Adam’s Bio

I was born in Parramatta (a district of Sydney, Australia) in 1969 - for those who care to know how old I am. My parents had emigrated from England during the mass immigration drive by Australia in the 60’s. I don’t have an exact date, but within a few years we had moved to Darwin in the Northern Territory. On Christmas Eve 1974 our house was destroyed by Cyclone Tracy - one of the worst to hit Australia. We lost everything that night but as many (reports are varied) died, you could say we were the lucky ones. The family then moved back to England for a fresh start and this is where I still am.

I have been married to Lorraine since 1990 and we have two children, Annabelle & Natasha. With the cat included, the family is now complete. Besides, I don’t really have enough time to build another bedroom on the house and Lorraine probably wouldn’t let me anyway!

Although I have a love for the practical things in life, such as woodworking, none of the options seemed good enough for a career. Thus I got myself into computing way back in ‘85 and now work as a Software Architect. It’s a creative role using the latest Windows based technologies (.NET) and UML. I’m also a bit of a mad PC boffin and am called up on a regular basis to help with the dilemma’s of others.

Media Mad

Gadgets, who doesn’t need gadgets? I honestly don’t buy as much as I used to (you know, kids, life & other more important stuff!) I still have had acquired a few nice things over the years. Most of which is ageing but still remains functional.

My home cinema system is currently a TEAC Legacy 800 unit hooked up to a set of Mission FS1 speakers. The amp supports Dolby Digital, DTS and Dolby ProLogic II. For more comprehensive details, check out the review I did. Visuals are provided by a Panasonic 32″ Tau television. It sports a flicker free 100Hz display which is noticeably better when you have to watch someone else’s 50Hz set. I’m waiting for it to ‘break’ before committing to a HD model - not something I care for at the present given the lack of interesting/useful HD transmissions in the UK.

Music wise I’ve got quite varied tastes with recent acquisitions from Within Temptation, Disturbed, Simple Plan and other assorted noise. Older style melodic rock is more my bag I suppose. I’ve been a fan of Bryan Adams since the early days but being brutally honest - his last few releases have been pretty poor when compared to Reckless, Into The Fire and, to a lesser extent, Waking Up The Neighbours. Australian acts are fairly limited - The Veronicas (twin sisters with pop/rock style) and The Baby Animals [reformed for '08] are the most notable.

Planes, Trains & Automobiles

Even after some years, I’m still driving a Ford Mondeo. Yeah, I know it’s a rep mobile but at least mine has the massively enjoyable V6 engine. Purchased for refinement and speed, the Mondeo delivers exactly what I wanted. We got it around the time of our 2nd child as the previous car was fast running out of space. Besides, every time one of the children got into the old car she got car sick and I was fed up of cleaning up. No such problems at all in the Mondeo which is a bit of bonus.

Aside from the Mondeo, I run a Kawasaki ZXR400 motorbike. This is one mean machine with a redline somewhere near the stratosphere and oodles of noise to boot. It’s very much a point and squirt bike and whilst I don’t get out on it much, it never fails to put a huge smile on my face! Terry from D&H Motorcycles (Bath) brought it back to life a couple of years ago!