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John Coyne - john@john-coyne.com Well here it is - my bit of page - still thinking of things to put here but here goes for a start. Oh by the way - I am writing and maintaining these pages I started this web site after a long time thinking about it, I went to Kenya in 1969 and lived in Kakamega for 2 years. My father was teaching at the high school there. After those two years were up, I came back to England for a couple of years. I guess the old fellow got itchy feet again and went back in 1971/72. We stayed there on various contracts until we left in 1981, it was time for them to come back to England and start to thing about the future I guess. I remember to this day spending my last day at Parklands sports club having a good laugh and then trying to get a lift to the house we were staying so that the we could go and catch the plane back to England. In the end, I walked back there (by Lorretto Msongari). On the way back a father, (i.e dad) who was not too amused drove past me going the other way to see what the hell had happened to me! Anyway - I got back and had dinner next door, my last back 'home'. About 5 hours before we were leaving, I burst into tears. This was it. Leaving a place that I had been brought up in to go 'back' to England, the place were up until then was a holiday place only. A country where their main hobby appeared (and to this day still holds) was watching football and soap operas. Enough of that for the time being - Initially, after going back for the second time, that is in 71/72, I went to Lorretto Convent Valley road for a short time. My mother was a teacher there. After that I went to St Marys (at the end of Davidson road as far as I can remember. - Any one remember Fr Oliver Ellis and Fr McCormack?) At this point I made a number of long standing friends - some of which I managed to get in touch with. After that I went to Hillcrest Secondary School in Karen - Thats when things really started - it had girls in it! After doing my O'Levels there I came to England - granted, the place I was born, but not much else - and went to sixth form college to study Maths, Chemistry, Physics, Further Maths, Special Chemistry, Special Maths and General studies - got all of the ordinaries but did not do too well on the special papers. After that I went to Imperial College in London to study Chemical Engineering. I failed the first year there and then went to Liverpool university to study Chemistry and - you guessed it - I am now in computers! It took some time before I was able to get in touch with people from the old days. It all started when I was down at Imperial in London. I just happened to bump into Daniel Zola, a friend from the Kenya days. I popped round to his place and then bumped into Debbie Higgins, a girlfriend from those days. That was it until I came to Liverpool. I was at a university disco here and spotted Colin Bwye walking towards the door. We went out for a couple of drinks and a bit later on he had Clive Bock round to stay. That was it for even longer - finally I got onto the internet and started looking. First one to find was Martin Vesely. I got his phone number and gave him a call - forgetting the time difference between here and the states! - Ayway - there was nobody there so he had to resort to his answering machine to get my number and call me back. A bit later and I found Peter Rutters e-mail address on Harros web site (you will find it on the links page when I do it!) and then Stuart Herds and then a big breakthrough - Jax O'Connor (now Morris) Left her e-mail address on Rich Bowens site and I followed it up. She put me in touch with others and others who eventually got me in touch with Lester Kemp, Paolo Bencivenga and Rob Rowland to name but a few - It was Lester who suggested that we start this up and so here it is.
Cheers
John |