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This is a thread intended to serve as an introduction. You may be new to me or maybe you've known me for years. You may find something you never knew or find cause to shun me. Either way: hello. 1/n
You may have followed me before at my previous account: @thealethiophile. The username was Sipech (a contracted abbreviation of SImon PEter CHarles - my given names) and it had a little white mouse avatar. That account was suspended a year ago without reason. 2/n
I was brought up in the town of Dunstable, Bedfordshire. Just off the Whipsnade Road. In fact, my first ever job was working at Whipsnade Zoo, in the cafe between the tigers and the sealions. 3/n
My schooling was a little unusual. I went to a church school, which meant very small classes and teachers who taught multiple subjects. My year group was comparatively large: there were 6 of us. The headteacher, qualified in chemistry, also taught history and geography. 4/n
The English Language and English Literature teacher was going to night school to learn French so that she could, in turn, teach us. The school closed about 3 or 4 years after I left. Having finished school in 2000, I went on to Luton Sixth Form College for my A-levels. 5/n
I left in 2002 with A-levels in maths, further maths, physics and chemistry. I also obtained an AS level in Economics, with the highest mark in the country for microeconomics. But I was a scientist at heart. So I did maths at university. Specifically at Grey College, Durham. 6/n
I did an undergraduate masters, which meant that I didn't do a 3 bachelors followed by a 1 year extension. Instead, I studied for 4 years straight and obtained an MMath (Hons) - 1st class. My master's thesis was written on Roger Penrose' Twistor Theory. 7/n
If that name rings a bell, he was awarded the 2020 Nobel Prize for Physics. Not for his work on Twistor Theory, however. I studied under one of Penrose's former students: Richard Samuel Ward. This choice of subject, was a bit naive of me. 8/n
I had thought that science was a field governed by rationality and objectivity, but in reality is very tribal. And I happened to have picked a minority tribe. Because of this my ambitions to carry on in education and do a PhD were scuppered. 9/n
I had a backup plan of becoming a teacher but I was unsuccessful in applications. I wasn't prepared for competency based questions and simply didn't have the experience. It was for Teach First (relatively new then) but most people were switching careers. 10/n
Having shaken hands with the chancellor, Bill Bryson, at my graduation, I was homeless and unemployed the next day. I spent time sofa-surfing with friends and family before eventually landing a graduate job as an auditor at Grant Thornton. 11/n
I spent a few years there as a junior auditor and studying for my accountancy qualification: the ACA. While it gave me a good foundation in finance, I didn't want to stay in commercial audit as it's essentially a valueless industry. I tried to transfer to forensics. 12/n
I ran into obfuscation and was ultimately rejected for a secondment. Meanwhile, more and more was demanded of me so I was regularly working 60+ hours a week, 7 days a week. So I chose to leave. 13/n
Since a lot of my client base had been groups of companies, I had reasonable experience of consolidations and so my first job in industry was as a group accountant, working for a sub-group of Manpower. I joined as a 1 year maternity cover but stayed for 2.5 years. 14/n
Eventually, they restructured and I was made redundant. I spent around 6 months searching for my next role. I had the qualification and some experience but time after time I kept to the final rounds of interviews and being told 'no'. 15/n
There was nearly always someone who had that little extra bit of experience that I didn't have. So they got the job instead. I sometimes wonder what direction my life would have taken if I'd have gotten some of those roles. 16/n
I did land one job but it didn't last. There was some significant fraud going on and I was attempting to gather evidence to whistleblow after I'd been in the job for about a month. But my efforts weren't subtle enough and I was summarily fired. 17/n
Someone else later did blow the whistle, the CEO and CFO resigned and the company folded. Though the puppet-master who knew about the fraud and prevented the CFO from knowing about it got away and is now the CFO of a biotech company in Cambridge. 18/n
Eventually, I did get another job. Having unemployed for most of the year, the offer came through shortly before Christmas. I didn't tell anyone until Christmas Day itself, as a pleasant surprise to my mother. 19/n
The job I landed was with a FTSE 250 company called Informa. In the previous role at Manpower, I'd not only done the vanilla accounting, but had done a bit of financial planning and analysis (FP&A). This new role focussed on the FP&A side. 20/n
I worked at Informa for 5.5 years, always in the same role, but gaining fresh responsibilities and seeing the group undergo some large changes including a jump up into the FTSE 100 and taking on some large acquisitions. 21/n
I eventually left for a number of reasons that I won't go into here. But I opted to be bigger fish in a smaller pond and am now head of FP&A at a medium-sized multinational consultancy firm. So that's the education & work history. What about the rest of life? 22/n
Well, going back my youth, I was brought up in a christian household. My mother became a christian at a Billy Graham rally in the 1960s and my dad followed suit. They were married in 1970 so recently spent their golden wedding anniversary in lockdown. 23/n
Initially, they were Anglicans, but by the time I came along they had moved on to become evangelical baptists. That's the environment I grew up in. I am a christian, but my own faith has regularly undergone transformation and reform. 24/n
At university, I ended up at an Ichthus church. This was a liberal charismatic evangelical church. I picked up that relationship years later when I moved to London. I very much regard myself as a mongrel christian, picking the good bits out of any tradition/denomination 25/n
After university, for my first graduate job, I found myself living in Crawley, West Sussex. There I began attending the local baptist church. The first week I went was the last before the pastor headed out on sabbatical. 26/n
The issue arose when he came back. I just couldn't get on with him or his teaching. You see, when I say the word evangelical I mean something reasonably specific. There are a set of ideas and markers which, between them, make up evanglicalism. 27/n
One of these is recognising the bible as the main source of knowledge about God and christianity. Non evengelicals might cite the Book of Common Prayer, tradition or the personal authority of elders as equal (or more important) sources. 28/n
But this pastor rather ignored the bible. Instead, when he returned, we were subjected to week after week of photos from his sabbatical, which seemed to be just an extended holiday. So I stopped going to church for a couple of years. 29/n
Eventually, my line manager at work was the one who prompted me back into going to church. I ended up at Elim Pentecostal church for a few years. The church underwent some issues while I was there including some very esoteric cranks who eventually left. 30/n
After some growing issues I made the decision to leave. Some were OK with it and supportive of me, others were swift to cut me out of their lives entirely. 31/n
It had been quite a healthy church with quite a mix of people, but those with more conservative views were being given greater prominence while the more liberal were being pushed to one side. As someone on the liberal end of the spectrum, it felt less like home. 32/n
Just before I turned 30 I made a move to London, where I was reunited with the same network of churches I'd been a part of at university. This very much felt like a homecoming. But living in London was never going to be a permanent option, though. 33/n
The cost of renting varied but was typically about 40-50% of net pay which severely hindered my ability to save for a deposit on a home. This was during the 2010s, a decade of very low interest rates which meant savers were punished and it fuelled massive property inflation. 34/n
When I was younger, I had been led to expect that it would take about 5 years of working to save for a deposit on a home. In reality, it took 13. I eventually bought my first home just over a year ago, when I was 35. 35/n
The criteria for where to live was determined by 2 criteria: affordability and commutability. This eventually took me to Basingstoke, Hampshire. This is where I am writing to you from now. 36/n
But given the need to settle after moving, followed by an intensely busy period at work, I was ready to start looking for a new church to call home when the pandemic struck. So I've been here for a while and still no next to no one in this town. 37/n
I've been to a few online services on YouTube but have found nowhere to call home yet. Most of those I've "attended" have been far too conservative for my taste. So I am in a bit of a quandary about what to do about church. 38/n
I hope that goes some way to explaining my handle of God & finance. One expressed the most important thing about who I am and what motivates me, the other is my professional interest that takes up most of my waking hours. And yes, I am interested in their intersection. 39/n
But there must be other interests and things I am passionate about. Indeed there are. I just don't get as much time as I might like to enjoy them. 40/47
For starters, although I've not made specific mention, you may have guessed that I am single. It doesn't play a particularly important part of my identity; it's just a fact of life. I've dabbled in dating but pretty much always got the same answer: Nice guy, but no. 41/47
Not surprising really, given my face. It's not the most attractive and I don't have a particularly sparkling or charismatic personality. Such is the fate of all like me. 42/47
My work has nearly always been in or around London, so I tend to commute a lot. Up until the last year, anyway. So I've filled that commuting with reading. I've long considered myself a bookworkm though in the last year I haven't finished a single book. 43/47
That hasn't exactly stopped me from buying any, though I am more restrained than I used to be. I used to buy around a book every 2-3 weeks on average. Now I'm down to one every 2-3 months instead. But I still have loads that are still unread. 44/47
My other main passion is walking. In a normal year, between March and September, I try to go hiking every weekend. My ideal is a steep climb, followed by a ridgetop walk with great views, before finishing at a train station to head home. 45/47
I would typically aim to do a half marathon (13 miles). I can do a bit more but my realistic limit for a one day walk is 18 miles. I did do a walking marathon once but it took a couple of months to recover thereafter. 46/47
That, I think, is a fair summary of me in under 50 tweets. Hope that's been informative and helped you get to know me a bit more. But for now, toodle-pip. 47/47 [thread ends]