Alex on the Web

So you finally found me …

In that case, you’ll probably want to know a little about me now that you’re here. (Danvers, put in some stuff here about my being handsome, clever, witty, debonaire. Usual stuff, there’s a good chap.)

Who am I?

My name is Alex MacPhee.  The likeness above, I’m told, is fairly good.  (It cost about 10,000 Lira from a pavement caricaturist one warm and barefoot midnight by the shores of Lake Garda. Or about £4.50.)

Where am I?

Deep in the steamy rainforests of central Surrey.

What do I do?

Professionally, I designed and developed large scale  network, telephony and billing software systems for British Telecom.

What do I do now?

I’m now a fellow of leisure, having taken early retirement  so that I could devote all my time to my wife Frances, during her long illness. I spend a lot of my recreation time out walking, in all seasons. It’s rarely cold enough or wet enough to keep me indoors, but when it is there’s also a little time spent in researching my family history and origins, principally from South Uist in the Outer Hebrides, Islay in the Inner Hebrides, and the little coastal fishing towns of Aberdeenshire.

For some years now, I’ve followed the sport of ice hockey.   I have also fenced for about forty years, since being introduced to the sport  by the wonderful Christine Tolland, sometime Scottish ladies champion, in Glasgow in the late sixties.

Although not musically talented (a statement that has not yet earned any dissent), about a year ago I decided to learn to play piano, having never played one in my life. It is more challenging than I expected, but the neighbours have been kind. So far. Which is to say, they have not yet broken down the door, or let down the tyres on my car.

Is there a photograph of me?

Well, if you insist ….

How do you know me?

A little of my past might help. I was born and bred in Glasgow, growing up mostly in the south side, in Pollok. Schooldays were spent at Lourdes School there. For several years, I worked in the Royal Beatson Hospital’s Institute for Cancer Research, in Glasgow’s city centre. In 1975 I left Glasgow for Edinburgh and a career in Post Office Telecommunications, later British Telecom. I’m also a graduate of the University of Edinburgh. In 1986 I left Scotland for London and a big computing project with British Telecom. If you’re still not sure after these clues, just drop me a line anyway…

How can you contact me?

The email to use is alex_macphee AT outlook DOT com. Just make the obvious substitutions, which are there to avoid being sucked in by these wicked spamsters.  If our paths have crossed at any time, please drop me a note, even if it’s just to say ‘hello’ from a distance.

Where else can you find me?