The Spain forum as it is today has taken over two years to grow and develop from my early dabbling with web site design.

Originally I had no intention or idea about developing an internet forum. Things have just progressed from a simple idea and grown with time.

In January 2003 I was involved in a car accident. Which left me with a damaged back and a career as a refrigeration and air con engineer in tatters.

After all no one wants to employ a guy in a trade that involves a lot of heavy lifting, if they are made of glass. At the height of my career I had been the static engineer for a well known hotel in London.

It not only killed off my job prospects but also my two main hobbies. One being shooting in national competitions and the other learning to fly radio control models.

In early 2006 I rang in sick one day that ended up being six months off work.

This was also the same period I was trying to sell my house for my own move over to Spain.

To keep my mind active and challenged, I looked to the internet for something to do.

My own interest in computers started 27 years ago. At the age of 13 I got a paper round and a milk round to purchase a Sinclare zx81 which was followed by a Dragon 32. The Dragon 32 still lives in a cupboard here.

A YTS course that got me a City And Guilds in computer programing. Which with most courses at the time lead to nothing much more than a piece of paper and no further career prospects. So I went into other trades and just dabbled with computers as a hobby.

I had a weather station that was capable of broadcasting to a web site. So from there it started.

My first web site and the beginning of my hobby of web site designing was coming.

I purchased some web space off a guy on ebay which came with a web site address of my own choice.

Catral Spain dot com was borne