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14 FOUR SEASONS BREEZE | FEBRUARY 2025 By Colin Taylor I was born near Dover, England, just across the English Channel from Calais, France. Dad was in the Army and when I was four years old, he was posted to British Malaya prior to the country gaining independence as Malaysia. Six months later, mom and I followed in a converted WWII troop carrier. The journey from Southampton to Singapore was supposed to take less than three weeks but ended up being more than six weeks due to various breakdowns. A week later, during its return journey to England, a boiler blew up and the ship sank somewhere in the Mediterranean. (My first close call.) I had my first two years of school in the capital, Kuala Lumpur. During that time, some locals protested for independence sooner than the promised date from the British. So the military kids were taken to school in an army five-ton truck with canvas sides. Sometimes a local would take a few potshots or throw rocks at the truck. The driver would just shout, "Down on the f loor kids!" We would continue our conversations laying on the truck bed. To us at the time, we assumed that was just something that happened when you started school. Once a shot actually passed through both canvas sides. (My second close call.) Two years later, we returned to London and I thought the school commuting was very quiet. Dad continued to be posted to new locations every two years so I lost count of the number of schools I attended. It was not until I was 14 that we settled down. I think I had been dyslexic because even putting the letters COLIN in the right order was hit and miss. When it came to exams and tests, I was used to being at the bottom of the class. Then at 15, something happened. Mathematics and science suddenly became obvious to me. I went from the bottom of the class to the top within one year. I received a complete scholarship and salary from the British Railways (BR) and graduated from Portsmouth University in electrical engineering in 1970. I was in the Army Reserve during the Irish Republican Army's troubled times. During training one weekend, I was having breakfast with a dozen other newly-commissioned lieutenants and the base colonel when a car bomb exploded right outside the adjoining wall. There was dust and rubble everywhere. (My third close call – I stopped counting after that.) We froze and looked at the old colonel. He picked a piece of concrete out of his cornf lakes and asked the sergeant to clear up the mess and carried on with his conversation. I decided then that one day I want to be able to set an example like that. So far I have never had the opportunity. Kathy and I married in 1971 and bought our first house in Derby. We quickly had our two kids, Adele and Tim. After graduating, I worked in the BR Research Department and started a Ph.D. program. A year later I accepted a significant promotion that required me to drop the Ph.D. plans. I was working on the development of electric propulsion systems for subway vehicles and high speed trains. At the same time, due to the oil crisis, Congress in the U.S. decided to invest in an electric subway system. Several large companies including Garrett AiResearch, (later became Allied Signal and finally, Honeywell) decided to recruit in Europe for experienced Rapid JUST A TECH NERD

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