Colin's info page - various odds and ends of useless info about Colin Birch

The more or less compulsory bit all about ME!
Jumping Fish

Well, who are you? I hear you all ask.
Well, My name is Colin Birch. I was born on March 2nd 1962 (which means I'm ancient!) in the town of PONTYPRIDD in Mid Glamorgan (now Rhondda Cynon Taff!) in South Wales, UK. For all of you people (mainly Americans!) who think that Wales is just a town in Alaska I've got some bad news for you - Wales is actually a country! If you want to know where it is look at a map or Great Britain (or to Americans, look at a map of what you call England). The bit jutting out on the left hand side about half way up is Wales . The bit at the top is Scotland and the rest is England.
If you are an American and know where Wales is please don't feel insulted by the above but I have found that most Americans I talk to have never heard of Great Britain, UK or Wales but they seem to know where England is.

Okay, I know all you women out there have one question to ask. Am I married?
I'm sorry to have to disapoint you all as I'm afraid I am married. I've been married since 1996 (at least I think it was 1996!) to Jayne. We got married while on holiday in Scotland in a town called Ullapool (North West Scotland). Strangley enough I still like the town ;-)

Kids?
I'll take two please with a portion of chips, a little salt and some gravy :-)
On a serious note I've got a daughter born on 16 September 1999 at 10:32 called Rachel and a son called Daniel born on 5th October 2005 at 10:11.

Hobbies?
Yes! Mainly messing around with a thing called a computer. I do have other hobbies. I like trains :-/
What was that? Do I wear an anorak and stand at the end of a station? NO!
I like the comfort of my house too much. I like modeling Canadian railroads, mainly CN and BC Rail.
I also like riding my mountain bike (weather permitting), a Marin Palisades Trail. Marin are not the cheapest of bikes but they are worth the money.

Do I work?
YES :-) I was made redundant by a firm called Rhondda Pressings back in May 2001. They decided to transfer all production to a factory in Poland and I decided it would be a little bit far to travel every day :-(
I was unemployed for just over a year during which time I passed my LGV driving test (HGV class II). I started work with South Wales Transformers in June 2002 as a maintenance fitter. It's not my actual trade (I'm a toolmaker) but it wasn't a bad place to work. Note the 'wasn't'. Yes, yet another place that I worked at closed down. After SWT I worked as a CNC setter/operator in Merthyr (can't remember the name of the firm at the moment!) then at DKS Trimmings in Porth. Guess what happened - Dennis, the owner, decided it was time to retire so DKS was closing. I did a runner before it shut and I'm currently working for Powermann Let's hope it lasts a bit longer than some of the others.
Okay, let's fast forward a few years. Powermann was sold on to Areva T&D. After a while it was sold on again to Schneider Electric which is where I stayed until August 2015. I'm now working for Fundamentals Ltd. Again, let's hope this will last me for a while!

Well, time moves on and so do we. It's now 2022 and about time I updated things. Fundamentals sold us on back in January 2021. I'm now employed by Freedom. I wonder just how long this will last. It's been a year so far. Oh well.....

The Photos! Here's some photos of me. If you are weird enough to want to see full size versions just left click on the pictures.

Here's a picture of me wearing a silly moose hat. I've now been evicted from the room that the photo was taken in so that my daughter can have it :-( I'm now tucked away in the attic of the house. It does have one advantage - the wife doesn't like coming up here :-)

will you stop pointing that in my ear please

And another photo after a hard day at work. Yes, that IS a can of dog food :-/

Watching TV, taken August 2001 (photo, not TV. That's still there in the corner of the room)

Me and Rach

colin@harrythetrout.co.uk