“Of Bears, Bull and Beagles!”

Vic and HTML

My first encounter with web design was whilst I worked at Sizma Plc back in the UK. We had some server space from our ISP that wasn't being used, so in my quiet moments (which were few and far between) I set about designing a basic website for the company using Microsoft Publisher. Everyone was very impressed with the end result.... except Mark! Whilst he was impressed with the look and content of the site, he (as the perfectionist that he is) was less impressed that I had used a WYSIWYG editor. And he encouraged me to learn how to write in HTML saying that it was easy, "Easy for you" I thought, "but me? I doubt it". He said he knew I could do it and went out and bought me four books. Well I still wasn't convinced and managed to come up with a multitude of reasons for never getting round to actually opening the books! "I don't have the spare time with working, and looking after a house and husband" "I'm too stressed from work, to study in the evening" When it comes to finding an excuse not to study then I am the master! and consequently I never "got round" to starting this adventure in learning!

After we moved to New York and I had got us settled into our apartment and a few months "holiday" I thought to myself "I need something constructive to do with my time", after all there is only so much shopping you can do, even in a great city like New York. Mark and I thought it would be nice if our family and friends back home (especially those who cannot visit us), could see what we are up to over here, and decided that a website was the ideal way to do this. Well all my legitimate reasons for not sitting down and reading those four books, were gone! We wanted a website, Mark was working, I had immense amounts of free time, so I had to get on and do it! So, armed with the books, and Notepad, I started to teach myself HTML. And you know what? I did find it is easy and more than that I found it fun! Once I had an outline in my head of the overall look and feel I wanted to achieve, I set to work, and I got a huge buzz out of seeing it actually come to life by my own hand!