What you may OR may not wish to know about me !

Click image to view larger image of my graduation photograph..

I was born in April 1963 in the city of Glasgow, the eldest son of a housewife and a Sheet Iron Worker. I was brought up in the Govan area of the city famous for it's shipbuilding and heavy engineering industries (amongst many others).

I left school at the age of 16 and trained as an Apprentice Plater/Shipwright at Yarrow Shipbuilders Limited. I remained with the company after I qualified as a Tradesman Plater until 1991 whereupon I left to enter full time education in the field of computing.

In 1992 I was awarded an SCOTVEC Higher National Certificate (HNC) in Computing which allowed me to enter into the 2nd year of the SCOTVEC Higher National Diploma in Computing (HND) at Park Campus, The Queen's College, Glasgow (which became Park Campus, Glasgow Caledonian University). I successfully completed the course in 1993, obtaining the award of HND in November that same year.

October 1993 saw my entry into Higher Education and the 2nd year of the BSc Information Systems course at The University of Paisley. I finally achieved my ambition of a computing degree in November 1996.

During this period at university I became involved with The Landing Party, the Science Fiction club run by students. The club has raised a substantial amount of money for our designated charities.

My other interests include the Martial Arts. I hold a 1^st Kyu (Brown and White Belt) grade in Shotokan style Karate and a 1^st Dan (Black Belt) grade in Traditional Aikido. I was awarded my 1^st Dan on 21^st October 1990 by the British Aikido Association.

Shown below are a few photographs of me training in an Aikido dojo. Click on the images to see a larger version.