WHO AM I ??

Who am I? Is this the same as the question to which the answer is 42? In my case the answer could be 69, but the question is the same.
I am male, English, married with 2 children, who've both left home (amicably). We have 2 grandsons, 1 cat and 1 car. I am a redundant, now retired, farm worker, sorry agricultural craftsman by default, not design. These are the facts, so to the history.
I was born in Kent in 1942, (it was quite noisy then, so I'm told) I was raised in the village of Hawkinge and after an unremarkable education at The Harvey Grammar School, where I fluked 5 'O' levels :-) I gained an apprenticeship with the Handley Page aircraft company in Cricklewood, N.W. London and later, Radlett, St Albans. A shy 16 year old country boy, dumped in the big city, I was totally miserable and, though I stuck with it, I grossly under achieved and finished with no additional qualifications. I was very glad to return home with the offer of a job with Skyways Coach Air at Lympne, Ashford airport where I spent 6 very happy years. I married Thelma during this time and gained a huge family of in-laws, including a mother-in-law who thought the sun shone from my rear.:-) It couldn't last! Well the marriage did but the job didn't. I found myself assembling folding seats for a motor caravan firm in Folkestone. What a nightmare! No wonder the motor industry in this country was crippled by strikes. No-one should have to suffer such boredom.:-( I stayed a year, often skiving off after lunch because I couldn't face another minute at that bench.
Then the in-laws came to my rescue. Thelma's eldest brother was foreman at Swanton farm, and offered me a temporary job as tractor driver / fitter and though I'd often derided agricultural engineers, (Big 'Ammer--Blunt Chisel) I leapt at the chance, thinking it might be a bit of a giggle 'til something better came along.
That was over forty years ago, now I've been made redundant! As it turned out, not such a bad thing now I've become accustomed to early retirement.
Hobbies? They come and go. Amateur radio, call sign G4MIX, I was very keen, I liked C.W. (morse code) and tried building and modifying equipment. I had to because I couldn't afford the fancy shop bought gear (lousy wages). Now I just use 2 metres and 70cm F.M. to keep in touch with friends. I was secretary of the Hilderstone Radio & Electronics Club for 6 years, a job that was sort of thrust on me but one that I've come to enjoy (mainly). It was quite a change from the manual labour of agriculture anyway!
I have sold my little motorbike (re-born rocker ) so no more cruising the local highways and byways, I thought my bones might be a little too fragile now to survive falling off
I had a bit of a fling with photography, I bought a cheap, Russian S.L.R. and thought I was David Bailly for a while. I still have the camera, a bag full of lenses and filters and some of the artistic pretentions but I couldn't afford the processing (lousy wages). Now I have this computer thing ( thanks to my son ) and a digital camera so I,ve a hard drive full of pictures of my garden:-)
For the last few years I've returned to my love of flying. As a boy I enjoyed model aircraft and have dabbled off and on all my life. I currently have three or four radio controlled models in various states of repair but mending them is half the fun, so I'm told, and you can only fly one at a time. My favourite is now an electric powered glider mounted with a little video camera. I've also taught my Grandson to fly but he's more interested in R/C off road cars.
I also have serviced a long time interest in the British weather - as an 'agricultural craftsman' it was very necessary - by buying a weather station and putting it online. http://www.users.waitrose.com/~g4mix/weather/" >http://www.users.waitrose.com/~g4mix/weather/ />So that's me, I may have answered my original question,but only a tiny part of it. Perhaps my watered down Christianity, or my confused thoughts on telepathy and the un-tapped resources of the brain or my enjoyment of comic sci-fi or just what someone described as my robust laughter say more about me than a silly potted history of a very ordinary life.
Or perhaps the answer is 42! Now what was the question??

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