A history of Neil in 100 objects - Object 10 - Ship of Fools Mug

'Ok, if it's going to be like that then we will take this conversation to Hell!'

That is how many an argument started, and would rumble on for days and weeks, tensions rising, other people sticking their oars in, unlikely allegiances being formed, friendships being broken.

Such is the life on an internet discussion board, peoples views get polarised, respect for one another goes out the window, people say things that they would never say to work colleagues or family.

July 2000, I had been on the internet for about 6 months and had just discovered that there were interesting people out there who liked talking about interesting stuff. I joined a newsgroup (an early discussion forum) that led me to a web based discussion forum for Evangelical Christians, and that in turn led me to www.ship-of-fools.com, a satirical website with an attached discussion boards.

The boards were laid out so that creativity could be kept in one place (Heaven), personal stuff in one place (All Saints) and debates in another (Purgatory) and heated discussion in another (Hell). Many forums claim to have invented this format of organising a forum, but I genuinely think that Ship Of Fools was the first to do it properly.

I quickly came to love logging on to this site, people were smart. funny, varied and friendly. I was particularly interested to find that there were many people who termed themselves Christian, but held wildly different views than my own. This was my first proper encounter with Liberal Christianity.

The ideas that other shipmates (as people who used the sites forum became know as) would challenge what I thought, and made me think constantly about the beliefs that I held. The end result of where my beliefs are today perhaps says all you need to know about the result of my faith being challenged (and of course it was more than this one site who got me here, but it was a very important factor).

But more than the intellectual discussion it was the community aspect that grabbed me most. We took the online into the real world, we met up at pubs locally, or in London or Bristol or Cardiff or Swansea, we went on several weekends away in beautiful Northern towns, and at the Greenbelt festival.

Some people on that site became my best friends, and many remain so. There were certainly some strange people I met, but the good ones more than made up for that, and in fact made 'Shipmeets' more entertaining, and provide a good source of humour and stories...

I became involved in the running of the forums for a good few years, mostly hosting the discussions devoted to fun and creativity called Heaven (hence the mug, which was sent to me when I gave up formally being involved in the site).

Earlier this year the world sadly lost the lady who brought more to the site than any other, Erin, who was a huge personality on the site, and ran it wonderfully and (mostly) fairly from the very start. She sent me a Christmas card every year, and we spoke on the phone a few times. Amazing how someone you have never met can have a big impact on you.

The site is still there running strongly, have a look at Ship of Fools, and although I only pop back there from time to time I think it is still one of the best run forums on the internet, and recognise it has had a big impact on my adult life (and I have only touched on its influence on this blog!)

Now go to Hell.

A history of Neil in 100 objects - Object 9 - DAB Radio

If you cut me in half I would bleed to death within seconds. But If I were a stick of rock and you cut me in half you may find the word 'Radio" running through it, although it may be a case of pareidolia (Google it!).

My parents, stuck for a birthday gift for me in the late 80's, bought me a small Sony FM/AM radio.

It was about the size of a small paperback book and took two AA batteries. I immediately started to explore everything it could do. I mostly enjoyed the local radio stations Devonair, and BBC Radio Devon, but also liked radio 1 (then on AM), occasional police and aircraft broadcasts, the early Radio 5, but mostly Radio Luxembourg.

Once darkness fell Radio Luxembourg would be audible on 1440khz AM, to be honest it was a station whose future was pretty much non existent by the early 90's, but the sounds of Emperor Rosko, Mike Hollis and Mark Page kept me awake through the night. The station seemed exotic, and very few people I knew listened to it, so it was unique!

My listening changed, stations came and went, for many years I loved Atlantic 252 (the college common room station of choice), I adored Mark and Lard on Radio 1, a BBC Radio Devon show called 'We Will Rock You' with Nicky Schiller, and many other stations and shows.

I dreamt one day of working in Radio, it seemed such fun and a great way of earning a living.

When I moved out of home I didn't bother buying a TV, and lived without one for 7 years. Who needs TV when you have radio and books?

I got involved in radio myself, helping with Exeter Hospital Radio, also working at weekends for the now defunct Apple FM (£10 a weekend), and also the Exmouth station Bay FM. Much as I am fascinated by the internal working of the radio world I actually found it full of annoying people with big egos (with a few notable exceptions) and decided not to do radio as a hobby, or pursue it as a career anymore!

My first digital radio was the best thing I had ever owned up to that point, I loved the clarity of sound, and the huge variety of stations. BBC6Music gripped me instantly, and I loved listening to Andrew Collins and Tom Robinson playing an amazing eclectic mix of music. 5live sports extra gave me a whole load of new Formula One coverage, and Virgin Radio (now Absolute) provided good quality commercial radio with good mainstream rock and indie music.

Everything has changed now of course, I mostly listen to podcasts, I listen to radio through the TV (due to the bad DAB signal in Aylesbury) and I certainly don't want to work in radio these days.

But I would still choose radio over TV, given the choice. The smart, witty and intelligent content of Radio 4 is far better than anything on the TV, people such as Danny Baker, Mark Radcliffe and Geoff Lloyd will always be more talented than a hundred TV chat show hosts put together.

The Buggles were SO wrong.

A history of Neil in 100 objects - Object 8 - Fiat Panda

This was my first car. Well not this one in the picture, this is clearly a model of a car, but my first car was just like this, same colour, but withoit the rallying stickers.

I bought this car off a girl I used to host a radio show with, it was £300 and had 9 months MOT.

What I loved about this car is that it was so basic, no radio, no power steering, no electric windows. It was simply a box with an engine and wheels.

But what a great car, it handled so well, used so little fuel and was so simple to clean and maintain. I didn't do huge miles in this car but it got me to South Wales on 3 occasions, London twice, Bristol countless times and Birmingham once. It also went to Dawlish and Teignmouth more times that I can count.

I loved the Panda so much, I would toot and wave to other Panda drivers, I named it (Pandora, as it was like a box), and, like my DMs I felt it was cool.

Sadly on New Years day, 2 and a half years after getting it something went horribly wrong. I still don't know if clouting the curb caused the engine to explode, or if the engine exploding caused me to run into the curb and off the road. Either way the Panda was only good for scrap, and was sadly crushed into a smaller box shaped version of itself (I assume).

I went on to buy a Matiz, and grew to love it almost as much. I think I just have a penchant for small, rubbish, flimsy cars.

I have never bought a small model version of the Matiz.

A history of Neil in 100 objects - Object 7 - Doc Martens Boots

More than any other footwear (other than socks) Doc Martens have shod (I love that word) my feet for the majority of the last 16 years.

I bought my first pair in the year I left high school. I will not lie, my then girlfriend lived in DMs, and there was a certain amount of 'trying to impress' in the purchase of these boots.

In the mid 90's these boots were the ultimate in hippy trendy, available in many colours and even flower power designs, and I was totally unaware that this brand had once been associated with a rather murkier subculture. DMs were cool, and girls I liked liked DMs.

I went for the traditional black, mainly because they were £10 cheaper than the coloured versions. I decided I would wear them everywhere, and they seemed to fit every possible occasion.

When I got a job I bought a shoe version of the boots, but quickly realised that the boot version were just fine, as trousers hid the fact they were anything other than black shoes (people seem not to notice the yellow stitching)

I have worn them at festivals, with shorts, for job interviews, at weddings, for walking, and at work. In fact I still wear them to work now I am the only bank employee I have met who wears them (but there must be others out there!)

Earlier this year I bought my 7th pair (including the shoe version I bought once) in Oxford for £70. Even if they had always cost this much (which they didn't) then DMs have cost me £30 a year. Not bad considering they are what I wear 90% of the time.

I imagine I will be wearing them until my last days, whether girls like them or not.

A history of Neil in 100 objects - Object 6 - Bible

The Good book, God's Word, Holy Bible... the best selling book of all time. This book (or collection of books) has had more influence on western culture than all the other books in Waterstones put together.

I am estimating that I have owned about 15 copies of this book in my lifetime, I spent years in a shop selling it (who knows how many copies I helped sell, thousands maybe?), I have read it cover to cover twice, and read selected bits of it more than I have read anything else (And I include Roald Dahl in that).

This may well be the single most important book of my life, and yet it now resides gathering dust on the shelf, only being used for occasional reference purposes, much as I use the Official Scrabble Words book, or the Atlas.

As a child I had a simple Bible, a colourful rainbow on the cover made it look fun. I was taught the supposedly fun stories in Sunday school (although looking back some of them seem gruesome now), I moved on and in my teens found my own faith, joining an Evangelical Anglican church which stressed reading the Bible as the most important way to enhance your faith, I moved into charismatic circles where 'experience' of God was stressed, but still with the caveat that this experience had to be consistent with the Bible, otherwise it was probably fake, or maybe evil. I spent a year studying the Bible in a formal way with Moorlands Bible College while doing a year of youth work, and then, as I mentioned, I worked in a shop that sold a dizzying variety of Bibles.

It is hard to say when I first started to doubt the contents of the Bible, and I cannot do justice to the many factors that influenced me in a short blog post, but it was probably when I was reading the Bible the most, and trying to explain my beliefs and faith to other people that I started doubting it the most.

I remember saying to someone that I thought the letters of Paul in the New Testament were not as important than the Gospels, and that I did not like what he had to say, or his attitude, and this person got quite angry with me for saying this.

Bit by bit I started to either take a very liberal interpretation of bits of the Bible (helped along by the splendid community at the Ship of Fools website, but that is another post), or rejected them altogether.

At some point, and I don't know where this point came, I stopped believing. The Bible was confined to the shelf and my world view started to become shaped by other things - rational thought, common sense and critical thinking to name but three.

It is still there on the shelf, alongside my Guide to Urban Legends and the Oxford English Dictionary. Other than looking up a quote I can't imagine I will read much of it again, but it is there if I need it.

A history of Neil in 100 objects - Object 5 - MP3 player

I am on my third MP3 player, all from the Creative brand, all the same model, or a development on the same model.

Christmas 2005 I asked for an MP3 player for Christmas, I thought it would be nice to put a few albums on there, a bit of Kate Bush, Blur, Coldplay or Bach as I wandered around life. It turned out that I hardly ever used my player to listen to music at all.

I very quickly filled the space in my player with podcasts, Mark Kermode's Film podcast came first, then I found the Filmspotting podcast and downloaded all available episodes, then I just started finding podcast after podcast I loved listening to. Before long the player was totally full, and I had to delete all the music to make room for podcasts.

I would go for a walk just to listen to podcasts (it seems odd to sit on the sofa with headphones on), I would look forward to long journeys to give me hours of listening at a stretch, I would plug it into a small speaker to listen in the bath, sleepless nights were made easier by having a podcast to take my mind of whatever was keeping me awake.

And 2 players later nothing has changed, I recently took a new role within my job that requires nearly 2 hours total travelling time a day, and I love it, 2 extra hours to listen to podcasts! Despite this, the amount of brilliant podcasts out there means there is always more I want to listen to. Comedy, films, motor racing, science, Skepticism, philosophy, politics, and so much more to fill my mind with. There are simply not enough travelling hours in the day!

I like the fact my player is simple, and small, all it needs to do is play audio, and importantly starts up from the point in the audio where I switched it off (they don't all do this, which seems mad to me!). It is always in my pocket, it is my favourite gadget I have ever owned.

I will list the podcasts that I love one day on this blog, but in the meantime please don't suggest any more that I might like.

I just don't have the time.

A history of Neil in 100 objects - Object 4 - Stuffed Toy Woodstock

I used to love Peanuts cartoons, not as a child so much (although I did have a Snoopy lunchbox), I actually don't remember reading Peanuts cartoon strips as a child, and was more of a Garfield fan. But suddenly at about the age of 20 I suddenly "got" Peanuts cartoons, perhaps, because of the deep life themes Peanuts covers they can only be appreciated properly as an adult.

In 2000 Charles Schultz died, reinvigorating my interest in the cartoons, the early internet provided me with a seemingly endless source of cartoons, and I purchased a few books.

Fast forward a few more years and I was looking for Christmas presents for my nieces, Boots (the chemist, as I always feel the need to add) had small soft toy Peanuts characters on key rings, perfect, cute in themselves and what better than to encourage young minds to read quality cartoon strips that are rich in humour and the lessons of life. The 3 for 2 offer lead me to pick up a spare Woodstock for myself.

Woodstock has always been my favourite character in the comics, a mere sidekick for Snoopy (who himself is a sidekick for Brown), but I liked his erratic flying, odd punctuation based speech and his little family.

This key ring started to travel with me on holiday and when staying with friends, the key ring fell off but Woodstock continued to be packed in my bag whenever travelling, or sat on my pillow at home when not. He has become like Linus's security blanket in a way, although much more discreet. Occasionally he has traveled with Ivonne instead, and every so often he gets a spin in the washing machine.

I am not sure what the ownership of stuffed toys says about a person as an adult (but I bet you have at least one), but this little yellow bird is one of the first things to be packed into an overnight bag.

A history of Neil in 100 objects - Object 3 - Oxford English Dictionary

I am not quite sure when Dave and I decided that we might like to do a podcast, but I do remember when we spent an evening in November 2009 throwing ideas about. All sorts of formats for the podcast came up, from the Collings & Herring style 'turn the microphone on and see what happens', to something very structured with reoccurring features each episode.

I don't remember whose eyes were first drawn to the dictionary, but I do remember suggesting we could discuss the words on a random page, and then Dave suggested that we got a celebrity to choose that page. I thought it sounded a good idea but very unlikely, who would agree to open a page of a dictionary for 2 unknown people recording an unknown thing on the internet?

Well I was surprised, by Christmas Dave claimed to have one dictionary opener recorded and in the can, and 2 others lined up.

It turned out our first guest was Christoper Biggins, a great high profile guest, far more famous than I was expecting! Then Dave asked if I would like to meet the film critic Mark Kermode, and of course I did! I have been a big fan of his broadcasts since I first heard him back on the Mark Radcliffe show on Radio 1 many, many years ago.

Through this podcast I have also met comedians Jo Caulfield and Robin Ince, Speedway star Ivan Mauger and musician Rick Wakeman. This dictionary was centre stage in each of the meetings, and many of the people we meet are quite taken by handling a big dictionary, Rick Wakeman would hardly let go of it!

We (well Dave) entered the podcast for the Sony Radio Awards this year, and although we were not nominated we did get to go to the nomination ceremony and hang out with guys from the radio industry.

Since moving away from Exeter it has been more difficult to get together and record, but this has made us creative with recording locations and we have done podcasts from the British Library, the V&A, the steps of Westminster Abbey, as well as various pubs.

The podcast fills the gap in my life that used to be taken up with doing various bits of radio work (more about that another time) is now filled by podcasting, and it is much more rewarding. You have total editorial control and I really enjoy the editing process.

If you have not listened before then please do, I hope it makes you smile once or twice. You can find episodes on the Words Fail Me blog.

A history of Neil in 100 objects - Object 1 - Williams F1 Diecast Model

Motor racing is about the only sport I have really got into, I can watch a small amount of football, or tennis, or athletics, but I soon get bored. However I can watch practice sessions of F1, large chunks of 24 hour races, or half a day of touring cars without any trouble at all.

This model of a Williams F1 FW28 was given to me by my friend Nick, and is a lovely scale model, he was given it from his work at the time (one of the sponsors of the team) and gave it to me saying I was a bigger fan of F1 than he was. A lovely gift which I am sure I will always keep on display.

Williams must be one of my favourite teams in F1, and this was cemented when last year we visited the Williams F1 base in Grove for a great day watching the GP on the big screen, looking around the amazing museum and meeting some of the Williams staff. I wrote my experiences of the day on a blog post at Sidepodcast.

Perhaps one day I will get into another sport, but I can't imagine anything beating the excitement I feel just before those red lights go out on a Sunday afternoon, and this Sunday I will experience that at Silverstone for the first time in real life... excited? Just a bit!!!

A history of Neil in 100 objects.

I had an idea that I would blog about my 10 favourite possessions, but as Ivonne said when I told her my idea "I'm surprised you have any". This is very true, I am not one for material things, I don't hoard books (although I do have a huge amount) preferring to borrow and just pass them on, I prefer shopping for food, spending money in the pub, or spending money on an experience (comedy, a day out in London or motorsport).

So an idea hit me today, For Christmas I got a lovely book of the History of the World in 100 objects, based on the Radio 4 series from the British Museum, one of my favourite places in the world (the V&A still have the edge for me), and then remembered the Collins and Herring series on 6 Music, the History of Collins and Herring in 100 objects (cut off around object 50 and unlikely to return), and thought this is a much better idea for a blog series.

So over the next few days (or weeks if I am slack) I will list the first 10 objects that make the history of me, a vain, vain exercise in blogging, but one that will be cathartic and fun.