Welcome to the crazy world of Bondy!

Hi there and welcome to my blog.  So I thought I start a post to introduce myself. Well here we go.  My name is John or Bondy to my friends.  I live in a wee place called Ebbw Vale in South Wales, but originally I am a Cardiff Girl through and through.  I am 38 years old and I use the pronouns he/him/they.  I am also a gay man and have been in an amazing relationship with someone special for over a year.  

 

 

No that is not my boyfriend in the picture but it is of me and Noah Averbach-Katz who played Ryn in Star Trek: Discovery Season 3. I have a wide variety of interests but I love to volunteer at film and comic conventions, where I have met loads of actors and even got to spend the day with some! Enough about that though, that can be another blog post.  As you may tell in the picture is that I am quite the geek and love many shows and film franchise.  My main obsessions are Star Trek, Doctor Who, Torchwood, Stargate, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Power Rangers, and Pokemon.  As any glorifed geek, I am into way much more than that too 😁😁😁.

 

I have also had a wide varied career and I have worked in bar work as a glass collector working up to bar men in Club X and Detox & Addiction in Cardiff.  I quite the jobs and had a really bad time with my mental health and also had an addiction to drugs.  I had some amazing friends around me who helped me and I got into a Personal Development Programme with a charity called Fairbridge De Cymru.  I had support and has some amazing opportunities.  I got to run with Prince William in the Sport Relief Mile and also sail around Scotland on a Victorian Schooner called the 'Spirit of Fairbridge'.  

 

 

 

 

I worked as a Youth & Community worker in Cardiff and helped set up it first LGBT youth group called Loud & Proud.  The youth group went onto to working with Cardiff-Wales LGBT Mardi Gras to start the first Youth & Family zone at any Pride Event in the UK. I also become the Youth Officer and trustee for Cardiff Mardi Gras between 2009 and 2012.  The youth and family area went to become a successful part of the event and worked with many partners like Cardiff Youth Service, Cardiff Women's Aid, ASH Wales and Boulders. During this period with support from Cardiff Youth Service I was able to obtain a Bachelor of Arts in Youth & Community Work at Cardiff Meteropolitan University.  My dissertation that explore how Section 28 of the Local Government Act (1988) impact on Youth Work with young people was picked to present at the BERA Youth and Education Special Interest Group in 2012 and was published on the Youth Work Wales website. 

 

After another bout of unemployment due to my ongoing mental health concerns, I became a care worker in a care home in cardiff.  I worked with residents who mainly had a diagnosis with dementia.  I worked with the orgranisation across two homes and I became the Senior Supervisor in charge of the care team.  I loved working at the two homes and met some incredible people.  Me being me, the outgoing person, I used to dress up as Santa at the christmas party or as a zombie nun at Halloween.  I completed my management qualification and it peaked my interest in doing doing a Masters degree in Dementia Studies at the University of Stirling.  After 3 years of working 72+ hours a week I managed to pass the course with a Merit and I attended my delayed graduation in 2022.  As the Stirling Colours are green, I could not resist getting a Slytherin student cosplay a go and I actually carried my wand across the stage too. 

So me being the typical me, I made the step into further studies and started a PhD in Dementia Studies and my focus of my research is about 'What it means to be a Gay Man with Dementia in the UK'. There will be further posts about my PhD, as I unfortunately have had to take an extended leave of abscence due to my health and I have also become an unpaid fulltime carer for my mum.  So the PhD has to take a backseat, but it has not stopped me carrying on with my reading.  

So if you have made it this far, I salute you.  This just gives you an overview of who I am, but further posts will be probably about whatever is on my mind, or I may have to do a blog post for one my of the many product testing sites I am on.  

I am hoping to do a post weekly if time alllows, but thank you for having a nose at my life.

Thanks

Bondy out!