Who are we?
Click this thumbnail to see a picture of us on holiday in 1997 in the Maldives
- we had a great time - click for more info about our holidays.
Contact us
John's E-mail address is:
- John's daytime phone number is ... available on application by e-mail.
(We can also receive faxes at home, but you'll have to give us notice so we can fire up the PC and fax modem!)
We live in a village in Bedfordshire, England (e-mail us if you want the full address).
Interests
Travel
We love our holidays - seeing exotic places, lying on the beach, eating in Greek tavernas, snorkelling on coral reefs, walking in the mountains. Click here for our Holidays page - resort reviews, accommodation tips etc.
Walking
Fresh air, exercise, wildlife ....
Scuba diving
John learned to dive in the Maldives, where the water is like a warm bath (29°C all year round). The coral reefs are spectacular, and the marine life is just out of this world! John has swum with manta, eagle and sting rays, leopard and whale sharks, white-tip, black-tip and grey reef sharks, turtles, barracuda, and a million species of reef fish. Read John's reports of diving in the Caribbean, the Maldives, and Thailand.
Wine
When we both worked in London, we used to go to NatWest's Wine Society each month to improve our knowledge and appreciation of fine wines. Now we just drink the stuff...
IT
John cut his teeth programming in 3GLs (eg BASIC, TenCORE, Pascal), DOS batch language and x86 Assembler, and progressed (if you can call it that) to Visual Basic (3, 4, 6, Studio). Now fully into Web development with HTML/XHTML and CSS.
Photography
Currently using Canon Digital Ixus 110 and Olympus 750 Ultrazoom digitals, both with underwater housings, and a Canon EOS 550D with a Canon 18-200mm zoom lens. Check out our holiday reports for underwater pictures in the Maldives and the Caribbean.
Genealogy
In 2002 we got interested in our ancestors, using the Family Records Centre in London (which closed in 2008) and Web resources such as Ancestry, Old Maps, FamilySearch and FreeBMD to research our ancestors. See how far we've got - John's Ancestors.
Jobs
Since 1990 John has been a software development Project Manager, with experience in the creation of CD-ROM-based multimedia training programs in Visual Basic and Authorware, and the development of substantial Web sites for on-line learning using Dreamweaver, Flash, Javascript etc. He has also been a Product Manager, defining and managing the creation and launch of a multi-million pound web site.
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From 1973 to 1998 he worked for NatWest. In Feb 1998 he had the opportunity to grab a package and leave. NatWest couldn't manage without him though - it was subsequently taken over by Royal Bank of Scotland and driven into the ground by Fred Goodwin's megalomaniac ambitions. |
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From 1998 to 2001, he was a project manager with Admiral (now part of CMG after the takeover in 2000) with responsibilities including project-managing the development of training, and managing the production of bids in the Defence and Government sector. In October 2001, CMG Admiral announced that it was making 10% of its work-force redundant. Because he had been attached for a six-month stint to a section that was disappearing anyway, he found himself without a role, and hence without a job. Since he left they've been taken over by Logica, and the CMG part of the name has been dropped. Tee hee. |
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Back with NatWest, or rather The Royal Bank of Scotland, on a contract with Streamline Merchant Services, part of the RBS Group. So the "dunbankin" domain name wasn't too relevant! Ended up project managing a £2m+ web project. |
dunbankin... |
Now relaxing after leaving Streamline following the successful launch of his main project Streamline Online. |
Linda also grabbed a package from NatWest in 1999 and then worked for a firm of solicitors, who seemed to appreciate her securities perfection know-how. Now also relaxing.
Projects
Making this Web Site!
I started this web site in early 1998. Upgraded from FrontPage Express to FrontPage 98, to DreamWeaver 4, MX and MX2004. I'm finding out more about Web site authoring, including Javascript and DHTML, as I go along, so it's not frivolous activity (much). Blogging software wasn't available when I started this site, so its appearance is, shall we say, retro. Bought our domain name from Just-the-Name - brilliant service which seems to work really well. Get your own from Just-the-Name here:
Got a web site? Get it listed in Google.
Moving to a new ISP
Started with Compu$erve in 1992, and a lot has changed since then. Compu$erve was overtaken by the WWW, and failed to keep up. Switched to Freeserve, then Plusnet's free Business dial-up service for the free 50Mb web space!
Finally got broadband in late 2004 following BT's scrapping of the distance limits on ADSL (we're over 6km from the exchange). Still with Plusnet, but a Home user account, with 250Mb web space. Quite impressed with Plusnet's service, speed and value.
Making us millionaires
Quite a way to go on this project unfortunately. We'll get there eventually though.
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Comments
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A fourth-century Roman would know today's date as: Check Paul Lewis' web site for an explanation. |