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Alan Morris, aka Gooner, aka Sharky.

Thank you for taking the time to take a look at my website, if you have any comments on any of the articles feel free to leave a comment.

My Nicknames.

Why am I called Gooner?

I am a big supporter of Arsenal Football Club, Arsenal's nickname is the Gunners & their supporters are called Gooners. Many years ago a friend I was talking with, called me Gooner & was overheard by other people who started to call me Gooner, this continued to the point where everyone called me Gooner & people who didn't know my name used this nickname. People in the UK generally use this nickname.

Why am I called Sharky?

In 2014 whilst having a break in Spain I was taken ill & because of my illness, I had a large part of my right leg removed. The resulting scar looks like I have been attacked by a large shark, a few friends in Spain told people that I had been attacked by a shark & once again the nickname has stuck. People in Spain generally use this nickname.

A little history about me.

In brief, I was born in Walthamstow in London & moved to Fareham in Hampshire at the age of four. I grew up in Fareham, went to school, had my first girlfriend, my first job, my first everything really, all happened in Fareham. I have also spent time living in both Orlando, Florida, USA & Los Alcázares, Murcia, Spain. I love getting out, meeting new people & trying new things.

In September 1990 I had a life-changing car accident which left me in intensive care for three months & visiting the hospital rehab unit for a year. I still have some problems related to the accident now, the loss of sight in one eye & a poor memory being a couple of them. Since then I have been trying to do some of the many things on my Bucket List. My big passion is travelling and now I have discovered escorted coach tours, I spend lots of my time planning new trips and how to spend my money when I do eventually manage to win the lottery.

After my mum became ill in 2007, I became her full-time carer. Whilst having a break from looking after my mum in 2014, I went to Spain for a week's holiday. Unfortunately, I became very ill, contracting Necrotizing Fasciitis & Sepsis. While I was in intensive care in Madrid, my mum passed away in the UK. I am still recovering from the effects of both illnesses & have now left England.

I am now living in Los Alcázares in Murcia, Spain. My Doctor agreed with me that it would be the best thing I could do for my health. The warmer weather makes it easier for my breathing & the fact that the boardwalk along the beachfront is very flat & has plenty of rest stops, means I can get some light exercise. Most days between the end of April & the start of November I go for a morning swim in the Mar Menor.

Unfortunately, in 2018 I spent 12 days in a hospital in Murcia being treated for Deep Vein Thrombosis which has meant I find it difficult to exercise again but I continue to swim when I can & I get about mainly on a disabled scooter.

In 2021, I went under the knife again having a hernia operation in the hospital. Unfortunately, after being released from the hospital too early, I had to go back to the hospital for a further 11 days to clear an infection up.

Work Experience.

I have had many jobs since I was a teenager. At the age of fourteen, I was doing a paper round, working part-time in the local paper shop cleaning the shop & stocking shelves, whilst also doing a football pools round. At fifteen I stopped working in the shop & doing the pools round & began working weekends in a local garden centre. At first, I worked in the yard as a yard boy, helping customers find what they wanted & carrying goods to people's cars for them. After being there for a while I began working inside on the tills as a cashier before leaving the week I left school. As soon as I left school I got a 3-year apprenticeship with British Gas. After completing my apprenticeship I became a Gas Service Engineer until I had a serious car accident in 1990. After this, I worked for British Gas & Transco in the offices as a clerk.

After taking redundancy from Transco, I lived in Orlando in Florida & worked cleaning swimming pools & as a taxi driver. On returning to the UK I worked as a website designer for some big companies including; The Dixon Group, Wandsworth Borough Council & several smaller clients. I worked for British Telecom trying to break their website & notifying their developers how I had done it. I also worked at Alton Sixth Form College as a Senior IT Technician. In between these bigger jobs I have worked in Asda as a customer assistant, at Travelex as a Travel Money Advisor, & at various pubs working behind the bar & have given voluntary computer lessons in the local library.

What am I doing now?

It's 2023 & I am now in my 8th year living in Los Alcázares, Murcia, Spain. After many COVID restrictions were slowly lifted last year I was able to start to scratch my travel bug itch again. This year I will be starting off as I mean to go on & have a cruise booked for February.

I have also booked to see a couple of concerts in the first half of the year. I will see Rod Stewart & the band Simply Red when they appear in concert at different times throughout the year. My sister has already booked to come out to Los Alcázares for a week, so I am looking forward to seeing her. My cousin Paul is finally marrying his long-suffering better half Sara & I am looking forward to their wedding, providing that all the strikes that are currently continuing in England let me travel to it.

I am also trying to think about what to do for Christmas & New Year in 2023. After many Christmas & New Years spent on my own I have decided to try & take a holiday over that period this year. I want to get away somewhere new, if you have any suggestions for me to get away to, please leave me a comment at the bottom of the page.

My Journal Entries

  • Week 21 of 2022 This week I managed to start swimming more often, now that the weather is warming up I can get in the sea for my morning dip. Monday ...
    492
  • Week 33 of 2022. This week was spent entirely in Los Alcázares, mainly working on my website but I did manage to read a lot, sing at karaoke, watch a ...
    511
  • Week 16 of 2021. The week starts off with a blue sky but rain is forecast later today for a couple of days. Hopefully, the rain will miss us. Friday ...
    1151

My Memories

  • SPICES Night Out. SPICES is a group of friends that once a month go out for a meal at an Indian or Chinese restaurant. Sampling food from m ...
    1400
  • Dad's ghostly message. My dad, Brian Llewelyn Morris, died in Queen Alexandra Hospital in Cosham, Hampshire, England in February 2005. He had been ad ...
    82
  • Mums Ghostly Appeal. In 2014 I had taken a two-city break in Spain, staying in Madrid for a few days before travelling to Barcelona for a couple of d ...
    56

My Bucket List

  • Cliff diving in Jamaica. I remember seeing Elvis diving off a cliff in one of his films & think ...
    1751
  • Visit the Eiffel Tower. My mum would have told you that I have already been up to the Eiffel Tower ...
    1748
  • Alan Morris - Bucket List. A bucket list is a wish list of things to do before you die or "kick the ...
    541

Celebrity Stories

  • Renate Blauel. In the mid-1980's I was staying in Los Angeles, California with my mum & dad, at the home of some friends in Anaheim. One day ...
    1638
  • Barbara Windsor. I must have been about 16 or 17 years old when I met Barbara Windsor very briefly outside a bank in Hilsea, Portsmouth, England. I w ...
    356
  • Tom Jones. I have met Tom Jones several times in America & the UK & have also seen him perform in Spain. Many years ago I was staying with f ...
    1873

My Recipes

  • Butternut Squash & Carrot Soup. Ingredients. 100 grams of butter. One large white onion. 1 large butternut squash. 1½ litres of vegetable s ...
    2080
  • Butter Chicken Curry. Ingredients. 2 tablespoons butter. 2 tablespoons vegetable oil or olive oil. 4 large, skinless chicken breasts cut into bi ...
    1524
  • Curried Cauliflower Soup. Ingredients. 1 onion chopped. ½ tbsp of curry powder. 1 lb of cauliflower, chopped up. 500 ml of milk. 500  ...
    1648

My Genealogy

  • Lillian Alice Catherine Jones. Lillian Alice Catherine Jones was my Grand Aunty on the maternal side of my family tree. Lillian was born on 28 Febru ...
    484
  • Gwenllian Jones. Gwenllian Jones was my Great Great Grandmother, she died thirteen years before I was born. Gwenllian Jones was born in 1856 in Aber ...
    1668
  • William Charles Jones. William Charles Jones was my Grand Uncle on the maternal side of my family tree. William was born on 28 December 1902 in Walt ...
    544

My Travel Stories

  • The Alamo. I thought the Alamo was a fantastic place & would have liked to have spent more time there. We met a guide who was telling us a story ...
    1514
  • Colca Canyon. Today I travelled from Arequipa through the Colca Canyon to Chivay. I passed through many small villages in the rugged volcanic la ...
    1587
  • Exploring Arequipa. This morning I have the usual breakfast buffet that I have gotten used to on this trip. Accompanied by one or two cups of Coca te ...
    1582