Introduction
- Continued 3
In
the early Summer of 1992,
two friends (Derek and Henry) and I started the first phase of a boat
trip from Conyer Creek,
Kent to Valencia, Spain. At Avignon, my
two friends had to return to work and Imelda took their
place, eventually after some
adventures,
we arrived. In 1993, I obtained my first Masters
Degree in Computing. On 6th February 1994, our daughter Sorcha
was born.
In 1995 I became
Head of Computing at
Palmer's College, Essex.
During this year Imelda, Sorcha and I sailed/motored the boat
back
from the Mediterranean, through the Canal Du Midi, France and stopped
at
Bordeaux. In 1996, we bought a new
house in
Walderslade, Kent.
In
November
my father died.
In 1997, while on our Summer
holiday in Ireland I spotted our present farm, for sale.
We made an offer
which was accepted.
During Easter
1998,
the exchange of contracts took place and
we owned Cherry Tree Farm. We also sold our
house in Walderslade and moved into a rented house.
In June I was offered a lecturing position at the Isle of Man College
and we moved to Castletown, on the Isle
of Man in September 1998. Imelda got supply work
as a Primary School Teacher
and Sorcha started school for the first time.
In December 1998, we bought a house in Douglas, Isle of Man.
We loved
the Island and our new life. On a return visit from our
Christmas and New Year holidays with my mother, in 2001, we made the
difficult decision to leave the Isle
of Man and start a new life in Ireland.
During
Easter 2001, we sold our house
in the Isle of Man and
Imelda and Sorcha left for Keelogues,
Ireland. I had to stay until July to complete my
contract, while Imelda organised and supervised the building and
renovation of Cherry Tree Cottage.
Sorcha went to her new country school in Castlecoote.
In September I
started working as a Lecturer
at the Athlone Institute
of Technology. On the 26th January 2002 we moved into the
main
bedroom (the only room that was completed)
in our newly
renovated cottage, it was memorable because
it snowed the next day.
The remainder of the cottage
was mostly completed by Easter.
