I'd like to more about U all, if U R willing to share

Dee, My life has been interesting and I made it so after a divorce I never thought I'd go thru....so one picks up the pieces and starts their own life without that partner....that's what I did and MANY do it also.   

Job hoping was much easier for many before all the manufacturing in the US left for the cheap labor countries.....it's so hard  now for MANY looking for jobs.....I'm sure the UK has gone thru the same as your country sent jobs out of Europe too.

I travelled the US a LOT in a sales job, and Canada and Mexico too for business and vacations on the beaches...loved the beaches all the life prior to early 50's....when the sun started to bother me and I worried about skin cancer....  England was my only European country I visited.....

So let's hear from you and others ... this is not a one way street, that's not what I hoped it would be anyway......

Everyone is interesting in their own right.   Joy

can't wait to hear more about you georgey worgey!

its ok everyone...i've had his clearance to use the silly name !!!!!!!

Hi Les,

you like your roast beef and two veg hot.'

I am looking forward to your auto biography. The exerpts you have given us so far have been very interesting. 

George

Hi,

Like Joy I have never met anyone off the internet, and I probably never will. I do not possess a video cam or even a headset, but that’s me. My wife is different to me, she’s 6 years younger and plays console games and chats away to friends, but she is very careful what she says. Come to think of it I have never left the UK, nor passed my driving test – Epilepsy stops me from driving, because you have to surrender your Driving License to the DVLA. I can only get it back if I go a whole year without no seizures, that’s wishing with me. LOL

Anyway, I’ll start off my autobiography…

Okay, my mother went into labour in the worst snowstorms back in 1963 – a cold night, in a village miles from any hospitals, and the snow was coming down fast. My father, did have a car back then, old by today’s standards, but managed to cope with the icy roads and snow. I ended up being born in Cheltenham (Yes, the Centre of The Cotswolds). I attended all 3 schools in the area, but since I left, all of them have been demolished. My last school is now a large college and housing estate, my junior school, that is just more houses and my infants school, is just more houses. I moved out of parents house in the early 90’s and settled down in a large village, not far from where I am now.

My career is very different that most peoples – I was not in to reading books unless they were scientific and this was when I was around 8 years old, I was reading adult books on science, chemicals and electronics. Most children at the age were playing, or reading books for their age group – but that to me seemed senseless and time-wasting. I would rather be gazing at the stars through a telescope, tracking planets, and sunset and sunrise times. Throughout my school life, I had many hobbies electronics, chemical experiments, astronomy and art. I used to find drawing portraits of people and animals easy, sold many to public houses and others framed my work. I had paintings in the School Art Gallery from the age of 5, displayed in the Cheltenham museum – but to me it was just a hobby, nothing more. When I was 10 or 11, I designed a radio receiver in a small plastic box which was 2cm x 2cm x 1.5cm, many people were impressed how I could design something that small! I did develop other things, usually things that I would want, but never seen. When Satellite TV first come out, people were stealing the actual dishes, apart from mine! I built an alarm system to detect tampering.

When I eventually left school in 1980, I already had a job and asked the company if it was okay to take my ‘O’ Level’s, back then you had to pay for exams above CSE’s – I ended up with 7 CSE Grade 1’s and 2 ‘O’ Levels Grade 1, basically I couldn’t get higher grades if I tried. My first job was boring, not engaging or making you want to do more, so I asked the CEO (Boss back then!) if I could do a job that would be more taxing on the brain, he said he would give me a trial of testing electronic digital tools next week. I spent 2 weeks on a trial, and passed – anyway 6 months later, a job come up for a Prototype Thermocouple Test Equipment Designer, capable of measuring temperatures at -247 degrees kelvin and the operating output would need to be fed into an Apple II. They included a college course, but what they were going through I already knew anyway, so I asked my CEO doesn’t the college just do exams? I’m finding the course boring to be honest. Anyway, a few hours went by and the CEO called me in to his Office, and he had another guy with him that I didn’t recognize, anyway the guy turned out to be one of College Tutors whom put people through with high enough grades. He asked me if I had ever been graded before, I assumed it was to do with the course my CEO put me on, but I was totally wrong.

He gave me an exam sheet and asked me if I could just look at a few of the questions, well I looked at it and asked him and said this is not to do with college has it? He said ‘no’, and grinned. So I asked him what it was for, and he stated your answers you have given in College courses namely the Technical Drawing aspect ratios were answered in a way he had never seen before, but everyone was correct. Then he pulled out a briefcase and said this is a special test, and if you can, complete it in under 15 minutes. So, I did the test in front of my CEO and this guy I had never seen before – they were whispering between themselves but not loud enough for me to hear. Anyway, at just over 13 minutes I had completed it. The guy seemed shocked, I asked if it was wrong and he said no, and told me he was from a group of people whom can complete Psychometric assessments very quickly, but the tests vary and so do environments to the applicant. He said if you want you can join Mensa, I thought “ah that’s what it was to do with by the questions” – so ended up finding out my IQ, which I already knew from a previous Mensa test I did. I told him, to be honest I do not want to join – last time I took the test I had an IQ which caught someone else’s attention, and was picked to take part in further tests. The trouble is I do not want to do work outside my boundaries, which at some point would. I stayed at that company for another 2 years before moving on, when companies were making redundancies. I started working for a much larger company, globally based and easy to get, but with one big difference it was in the Telecommunications Industry, doing contract work for BT.

I worked there a few years before having the accident that ruined my life, well ‘no’ not ruined because I have a lovely wife and 3 children, and in a quiet area. Okay, we have hard times and I must admit it is my wife that does help me a lot. I cannot write now, due to arm and hand spasms – at night times I am a nightmare, every morning I wake up in excruciating pain you wouldn’t believe, all muscles spasm and stay like it for at least an hour or more before I can even get out of bed. I have many disability aids to help me, but I am very difficult to manage, even my son and my wife strain to get me to hospital appointments, got 2 more of them before Christmas.

The possibility of me working is virtually none…. It’s taken me hours and a sleep to type this up! Do I ever wonder what would life had been if the accident could have been avoided, sometimes yes – I guess it’s down to depression sometimes, still missing family that have passed on… Maybe one day things will become easier.

Regards,

Les.

Ah Les, a Mensa amongst us....and I gather from your birth year you are 51....that was the year we drove to California....

My ex was a Mensa type, he slept thru Notre Dame and graduated magna cum lade.. he was a computer genius....he died last year at 76 after years of destroying his body in many ways, he didn't own too much common sense...

Over my years of checking out churches, the Unitarian came into my life and a lot of Mensa types were members....interesting group.

I have a lot of good brains left but much much common sense...

So sorry you live with so much pain....happy to hear you have a nice family support team.    Joy

Good guess on my age, but slightly out... I'm 51 on December 15th, so you were very close. But my age has attracted all the cr*p mail from over 50 insurances! Pestering me all the time.

Yes, Mensa contacted me the first time when I was about 17 or 18, I don't think it would have done me any favors at the time, the same as taking up Art as a hobby. All 3 of our children can draw and design to high standards. I got them all into using Prisma Colors from the USA, they are not cheap but the color blending you can do with them is very clever. I wish I could draw like I used to be able to, but those days are long gone.

We still have laugh's usually at my expense or pain! About a month a ago I was trying to stand up to go to the bathroom at around 4am - I managed to grab my quad-stick and stumbed my foot on the radiator, on trying to get back up, I fell backwards, a second attempt and I ended up on the floor, by this and all the 'racket' I made, woke my wife so she got out of bed and kicked the bed leg! Needless to say we had a fair number of black toes, me I had 3 and my wife had 2..lol  Dread to think what our neighbors think we are doing laughing at 4am in the morning.

tee hee les ...you are a hoot!

enjoyed your story...thanks

Thanks, Les, for all of your sharing. I'm glad to get to know you a bit!    I may write a bit later too, but Marey is telling me that I must be off to bed (1:45am Oregon time)!  --Suzanne 

yes she must!

Dear Gloria,

Thank you for your interesting autobiography. I really must complete mine. I started it weeks ago.

George

Dear George,

I look forward to reading it!