Life in the UK


Shaun Donovan (that’s me) was born on August 9th 1959. The youngest of three brothers, I grew up in Cardiff, South Wales, attending school and working in the city until August 1998, when I moved-out to Tenerife to start a new life. At the tender age of 5, my class teacher wrote only four words on my school report “Shaun is an individualist!” I excelled greatly in subjects that I enjoyed immensely, such as English and mathematics – but failed miserably in the ones that I found completely boring, like chemistry and biology! Ironically, I also had very little interest in both history and geography – two subjects I now revel in, the latter having become almost an obsession.


Being born with a severe turn in my left eye, I had two operations to correct this when I was only 2, but to this day that eye has been very weak and lazy, rolling its way into one corner whenever I focus on one spot for a long period of time! To add to my inaccuracies, I was vertically challenged, nearly always being the shortest pupil in the class, including the girls – and having been born in August, I was very often the youngest student as well! Add to this the embarrassment of being over-weight and probably the most talkative creature on the planet and you’ve got yourself one hell of a battle for survival in front of you, as children can be utterly horrible and bitterly cruel to those less fortunate than themselves!



However, I was never really bullied, just tormented by my peers, but at 14 that would all change as I stepped inside the dojo (gym) for my first lesson in Karate. Being my usual self, I put my whole being into this martial art and won my first award one year later, after fighting in the British Knock-down Championships at Crystal Palace in 1974. At 15 I left school (in July 1975) and at 16 I started work as an apprentice painter and decorator and also bought my first moped − an event which would dramatically change my life! On my 17th birthday I passed my motor-cycle test and immediately bought myself a 650 Yamaha and by the time I was 18, I was already recovering from a near-fatal accident, which left me with more scars than I care to tell!


During my 19th and 20th years on this planet, I rode my latest bike − a Kawasaki 650 around the U.K., to such wonderful places as Cornwall, Devon, Weston-S-Mare, Brean Sands, Tenby, London, the Isle of Wight and many more great locations, too numerous to mention. At 21 I enjoyed my first holiday abroad and at 22 I travelled around Europe on my new Honda 1000. By the time I was 24, I had covered most of Western Europe, after two more amazing journeys on my latest Kawasaki 1000 and by the time I was 25 I was married. At 26 my new wife and I were living in our first house and by the time I was 27 we had moved to a brand new home in the country. At 28 I changed jobs, working for G.U.S. Transport, White Arrow division, after being employed with British Gas for 11 years and at 29 I was the proud father of a bouncing baby boy − my wonderful son Liam. By the time I was 30, I had changed careers, now trying my hand at advertising, working as a manager for Car-Finder Magazine and at 31 I had my second handsome son, whom we called Carl, to add to my growing pride. Moving across to Sales I began selling cars for a Ford Dealership and at 32 my little girl, Hayley arrived on the scene, to round off my perfect family. At 33 I was on the dole, after being made redundant due to the recession and at 34 I was divorced.


By the time I reached 35 I was back in school, learning all about the growing world of computers at various colleges and universities around the South Wales area and at 36 I was now a ‘carpet salesman’, firstly working for Carpet Depot and then Carpet Right as I celebrated my 37th birthday. At 38 I faced my own personal ‘mid-life crisis’, as I felt that my life was going nowhere and by the time I was 39 my long-term relationship was taking its final bow, as my fiancée and I parted company for the third and final time – and that is when I decided to move out to Tenerife, to begin a new life – in the lucrative world of timeshare!