Andy

I grew up in the East End of London, lived in Wales for a couple of years, then moved to Ipswich.

People say that I'm a little bit crazy.. well maybe a lot crazy, and I'm gonna prove them right, by driving to Mongolia

Joined the T.A in 1994  and done ten years service.  When I joined the T.A it was infantry and after a couple of years we were re-rolled as RLC, where I gained all sorts of driving qualifications and experience.  Incidentally, when I joined, Richie was the Corporal in the training wing!

My T.A experience culminated in compulsory call up to the Gulf in 2003, where all my training and experience was needed,- driving across open desert, driving long hours, lack of sleep, driving in total darkness (no lights whatsoever).  Myself, Richie and James are all ex or still serving, so all have a vast amount of experience between us.

I was watching ITV2 one boring evening in on my own and on TV was a program with Jack Osborne in, I watched his adrenaline junky series, and this looked interesting... It was Jack Osborne does the Mongol Rally.  As I watched it I thought "that looks cool", so I picked up my laptop and searched for further info, and it lead me to the people that Jack was doing the rally with.  After further looking it was decided to go with the rally organised by Charity Rallies www.charityrallies.org due to it being the only 100% charitable rally,- The Mongolian Rally.

the next step was convincing people to take 5 weeks out of their lives to drive a third of the way around the world, for charity.... I approached Richie, and without hesitation he said yes, and the same can be said about James.

And so here we are, busily trying to organise things and trying to raise help and support through donations and sponsorship.  Every Wednesday night we get together in our local pub, The Raven, and get a little bit further along with the planning while having a meal, a drink and a laugh.

My birthday came along and I had a surprise party organised for it, and whilst I was drinking and singing karaoke, I tried convincing other people to join us on our little trip...  My brother said yes in theory but work just laughed at him when he asked for 5 weeks off, another guy Mark, pretty much had the same trouble, and then Richy,... As you can probably guess he said yes, and will have the time off no matter what- it took him all of 10 seconds to agree!!!! Sucker!!!!!!

Some pics of me, (well you might be interested!)

Click the pictures to enlarge

Well, I've finally done it, I've been on about getting a tattoo for years, and so for my birthday Richie bought me one, and yesterday (24th Jan 08) I went in and got my first tattoo.  Cheers Richie!!!!!!

Things I like....

                                                                     Fast Cars- Bugatti Veyron

        Mustangs                                                                                                                         Shipwrecks                                                             Scuba Diving

        Sleeping                                        Barbeques                                         Fine Food                                 Beer                                                        Extreme Sports

Things I don't like...

  Cabbage-Yuk!!                   Smart Car - Why???!!          Alarm Clocks-They get me out of bed        Ballet- Zzzzzzz            Eastenders-Realistic???!!                Jellyfish-due to experience!!