From the beginning...

Where do I begin?

Very good Steve. Ok so the beginning, I was in McDonalds getting a quarter pounder meal with cola when one of my friends, Steve, ran inside shouting "someone has crashed into your Saxo!!". Thinking that Steve was messing around, as he does, I went outside only to find that someone had reversed into the rear quarter panel of the car that I had spent 18 months and £6,000 on, (not including the £3,000 to buy the car). The Saxo VTR in deep blue was my, at the time, most valued possession.

After a month or two arguing with the insurance, I decided that I would never build a car like it again and decided to sell the 17" alloy wheels, the custom made straight through, dual exit exhausts, the PlayStation and custom made, one off fiberglassed 7" widescreen tft monitor in the dash, the CD changer and very expensive head unit and so on...

The problem I had then was that I needed a car, I had a limited amount of time before the insurance company wanted the 1.2 16v Clio Extreme (an overstatement to say the least) back. As I was driving to my fiancées house I noticed a Suzuki Vitara, Wide Boy (huge 255 x 55 x 16 tyres and body kit to match), convertible, and it was only £1,400!! I had to have it!!

Cash in hand I bought the car. Shortly there after I had my first day driving to work in the very slow, noisy and uncomfortable Vitara... I loved every second of it!! Once I had gotten to work and parked up, some of the lads from the factory (I worked in the office) approached me saying that they also had 4x4's, many of which were purpose built (lift kits, winches and so on). The lads asked me if I wanted to go 'cogging' with them; which I later found out meant off roading, I still to this day do not know why it means that.

After my first time off the tarmac and into the dirt, I was hooked!! So much so that I decided to have my first ever go at making a website showing the great times that me and my friends were having. Camera in hand I set about taking picture of the cars in very risky situations, I quickly got myself the tag of the photographer. The images were plentiful and the design of the site was well on its way, but what to call the club? Names such as "zuki-boys" and "fuddy-muckers" were on the tongues of some of the members. Then seemingly from no where my now fiancée, who is now in the final year of her teacher training degree as an 'Early Years Specialist', whom I am very proud of, came up with the name 'Sludgepuppies'. BRILLIANT !! All the members agreed instantly that this was the way to go. Later that night I went home and purchased from 123-reg.co.uk my very first hosting and a domain name 'www.sludgepuppies.co.uk'.

Pleased as the proverbial punch and with the enthusiasm of a child after eating a whole pack of blue smarties I was away. What started as a 'I think I'll give that a go' ended up in all the cars brandishing the sludgepuppies.co.uk website and external companies approaching me with special offers for the club and the promise of banner exchanges and advertising deals.

Once I realised that I can use the same hosting to erm well, host more than one site I then purchased www.shaunbellis.co.uk. Then I was away, following that came a very basic site for www.adcustoms.co.uk which was a none paid site for a friend who did mobile mechanicing / car modification. The site never really amounted to much as we were too busy in the pub to worry about anything like that.

Things then got a little bit more serious when I was approached to do www.homefarmcrafts.com (currently located at www.sludgepuppies.co.uk/hfc). This was my first serious 'outside' work. After starting this site, I decided that this was something that I really wanted to do for a living and the only way I was going to be taken seriously was to get some serious qualifications and guidance.

After some time going over what each course had to offer me, taking into consideration things such as pass rates and location, I decided upon Wakefield college under the tuition of Steve Smith. Very early on after making contact with Steve I had a new found respect for him not only as a tutor but as someone to look to for advice and guidance.

After some deliberation with my current employer and direct manager (whom I consider a close personal friend) and my fiancée and family, it was decided that my best course of action would be to pursue my career as a web designer / developer by means of the HND in Interactive Media with the option of furthering that to a degree.

Before I knew it, it was my first day as a student again after 5 year (since I completed my 'A' Levels). It felt like it was my first day in 'big school'. The nerves were intense and I was shaking like a Christmas tree coming up to December. To make matters worse, when I entered the classroom of what I can only describe as being full of people of the same age my younger brother, I felt like I was the tutor been quick obviously the eldest member of the class. The chairs were arranged in a circle, never really a good thing for a first day as for anyone who has been in that position before, you just know its going to be some kind of awkward ice breaker in which you attempt to learn other peoples names and for them to learn yours. However, it really wasn’t that bad. My new classmates proved to be very friendly and supportive, I no longer felt like the guy dressed in blue in the middle of a Barnsley home match crowd.

Within no time at all Steve had us in seemingly (to the untrained eye) random groups enabling us to work with every member of the class, very subtly breaking the ice will all members of the group.


Seamlessly I am no longer the odd one out and am now one of the group, having dinner with the lads and so on.

More to come... watch this space !!