From 5 to 7 years of age I attended Knighton Fields Infant School, but owing to boundary changes I swapped to Avenue Road Junior School for the years 8 to 11.

On passing my 11+ examination I finished my school education at Wyggeston Boys Grammar School. (Whose coat of arms is shown at right.)

I was a bit of a rebel at school and left at age 15. However my education has been more or less continuous ever since!

I spent 6 months as a T.V. engineer with a local rental company and then embarked on a course at Charles Keene College (to get the GCE "O" levels that I would not have achieved in the school system).

I became a "Student Apprentice" at the Partridge Wilson {Davenset} company which I left in 1967 in favour of a degree course at Rugby College of Engineering Technology. Whilst at Rugby I was heavily involved with an Elliott 803 Computer and tuning 2 stroke engines.

from 13 years to 16 years I was an army cadet winning many shooting prizes. This kindled my interest in firearms and ammunition and led to many enjoyable years of shooting.

From age 16 till 25 I was an enthusiastic motorcyclist. I started out with small, Villiers engined, 2 strokes and ended up with a BMW R60. I would enjoy riding an old Villiers engined motorcycle today, but we have to be practical (it is very difficult to carry beehives on a motorbike).

I was a fairly successful competitor in clay pigeon shooting between 1967 and 1975.

I have also been a semi professional darts player (but in those days the purse was never more than seventy five pounds).

I spent some time in Berlin during the 1960's (on both sides of the wall).

In the summer of 1969 I had my first taste of the game of Pétanque, which I have enjoyed continuously ever since.

In December 1969 I joined B.P.G. Engineering Co. (initially as a draftsman, but later as a project engineer).

In the early 1970's I was a junior mechanic in a Formula Two Motor Racing Team. This was good fun, but also very hard work! I have had many fast cars, (souped up Jaguars and 12 cylinder Daimlers), in the past... However these days I make do with a Suzuki Super Carry. This is the second generation of this type of vehicle that I have owned... The first was a Bedford Rascal Van. (Non standard as it had only a 800 cc capacity engine.)

In 1971 I was diagnosed as having "Hodgkins Disease", (a form of cancer of the lymphatic system), after a great deal of treatment, I was among the first ever to be declared 'cured' of this disease.

In December 1976 I passed my "RAE" (Radio Amateur's Examination) and in February 1977 I was licensed as G8MZY. My interest in Ham Radio is of much longer standing.

During 1979 I left B.P.G. and implemented Apex Enterprises on a full time basis (it had been a spare time business for some years).

In my youth I had some language skills:-

I was Bilingual in German.

I was fluent in French.

I could 'get by' in Italian and Switzerdeutche.

I even had a little Welsh.

I also had an incredible vocabulary of about a hundred thousand English words.

I lost almost all of my language ability in 1993 when I had Pnumoccocal Meningitis. Since then, although recovered in most respects, I have a little difficulty in finding the exact word for a particular circumstance. (Some would say I still talk too much!). I also lost most of my ability to read morse code at this point, some of this skill is now returning and occasionally I have a few thoughts in German, so there may be further improvements.

More recently, January 1997, I had a heart attack... Which left me physically very weak. The heart surgery that I underwent, in February 1999, as a result of this, was unsuccessful in several respects. (Hence my new passion for cyberspace beekeeping!)

I returned to dart playing in 2000... I give only a shadow of my former performance since in 1987 my right hand was "minced up" in a woodworking machine. The surgeons did a marvelous job of re-assembly, but my dart playing will never be quite so competitive again.

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I live at    SYSTON,     Leicestershire,     LE7 1HJ

If you keep bees in the shaded area Please contact me as there are several bee breeding projects that could easily be spoiled. It may well be to your advantage to do so as you may be eligible for new queens at a preferential rate.

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