Sobre
This feels a bit strange: writing a biography about myself. Where do I start? It’s not like I’m Brad Pitt, good-looking and famous: well I’m not famous, anyway. I’m sure my Mum probably thinks I’m still her “handsome son.” What I mean to say is why would anyone be interested in my life story? On the other hand, I’ve never understood why any Britney Spears fan would be interested in what she has for breakfast or how people can be so concerned about what Cristiano Ronaldo does in his free time, although much has been written about this in the media, especially Britain. Still, this space has to be filled so here goes:
May 4th 1967: Born in Chelmsford, England.
– 1969: appeared on stage for the first time aged two – acting career never materialized.
– 1972: I was bought my first football shirt – Arsenal. The team had just won the league championship and weren’t to win again until 1989!
– 1976: saw my first game – Tottenham lost 3-0 at home to Newcastle. This was a good result as all good Arsenal fans hate Tottenham.
– 1978: bought my first record (what everyone bought before CD’s were invented) “Ever fallen in love with someone you shouldn’t have?” by the Buzzcocks. A great post-punk anthem that I still love to this day.
– 1980: first rock concert – Gillan. I am most embarrassed to say that I was once really into heavy metal (I still love Zeppelin, Purple and Sabbath, though)
– 1982: Finally gave up on Arsenal and started watching the two local clubs, Southend United (I’m still a fan) and Chelmsford City (an amateur team)
– 1985: left home to study French and Economics at the University of East Anglia in Norwich. A great relief to be finally independent. I didn’t learn much Economics but did improve my skills at playing rock guitar and cooking.
– 1989-93: I played guitar in an indie band called ‘the Bardots’ We did some tours and released a couple of CD’s including two Melody Maker singles-of-the-week and even recorded a John Peel session for BBC radio 1. Never played in Portugal. Spent some years working as a cleaner in a mental hospital – working there I felt stranger there than some of the patients and promised myself that I would never get a proper job.
November 1993: played my last gig (concert) at the CMJ festival in New York in front of only 50 people (and a couple of dogs!)
– 1994: Did my TEFL (teaching English as a foreign language) course and finally found something that I was good at.
– 1994-1997: Worked at Cambridge School in Porto, (sócio of FC Porto 1994-1999 – the Dragões won the Championship every year. Yes, this is a little known fact. The pentacampeonato was down to me! The year I switched allegiance to Ovarense, Sporting won the championship and Ovarense were promoted to the 2ª Liga!)
– 1997: Opened Windsor School with my wife in Ovar.
– 2007: Celebrated 10 years of the school. I would love to receive e-mails from students and ex-students. My e-mail address is andrew-murphy@hotmail.com
– 2010: Celebrated the achievement of getting student number 2000!
And that’s it. Now you know that I am a failed musician, am totally nuts about football and that my Mum still thinks I’m the best-looking guy around despite the wrinkles (I’m talking about mine!) Well, if you had no better way of spending the last five minutes than reading this, I hope it was worthwhile.
And by the way, if you’re reading this and you’re not a student, then you’re making a big mistake, buddy. There is no better place to learn English than at Windsor School and nowadays if your English isn’t at a very good spoken level, you won’t achieve your dreams!
