Hi there! Thanks for dropping by my site.

As you will have already gathered by this stage, my name is Richard. For reasons I am still in the process of recalling, I ventured in to my current incarnation on 3 February 1970 at 06:15 GMT in West London.

I grew up in the glamourous setting of Hounslow, and became fluent in Punjabi by the age of 2. I attended the Heathland School in body and mind, and by the age of 11 had determined my future career as an astronaut. I promptly retired from the scouts and signed up as an air cadet. A space cadet corps may have suited me better, but in any case I developed myopia and was crap at physics, so I had to select a more realistic career path.

I next decided to become a rock star. The fact that I was completely in lack of musical talent and didn't play an instrument, were no bar to my enthusiasm. Punk had already happened, and the girls liked me. Such over-optimism and determination to pay no heed to reality have been a constant source of amusement ever since.

Around the same time, I was making a name for myself as an actor, winning the Lower School Drama Award. I was very involved with the drama department, both on and back stage, for the rest of my days at school, and became fascinated with the theatrical use of light, sound and action to transform perceptions.

Not much else to mention of school really. It wasn't my bag at all, and I was the official rebel. I still smile when I recall one of my rebellious acts of breaking a curfew, bunking off and going to a student demonstration. Upon my capture, my tutor just grinned and told me that I'd end up being a teacher one day.

During my last year of school I was working weekends at a recording studio, and becoming more and more keen to work in the music industry. When I left school at the first available possibility, the studio offered me a job making the tea etc., which is THE way you get in to the music industry. My parents were outraged and ordered me to get a proper job. I got one in the Civil Service, which I managed to endure for 2 months. Since 1987 I have neither had a 'proper job' or followed the advice of my parents!

I can skip out my career history for the next decade or so, as I didn't have one as such, since my focus was elsewhere. In 1991, having returned to London after a year of living in Stafford, I hooked up with some musicians, and became lead vocalist for the now-legendary 'The Settlement'. I went on to front for the Maidenesque heavy metal masters of West London, Avalon, which had a promising future until my friend and bass player Russ was sacked, for cutting his hair short. I had a casual agreement with a manager/agent at the time who, given the popularity of 'Boy Bands' around that period, asked if I could dance. That was the end of my musical career!

Much of the remainder of my 20's was spent focussing on a life-long interest in more esoteric matters. I became a yogi of sorts, but not in an ascetic sense by any stretch of the imagination. Meanwhile, I was pondering what possibilities there were for being able to eat and have a roof over my head while simultaneously pursuing a spiritual path, so signed up at Brunel University for a joint modular degree in Religion and Business. "I wanna be a Profit!"

Having taken too seriously a homework assignment to research the Hindu concept of Moksha, I was quickly whisked away to the West, and finally to the South West of England.

I found my home in the beautiful town of Marazion, Cornwall, in the summer of 1998, and fell in love with the place. The downside was that the area had little in the way of employment, and I was generally skint. I'd been making my initial attempts at web design around that time, and one day offered a local publican a site for his business in return for some beer credits. The town had a few pubs, who were equally happy to oblige, so I ended up running a few websites in this small town.

Word spread, as in 1999 there was a Solar Eclipse, and Marazion was getting a lot of attention as the best place to view it from. The Internet was in its early days and few locals knew much about it. Hoteliers and owners of holiday accommodation knew, though, that they needed a website to maximize on the vast hoardes of Eclipse viewers heading towards town. Individual pages for a range of businesses in town were put together in to Marazion Online, which I continue to maintain.

In the same year, while visiting Luxor, Egypt, I officially launched my web design business - adopting the name Crowned Child, which is a title of the Egyptian deity Horus. I returned to Cornwall and promptly joined Penzance Chamber of Commerce to network with business people in the neighbouring larger town, and to gain some larger clients such as Wharfside Shopping Centre.

As I was a keen writer, I was soon offered the job of press officer, and launched a monthly double-spread feature in the regional press covering local business issues on behalf of the Chamber. That position, along with my interest in the potential of the Internet, prompted me to return to University, and in 2000 I began studying journalism at the University of Plymouth. The course was the first in the UK to focus on online journalism.

Upon completing the course, I headed down to Spain in the summer of 2003, and found myself in the small, white hilltop town of Medina Sidonia. The web design business was run entirely online and via email, so it soon occurred to me that I could develop this from anywhere in the world. The cost of living in Spain being lower than the UK, with an income made in Sterling from UK clients, were suitable motivation to emigrate permanently.

Just over a year later, I found myself in Seville. Having been self-employed, working alone from home in front of a PC, my feet were getting itchy. I wanted a new string to my bow that would facilitate ongoing travel, utilize my background in journalism, and allow me to work with real, live human beings. Teaching English to speakers of other languages was the answer. I signed up for an intensive Trinity Cert. TESOL course in Seville, and got to work teaching in corporate offices right after completion. But by the end of 2005 Spain had had enough of me, and I was ready for the next chapter of my adventure.

In 2006 I relocated to Shanghai, China, which is where my online diary begins. I have worked in various countries since then and have developed a rewarding career in the TEFL industry.