About Mike Porter

	Its me, mykp.

"Hello there!" Mike Porter here!

So, who am I? What do I do? Why do I do it? and why is this page here?

My name is Mike Porter and I was born on the 30th October 1970 in the town of Smallbridge, Lancs, which is located between Rochdale and Littleborough in Lancashire (I know its now Greater Manchester, but I know what it says on my Birth Certificate).

For most of the year’s of my life I lived and worked around the Rochdale area, mainly in Heywood, Lancs but I have also lived in Barrowford near Burnley before settling in my present home of Macclesfield in Cheshire, in 1999, with my wife, Junko.

Me and Junko

For the past three years I have worked for myself doing computer and web related stuff. Everybody thinks its easy being your own boss, it aint and if you arent working you arent earning... However Im still here :)

What do I do in my spare time apart from look after this website?

We where trying to move house but the people who where supposed to be buying our house, pulled out at the last moment! *Bleep* *Bleeping* *Bleepers* So where staying put for the moment, Im not going through that stress nightmare again for a while.

Other things I like to do are playing the keyboard, or practicing playing my Guitar and am just passing the extremely crap to very crap phase. Although my keyboard playing is getting better with time and practice.

I am also learning to speak Japanese, German and Spanish. The Japanese is so that I can speak to my in-laws for more than 2 seconds or without the help of my wife. The German is for Business and the Spanish is for business and holidays in Spain, I decided it was time to learn Spanish after seeing an English Couple trying to ask directions in Barcelona. Never have I been so ashamed to be British! When will we British learn that raising your voice doesnt make foreigners understand English if they dont speak it?

Me and Junko after a large meal and sake!

Recently I have got a new found passion for cycling again. Since 1998 I’ve not really cycled on a regular basis, basically as I have either been too busy or too lazy, more the later I think. In the last few months I’ve dusted off my bike and stripped it down, cleaned it up and started using it again. Both me and wifey have been out and about cycling the canals in and around the North West. We´ve been upto Manchester on the Macclesfield and Ashton Canals and down as far as Stoke on Trent on the Trent and Mersey Canal. I still prefer to ride on the canal paths as its not really safe to ride on the roads any more, especially not in Macclesfield!!!! (If you drive through Macclesfield you’d instantly understand) We recently cycled the Great Flat Lode Trail and The Coast to Coast Trails in Cornwall. Both great rides as the weather was superb the whole 10 days we where their. Our best investment recently was a Mercedes Benz bike rack for the A-Class. Fits perfectly on the back door and holds 2 bikes.

In addition to all the above I am a massive photography fan and where-ever I go at least one of my cameras goes with me. Some of my pictures are here on this site, so you can have a look and tell me how good or bad I am! :) Not that I care! :P

My favourite music is a pretty pathetic mix of New Order, Happy Hardcore, The President’s of the USA and Depeche Mode, but generally there is very little I won’t listen to at least once. I have also discovered recently that I am a ELO and YES fan! Now there’s a surprise.

Anyway, thanks for reading this, but that’s enough of me waffling on about myself for one page, there’s plenty more stuff on all the other pages in this site, so don’t be shy and go read some of it.

Cheers Mike.

Links
Look here for Lancashire borders from The friends of Real Lancashire