I thought I would only be in Tokyo for one or two years when I arrived on these shores in 1981, now looking back over the years I wonder where all the time went .
I have 3 kids, although pretty well grown up now, they are without doubt the things I’m most proud of in my life, they are bilingual, but more than that they are bicultural which is far more difficult to learn. If you see me at LEXIS ask me the difference.
Looking at the list of teachers here Robin, Lee, James and Jim I seem to be the only European representative in a sea of Canadians. I was born and educated in London, England and although I spent many years travelling around the country with my father’s work, other than Tokyo, London is the only other place I can truly call “home”.
This is where I should talk a little about hobbies and interests, but to be honest what with work and family it’s almost impossible to find time for anything else, but I do love to tinker, that is to say play around with or sometimes fix, in my case machines. As a child I was forever getting into trouble for taking perfectly good clocks apart and not being able to put all the bits back again...I no longer do that, but I still have a passion for mechanical wrist watches to this day.
I love anything with wheels bicycles, motorcycles and cars and I’m crazy about F1 car racing I never miss a race and have been an avid fan since I was a child. I also love photography and travelling, whenever I get a chance to return to Europe I split my time between visiting my family and trips to southern Europe where the weather is hot, but not humid like Tokyo is in summer.
I think a national trait of the British is a good sense of humour and in that way I’m no exception, in life it’s too easy to be serious I can usually see the funny side of most situations and sometimes get into trouble as a result.
Anyway I said earlier that I liked to fix things so if you think your English is “broken” and need help repairing it, I’m your man!
