I am passionate about my family and my town, these are where my roots are embedded. Being a geordie "Sanddancer" I instinctively know that this is the best place in the world to bring your children up. The geordie sense of community and tradition will keep them right for the rest of their lives.

I believe in promoting everything that is good about South Shields, it's history, it's natural beauty, and it's tourism opportunities. Because of our geographical position, it is not a town that can be passed through, it has to be visited, and can make an ideal base to explore the North-East.

I am also interested in digital photography (after all it enlivens this website), why don't you check out the photogallery pages?

As far as football goes, I'm a Sunderland fan, have been since my dad started taking me to Roker Park in 1963. South Shields is like one point of a triangle, with Newcastle and Sunderland being the other two, so when you were a lad you had to make a choice! Hence there is a good mix of Sunderland and Newcastle fans in this town, in fact a number of my friends support the "dark side". The rivalry between the two cities goes back to the English Civil War when Newcastle supported the Royalists, and Sunderland supported the Parliamentarians. 

We might also eat out of doors during the summer, taking picnics (or a barbecue) on our day trips away from home.

The children love going away camping, the fresh air and exercise are good for all of us, and we can go whenever we have a spare weekend between March and October. There are plenty of good quality camping sites within a 90 minute drive from here, if you are also interested why not try this link to a searchable database of campsites showing individual websites and prices?

Here is our recommendation from last year; Riverside Meadows, Ure Bank Top, Ripon, North Yorkshire. Set in open countryside, good quality on site club, two children's play areas of high quality, shop, gas, laundry and only twenty minutes walk from Ripon's market square! (One hour drive from South Shields.)

There are two places where I regularly post the comments, views, or opinions that I find important or pertinent today, they are

Curly's Daily Comment, my personal weblog which I try to update daily. Today's topic is about local issues.

Curly's Corner Shop Message Board, a community forum kindly provided by my friends at www.southshields-sanddancers.co.uk

I also post comments on my own and others photographs in the South Shields Online Photogallery (if you register for the Curly's Corner Shop Message Board you too will be able to display your digital photos here, very handy if you don't have a website of your own!)