Elsewhere, my email signature reads:
Kevin Rolph, Cambridge, UK ============================================================================== Engineer, Manager, Woodworker, Boardgame enthusiast, Advanced Driver, Modeller Quaker, Folk Dancer, Bodhran player, Gardener, and fan of Nonsense and SF.
..so this seems like a good enough order to cover things in:
A recycled physicist (Manchester BSc. 1981 then research into liquid crystal polymers until 1983), 4 years a digital hardware engineer at Marconi Radar in Chelmsford, then 10 years software engineering specialist graphics and radar tracking systems for Primagraphics, five years in Speech Recognition with Vocalis, and now working hands-on on mobile handset software at TTPCom.
Many years a Project and Group Manager; projects for everything from fabric design systems to implementing the coastguard's radar surveillance and tracking systems at Dover.
Likes making things (mostly noise and mess). The occasional item of furniture emerges from the dust.
I've had a love of board games since I was old enough to count the dots on the dice. Over exposed to Monopoly at an early age, resulting in enjoying week long games (I've recovered now).
Apart from a brief burst at University the game playing went a bit quiet until Martin's birth (1991). Stuck for something to do socially we invited a few friends over to play board games and have a take-away. This group is still going strong...
Surprisingly I didn't really discover 'hobby' games until few years ago. It's partly my irritation of having missed so much that I'm keen on promoting board games as a really social activity. Hence this site.
I enjoy the social interaction involved in a game, and perhaps this is why I like the shorter games, where the interaction doesn't have time to get staid, and people bored with their position.
I am a member of the Institute of Advanced Motorists (IAM), one of the two UK advanced driving organisations that require a test of driving ability for membership (the other is RoSPA).
10 people died today in the UK because of incompetant drivers.
Primarily "4mm" railway modelling although the rail aspect is almost secondary to the modeling per se. Currently working on a model inspired by the (now lifted) Oxbridge rail link
This has nothing to porridge. Quakerism, or The Society of Friends originated as a non conformist Christian group in Lancashire, England, in the 17th Century. Quakers believe that that communication with God doesn't require any intermediary, ritual, or any particular place, or time.
A key aspect of our faith is that there is part of God in everyone. This respect for "that of God" leads many Quakers to work in the areas of mediation, and with those who are disadvantaged in some way.
A largely dormant activity these days except for the occasional ceilidh or Playford Ball. Mostly interested in English country dancing. Dabbled briefly in Morris but didn't have the beard or beer capacity for it. Looking forward to when the boys are old enough to enable us to get to festivals such as Whitby and Sidmouth. (Sadly Cambridge Folk Festival has folkiness as Snakes and Ladders has strategy).
The Bodhran (pronounced more ways than it is misspelt. Try Boww-Ron, or Boor-runn) is the Irish version of the generic frame drum. A skin (typically goat) mounted on a circular frame. Played with a beater in the right hand while holding the drum vertically with the left arm. Tone and reverb. controlled by the left hand.
Garden engineer would probably be a better term. We have about a third of an acre of garden. I tend the shrubs, trees, etc. while Elizabeth deals with the flowers and vegetables. Martin, Simon, and Jonathan, have their own patch which seems to have a disproportionate amount of strawberry planting.
Other influences include reading science fiction, particularly Larry Niven. Fan of Lewis Carroll and other nonsensical writings, especially poetry. Exposed to too many Les Barker poems....
Pearl was an incurable romantis,
And her heart was destined to break
When she saw him, so big and so brutal;
But Pearl made a fatal mistake.
He stood there, so strong and so silent,
But their love was never to be;
For Pearl was a praying mantis
And he was a JCB.
from 'Pearl' published in 'Alsations to Crewe'