If you have got this far you may have revealed quite a bit of me already. The photo was taken more years ago than I care to remember when I was working in a photographer's.
Born bred and educated in Oxford I have lived there all my life. I have been married to David for 35 years and we have two children and three grandchildren. I have had a hundred and one jobs of very assorted kinds to fit in with the family.I went to college as a mature student and studied Theology at Westminster, Oxford then went on to Oxford Brookes to do a DMS and worked with my husband in the family plastic injection moulding business.
We built up the turnover of the factory from £250,000 pa to approaching 2 million and I decided to return to college again. This time I went to Oxford University and did a a Diploma in Theology to build up biblical skills. Then I wrote the book on John's Gospel.
The business has been sold and now I suppose I am officially retired but it doesn't seem like it. I am busier than ever doing this that and the other. The last nine months were occupied being a programming student and now I am busy learning how to write web pages.
As with jobs I've had a wide range of interests over the years including archery, badminton, ballroom and belly dancing,
I enjoy the creative side of gardening (as opposed to the hard labour side). A few years ago I was a passionate gardener with a particular interest in herbs. I planted a herb garden in the front garden which got a prize in the village competition because it was 'different'. Unfortunately, the herb garden disappeared under builders rubble when we had an extension built but my latest design, a feng shui inspired minimalist garden got a prize this year too. Gardening related reviews include: An Oak in the Garden which is about plants which seem happy in the shade of trees. And one on allotments which is a bit out of date as we, or should I say David, has now got two allotments and could supply an army with what he grows.We suffer from fruit and Veg mountains now.
Other interests include writing on Dooyoo and Ciao, Kabbalah, astrology, and Tai Chi For the last three years I have helped in the annual charity shop in our village. I wrote this about Working in a charity shop.
It's really rather difficult knowing what to put in an 'about me' section. I thought I might finish with my name. I'm generally known as Roberta Allen but I'm not the only one around. If you enter my name into Google you won't find me. There is another Roberta Allen, author, artist, teacher, and coach (all titles I could claim too) dominating Google. I added my middle initial to help differentiate.
If you would like to send me a message you can do so via form below. Using the form does not reveal your email address so if you want a reply please include your name and email address in the message.