So at the start of the nineties I am in university at Norwich still struggling my way through a degree in maths and back in Swansea my sister Cath is persevering with senior school while Dad is getting himself involved in some voluntary work.

In 1991 I graduated from UEA. I got a 2.2 (commonly called a Desmond) in Mathematics with Statistics and Operational Research. I had wanted to go into the Actuarial field and had worked in Sun Life Insurance for the summer the year before. Pearl Assurance unfortunately shafted me on this front that firstly offered me a job with them then proclaimed that they couldn’t afford as many newbies as they thought and I was left jobless. What was most infuriating was that I had turned down other jobs in the meantime. Still I ended up coming back to Swansea and experiencing 6 months on the dole before getting a job with the Inland Revenue!!! Well it pays the bills so neh!

In 1993 I moved into my own house and regained my freedom. It was insufferable being at home and having a sister that was a teenager didn’t help matters much. It also allowed me to begin experiencing the more carnal pleasures again. I went at this hammer and tongs and seemed to me a bit of a slut again. I had really come to terms with being gay at University but I then shoved this all back in the closed when I came back to homophobic Swansea! Things didn’t go too well then though as I was developing late onset Adult acne! I was not a happy bunny. I spent the next 5 years getting rid of it and you will see great chunks of my life with acne on www.ribtickle.net.

As the nineties gathered pace things weren’t too bad until August 1996 when my Mum had a nervous breakdown. My sister had left school and was working for a solicitors doing general clerical work and we had a few scares with Dad’s health but it wasn’t until Mum’s breakdown that things went a bit awry! To be honest Mum has never been full of the joys of spring but this event led her into deep depression with attempts on her life and spells in psychiatric hospital throughout the latter stages of the 90’s. But I guess we learnt to live with it.

In 1998 two major events happened – 1. Cath got married 2. I came out to the world as gay. The first event sadly lasted little longer that 4 months and I am not going to pass judgement on the guy but I am still unsure of his sexuality and I don’t think that helped! The second event you can read about in my coming out diary. But needless to say it was a great relief to me. I had also discovered this wonderful Internet thing and began to make some pleasant friendships through chat rooms, in particular IRC. I only got into it through a guy I had a thing with for a while that all turned sour and now won't even speak to me, but I guess I owe him a drink for getting me into IRC. I had also killed off the acne in 1998 and was ready to hit the world again.

In 1999 I started taking in lost souls! Wayne moved in. He left home under not the pleasantest of circumstances but he was stuck and I had a spare room. I also had a strange online fling with a guy for about 5 months. We never met up but it was decidedly an odd scenario. Nothing came of it but in the November of 1999 the most wonderful thing happened – I met up with Steve. It’s hard to put into words what happened. I thought he was gorgeous and wonderful and sexy and I could go on but I didn’t think I had a hope in hells chance of anything coming back from him. Little did I know that it would and I fell totally in love with the guy and we have now been living together, here in Swansea for several years.