Hello, Gentle Reader.
My name's Colin - Col to my friends, of which I hope you'll be joining the ranks very soon. Today, I'll be teaching you how to scramble a carrot with a rolled-up copy of...
No. Hang on. That's wrong. 'Think again, head,' as Ronnie Barker used to say on The Navy Lark.
MynamescolincoltomyfriendsofwhichIhopeyoullbejoiningtheranksverysoon...
Okay, so I've introduced myself. That's fine.
What's next, then? Certainly not the carrot thing - where on earth did that come from?
Oh yes! This is how to continue...
This is my introductory post. Many thanks if you're reading it now - I hope that it entertains and enlightens you a little about me.
Brief Background Bit
First, a picture.
This is myself and my wonderful wife, Sue - who is @smithykins, by the way, and will be posting some great content herself in various Hive communities. The photo's a couple of years old, I have to confess. I have even less hair now, but we won't go into that... I still have the same teeth, though.
Sue and I met and married in the county of Essex, UK, where I was born and raised the third of four children. I had an unadventurous upbringing - I went to a typical (for the late-1960s) primary school, and a senior school that was part of the Comprehensive system that was introduced into the UK in the early 70s.
I passed from there, with a few qualifications, into working life, first in an office in the City of London (not as exciting as it sounds, believe me), then another one local to where I lived. Eventually, in the year 2000, thanks to some takeovers at the company I worked for, I was made redundant - which is when Sue and I packed our bags and moved to Devon, where we've lived ever since.
My working life before redundancy, by the way, was firstly as an insurance clerk, and then as a computer programmer. (Or software engineer, as I believe the job is known nowadays. And believe me, that wasn't as exciting as it sounds, either.)
From all this life (62 years to date), three things stand out as special:
Firstly, my marriage, of course - something that at one time I had no idea (or intention) would ever happen;
Secondly, a deep love of reading, and of writing stories - something instilled in me at primary school, and for which I am eternally grateful;
And thirdly, a love of acting and singing, the first of which I'm half decent at, the second of which... Well - I've received compliments, let's say, but you know that thing where you hear your own voice on a recording and it sounds nothing like how you hear it in your own head...?
What I like doing
I've mentioned the reading, the writing, the singing and acting. So what else do I like doing?
Listening to radio comedy. Well, I like comedy in general, actually - reading it, watching it and listening to it. Hence the Navy Lark quote at the start of this piece. (The Ronnie Barker character who used to say this was Lieutenant-Commander Stanton, by the way, the sometime captain of the frigate Troutbridge. Hope you enjoy knowing that now, if you didn't before.)
And listening to music. My taste has been informed by both my parents and my brother, who was already old enough to appreciate the pop revolution that happened in the 60s, and passed on that love to me. Amongst these - and thanks to him - I am a huge fan of The Moody Blues. So if there are any other Moodies' freaks out there, do drop me a comment. My parents, by the way, were more of the Frank Sinatra/Bing Crosby era. I don't listen to that 'easy listening' stuff as much, but I can still appreciate it when it comes over the airwaves. (And Sue also loves that genre, and is a as huge a fan of that Michael Buble fellow as I am of the MBs.)
Being with good friends. Of which I am delighted to say I have many. (And again, I hope that you'll be joining their ranks very soon, even if only on this virtual platform.)
Playing guitar and learning piano. The guitar-playing goes hand-in-hand with the singing, as I only strum chords rather than doing the whole Jimmy Page bit with screaming solos. And I'm not really that good at the chords, to be honest, as I don't practise anywhere nearly enough. However - it's enough to accompany what voice I have, so that's okay.
Walking. I love walking - but, funnily enough, only if I have somewhere particular to walk to. I can't walk just for the sake of it - so no countryside rambles, that sort of thing. But send me out to the shops for a pint of milk, I'll be tramping along till doomsday...
And finally, playing chess. To be honest, I rarely play now, but I'm proud to say I was one of the best players in my senior school, and part of the chess team. And I do play correspondence chess with my brother (yes - the brother who introduced me to The Moodies - by email. We've played about something like dozen games together over the past years, and I think I'm around 18-6 up.
And that's the stuff I like doing.
What I want to get involved with on The Hive
Mainly, I will be posting in any group that involves creative writing - especially if I can respond to prompts that lead to new stories. I do have a Work in Progress - a novel that I wrote the first draft of in 2012, and have spent the last three years editing and posting to my website. But I always enjoy new writing challenges, both responding to and setting them. I hope to meet with many of you on such groups.
I'm sure I will, however, also be dropping into any group involving music or comedy - and possibly even the chess one(s).
And finally...
So, that's me. A big thank you again if you've read my burblings above. I'd like to give my big thanks also to @roconnor, Sue's brilliant son, for introducing us both to The Hive, and hope, once again, to be contributing as much as possible, as I can, when I can.
Au revoir for now.