Who I am and where I came from

Hi, my name is Michael and my life started 35 years ago, when I was first born in England, where I was then placed in an adoption agency.

Three months after being born I was introduced to my new family who I have grown to love dearly and am very grateful for all they have provided me throughout the years and still to this day.

I have heard my parents tell a story over the years, about how I was wearing frilly blue knickers when I was first introduced to them. They won’t let that memory slide, taking any opportunity they can to tell the story to people, when I come up in topic.

Myself as a baby and a young boy:

I have one sister that is four years older than me who was naturally conceived by my parents. My sister has been an inspiration and played a big part of my younger years. Even today I still admire my sister and her accomplishments throughout her life.

It was the death of my parent’s second child (that would have been a boy) at birth, two years after my sister was born, that lead my parents to adoption. The baby boy at the time was named Peter. In an uncanny kind of way, if it wasn’t for the death of Peter, I would never have been a part of this family. How one small outcome can cause a drastic change in the path of one’s life.

My life would undoubtedly have turned out very differently if I had been raised by my birth mother. Once I reached the ripe old age of 18, I then had access to my adoption papers where I learnt about my birth parents. I discovered that my mother who had English heritage and my father at the time of conception were both at the young ages of 17 and 20 respectively. There were references made in my adoption papers about alcoholic use and parties, which led to my mother becoming pregnant.

It appears that they were both friends at the time and my mother had no interest in a committed relationship. I learnt that my father offered to raise me and to start a relationship, however she turned him down.

My family moved to Australia when I was at the age of 5, primarily to live amongst better weather conditions. There’s only so much, rain, cold and greyness in the sky that you can take before it becomes depressing. Australia is where I grew up and still live today.

Later on in life, after I made contact with my mother around the age of 21, I learnt that her decision for putting me up for adoption was based on providing a better life for me, to be raised in a more stable family. At the time of my birth, she had actually purchased prams and other baby items, however decided very quickly that I was to have a “better life than that of which a young single mother could provide me” (her words).

Our first contact begun via handwritten letters and eventuated to emails and phone conversations later on. I always had photos of my mother, however I was never given photos of my father or any means of contacting him. To this day I have never seen a photo of my father or have any idea of his whereabouts. All I knew about him was his age at the time, name, interests, skills and his Jamaican heritage.

Although I don’t communicate with my mother any longer and haven’t for the last 9 or so years, as an adult now, I understood the reason for her decision at the time and have no remorse towards her. She lives a simple life, alone in a government funded ground level apartment in London, never dated another man, kept herself busy with aged care work and surrounds herself with pet cats.

My birth mother and I were two completely different people, with different interests and nothing in common which is what formed the basis for not wanting to keep in contact any longer. Think of it like a bad date where the conversations were stale and you couldn’t wait for the night to end. We never met in person either, perhaps at some point in the future I will find the courage to meet her.

Today at the age of 35, I am recently married to my dear wife Athina, have no children yet (although we have plans to) and have two fur babies (dogs).

My wife and I getting married last year:

My Parents and I:

Our two fur babies, Mischa (King Charles Cavalier cross Poodle) and Cleo (Chihuahua) respectively:

My Career

I have been fascinated with technology ever since I was a young boy. My interest in technology eventually led me to the kind of work I do now. I work a 9 – 5 job for an Information Technology firm as a technical account manager.

A few of my interests and hobbies

Cryptocurrency
Since there are so many Cryptocurrencies around today, I typically only follow Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum and now Steem. I follow technical chart analysis and also developments in the Industry to get an idea of what the future holds for each of the blockchains & coins.

Ever since Bitcoin was first around back in 2009, I took an interest in it and setup my own mining farm. It was more of a hobby at the time, little did I know how important it would become in today’s day and age.

Below are a few pictures of the mining rigs I put together at the time:

Mining for Cryptocurrencies has become incredibly competitive over the last few years, which is what eventually caused me to stop. I now just follow the Cryptocurrency media and industry developments, which is what first led me here to SteemIT.
Photography
In my spare time, I really enjoy capturing images of things I see and do. There’s no better feeling than capturing a great photo, printing the image onto a canvas and displaying it on a wall at home. I taught myself about photography and how to use a digital SLR camera by reading books and watching tutorials from various websites on the Internet. To this day I keep learning new skills.

Gardening and the importance of eating organic food
It wasn’t until I turned to alternative media and news sites, that I learnt the truth about what causes cancer and how to avoid it. Once I understood that the food we bought from supermarkets and take away/dine out was laced with toxins and pesticides that contribute heavily to the development of cancer, I started turning to organic food.

After changing to organic fruit and vegetables, I and my wife both noticed a positive change in our general well being. For anyone who hasn’t tried detoxing or eating organic food, I would highly recommend it. The only downside to eating organically was that it was very expensive.

It wasn’t long until I decided to grow some of our own fruit and vegetables at home, something I really enjoy doing. I now have an indoor hydroponic setup for growing seeds.

When you grow your own food, you really appreciate how life starts and the delicacy of it. Seeing seeds sprout from the beginning is fascinating. You don’t get a true feeling for the intricacy and delicacy of plants until you grow them from seed through to full development.

Below are a few pictures I took of an Apple, Peach, Cucumber, Olive plant and Rhubarb that I am currently growing from seed:

A look at my indoor hydroponic setup:

Once the vegetables and fruit grow large enough indoors, I then plant them in our outdoor raised garden beds:
Gold and Silver
Another realisation I came to understand via alternative media and news was the truth about our money system and the teetering state of the world economy. It was Robert Kiyosaki who first introduced me to the concept of cash being trash and gold and silver being severely undervalued. Then it was Mike Maloney who taught me more about the history of money and state of the economy.

If you’ve had the liberty to hold pure gold or silver coins or bars before, you then understand how cheap and meaningless the fiat notes and coins we use on a daily basis really are. There’s something in our human roots that make us see value in gold and silver.

Below I hold a 100oz bar of pure silver. You’d be surprised how heavy it is.

I have a strong belief that both gold and silver will play an important part once again in our not too distant future.
Bushwalking
Being amongst nature is another one of life’s treasures. Both I and my wife, enjoy walking the trails of mountains, rainforests and ocean edges. Since I live in Australia where the weather is generally always warm and sunny, we have a never ending choice of places to explore.

One of the nicest walks we've been on is the Hells Gates circuit at Noosa Heads, Sunshine Coast:

I and my wife on the “Witches Falls” circuit track at Mt Tamborine, Gold Coast:
Water and Snow sports
Other passions of mine are wakeboarding and snowboarding. I don’t get to do either of these activities very often, but always look forward to when I next can.

Me snowboarding at Mt Hotham, Victoria:

Contributions to SteemIT

I plan to contribute to the Steem community by discussing and providing information on the following topics:

Cryptocurrency news and developments, including the creation of Steem apps where I can.
Gold, Silver and general economic and political news.
The truth about Cancer, HIV/AIDs, Vaccines, GMOs, Organic Food, fluoride, climate change and other important topics that I have learnt about.
Growing organic food from seed, what I found works and how to keep costs to a minimum.

Until then, happy Steeming.