Note: If you have no interest in my hobbies or where I went to school then read no further. Just click the following link to go back to the About Sean index and choose another topic.

I was originally from a village called Littleport in Cambridgeshire but I was brought up in Chester in the North West after a family move in the early 90′s. There I spent my childhood, attending Queens Park High School. I left for West Cheshire College at 16 to start my focussed computing education via a BTEC National Diploma in Computing. It went into every aspect of computing from theory, building them, supporting Windows and it’s applications and of course programming. At the time I thought arrays were the most difficult thing in the world. Thankfully I got the hang of them I achieved a Distinction at college which was the equivalent to a few A’s at A level and enough to get me into University.

Boat being surveyed at Gayton Marina

I decided to go back down south for university and went to Anglia Ruskin University to do a BSc (Hons). I achieved a 1^st class Degree in Cambridge. My Dissertation was focussed on Active Badges and a designed a small PHP based mapping/tracking system and a data entry bot to create fake information to prove my points in the accompanying report.

Whilst at university, myself and my (now) Wife, Hannah, decided to invest in some property together but couldn’t afford it. So, prompted by yet another property program that featured boats, we decided that we should do the same. We read up on it and then decided to go looking at a few Narrowboats around the country.

Later that week we had bought one and were happily chugging it home from Gayton Marina in Northampton to Orchard Marina in Northwich. It took three or four weekends and a albeit a few mishaps we got it back in one piece. The boat was a bit of a mess and very dated (hence the price) so I decided to completely refit it over one of my summers from university. It was never entirely finished but nothing DIY related ever is!

The second Boat on the way to it’s new mooring

After a while and once the refit was complete we decided to move out of the marina and get a new ‘inline’ mooring in Barbridge outside of Crewe. By this time we were both working in or around Crewe to it was a good move. We stayed there for a year or so and then decided to get a newer bigger boat.

We got one and luckily sold the old one about the same time although the marina we were in didn’t have any large enough moorings. We moved to another inline mooring near Northwich just outside Weaverham on the Trent and Mersey. This boat was large enough for pets so we decided to get two rabbits which lived in the saloon area (although sometimes escaped and started demolishing the rest of the boat).

We got married in summer 2007 and went off to St Tropez on our honeymoon. When we got back we decided that both the commute from Northwich and an inadequate fire were too much so we bought a house in Crewe. That was a few years ago now… oh how the time flies! Now in my second house in Crewe, a family home, with my wife and two kids. Everything falls into place in the end doesn’t it!

I have picked up quite a few things over the years in woodwork, plumbing, 12 volt electronics and general DIY skills. I am now a bit of a boat fanatic and enjoy to Sail when I have some time for it. I happily bore people to tears with our exploits at any and all gatherings.

I started my own business in late 2009 and went Ltd establishing Tortoise IT in 2011. Now life is good and I look to the next challenge in life. Bring it on..