Mike Hardy's Profile

I was born in Cheshire where my Dad was posted during the Second World War. At the end of this in 1945, the family returned to Northern Ireland and moved into a lovely family house in Donaghadee, Co Down. I lived here until I was 13 years old and attended Garth House School in Bangor from 1947 until 1956 as a day pupil. In 1956 I was sent to Sedbergh School in what was then Westmorland but is now on the edge of the North Yorkshire Dales as a boarder for 4 years until 1960.
After this, I joined Tate & Lyle, the sugar refiners as a trainee Shift Manager in 1960. This didn’t suit them or me and in 1962, I transferred to the Sales side of the company. Two years here was more than enough and I left to pursue a life of enjoyment, starting with selling door-to-door anything from encyclopaedias to household items. I had the idea becoming a doctor next, so went to day school to retake Physics & Chemistry A-level (which I had already passed) at the same time as Biology which I had only studied to O-level before. I was offered a place at Newcastle University but had second thoughts – I really didn’t have the necessary motivation and commitment so instead, I moved on to private hire taxiing, then to car sales and after that, night club management where Norma and I met up; she was a croupier at the time. A fantastic year of this 24 hours a day was as much as we could handle and I went back "on the knocker", selling washing machines and TVs.
By now I was feeling that a career should be started before it was too late so in 1971 I joined ICL as a trainee programmer - in the days when the training was six months long and "live in". I spent over 20 years with the company, moving through consultancy, senior marketing and finally working on Computing for Senior Management before being made redundant in 1991 shortly before the company was absorbed by Fujitsu and became a Service organisation. The first 15 years were terrific fun - the last five pretty abysmal but anyone working in todays rat race will know that.
So in 1991, there I was, 49 years old, on the scrapheap! Norma had started market trading a couple of years earlier to pay off the credit cards and as an interest now the family was growing up. I helped her while job hunting but within a very short time realised that 1) I was considered too old to be employable and 2) we could actually make a respectable living by working for ourselves as market traders.
So here I am now, in 2007, still working (although not quite as hard as I used to!) to pay the bills but spending an increasing amount of time travelling to Ireland (for a few days every 5 or 6 weeks) to visit my sister Ann following her severely disabling stroke and travelling to Spain to enjoy our shared property there.
Travel is increasingly important and this year we are also visiting friends in France and a niece and partner in Crete.......next year who knows?
Claire and Dave are imminently expecting their first child (6th August 2007) so I expect Grandfatherhood and baby-sitting may play an increasing part in my life from now on - I certainly hope so!

I have a wide range of interests which have not surprisingly changed over the years. A consuming passion has always been music, particularly classical although I have a large Pop and Rock collection and am happy to try almost anything (not sure about rap or strict tempo dance music!).
Opera is a particular hot spot with Wagner at the top of the pile - I have 4 complete recordings of the Ring cycle and at least one set of every other opera he wrote. Richard Strauss (no, not Johann) is close behind followed by Italian romantic - Puccini top here. Other than that my collection includes several copies of all Beethoven, Brahms, Mahler, Bruckner and Sibelius symphonies and lots of good English: Delius, Elgar, Finzi etc.
Pretty much anything from 50s. 60s and 70s will also hit the spot including all Beatles, Stones, Chicago, Tamla Motown, Disco, Soul - you name it. Also vey happy with current stuff from eg Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Bright Eyes - you name it!
The garden became a passion about 10 years ago and we opened to the public under the auspices of the NGS (National Garden Scheme) for 10 years, raising over £12,000 for charity whilst enjoying every minute of it.
Norma has lifting problems now so we have had to give this up.
Very active DIY over the years continues and I am still happy to tackle major projects although enjoy having labourers now!
Travelling was always a major interest although the annual holidays
almost always involved two weeks in Ireland catching up with family. We always travelled over to the West of Ireland - Donegal and Galway particularly and this is still a vey favourite "special place".
Now the family has spread its wings, Norma & I have put down some roots in the Costa Blanca and travel there whenever possible. How could we ever have though that Spain was all British lager louts? Our eyes are now open and we look forward to every visit.