Poddys The Man Behind The Name

This page is very much a work in progress at this point, so please bare with me as I work to complete it.

I hope you enjoy reading the tidbits I have left so far.

That's right, my real name is Tony Payne, although online you will find me in many places registered as Poddys.

I have been a lensmaster on Squidoo since January 2008, and as you might have guessed, my lensmaster id is Poddys!  I am married to Debbie, who is also a lensmaster, and you can find her on Squidoo as Debnet.

We are both Squid Angels, and I manage two niche areas on Squidoo.  The first is War Movies, which is sadly lacking in good lenses, and where there is a lot of opportunity for creating some excellent lenses.  The second niche area that I manage is Water Sports, which is HUGE!  This encompases everything from Swimming to Fishing and Boating, and has about 15 sub-categories.  At times it's hard to keep up with all the new lenses, but there are some great ones in there.

Debbie and I live on the South Coast of England, in the city of Southampton.  For those who don't know much about Southampton:

• It's where the Mayflower originally sailed from. Bad weather forced it to put into Plymouth, 150 miles further west, from where the Pilgrim Fathers sailed to the New World.
• Southampton is the UK equivalent of Miami or Fort Lauderdale.  It's the cruise ship centre of the country, and every week you can see the biggest and latest cruise ships arriving and leaving on Southampton Water.
• Southampton is also where The Titanic sailed from on that fateful day in April 1912.  A new museum is being prepared in time for the 100th anniversary of it's sinking.

Now a few facts about me that many of you might not know:

• I grew up in Poole in the county of Dorset, just 30 miles west of where we now live.
• I always wanted to travel, but had few opportunities until I reached my early 30's.
• In 1987/88 I spent 9 months in New Zealand, travelling west from London via Los Angeles and Tahiti, and returning via New Caledonia, Australia, Bali, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Bangkok and Hong Kong.
• In 1994 I moved to Indiana in the USA where I spent 12 years.
• I then moved to Florida where I lived for 3 years.
• I returned to the UK in the summer of 2009.
• Debbie and I got married in April 2010 (see pictures).

I love to travel, love to explore and see new places.

After returning from New Zealand I spent 12 years working as a contractor for a major oil company, and had the opportunity to travel to many countries in Central and South America, as well as The Caribbean, Kenya and Papua New Guinea.

Since 2000 though, I have hardly been anywhere, other than the UK and the USA.

Poddys on Squidoo

My Biography on Squidoo
This has a lot about my life, at least up to the point where I went to New Zealand.

Tony Payne on Yahoo Contributor Network
I have been a writer on Yahoo Contributor Network since January 2010, and have contributed over 700 articles.