Life Before University

I was born just before the 1980s began in the city of Bangor in North Wales. From the hospital, I was taken home to Anglesey (see the image to the right... click on it for a larger map which shows the island in relation to the island of Great Britain.) where I lived in a tiny village near the north coast of the island. Anglesey was a great place to grow up, with plenty of open spaces - beaches and the mountains of Snowdonia not too distant.

In addition to dual-language schooling (I can still understand Welsh perfectly well, though I tend to trip over my tongue when speaking and my writing is rusty as a very rusty object), I was a member of the 1st Cemaes Cubs group and subsequently 1st Cemaes Sea Scouts. Although I've since become somewhat lazy, I still enjoy outdoor pursuits when I get talked into venturing forth. I particularly enjoyed orienteering, climbing and abseiling. For a time, I worked as a Public Librarian on Saturdays and during the school holidays - primarily in Holyhead and I really enjoyed my time there. It was during this job and my A-Levels that I decided to pursue a course in IT and Library Management at university ...

More Recently ...

To the left is a map pointing out Loughborough. This is the town where I went to University and have pretty much lived ever since. Following my undergraduate degree, I worked back on Anglesey for a year for what was then Magnox Electric at Wylfa Nuclear Power Station. Next I returned to Loughborough University to pursue a Masters degree in Electronic Publishing.

Since university, I worked for four years for Caski Consulting Ltd. within various Nuclear Power Stations doing Database application development, technical authoring, software testing, automated script writing and other such activities. My main work-related interest lies in Web design and development and I have subsequently begun working in this field. Taking a big risk (for me anyway) I've initially been involved with two short-term, 6 month contracts at the University of Northampton. (about an hour commute each way) but am hoping to get a permanent job in the field as soon as I can.

So that's my life in a nutshell. Obviously there's more to me than schooling and work - my hobbies and interests can be found here!