Bio

random 183 croppedGeorge wonders if the video is any good

Where

Born in Thurso, Caithness, and have lived most of my adult life in central Scotland. Worked for short spells in Colorado USA, Germany, and Norfolk; and for longer spells in Montreal Canada, and Dorset; and the longest spells in Kent.

What

Gained a BSc in Electronic Engineering from Heriot-Watt University and attended many professional courses. During my career as an Electronic Design Engineer, Project Manager and Bid Manager I have:

  • Designed and manufactured sniper locating and electronic eavesdropping equipment
  • Managed teams designing and manufacturing fast-jet equipment
  • Managed teams writing proposals and bidding electronic equipment to customers in all five continents, to a value of £50M
  • Attended Creative Writing Courses and Workshops
  • Become a member of Fife Writes Organising Team

My Goodness

The normal course of my work created abnormal circumstances like:

  • Being exposed to nuclear radiation
  • Being shot at by an Army Major with an SLR – the rifle that can blow your arm clean off
  • Defining safe levels of microwave radiation exposure for UK engineers – the Russians had safe levels 100 times lower!

Interests

Previous interests included:

  • Jogging, Judo, Mountaineering, Skiing, Squash, Weightlifting

Current (also previous) interests include:

  • Collecting rocks worldwide, so I can look…touch…remember
  • Ancient History, Gym Training, Hillwalking, Pony Trekking, Scuba Diving, Snorkelling, Swimming
  • Special Advisor to a Malt Whisky Club in Grimstad, Norway
  • Photography – see Picasa Web Albums of some of my travels:    Here

Best Excitement

  • Climbing volcanoes with my wife
  • Competitive Judo, Squash and Swimming
  • Hillwalking in Glenshee mountains on my own in winter at –15 deg. C
  • Hillwalking / climbing:-  in Arizona – including Grand Canyon; Canadian Rockies; Colorado Rockies; Greece – Paros, Patmos, Samos; Hawaii – including Kilauea; Italy – Dolomites; Madeira – levadas including Pico do Areeiro; Majorca; Nepal – Himalaya; Norway; Scotland – 50 Munros including Black Cullin and Ben Nevis; Sicily – including Etna; Aeolian Islands – including Volcano; Sorrento peninsula – including Vesuvius; Spain – including Sierra Nevada; Utah; Nevada – including Las Vegas
  • Scuba diving in Cyprus
  • Skiing fast
  • Trekking from the South Rim, at 7,000ft, down into the Grand Canyon USA, staying overnight in Phantom Ranch at 2,400 ft, and trekking up to the North Rim, at 8,000 ft, with my wife
  • Walking the West Highland Way – all the way – with three women, including my wife

PIC_0101George climbing to a glacier near Spiterstulen, Norway

Moments of Sheer Terror

  • At 10,000 ft in the Italian Dolomites, with a friend 200 yards away, my right leg collapsed through the roof of a snow cave up to my groin…my arms shot out horizontally…and… gingerly…I pushed myself up…then looked down…it was bottomless
  • Being hit by a small tornado at 12,000 ft on Flat-Top mountain in the US Rockies in winter, on my own
  • Canoeing…slowly…in an unstable canoe in crocodile infested waters in a Nepalese jungle, with my wife
  • Carefully…edging along a very narrow ice ledge, in winter with friends, one third of the way up Buachaille Etive Mor in Glen Coe, and suddenly being faced with a giant vertical ice-wall…up and down
  • Climbing Carn Mor Dearg and Ben Nevis in winter with a friend, then having to navigate…carefully…off the top of a misty Ben Nevis, covered in 10 feet of snow, with 2,000 ft cliffs, unseen…closeby
  • Climbing in the Glenshee mountains in midwinter through two feet of snow on my own. It had been -25C through the night, the sky was heavy with dark grey clouds, and it was too cold to stop and fit crampons. As I stopped to watch them the clouds began to turn black…

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