Welcome to Born 59

This is the second edition of my website that I began in 2014. The blog posts may be fewer, less autobiographical and probably with less angst (an age thing)!

I am hoping to create a vehicle to raise money for good causes and to campaign / raise awareness on issues close to my heart.

Unlock a Home

I work in a prison and I can tell you that the lack of accommodation precedes the lack of a job as the number one reason why some ex-prisoners fail on the outside. They don't have family support, don't want to live in a hostel, they don't want to have to rely on the contacts who were a bad influence in the first place to sofa surf and sometimes they want to move away from their old haunts altogether. They talk about wanting a home.

Do they receive help? If they are not high risk and priority for hostel accommodation, they don't automatically get help from resettlement in prison and they would be bottom of the list for council or housing association waiting lists. Many are too anxious and ashamed to pitch for themselves.

Opps Shop

I saw this idea in Australia and loved it. The idea was to raise awareness and money for our local village hall by giving local entrepreneurs and local people a place to promote and sell items, and to be part in situ and part on line. It was rejected because of its impact on local parking, but I decided to go ahead with the online part.

Latest posts

Sint Maarten or SXM, which it is confusingly referred to on maps etc, is an island a lot of celebrities…

When you cross over the border from Kyrgyzstan to Uzbekistan, the first thing you notice are cars and then the…

Think of towering snowy peaks like something out of a fairy tale, vistas that extend as far as the eye…