Nick writes 11/06/06: I went to SGS in 63, at 13, went into Form 3, so technically my lot started in 61.
See History > Boarding House for Nick's notes on that period.I've been in Australia since 1992, mainly working for ICI and then PPG (a US based corporation), in IT. For the last 4 years I've been self employed running large ERP (IT) projects across Asia and studying towards a PhD (I've just submitted my thesis).
Before Australia I lived in New Zealand on and off for 17 years working firstly in the sailing and commercial recreation industry, then with a young family in the early 80s, moved into the corporate world, and an IT career in ICI, an MBA and then an MA in virtual communication.
After leaving SGS, and then a spell in London trying to study optics, I became increasingly interested in sailing, and in '73 set off with my girlfriend from schooldays, then wife, Julie (née Brannan, from Cambridge) to sail across the Atlantic in a small 21ft engineless sailing boat we'd fitted out. All went well and after the West Indies we sailed on across the Caribbean, then through the Panama Canal and then out across the Pacific. Pretty exciting stuff in 1973/4 for a 23 and 20 year old couple. Things got a bit scary when we rolled the boat a few hundred miles west of Tahiti, but we survived to tell the tale. We ended up in New Zealand. You can read a brief version of the story here
http://www.mavc2002.com/caledoniayawl/aegresum.htmJulie and I separated in 1979. I've continued to sail though not so much these days, although I did sail around the world in 2003-4 with my old friends John and Marie Christine Ridgway in an attempt to raise awareness of the terrible situation of the Albatross in the Southern Ocean. John writes about that voyage here
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/brunel/A552908Anyway here I am in Melbourne, Australia these days, far from Soham. I remarried back in '81, and Tomoko and I have two daughters who are both at University here in Melbourne. Neither interested in sailing of course. Such is life.
Nick Grainger
http://www.ExpeditionBase.compage last updated 12 Jun 06