This page last updated 13th June 2006

Hi, and welcome. I'm a forty-something vegetarian software engineer, a city councillor, a part time step-mother to Tobias and Jack, a fair weather cyclist, and part time bimbo. I live in Cambridge, England, where I'm normally far too busy to see any of the touristy things that Cambridge is famous for, although I have been known to go for the occasional punt in the summer.

I was born in Nottingham, but brought up and went to school in Croydon before moving to Cambridge in 1994.

I occasionally find time for a short holiday, and even more occasionally write them up in the form of a travel journal.

As a break from software engineering and council work I sometimes attend live roleplaying events. Here is a description and photographs of the first such event I attended in 2000 (wow, doesn't time fly). And another journal from 2001.

I started my first programming job in 1980 (writing Cobol on a HP3000) and have been in the IT industry ever since. Feel free to take a look at my CV (now also available in PDF and Word format). I sometimes describe myself as half of J-Squared Ltd (the other half being Jenny Bailey), but am currently a full-time employee of the Sanger Institute.

Just in case you are ever in love, here are two cures for love from Wendy Cope.

And here is a poem from Peter Howard called I have it on good authority. Have a look at his site for more examples. My favourite is Rubric.

In my job as a programmer I have occasionally had to suffer the indignity of having induhviduals criticise my code. If this has ever happened to you here are some wise words from Verity Stob on surviving a code review.

My philosophy of life is probably best summed up by Edna St. Vincent Millay.

I do not want to have an ID Card. I have renewed my passport and taken the pledge.

Finally (for now), if you really really want to, you can mail me. (I'd prefer it if you used my PGP key to encrypt email).