I was born on the 19th of January 1972 and brought up in Scotland in the countryside to which I spent 20 years off my life. I attended secondary school until December 1987. I was still 15 at the time when I left, but in Scotland this is pretty normal if your birthday is just after Christmas. I was unemployed for a few months then went on a government training scheme (YTS) to train within the catering industry which I did so at a local restaurant, this was one of the best jobs I have had and lasted the full 2 years of the course, but when that finished the owner could not afford to keep me on so I then went onto college a few miles away and trained in catering and hotel management. After leaving college I did some part time work at a local hotel as a silver service waiter but a lot of the time I was pretty much unemployed. Not many people realise that I lived in the middle of the countryside, so unless you had your own transport (which I did not have) it was impossible to get to other villages, towns or cities, so unemployment was not my cause, just my location.
In 1993 I moved to the east end of Glasgow and got a job with the Hospitality Inn, in the city centre as a room service waiter but was sacked three weeks later as the manager discovered I was Gay and told me to leave the building as he did not like people who were 'queer' working in his hotel, unfortunately the law did not cover gay people here in the Uk at the time so I did not have a legal leg to stand on.
Shortly after the episode that happened to my work career I decided to move away and start a new life for myself and picked Manchester (Uk). I had thought of York, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and Stoke-on-Trent but they were not for me, London was also an option but the cost of living was too much for me to contemplate with so finally opted for Manchester, it is pretty central to everywhere and another plus point is that gay people are accepted as "normal" if there is anything called normal !!. When I moved I was offered a very large two bedroom flat in south of the city in Wythenshawe a suburb of Manchester and is the biggest council run housing estate in Europe. The area had a bad reputation but in reality it was not as bad as people made out and was quite happy there. I had been living there 1½ years when the council decided that the flats were to be pulled down so offered me some money and help in finding alternative accommodation. I finally found myself a small two bedroom flat with Stockport council which was a few miles along the road, and as the rent was so cheap I jumped at the chance to take it. I have stayed in Stockport till 2000 and since them moved back to Manchester, to which is now my home.
In 1993 I came out to my parents as gay, it was kinda done in the heat of an argument but a few years later my mother said she had guessed anyway. I certainly do not look or act gay but have a policy that if someone asks I tell them but otherwise I am just a straight forward guy who does not flaunt his sexuality and keeps his private life at home.
