Is this thing on?

Moi.

For those who don’t know already…
My name is Richard Olpin, my friends call me Rik. It’s a nick I’ve had since college, long boring story involving three Richards, several cans of special brew and an episode of the young ones. It did come in handy for the high score table on the arcade machines in the Student Union though:) I’m also occasionally known in online circles as ‘Ilyo’ or ’shroom’ (*cough* another long story involving my formative years living in the country and many an autum morning spent ‘harvesting’).

Anyway, I’m 39 years old and live in a sleepy little town called Dursley in Gloucestershire, England. Yes that’s Dursley as in ‘the Dursleys’ from Harry Potter, probably it’s only real claim to fame.

Then
Having been born at exactly the right time to witness the magic that was the first ‘home’ computers I was one of those geeky kids with a ZX-81 that cut his teeth on the first generation 8-bit micros, plugged into an old 14″ B&W telly in the bedroom. It was ace and from the moment I first typed ‘Print “HELLO” ‘ (or in those days found the correct twister-style key combination on a flat membrane keyboard) I was hooked.

By the time I was in the sixth form at school I knew there was only one possible vocation for me at that time and though I was anything but academically inclined I knew that I needed the qualifications on paper so college was an inevitability. Bit of an uphill struggle that was, not because of my technical ability but because it was a very low priority compared to my other love (or rather obsession back then) with the Martial Arts.

Thanks to the immeasurable support of my parents (gawd knows how they put up with me back then, I was a twat!) I did eventually bumble my way through sufficient course work (the exams were easy) and so I finally graduated in Computer Science. Spent a few months working for my dad (he’d just set up on his own) and then I landed on my feet with a job for one of the first companies I applied to. Trio were only a small firm but growing fast making high tech industrial controls for use in industrial automation. I worked for them for nearly 12 years. I’d like to say it was fun and it certain had some high points, for example I did get to travel all over the world on a pretty regular basis and I worked with some great people. It’s just a shame though that the one’s I worked for couldn’t see the wood for the trees or I’d probably still be there now.

A New Chapter

About 5 years back I had one of those life-changing moments. To cut a long story short I’d been burning the candle at both ends, working stupid hours in a job I now hated, running my martial arts school and working weekends on the door for a laugh too (got to get the practice in somewhere ). When you push things that hard you’re playing russian roulette with your health and sooner or later the inevitable is going to happen. It did, I got ill. Very ill. I had a serious chest infection and very nearly died. I was off work for nearly two months and that left me with a whole lot of time to think about where I was, and what I wanted from life. Suffice to say within a few weeks of being back at work things finally came to a head and I left. It’s a whole other story that one but suffice to say bridges were well and truly burned and it represented a major turning point in my life.

I had two fundamental options, the ‘easy’ one was to get another job in the same industry (I had several offers from companies I used to work with who were all amazed that I was no longer at Trio). The ‘hard’ option* was to close that chapter of my life and to take control of my own destiny. I knew that I was never going to be truly happy working for someone else and so I took the plunge and decided to turn my hobby into my career.

Now
So, these days I am a professional Martial Arts Instructor. I have a succesful school teaching a great bunch of students of all ages. I’m not particularly commercially minded but I’m earning a pretty reasonable living a) doing something I love and b) making an actual difference to peoples lives. The best bit is that I now earn pretty much the same as I did in 60 hours a week at Trio but I only actually ‘work’ for about 20 hours including all the paperwork and admin, and even that is fun. You really can’t put a measure on quality time and freedom to do your own thing. Now I’ve got it I realise that it’s priceless.

The love of my life is the wonderful Kelly,  and her son Callum. We’ve been together for nearly five years now and the only regret I’ve had is that it’s not longer. Kel is a Police Community Support Officer, she’s also a black belt in my school and takes charge of all the admin in class which helps me to concentrate on the fun stuff like teaching

Oh, and a little update as of 28th Feb 2008, we’ve just got engaged, which is ace :) 

Oops, it seems my ‘about me’ page is fast turning into a life history!

More later..