More about me

A colourful male mandarin duck standing on a branch
One of my earliest posts is about mandarin ducks.

My blog

Sometimes I like to make notes to myself about software. I can do that on my blog.

It’s also a convenient place for less serious musings of mine. I write a yearly retrospective of nice things happening in my life, and lists of my favourite entries in the Eurovision Song Contest!

I made my blog with Astro. Code is on GitHub.

A handsome companion

My dog

She’s a twelve-year-old Weimaraner–Labrador cross.

She likes going for walks, chasing squirrels, and curling up on the sofa.

My dog running towards the camera

Chester’s amphitheatre

The city of Chester

Nestled between the mountains of Snowdonia and the plains of Cheshire, located where the river Dee once met the Irish Sea, practically on the tripoint of Wales, the West Midlands, and the North of England, stands the magnificent little city of Chester.

Founded by the Romans, extended by the Saxons, captured by the Normans, besieged by the Parliamentarians, gentrified by the Georgians, and connected to the canal and railway networks by the Victorians, it is the place I am very privileged to call home.

School of Classics, University of St Andrews

My degree in Latin

I studied Latin at the University of St Andrews, graduating with a 2:1 master’s in June 2018. My favourite module was on Latin prose composition, and I really got into the nitty-gritty of the grammar.

I managed to develop my coding in tandem with my linguistic skills by making an Excel file that stores, and returns detailed information on, more than ninety thousand Latin words. I’ve since made a website with this functionality.

In my sub-honours years, I also studied Ancient Greek for two years and Classical Studies and Russian for a year each.

Outside of the curriculum, I was a regular member of the uni’s classics society, and wrote several of the nerdier rounds in their pub quizzes.

Lily-pond and the Pin Mill in Bodnant Garden, Wales

My photo­graphy

Since the age of nine I have been taking photos, such as several on this site.

My usual subjects include birds and landscapes. My most frequent locations are around Chester, St Andrews, and the Scottish Highlands. Occasionally I cross the Welsh border, however, such as for the picture accompanying this section!

Chairs arranged as part of a performance

Theatre in the Quarter (TiQ)

TiQ is a drama company in my hometown of Chester, acclaimed for giving musical on-stage experiences to children and the local community.

I volunteered with them as poster-designer, programme-designer, lyricist, photographer, and assistant-director. These roles enabled me to develop technical skills (e.g. in fine art, graphic design, and poetic metre), and also soft skills such as self-confidence, leadership, and teamwork.

I designed 30 posters and 17 programmes (the paper-items-sold-or-given-to-the-audience kind) and lyricized 19 songs.

Before I started volunteering, I was a member of their children’s group Jigsaw Music Theatre. For the full list of shows I did with TiQ, see my TiQ œuvre.