About Mike

Hi, my name's Mike, and I was diagnosed with nystagmus within the first year of my life, and short-sightedness (near sighted or myopia) when I was around 6 years old, so I haven't really known any different.

I was born in Southampton, England, in the mid-eighties. I grew up in, what I'd call, the progressing town of Hedge End, about 6 miles from the centre of Southampton. I say it's "progressive" cos I swear it was just a village when I was a kid, and now it's a large town.

I finished school when I was 16 (like most people in England). Several months after leaving school I was working in the offices for a big banking corporation for a couple of years. This was all before I got myself an apprenticeship in electronics.....that's right, I have nystagmus and I'm working with small, if not tiny components. My apprenticeship was for a company that built industrial computers. I started in the production team, before getting promoted to the repair department whilst I was with that company. After finishing my apprenticeship, alongside working full time, my company allowed me to complete an electronics degree, which I studied part time at Southampton Solent University. After 5 years I left the company to travel the world, on an adventure that was initially planned to only be 12-18 months, which ended up turning into several years. I was fortunate enough to travel through Asia, Central America and South America in that time, including living in America, Canada, New Zealand, and most of my time in Australia.

After over 39 months of being away, I returned back to England and Southampton. Again working for another company that repairs electronic devices, this time it was for flight control and flight analyst devices.

But it wasn't too long until the travel bug kicked in again (in fact it was after just one weekend back in England, but I had to wait for a year to be back on the road again) and then I based myself in Indonesia helping out a friend with a big project they are setting up over there (but more on that later).

And you will now find me located back on Australia’s east coast, in Brisbane, where I have been living for the best part of a decade. Earning my keep as a Workshop Technician, testing, calibrating and repairing components for a company that build electronic car chargers.

And now it’s time for the next big adventure…