A LIFE, A HISTORY

I would like to introduce myself; I must admit with some nervousness as I proceed with this new venture.

That said I should offer a short synopsis of my life, and how I arrived here.

My name is Tom McCaskie, seventy-three years old (September 28). I was born in a small town in the Scottish borders. In nineteen forty-nine at the age of six years, we moved to, and I spent the greater part of my childhood and adolescence in a small village, in the North of England.

After school and college, I started training as a nurse. This occupation was something that I wanted to do in life.

Now to move on after some years in hospital work, I became a hopeless drunk, more of this in a future post, alcohol, and alcoholism, the realism and the cure.

After this annoying problem with the alcohol, I came to my senses and now living back in the Scottish borders, found a job with the Local Council.

This occupation was my saviour, as it all but cured my alcohol problem.

As I said, I continued in this occupation until I finally retirement at the age of sixty-nine,

Bringing me, in conclusion, to where I am now.

After I finally retired, I took a big risk and moved to live in Portugal. Initially, my Portuguese partner Maria and I used to live in Lisbon, but now for the last year plus we live in the Algarve.

During this period, Lisbon and Algarve, I taught myself, without tuition to draw and paint. I have always wanted to this, but my life and work were not conducive to the patience and determination needed to succeed in my quest.

I have two sites (1) {http;//www.howitaughtmyself.net} This takes one through and describes everything it took to get to the standard I enjoy.
(2) {thomas-mccaskie.pixels.com} This is a site showing all the work I have produced, broken, if one wishes, into the respective galleries, graphite, pastel painting, watercolour painting and finally acrylic painting.

I hope this gives an insight into the kind of person I am, with all my weakness's and success's, much of which I will enlarge upon with posts in due course.