Many people who create Web sites include a page of information about themselves. So this is my personal info page. But you can also read about my best Friend. More about Him shortly.

First though, a few words about me. I have been born and bred in Wellington, named in 2001 as New Zealand's Top Town by North and South magazine. Wellington is the capital of New Zealand, and is the world's southernmost capital city. Anyway, I am also 32 years old and have lived in Wellington for most of my life. But between 1982 and 1984 I lived in Washington, D.C., America's capital.

My education was at Scots College (where I excelled in French, History and English) and Victoria University, from which I obtained a BA with First Class Honours in French. I am a man of letters and love languages, being fluent in French and German, and also reasonably well acquainted with Spanish and Norwegian. For a job, I presently do freelance translation, with about 95% of my work being from German to English. Translation is a great job for me because it combines my skills of analysing and understanding foreign languages with the enjoyment that I get from writing in the English language. It is what I want to do for a career, but I would like to move from freelancing to permanent work some day. For the time being though, I'm quite happy doing freelancing. I trade under the name of WriteWord Translations. Remember that name if you need a German or French text translated!

Above all else these days, I like to read the Bible, the Word of God, and visit Web sites such as Kjos Ministries, Way of Life Literature and Chick Publications. Collecting is my No. 1 hobby. In addition to Mondos, I also collect Yowies, Kinder Surprise toys, Smurfs, Kiwi Folk, diecast toy cars (mainly Hot Wheels, Matchbox, Siku and Fun Ho!, but many other brands are also represented in my collection), Crazy Zoo toys and books. While I don't collect McDonald's toys, I do like getting those related to my other hobbies (so I have a few McDonald's Hot Wheels cars and Smurfs). And I quite like some of the Snoopy World Tour toys. Similarly, while I don't collect cereal or trading cards seriously, I have accumulated quite a few of these over the years.

In addition to Bible study and collecting, I like creating Web sites, surfing the Internet, talking to people on ICQ or Yahoo! Messenger, reading a good book, having a brisk walk every day and watching the occasional bit of TV.

I don't play any sport, but love watching or listening to cricket, and also quite enjoy rugby and American football (having lived once in Washington, D.C., I support the Washington Redskins). Another sport I like is baseball, and I support the Baltimore Orioles (the nearest Major League team to Washington).

Some things I don't like so much include Pokemon (it's one thing I WILL NEVER collect!), Harry Potter books (ditto) the regularity with which Australia beats New Zealand in just about every sport going (though who's got the America's Cup?), dogs, heavy metal music (or any sort of rock music), the occult (Harry Potter books are full of it, by the way), station wagons (no personality!), passive smoking, religious bigotry and hypocrisy, Aussie flies, the Wallabies, the Dallas Cowboys, the New York Yankees, Brussels sprouts, bullies and bad traders.

Some of my favourite cities and towns include Wellington (my home town - best place there is!), Wairakei, Inglewood (home of the Fun Ho! Museum), Washington, D.C. and Niagara Falls. Among places that I wouldn't be at the head of the queue to visit again in a hurry are Feilding, Pahiatua (or anywhere much in the Wairarapa, for that matter), Tauranga, Canberra and Philadelphia.

My general political views are slightly left of centre, and I am in favour of New Zealand becoming a republic one day, as I think we are an independent nation and are mature enough to be ruled by a New Zealand Head of State, democratically elected by the people. Also, I am opposed to nuclear weapons. However, some of my views could also be described as right-wing or conservative, in that I am against abortion and euthanasia, the legalisation of cannabis and the legalisation of gay "marriage".


OK, now I said I was going to talk about my best friend (or rather, Friend). His name is Jesus. If you want to find out more about Him, and how you can get to know Him personally, like I do, click here or on Page 2 below.