Not busy then?!
I was born in Templecombe in Somerset and grew up just down the road in Yeovil. Yeovil is famous for being the home of Ian Botham; for once being the home of Paddy Ashdown; for still being the home of Europe's largest helicopter manufacturer; for being home to the UK's best football team and, well, for just being home.
Most of my family live there or thereabouts.
The family are there for all to see in one of the photo sections . Ma and Pa Aldy, Big Bruv Aldy (or Mark), and Sis Hels or(Helen). Hels isn't technically an Aldy any more due virtually entirely to my brother-in-law Ian who stole her surname and replaced it with his own while nobody was looking. Ian is also at least 50% responsible for 'baby' Harding - due in October sometime or when they've though of a name. Whichever comes soonest.
Botham eventually ran away, Ashdown upped anchor and swapped Yeovil for Bosnia, so it was inevitable that I'd find an escape route some day. In 1994 I started University in Cardiff, studying Economics, Politics and Football for three years. I then moved back to Yeovil for a couple of years and made helicopters.
In 1999 I again scaled the city walls and broke for freedom, living in St Albans for a year or so and working for a marketing firm in the town. To broaden my experiences, expand my cv and to challeng.... sorry, still struggling to come out of bullshit mode........ in 2000 I joined the Royal Mail and moved to Cambridge because they paid well.
I mainly worked on projects to improve the day-to-day operation and - contrary to popular rumour - occasionally conversed politely with postmen. There are some great people there, working hard within the confines of an anachronistic organisation which is scared to make the important decisions at the right time. This, combined with a self-image obsessed chairman who takes his direction from the previous day's Daily Mail headline didn't make for a particularly rewarding career. I was there for a little over three years (working for 2.5 of them) and it was fun while it lasted, but also good to get out when I did.
A few years back I went Snowboarding and have been hooked on it ever since. Last year I managed just a week and a half in the French Alps but in each of the two seasons before I was lucky enough to fit in three weeks worth. I also play and watch (eat and sleep) football. Supporting England, Yeovil and Liverpool - probably in that order. I have a small house in Cambridge that I rent out (if you're the current tennant and are reading this you might like to mow the lawn!). Cambridge is bearable but there's a few too many bicycles and too few pubs for my liking. I'd recommend it for weekends away but plan your escape route in advance - if only to avoid the traffic jams.
Having escaped Royal Mail I decided to spend my golden goodbye on travelling the world (South Africa, America, Australasia, SE Asia etc). That's the inspiration for this site really - saves me the bother of writing the same eMail 10 times every time I do something of note. Have a look at the world tour stuff , here for more info.
By way of apology to you all I will commit to only keeping a sporadic and incomplete diary section (since nobody reads them); to regularly failing to annotate any photos (since only I'd be interested); and to leaving date sensitive comments visible until long after they have become irrelevant.
Ta ta.
Nick
