New guy posting to introduce himself.

[5tevie]

Hi guys and Lady guys,

I've just registered and this is my first post.

OK, who am I?

As you may have guessed, my name is Steve and I am 63 years of age, soon to be 64 (16/03/1950)

I've lived all over the world but started life living in Burnley. At age 15 I left home and joined the Royal Navy as a Helicopter mechanic. After 9 years of that I became a bit bored with it all so I packed it all in and got a job as a chef in a hotel near The Lizard Point in Cornwall. The hotel was called The Housel Bay but I don't know if it is still going.

After completing the summer season then serving upwards of 60 covers for 3 meals per day, I served my notice and went to Redruth and signed up for the Paras. I did basic training in Aldershot and then moved on to Mombassa where I stayed for about 8 months before heading back to the UK. During a visit to Glasgow to look up some pals from my days in the Navy I clubbed a young lassie over the head and dragged her back to England where we got hitched and then we found 3 boys just dossing about near our house so we dragged them inside and started doing a bit of parenting. They are now all married with kids of their own.

I've started to suffer from something called ankylosing spondylitis which basically means that my spine is Kerry Packered. All the bits of jelly like stuff between the vertebrae of a normal spine seem to have disappeared on mine. I have gone from being 6 foot tall to my current size of 5 foot. The daft bit is that all the height loss is between my neck and my waist and it can be very painful at times. Walking is dodgy unless I can hold onto things as I go forwards. We have had to re-arrange furniture indoors do that I can get about without my walking frame.

But anyway, life goes on and there are thousands of people worse off than me.

Cheers all,

Steve.