Born 1966 (a good year for football) in Ipswich (town of the tractor boys). Moved to Bungay in Suffolk after a few years and loved it. Had our own castle to play in and a mate that owned a pub - heaven. After 6 years of an idyllic lifestyle we reluctantly moved to Caister-on-sea, Norfolk and things went pear-shaped from then on. Our cottage had no central heating, no running hot water, sash windows that rattled in the wind, no phone and a black & white TV. The name of the road was Bullocks Loke, which always raised a "pardon" when given to people over the phone.

Spent 24 years here, during which time many improvements were made and when eventually finished in the year 2000, I flogged it and moved to Martham. Spent the 7 years improving that house, got it finished then flogged it, as is the way. Another step up the property ladder to a 4 bed detached place at Worstead. This too needs a lot of work which is now well underway. It also has a nice big garden which takes up a LOT of time. The garage also has a pit!! A real benefit that has been utilised on several occasions. The deafening silence took a bit of getting used to after living next to a main road, but now we're used to it we couldn't go back.

My career has changed more often than my address and I've never managed to spend more than 5 years with one company. First job was working as a paperboy earning £2.35, a princely sum for a twelve year old. Got a job stacking shelves at the Co-op which I thoroughly enjoyed then giving out prizes at a Bingo arcade before entering the world of micro-electronics.

The company was named STC when I joined, but previous guises were Erie Resisitors and ITT. Everyone in Great Yarmouth knows some-one that's worked there. I started out in Goods Inwards working for a total nutcase that should've been sectioned. I then moved to the Mica Capacitor division working a Heidelberg printing press at the start of a production line. The press had been converted from printing on paper to printing on mica with a long oven attached to dry the coating. There was nothing to stop you getting  a finger crushed between the plates, but safety didn't feature highly in those days.

After a few years I climbed my way up to the heady heights of test inspector, shut-off from the outside world, along with others considered a danger to society, in a 'clean room'. Basically a sealed chamber into which you entered via an airlock and spent 8 hours staring at small circuits wondering what the weather was like outside. Needless to say, I was quite keen to get out of here before I lost touch with reality altogether and managed to escape into a calibration lab.

This job rated quite highly on my 'cushy little number' rating. A plush office, my own desk, diamond geezer for a boss and sane work colleagues. Typically, these thing never last and I was selected for the chop one Christmas as was the tradition and cast out into the world of interviews and suits once more. Fortunately, fate gave me kiss on the arse cheek and I landed a similar job within a week! Redundancy burning a hole in my pocket and another job secured it was time to spend some cash. For some strange reason, I decided to spend it all on a Triumph Stag. Can't remember the thinking behind this one, but it did have a really nice sound.

Anyway, the company I joined was Antech Engineering. Again, most people living in the Great Yarmouth area know somebody who's worked here due to the high staff turnover rate. It was still only a small company that had recently moved to a new workshop on Gapton Hall Industrial Estate and I was tasked with setting up an electronic calibration lab. I have to say, I gained a lot of experience very quickly as you tended to be thrown in at the deep end in most instances. This served me well for future career moves and the next step was to a small, family run outfit in North Walsham called Chell Instruments.

This was a great place to work, with a great bunch of people. I was again in a lab, but calibrating Vacuum Pressure Transducers and Thermal Mass Flowmeters. Only trouble was business had taken a downturn and after only a few months the Receivers moved in and I was moved out.

Then followed a few months gainfully unemployed. This wasn't as bad as it seems. The mortgage was insured, I sold my 17 foot sailing boat for extra income and I was doing voluntary work for the Broads Authority sailing Wherry Yachts around the broads taking fee paying passengers. It was a glorious summer spent sailing, fishing, sunbathing and a bit of jobhunting. Definitely a blow when I eventually found one!

Metnor Great Yarmouth offered me a position as Instrument Technician based on my experience at Antech. I was calibrating again, but this time chart recorders and pressure gauges. After a short time, I was posted to Ferrol in Spain to assist some lads working for what was then Nowsco. What a nice little number that turned out to be. Most of the time spent speeding about in Seats collecting people from the airport and rolls from the baker with frequent stops to sample the local cafes and take in the scenery. On top of this was a juicy dayrate and weekly bonus. Unfortunately, like all good things in life, it didn't last and I was sent back to Great Yarmouth to sweat it out in the workshop.

The next move was to another very famous name in Great Yarmouth, Gardline Surveys. Another firm that sees a lot of people come and go. I joined as an Underwater Geophysical Engineer which sounds very impressive, but that's about it. Your main responsibility was to watch reems of paper unfold infront of you for hours on end while being thrown about in various seas around the world. There were some perks in that you could stay on in whatever country you happened to dock in and get a later flight home, but this was ok if the country you were in was friendly! I seemed to spend an awful lot of time in places along the West coast of Africa you really shouldn't be in, let alone stay in. Quite an eye-opener seeing life well off the tourist trail.

I managed to survive visits to Angola, Congo, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Nigeria (as bad as it gets), Bangladesh and Indonesia. I also got to see Norway, Singapore and Australia so it wasn't all bad. Believe me, once you've flown Bangladeshi Airways you'll never complain of Easyjet again. Due to the fact that these trips could involve several weeks (or months) away, this never went down well at home! Combine this with satellite phone call bills at £5/minute and it was time for another change.

It just so happened that at this time I received a phone call from the Manager at Metnor asking if I would like to go back, so back I went. This return proved to be fairly short-lived as I then had another call from a good friend of mine named Adrian Fletcher to say there was a job going at Bacton if I was interested. Interested I was, and so I joined Metco Services as a Metering Technician to be based at the then Phillips plant. The work involved frequent trips offshore to the Hewett and LAPS fields, but only for a few days at a time so this was OK (ish) with her indoors.

After 5 years in this position, Phillips had joined forces with Conoco to become ConocoPhillips (no points for originality) and everybody had to reapply for their job. This is a common situation in the Oil & Gas business. As luck would have it, I was offered a Senior position with the new company, Petrofac Offshore Engineering & Operations with extra pay and added benefits. I thought long and hard about taking the job and after 25 seconds said OK. The first step on the management ladder, albeit a very small one, but with extra responsibilities and a team of 3 techs under my command.

In 2011 the then owners of the terminal decided to route all the gas next door. This saved several million pounds in operations costs, but also resulted in the loss of several positions. Petrofac decided it would be a good idea to send me offshore as an Instrument Technician. I, on the other hand, decided this wasn't such a good idea. I sent out several CVs and had a job offer from all of them! It was at this point that it dawned on me how short staffed the offshore industry actually is. I sent a CV to a consultant company named Accord Energy Solutions, not expecting to hear anything, and was offered the job of Measurement Engineer. The company are based in Aberdeen, but allow working from home which was ideal. They have all the usual benefits PLUS an employee ownership scheme which operates in a similar fashion to John Lewis. I was also given an Apple Macbook, an iphone, a business line with broadband and a company credit card. All seemed too good to be true.

There have been occasional trips offshore including the Tiffany platform off Aberdeen and the Clipper South platform off Lincolnshire. I have also had a few trips to Norway to oversee building of an FPSO (Floating Production & Storage Offshore) and several within the UK. I have to say, after the variety of jobs I've had over the years, this is by far the best. I just hope it lasts!