Hi, my name is Steven, I live in the Essex commuter belt and work in London. Since leaving school in January 1987  I have worked for a number of different Lloyds Insurance/Reinsurance Brokers.  Until January 1997 I was a Claims Broker / Technician dealing with claims from around the world, anything from a Singapore motor accident, Indonesian Shopping Centre (which had a nasty habit of burning down, usually following a riot) to the windstorms which hit the UK and Europe in October 1987 and January 1990.

I now work in the IT department of an another Lloyds Reinsurance Broker, being responsible for supporting the companies IT infrastructure.

This somewhat drastic change of occupation came about when I successfully computerised a number of my daily tasks, using some rather basic Excel spreadsheets & VBA code. I then decided mucking around with computers was rather more fun than processing dodgy reinsurance claims.

Over the past few years I have passed a total of a large number of computer related exams, 15 of these passes being  Microsoft Certified Professional exams. Unfortunately as Microsoft bring out new versions of their major software products, they retire the qualifications in the older versions, thus forcing you to retake exams in the current version.

So in order to obtain a more permanent qualification, I've started an Open University course. These pages detail some of the OU courses I've taken.

When not computing I enjoy researching my family history, photography, model trains and studying military & naval history. The latter stems from my father, who served in the Fleet Air Arm for some 30+ years.

I'm also a member of the local rail users group, TRUG, having joined initially to help stop c2c's outrageous plans to install TV screens in all their carriages!