget movie. Interest never waned either, the script (written by director, Tom) kept the viewer interested and always wanting to know what was going to happen next, which can happen on some movies.

Seeing the credits at the end, it was clear that not too many people were involved in the production of the movie. If you bother to stay to the end of the credits, you'll notice on Hollywood produced movies, the list of crew is seemingly never ending, with large groups of people responsible for each part of the movie, whether it be filming, music, special effects, location staff, etc, but with Pandorica, there was probably less people involved in the production of the whole movie than just one aspect of a Hollywood movie, proving you don't need millions of pounds budgets and hundreds (or thousands) of people involved to produce a good quality movie, which keeps you interested from start to finish. So a very big well done to all the cast and crew of the film.

The film is definitely worth the watch and definitely worth the money paid to go to see at the cinema and buy on DVD or Blu-Ray. I will admit it was a slightly surreal experience watching a film with a proportion of the cast and crew in the cinema, watching it with you, who stayed for a Q&A at the end of the movie. If you want to pre-order the DVD or Blu-Ray, go to: https://thefilmlabel.myshopify.com/ watch the film online now at Vimeo: http://www.vimeo.pandoricamovie.com/ and go to Twitter and follow: @PandoricaMovie , @TPAKproductions and @zammit_marc. The film listing is also on IMDb: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5131914/

A 10 out of 10 rated must see movie.

Product Review: HP Pavilion x2 10-054na Hybrid Tablet

Hi there, I recently purchased a new HP tablet to replace my old Tesco Hudl. I wanted a new tablet because the Hudl was starting to get annoying, apps were crashing and it was very slow, plus I never really got on with the Android operating system.

So, my new tablet had to have an operating system other than Android, so all or most Samsung and Sony tablets were out of the question and not too expensive either, so iPads were out of the question too, although I could have got a refurbished iPad Mini for £179 from Amazon, but it still seemed a lot of money for a refurbed 7 inch tablet and the iPad version of iOS is too similar to the iPhone I have, despite the compatibility novelty. So what were my options? Windows seemed to be the only operating system to go for, but what brand of tablet should I go for. There were plenty of relatively unknown brands to go for, so I was a bit dubious about those. In the end, I looked for known brands, a lot of which offered Android tablets, which I wanted to avoid, and those which offered Windows were generally £200+, so I looked at refurbs, and decided to buy a refurbished HP Pavilion x2 10-054na.

HP have always been a good brand, I've had HP printers for ages and thought it was a good brand to go for. While refurbished, the 10 inch tablet came with a purpose built detachable keyboard which had a built in track pad, which I'm currently using to write this blog, with the keyboard attached, it effectively turns the tablet into a mini laptop. An Intel Atom quad core processor, 2Gb of RAM, 32Gb storage, Bang & Olufson stereo speakers, a full size USB 2 socket, a USB C socket, HDMI out socket, MicroSD socket for expandable storage and the obligatory audio out socket, so it's really well equipped, all for £129. Pre-installed version of Windows was 8.1, but with the currently free upgrades to Windows 10, I upgraded straight away.

Good thing about Windows is that it's the full Home version of Windows that you get on a normal laptop, so you can use and install all your usual Windows compatible programs and apps, which is great but the down side is that when using the tablet in tablet mode, it can be a bit fiddly when using the touch screen, but it's easy enough when using the track pad. There are apps which are easy to use in tablet mode, but full Windows programs are better used with the keyboard in place and the tablet in laptop mode, but are still usable in tablet mode, using the touch screen rather than the trackpad and using the touch screen keyboard.

You can have the keyboard attached backwards and use it as a stand of tuck it in behind the tablet, but it seems a bit heavy as a tablet with the keyboard attached like this, and in laptop mode, it can be a little uncomfortable on your legs if you're used to using a full sized laptop. But in fairness if that bothers you, spend a bit more money and get a full sized laptop instead. Needless to say, as it's a tablet, it doesn't come with a CD or DVD drive built in either, but again, if that's something that bothers you, get a laptop, although, you could, if you wanted to, buy an external CD/DVD drive, as it can plug into the USB socket on the side of the tablet.

The general use of Windows seems very seamless so far, the use of the solid state memory as opposed to a hard disk might have something to do with that, I currently have a 32Gb microSD card in the expansion socket, but I have a 128Gb card on order, which I have been told (by HP themselves) will work, so plenty of storage once that's in, playback of YouTube videos seems very good too and loading of videos on the onboard storage or from the microSD is good and the sound quality is good.

Overall, my opinions of this tablet is very good. I am very pleased with my new purchase and should get plenty of use out of this tablet.

Here's a few pictures of it:

London Midland, Coventry Arena and The Half Arsed Advertising Campaign

Many, many people will be used to me complaining about another Train Operating Company (TOC) namely, Abellio Greater Anglia. But now, it's the turn of London Midland. While London Midland's Class 350 trains (4 carriage electric multiple units (EMUs)) are generally clean and tidy, when I've used them, the Class 350 trains can't use the line I want to complain about, as the line in question hasn't been electrified yet. The train generally used for that line is a Class 153 single carriage diesel multiple unit (DMU), occasionally two of them together at weekends.

The line I'm talking about, if you haven't already guessed is the Coventry to Nuneaton line. With stations on it as follows:

Coventry -- Coventry Arena -- Bedworth -- Bermuda Park -- Nuneaton

Coventry is on one branch of the West Coast Mainline and Nuneaton is on another branch of it, both branches are electrified, but the bit of rail in the middle isn't. But I won't keep banging on about that, the reason I am writing this blog post is the fact that Coventry Arena station and Bermuda Park station have recently been opened and the reason Coventry Arena was opened, right between Ricoh Arena and Arena Park Retail Park was to serve those places. But, alas, London Midland turned around and said they couldn't reasonably serve Coventry City FC and Wasps RFC home matches as the single carriage Class 153 they use on the line could only hold around 75 people and they couldn't get their hands on any other trains that could reasonably accommodate the football or rugby fans, so Coventry Arena station would close before and after matches. Kinda defeating the object of opening the station before they've even started. They're excuse was that they didn't have any spare DMU's and if they swapped DMU's around with other services, they'd have to cancel or short form other services.

So after several months and people (mainly me) complaining, London Midland, with the help of Wasps managed to arrange a couple of trial charter services for two Wasps games at the end of February and beginning of March. Great, we thought, sat in wonderment as to how they managed it and where they'd got a train from. Low and behold they got a couple of diesel locos borrowed from a freight train company and a rack of 6 carriages, which looked as though they were Anglia's cast off's, quite possibly the carriages that Abellio Greater Anglia couldn't be bothered with and if Abellio don't want them, you've got to wonder how bad they are.

But not only did they use carriages that might fall apart at any minute, they didn't stop the train at Bedworth or Bermuda Park, so if you were using either of these stations, you had to use train with an inadequate number of seats to get there, or go to Nuneaton or Coventry and get the charter train from there. They also decided to only advertise the charter service on Twitter and on their website, and I'll point out now that not everyone uses Twitter and a lot of people wouldn't have thought to check their website, given this, you'd have thought the boffins at London Midland's head office would have thought to get posters done up to put at stations, telling people about the trial charter services, but no, this idea passed them by. And rather than charging the usual fares, London Midland decided to charge more and offer people a free drink, WHAT!?! Really!?! Do you think people going to and from rugby matches need a free drink?

Combine missing out two of the stations, not advertising the services properly and charging higher fares and giving people free drinks, they didn't get a lot of bums of seats and then decided that carrying on the service wasn't "commercially viable". Yeah, there's a reason for that London Midland, read this blog and you'll find out why. I will grant that Bedworth and Bermuda Park stations can only accommodate 3 or 4 carriages at their platforms, but if they informed passengers, the passengers wanting to use these stations could used which ever carriages were going to be at the platforms, passengers generally aren't stupid, they could figure it out. Guys, if Abellio can figure that one out on their Witham to Braintree line when using 12 carriage trains during rush hour, I'm sure you guys can too (FYI: train station platforms between Witham and Braintree can only accommodate 8 carriages).

And another thing, if you can put ticket machines at Coventry Arena and Bermuda Park, put them in at Bedworth too, not trusting the people of Bedworth to buy tickets before joining the train is mildly insulting. Thanks....

Slimming World: A Lifestyle Not Just A Diet

Hi again, I thought I'd write a blog about Slimming World, something I started at the beginning of the year. I went on a diet in 2008 and managed to lose over 4 stone in weight, starting at 18 stone 3 pounds and ended up getting to 13 stone 7 pounds. Since then after failing to maintain weight and not really knowing how to maintain weight properly, I ended up putting all my weight back on again and more besides.

Back in 2008 I did it by myself, not really having the back up from my ex-girlfriend, who was also trying to lose weight but became very resentful when I was losing weight far more successfully than she was. I won't dwell on her failings as I failed myself as well by putting my weight back on again. Since then I have tried to lose my weight again, but sadly lacked the needed motivation to do so and kept losing some and putting it back on again.

Then at the beginning of 2016, along with my current girlfriend and step son, we started Slimming World. Advertising itself as a lifestyle choice as opposed to a diet, it claimed to work better than other diets. Coming with a whole host of recipe books, they say you can eat as much food as you want as long as it is "Syn Free" and everyone is allowed a certain amount Synned food per day. Women are generally allowed up to 15 Syns per day, men can have upto 20 Syns, Synned food has different amount of Syns depending on how many calories, fat and sugar in them. If you're a Slimming World member, you can download the Slimming World app onto your smartphone and check the Syn value of virtually every item of food to help you work out how much of it you can have, and work out how many Syns you're having each day. You go to a group once a week to get weighed, which costs £4.95 per week, whether you stay for just long enough to get weighed or stay to the group afterwards, so it's worth staying, as the consultant can give you encouragement if you need it and other members help out too. If you stay to the group, the consultant will discuss each member's progress, giving out weekly progress weight loss and total weight loss, but is sensitive enough to never give out your weight to the group (just in case you're embarrassed by it). You'll also get certificates for every half stone you lose, an award for Slimmer of the Week and Slimmer of the Month.

I will admit to being somewhat sceptical to whether or not it would work, but I have been going for 8 weeks, today being the end of the ninth week, so I'll be getting weighed again later. But after last weeks weigh in, I have lost a total of 2 stone 11 pounds, I started off at 20 stone 3 pounds and at my last weigh in, I weighed 17 stone 6 pounds. Which in 8 weeks is amazing, I never expected to lose that much in such a short space of time. I haven't been eating any less than I normally do, the thing is that the recipes for the main meals are balanced in such a way that they taste just as good as their full sugar or full fat versions, but a lot of them are Syn Free, so you can each just as big a portion, or an even bigger portion if you fancy it. Admittedly I have being doing a lot of physical activity at work, but on Slimming World, you don't actually have to, you can eat your Slimming World meals and keep within your Syn limit and still lose weight without exercise.

Thanks to the support I have got from my girlfriend and step son, the Slimming World consultant and other members and all the great friends and family that have given me encouragement on Facebook, I have felt the motivation to continue to do this, the encouragement has really been incredible, just as much as my weight loss to date. So thank you all, so very much.

Before Pictures:

 June 2015

October 2015

Pictures of me now:

See if you can see the difference in me.

Blog All About Me

I don't normally have self indulgent moments, but this blog post is all about me and without trying to induce collective sympathy, this blog serves as a bit of info about me and some of the things I've been through in my 35 years on this Earth.

I was born in 1980 in Guildford, the county city of Surrey and the third of a total of four children my parents had. I was 15 days late, but it meant I was born on the very day Star Wars: Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back was released, a fact, which as a Star Wars fan, I find very cool! Unfortunately, though my entrance into this world wasn't without it's problems, the birth went well, but due to unforeseen issues with the medication my mum was on, resulting in a lack of Folic Acid, I was born with various birth defects, which affected my childhood and meant several doctor and hospital visits throughout.

I'll point out that none of the defects are obvious now as, the only was that was obvious was remedied with three eye operations. Said issue was that I couldn't open my left eye, and finally after the third operation, performed at Moorfields Eye Hospital in London my Mr Collin, I could open and use my left eye. But unfortunately due to the length of time my eye was closed, the sight in my left eye is significantly worse than my right eye.

Other defects included Spina Bifida, which was a problem with my spine and weak hip muscles, which meant I wasn't able to work for a long time after what is normal and issues with weaker muscles around my mouth and jaw, causing issues with speech development. These issues resulted in visits to physio therapy and speech therapy sessions as a child, which thanks to the help I got and sheer determination, meant that I was finally able to walk and talk properly and unaided, and also meant I could do everything a normal able bodied person was able to do. My parents also showed determination, in the resistance from certain doctors who basically suggested that my lack of walking was because I was lazy, suggesting my mum should put me on the pavement with bare legs and crawling on the pavement would encourage me to get up and walk. If anyone reading my blog knows anything about Spina Bifida, they'd know that in most cases, people who suffer from it are wheelchair bound and no amount of physio therapy would help, but that's because they unfortunately suffer from a more sever version of it than I do. Anyone who wants to read up on it, can do so here: http://www.shinecharity.org.uk/spinabifida

In total, I had three eye operations to correct my left eye, when I was three, I had my tonsils and adenoids removed (I was eating chicken & chips the following day), I had an operation to fix my umbilical hernia (I had an outtie belly button) when I was six and when I was 12, I had two teeth removed. The other inpatient visit to a hospital I had was when I had meningitis when I was seven, which not only scared the hell out of me, but my parents and family as well.

Thanks to various issues, including learning difficulties, my parents struggled to get me into a main stream school. They obviously wanted to get me into the same school my sister and older brother were going to. They struggled to do so, but thanks to their determination, they managed it, but it also meant that teaching assistants who were good with special needs children were bought it to help out and did a very good job. Thanks to their help that I had throughout primary school, I was much more prepared for senior school when I went up in 1991. When I got up to senior school, I decided to stand on my own two feet and didn't ever seek out any help, despite still being on a special educational needs statement. And I was allowed an extra 25% time on my GCSE exams, which I didn't take on most of my exams, but did on one or two. I did my GCSE's in 1996, but because I didn't get enough high enough grades to get into the sixth form, I retook 5 GCSE's in 1997, when I did get enough high enough grades, but had already decided to go to college instead. Despite my issues, I've got 11 GCSE's including an A in IT, B in Maths, 4 C's and 5 D's, which I thought was quite good. And I have a National Diploma in Computer Studies.

Since leaving school, I've had three jobs, various positions at Sainsbury's, Security Officer for Carlisle Security (and subsequently Advance Security/Cordant Security thanks to them winning the Tesco contract I was working on at the time) and most recently I am a Personal Shopper at Ocado. All jobs, which while may not be the best jobs in the world, are all jobs that I couldn't do if it wasn't for the fact I've overcome issues I've had as a child.

On a more personal level, I've lived in Surrey until 1982, then lived in Essex until 2006, which is when I finally moved out of my parents house, aged 26, moving to Derbyshire, then thanks to getting in to debt (partly thanks to not being able to say no to my ex), I moved back to Essex in 2011 and then moved to Warwickshire in May this year, moving in with my current girlfriend after finally clearing my debts.

I might not conform to what a lot of people consider to be normal, I have long hair and a large beard (something which my ex hated). I listen to heavy metal music, and some lighter rock music, as you can probably tell from my previous blog post about the bands I've seen and want to see. I have always wanted to be my own person and haven't always been allowed to. It's not that I'm rebelling, I'm way past that, but if you can't be your own person and be happy in your own skin (and hair) then you'll never really be happy. If people don't accept you the way you want to be, then they might not be worth having in your life. Other interests in my life include Formula 1 and motor racing, Sci-Fi including but certainly not limited to Star Trek, Star Wars and Doctor Who. I used to go live action roleplaying (LARPing) which I really should look into getting back into. I have got into trains recently, and not just moaning about them. I've always liked cars, especially American Muscle Cars, although I do love classic and more modern British luxury cars and hot hatches.

Confidence has never been a thing of mine, especially when it comes to members of the opposite sex, I was a bit like Raj from The Big Bang Theory, although my confidence did start growing when I started regularly going out in 2002/2003 which was thanks, in no small part by my mate Jess, who reached out and invited me out to the pub and it all went from there. I've got a lot more female friends now and a lot more male friends for that matter.

I suppose the moral of the story is that if you work hard enough and show enough determination, you can get over almost anything and you can achieve anything. You can never let anyone else define who you are, you won't be you if you let others dictate who you are. I'd also like to give a very big thank you to my family for always supporting me through all the not so good times and for friends who have come along and helped support me and accepting me for who I am and been there for me.