I was born in Germany in 1970 where I lived until 1975. From 1975 to 1980 I lived in Wiltshire and Hampshire in the UK. From 1980 to 1983 I lived in Germany again. From 1983 to 1986 I lived in Hampshire again. From 1986 to 1988 I lived in Belgium.
From 1981 to 1988 I went to Queen Victoria School, a military boarding school in Dunblane, Scotland.
In the summer of 1988 I had my first job as as a waiter in the Officers Club at SHAPE, Belgium.
I came to Edinburgh in 1988 and did my undergraduate degree at Edinburgh University where I studied Astrophysics (in my final 2 years) at the Royal Observatory. I ended up getting a pretty rotten degree though.
In the summer of 1989 I worked at Tyler Hill kids camp in Pennsylvania and then travelled throughout the US for a month, living in airports and not washing.
From 1989 to 1992 I was in the Edinburgh UOTC whilst at Edinburgh University.
In 1992 on a year out from university I worked in Edinburgh for the government as an administrative assistant (file clerk) in the Benefits Agency which has now become part of the DWP. Working there wasn't a whole lot of fun.
After leaving Edinburgh University in 1993 I studied at Napier University where I obtained a Postgraduate Diploma in IT in 1994. In 1993 I also went on a road trip around Ireland.
My first proper job after finally leaving student life was in 1995 as a C programmer for Solcom Systems in Livingston, Scotland who after I left became part of ION Networks as far as I know. I wrote XWindows/Motif network management programs for SunOS and other UNIX platforms. I worked there for 1½ years until 1996.
I worked as a Network Programmer for the Computing Services Department of Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh for 2½ years between 1996 & 1999. I provided network troubleshooting support for the whole university and was also the DNS administrator for the hw.ac.uk domain amongst many other things.
In 1998 I went hiking in Jasper National Park in Canada. I also drove from Calgary, Alberta to Victoria B.C. via Banff, Jasper, Kamloops and Vancouver.
In 1999 I worked for a few months in IT support for the School of Computing at Napier University.
From 2000 to 2001 I worked as a web developer on the SeSDL project, a 2 year project at Edinburgh University to create an online repository of digital learning resources.
In 2000 I visited Norway and went to Oslo and Jotunheimen national park where I climbed Galdhøpiggen, Norway's and Northern Europe's highest mountain. I also hiked in Hardangervidda national park which is Europe's largest mountain plateau. I also went to New York for a short trip during the thanksgiving holiday.
In 2001 I went hiking in Rondane national park, Norway.
In 2002 I worked for a few months building web-based database interfaces for Edinburgh University Finance Department and then started work at Edina, also at Edinburgh University, as a software engineer to build yet more web applications for academia, this time with an emphasis on things like search engines and geospatial data.
In 2002 I went to Cyprus and hiked in the Troodos mountains. I also went to New Hampshire and Mount Washington in the US.
In 2003 I went to Norway again and walked on Snøhetta in Dovre national park amongst other places. I also presented a research paper at an international academic conference in Trondheim.
In 2004 I went to Ontario and Quebec in Canada, where I walked in Jacques-Cartier Park and at Saguenay Fjord. I also went to New York state in the US, where I hiked in the Adirondacks.
In 2005 I went to Tenerife and climbed Teide, the highest mountain in Spain. I also went to California and hiked in the Sierra Nevada mountains, climbing up to 4000m on Mount Whitney, the highest mountain in the US outside Alaska.
In 2006 I went to an academic conference in Upsalla, Sweden and also went walking on Nipfjället and in Fulufjället national park. I also drove to Val d'Hérens in Switzerland, where I did some guided walking on the Glacière de Ferpècle. I also climbed Mulhacén, the highest mountain in mainland Spain.
In 2007 I started working as a Project Officer for ERPem. I also went on a long weekend trip to Amsterdam and I also went on a two-week trip to the Canadian Rockies, doing some more hiking and avoiding bears.
In 2008 I went walking in the Pyrenees whilst on holiday in the south of France and went on another long weekend trip to Amsterdam. I developed and launched the new ERPem website. I ran a half-marathon in Glasgow and completed a week-long training course for the MLT Mountain Leader Award qualification.
In January 2009 I went to the Atlas Mountains in Morocco climbing up to 3300m in winter conditions. I went on three trips abroad with my girlfriend Lesley: a long weekend in Berlin in February, a week in Andalucia, Spain in June and a week in New York at the End of September. In May I ran the Edinburgh Marathon. In August I started working as the Website Officer for the School of Engineering at the University of Edinburgh, developing a new website for the School.
In February 2010 I went on another long weekend trip to Amsterdam with Lesley. In April I achieved the Gold NNAS award. In May I went on a weekend training course for the MLT Mountain Leader Award qualification. In August I left employment at Edinburgh University after 10 years and 7 months and rejoined the University in September for one semester as a full-time student on the MSc Geographical Information Science (GIS) course at the School of GeoSciences.
Between January 2011 and April 2011 I worked on a number of web development projects for academic clients on a freelance basis. In April I started working on a six-month contract at the School of History, Classics & Archaeology at the University of Edinburgh. In August I completed my 200th Munro summit, and in September I gained the ITC Certificate in Outdoor First Aid.