LCC provided me with a great way of engaging in creative projects everytime there was a Charity event such as Children in Need or Red Nose Day. I really enjoyed creating my own costumes and playing the role. I particularly enjoyed being a Cyberman with a suit which was sprayed entirely silver along with weapons, lighting and navigational aids for effect. Here I'm meeting up with one of my many arch enemies to determine the fate of the world.

One of my many early assignments was to star in a new video for LCC promoting our facilities and services. Here you can see we have the latest modern office setup with advanced word processing equipment, communication services and on-desk databases.As ever, the helpful Jess is always available to point me in the right direction.This video was so successful that it became the mainstay of all induction activities for a number of years.

Working with my Producer and Director, John Maskrey, I reported on a fictitious murder for the LCC Murder-Mystery tapes. This was a challenging assignment working alongside a number of great talented actors such as Andrew Bennet and Keith Lloyd.

Children In Need 2014 was an another opportunity to raise funds for this worthy charity at LCC and have some fun at the same time. Our chosen theme was Wallace and Gromit and yep, I was going to be that man! The head was quite complicated to make based on a wire frame former with papier mache as a cover. The wire frame gave quite an unusual texture and appearance to the head but very realistic. The challenge was the mouth and teeth but this was tackled by moulding a sausage shaped balloon with papier mache and then when set deflating the balloon. The opening was then carved out and the teeth fashioned using modelling clay. Ears, nose and eyes were easy add-ons using polystyrene balls (either whole or halved) and then the whole lot was treated to gallons of emulsion paint that was left over from home decorating. Easy! We raised quite a few bob, too, towards another worthy cause.

As part of my interest in Photography I've also re-discovered Art and Architecture. Leeds and Bradford have some fantastic sandstone buildings with truly amazing examples in Holbeck down at the Egyptian Temple Mill, the Corn Exchange (designed by Cuthbert Broderick) in Central Leeds and the huge Bradford Town Hall with its massive clock tower along with the Bradford Wool Exchange building (now Waterstones).

Of course, good architecture is not limited to Yorkshire and on a recent trip to London I re-acquainted myself with the new Kings Cross and St Pancras stations as well as the more modern Shard, the Walkie Talkie, the Cheesegrater and the Gherkin in the City's business district.

By way of Telecomms and Internet business I spent time in the US in Atlanta, New York, Boston, Washington and San Diego. I was fortunate enough to get an opportunity to dine in the World Trade Centre in New York in the top floor restaurant known as the "Windows on the World". This was an incredible experience not only taking one of the super fast elevators to get to the 106th/107th floors but also seeing the stunning views out across the City and the Hudson Bay. Sadly that all changed for millions on the 11th September 2001.This photograph was taken early morning from a ship in the bay, just before docking.

Training was always important to me - not only to get on in life and my career but because I had this inner thirst for knowledge. Read books, go on courses, go to night school, exchange ideas with networking groups. Repeat.

I was lucky that I had a good employer in my early years with some great training facilities and even better trainers. Having that knowledge passed down from expert to expert really taught me the value of being able to articulate things to other people.

So it was that I became European Sales Training Manager for Web Hosting in the late 90's for BT's expansion across Europe. Taking the model and the information I had gathered during my product management days I was invited to roll this out to both the commercial and technical salesforce in the Netherlands, Germany, Ireland, Spain, France and Italy.

Following this period of intense activity I decided to change direction and enter Education in the public sector were again I passed on information to eager students who wished to acquire knowledge in the ICT and IT sectors.

Music. From the early days of Radio Caroline, Radio 270 and Luxembourg tuned in on my superhet receiver via a fifty metre line aerial thrown over the roof of the house music was always an important part of my younger life. Here you see my two greatest musical influences - rock and soul/funk.

Brough Village Hall, The Duke of Cumberland at Ferriby, Cottingham Civic Hall, South Hunsley High, Bridlington Spa Hall, Hornsea Floral Hall and various Young Farmers bashes were the venues where seeing local bands were a regular weekend activity.

Early blues and soul favourites were The Rats (before Ronno and Co went off with Bowie), Mandrakes and The Variations however, my biggest musical influences were the all-nighters at Burton Constable Hall, the West Park free concerts on Sundays and the Brickhouse. A classic amongst these was Burton Constable with it's amazing liquid oil wheel projector light shows and the epic performance by the Deviants with 200 watts of lead guitar feedback on their live rendition of Metamorphosis Exploration. 

West Park on a Sunday with London bands travelling up north to spread their wings and musical influences were fairly common past-times. Ian Dury and the Blockheads were regulars along with the Edgar Broughton band (Out, Demons, Out) and one of my favourites Jody Grind - their album Far Canal is a masterpiece of organ and guitar wizardry. In conjunction with this Hull City Hall was a venue for major rock bands to play and I remember Wishbone Ash and Mott the Hoople amongst the many who entertained us there.

Topping it off were lots of local bands and I must mention my old chums "Bone"! Rocky you were a great bassist but wiring up an amp was not your forte! I won't forget the practice sessions at the farm in Staddlethorpe. Coupled with that there were the sessions with Paul Mooney, John Milner, Jeff Parsons and a strange collection of New Age musicians who lived in the darkest parts of Hull's old town.

Time came and went - a job move and promotion, and my many miles on the motorway were spent listening to cassettes, CDs and the Radio.This all meant my musical tastes morphed and changed until I finally came round to appreciate rock again. On that journey and whilst working in London I managed to see one of my all time favourite bands, Cream, at the Royal Albert Hall in 2005 when they briefly reformed. I was lucky, as I managed to get one of the few remaining late tickets for the gods when I found out about the gig. Seeing Clapton, Bruce and Baker in that venue was incredible and something I will always remember.

During my days as part of the of the product management team in the Webworld web hosting division of BT's Internet and Multimedia Services (IMS) group I started to develop a better understanding and interest in the use of Fonts and Typography. Initially web safe fonts were the norm with the likes of Verdana etc being the standard but now there are many that display perfectly.

Typography is a  fascinating area of history that covers all aspects of Script, Serif, Sans Serif, Display and Woodcuts and is a truly amazing topic to get immersed in - right from the early days when Roman capitals were copied from stone to give us Trajan for historical use through to Newspapers and Telephone Directories specifying fonts to give maximum page density at the smallest of font sizes without the ink bleeding.

When Corporates specify their own Font to be used on everything the classic that always comes to mind is the use of Johnston on London Underground signage. More recently companies like Easyjet have adopted Cooper Black as their corporate type.

Once you get hooked on typography then there a whole raft of things discover. Like True Type and Open Type and also a range from Adobe who increasingly are becoming the major player in this market. Identifying fonts can be difficult but there are a number of websites which make it easier. My favourite is Identifont located at http://www.identifont.com