About Me—Hey, it is my page, after all!

If you're somebody who knows me you can check out the stuff to the left, and a few of the links I add from time to time.
If you're somebody who thinks you might know me, but aren't sure if I'm the right Peter Bradford, the following paragraphs will give you all the clues you need, together with an update on what I've been doing for the past several years.
If you neither know me nor think I'm that long-lost somebody you're looking for, just feel free to surf, learn a thing or two, send me a message and move on.

I am seventy-one and have been very happily married to Pat, the woman of my dreams, for twenty-six years. (I've just realised that at 71 I've now lived in 9 different decades—from the 30s to the 10s!)

We have five children between us; Chris, Justin(Jay), Kathi, Brett and Mark. Kathi and Chris live in the UK; Kathi in the Oxford area with her wonderful husband, Jon; and Chris lives in Southampton, not far from the New Forest, with his delightful girlfriend, Kirsten.
Jay, Brett and Mark all live in the USA; Jay, near us in Maryland; Brett with his wife, Lori, his son Jack and his daughter, Olivia, in Northern Virginia; and Mark with his wife, Annie, and their two sons, Dylan and Daniel, in Brooklyn, New York.
Jay and Mark each have daughters that live elsewhere; Haley, who lives with her mom, Amy, in Park Ridge, Illinois, and Kayleigh, who lives in Lisbon, Maryland.
The only other members of my close family, my sister, Pauline, and my brother-in-law, John, live near Salisbury, in England.

Pat was born in Texas and, like every Texan I've ever met, she's "Damn proud of it!" She's with the world-famous Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland. The Johns Hopkins Hospital has recently been named #1 Hospital in the USA for the 18th consecutive year by US News & World Report.

I was born in the UK, part English part Welsh—the Welsh part is my heart. I was educated at Days Lane Primary School, Dartford Grammar School, The University of Nottingham and later at the University of London, where I received a Masters Degree in Solid State Physics. I moved to the United States nearly thirty years ago. We live in Ellicott City, Maryland.

I am a triple cancer survivor, having had a tumour on my right kidney removed almost 30 years ago, prostate cancer about ten years ago, and a brush with skin cancer more recently. Thank you everybody for all your prayers. And thank you God and St. Jude for hearing them.
It's strange; I'm not a Catholic, nor even a regular churchgoer, come to that, but I have come to believe in the powers of St. Jude. If you click on the link below, it will take you to the St. Jude Shrine, which is right here in Maryland.

St. Jude Shrine

I'm a Mensan, and my interests range from Jazz to Motor Sport, from Cricket to Crossword Puzzles (cryptic only), and from Rugby to Crib—Cribbage here in the States. Don't know what that is? Check it out. By the way, there's a link at the bottom of this page to the Welsh Rugby Union web page.

Check out the book I have written, called BritSpeak. This attempts to explain to Americans some of the words and terms we Britons use.

Among my 'heroes' are Norman Anderson, Phil Bennett, Joshua Chamberlain, Graham Hill, Lt Col 'H' Jones (I had the privilege to work with 'H' at Warminster when he was a Major), Gary Sobers—the first cricketer to hit six sixes in an over. For you Americans that would be like hitting six home-runs off six consecutive pitches! Harry Beck, 'Professor' Stanley Unwin, Arthur C Clarke, Tenzing Norgay, and Sacha Baron Cohen. If you haven't heard of some or any of these, check them out, too.

Oh yes, and I enjoy a good pint of ale like you get at the Silver Plough in Pitton, Wiltshire. Pitton lies about 5–6 miles east of Salisbury and about 15 miles south-east of Stonehenge which is at the junction of the A344 and the A303.

Things I Like I love to vacation with friends or family in coastal Maine or in a cabin in the mountains—but only if I get to take some creature comforts like my Jazz CDs with me. I get back to the UK as often as I can, especially North Wales. Check out Snowdonia if you don't know it already. Favourite Movies: Saving Private Ryan (Yes - it should have won!); Monty Python and the Holy Grail; Lady and the Tramp; Local Hero; Fandango. Favourite Authors: Dylan Thomas; Bill Bryson; Arthur C Clarke; P D James; Douglas Adams; Stephen Ambrose*; Ken Follett; Isaac Asimov; Edward Rutherfurd and Leslie Thomas. *Click here to sign a petition to award the Congressional Medal of Honor to "Band of Brothers" hero, Major Dick Winters. Favourite Time of Year: Fall—by a long chalk! Favourite place to "Hang Out": My family room, or any "Pub" that serves a decent, fresh cask-conditioned brew in a 20oz glass at around 40-50 degrees! My Favourite Music: I like "everything" from Mozart to Male Voice Choirs—Welsh, of course, like the ones you can hear at this website. Try "Myfanwy" (muh-van'-oo-ee). Ah, those top-tenors! But although my heart lies in Wales, my soul lies in Jazz. My true favourites are The Modern Jazz Quartet (MJQ); Dave Brubeck; Gerry Mulligan; Coleman Hawkins and Ben Webster. Being a drummer myself, I have many favourites on the skins, but best of all is Joe Morello. Things I Don't Like Officious Twits. Tomato juice. Any member of a group who across the board dislikes all members of another. Bagels. The modern trait of labelling or categorizing everybody: I feel people shouldn't be judged on whether they are male/female, black/white, young/old, Jew/Christian/Moslem etc. They are all just people. Most I like, some I don't, but it's the person I dislike, not the group.
Here are links to my favourite websites. Click on the titles to visit any of them.
My Favourite Site to Send e-Cards from Truly, a Cut Above the Rest Help Feed the Hungry PLEASE visit the Hungersite, below. Just click on it, it'll cost you nothing, and could save the life of a starving child Shop and Help a Good Cause at the Same Time Many of the internet's most popular merchants—places you would patronize anyway—will donate a portion of your purchase payment to the International Myeloma Foundation*, but only if you enter their sites using the link below. *The International Myeloma Foundation (IMF) is a non-profit organization dedicated to improving the quality of life for multiple myeloma patients while working towards prevention and a cure. The staff and doctors associated with the IMF are super, dedicated people. And the fellow patients and caregivers that Pat and I have met through our association with the organization are wonderful, too. CricInfo My only way to keep up with cricket scores. The game might as well not exist here in Maryland. I even get to listen real-time to ball-by-ball commentaries on-line through this site. The Electronic Telegraph Once again, my only way of keeping up with what's going on "back home". Plus I get to do the Telegraph Crossword every day! Cribbage I don't have any crib-playing friends or immediately available family members, so playing on-line is my only way of getting a game. Snowdonia This is where my heart lies. Wales at her most rugged and awesomely beautiful. I've hiked around the Snowdon Horseshoe a few times, often with pretty cruel weather. Shop For The IMF As I mentioned above, if you do any on-line purchasing consider removing the individual bookmarks you've set for those merchants and bookmark this URL instead. Up to ten percent of every purchase you make will go to the IMF, but ONLY if you use this link to the merchants. The merchants include Amazon, Buy.com, Delta Airlines, Hotels.com, Drugstore.com, Macy*s, 1-800 Flowers, Lands End, Orbitz, Travelocity and Walmart. Where's George? Do you ever wonder where that paper money in your pocket has been, or where it will go next? This is the place to find out!

Click on the postbox to send me "Royal" e-mail.

Cymru Am Byth!

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