This is a photo of me, taken in Aberavon Beach Bier Keller, back when no one had cameras, other than our parents who only used it on holidays, if you were lucky enough to go on one. This was taken the night before I left to join the RAF, I was 17, a hippy type, but needed to see more of the world and was unlikely to do that staying in Aberavon.
I loved and love where I come from. It is industrial, a steel town, but has the most wonderful beach, miles and miles of sand and sea, mountains and forests all peopled by the funniest, kindest, modest people I have ever met. It was full of eccentrics and characters as we called the drunks and don't give a toss people. The area has produced many, many famous people, actors and singers and politicians and artists. Why this small town has produced so many I have no idea, but maybe it is because there was a can do attitude. Burton, Anthony Hopkins, Michael Sheen are just a few.
I was and still am a bit of an oddball, I don't need people to be happy, I am happy just being. I have a tendency to say things aloud and then realise I have said something I probably shouldn't. I don't give a toss what people think about me, but do care if I have hurt anyone. I have always marched to the beat of my own drum and always will.
When I joined the RAF I realised I was pretty good and enjoyed sport. I ran, played squash, badminton, walked miles and was very fit. I also loved dancing, I cannot dance, but I just love to lose myself in music, I still do. All was going smoothly, then I got a tick bite and ended up in a fever ward with chronic Lyme Disease, not the internet diagnosis and a slight ache, this was an emergency trip to a fever ward and a temperature of 107. After that, things gradually stopped working as they once had and I slowed up.
A big part of this blog is about how having an autoimmune disease has affected my life and those who share my life with me. Right now, some 35 yrs after the bite, I am being tested to see if the autoimmune was triggered by the bitter and if the bacteria that is always sloshing about my bloodstream is Lyme.
So, the photo is of me back in the day, when I had the world to conquer, not a care in the world and the promise of good times.