By trade I am an IT consultant with IBM, whom I joined way back in 1976. I drifted into computing as a way to get a "proper job", from the academic world of elementary particle physics research. As a sideline I have, and have always had, a passion for cooking and for good food. I am married to Gill, and we have two children who are now long grown up and gone away (except when they want something!). We supposedly live in Southampton -- at least that's where our home is -- but I work in Plymouth, and Gill works in Salford.

At weekends we both go back to the south coast to visit the cat, who is without doubt the most important member of the household. It makes for a very strange and fragmented lifestyle, and keeps the petrol companies in business, but so far it still seems to work.