About Me

I bought this domain in 2004 while I was still at sixth form college. I initially used it to host mp3s of music I and some friends had recorded in my bedroom. I was quite interested in music production as a teenager and I later went on to attain a first class honours in Music Technology and Innovation at De Montfort University, Leicester. I’d love to write about how I spent each and every minute at university in the studio but unfortunately I spent most of it at the gym or in the pub! I did eventually get around to recording one track though - a cover of Louie Louie.

At university I developed a growing interest in web development and I later built a simple PHP 4 powered photo blog on this site in 2007. After being accepted for a student bursary I was lucky enough to get a second shot at university. I was able to stay an extra year and study a masters degree in Creative Technology. I concentrated more on web technologies and to accompany my thesis I quickly hacked together a basic Facebook Data Mining App.

Inevitably university life soon turned into professional life and in 2009 I began my first full time post graduate job. I became junior PHP developer at a local startup in Leicester and life started to hit hard. I soon realised that to get anywhere in life you have to work your arse off and that's what I did for the next three years.

After having no life for 3 years I decided to do something amazing and go and work as a freelancer in Sydney, Australia. I made sure to spend two months travelling South East Asia on the way though. Life is good when you're on that sexy freelancer money so after 4 months I decided to have a 3 month holiday visiting South America. I returned to Australia for a couple of months of hard graft before deciding that I missed home and thinking that everything would be better if I returned.

Wrong. Back in the UK I found myself picking up where I left off, back in Leicester. I was soon drawn back to working full time as a web developer to pay the bills. I quickly ran out of new people to share my travel stories with and I began spending more of my free time at the gym or in the pub. After six months I decided that 7 years in Leicester was enough for any true Yorkshireman and I should return to Sheffield and buy a new house and a new car.

Upon returning to lovely South Yorkshire I ended up buying an old house and an old car. I began working at a start up specialising in lead generation and I also developed an interest in running. I finished the Sheffield half marathon in 2014 and 2015, both in under 2 hours. Everything was working out and life was good but in summer 2015 a new worry popped into my head. I was almost 30 and could still only speak one language.

After a good friend of mine moved to Germany I decided to visit her and try and learn the language. I have travelled to and from Germany countless times in recent years and can now proudly say I am fluent. It took a long time but I didn't give up and being able to work as a remote software developer for German companies really helped.

At the time of writing it's been five years since I added to this story. What have I been doing since you say? Well it's hard to believe how much the world has changed in the past five years to be honest. The pandemic, Brexit, the Ukraine war and the current energy / cost of living crisis have had a huge impact on my simple life. Just before the pandemic hit,I travelled to Uzbekistan for the first time. A year later I passed my B2 Language exam and spent two weeks travelling around Germany. In 2021 I made a summer vacation to Italy and last summer I spent 2 weeks hiking along the new Via Transilvanica route in Romania.

"Things change. Stuff happens. Life goes on." - Elizabeth Scott

Last updated: November 2022