Alan Morris aka Gooner aka Sharky.
Thank you for taking the time to take a look at my website, I hope the information here will help you get around the site & understand me a little better.
Aside from the main menu, this website has many links to different pages in it. It also has links to external websites that have information that may be of interest to you. To help you know what sort of links you see, I have put icons at the start of the links, these notify you what sort of link, the link is for. The icons used on the main menu are just for decoration, the icons in other links used, are shown below.
Links to a page on this website.
Links to an external website. These will open in a new window.
Links to a Wikipedia page. These will open in a new window.
Links to a Facebook page. These will open in a new window.
At the top of each page you will also see a "You are here" line, showing you exactly what section of the website you are in.
Now you know a little more about how you can use my website, here is a little information about me, before you delve into all the different sections.
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.
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.
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, mean 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 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 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.
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, Travelex as a Travel Money Advisor, & various pubs working behind the bar & have given voluntary computer lessons in the local library.
It's 2022 & I am now into my 7th year living in Los Alcázares, Murcia, Spain. We have all been living with COVID now for around 2 years & because of this my travel bug has become very much curtailed.
Los Alcázares, however, has been a great place to be under the restrictions of COVID. I live right next to the beach, the sun shines most of the time & the people here, in the large majority, are very friendly & always willing to help if I need any help doing anything.
I hope to this year get back to doing more of my hobbies, do more travelling, take more photos, including, photographing Los Alcázares where I live.
