Paul Dack's Blog

Summary

I was born & breed in Jarrow, Tyne & Wear and in 1998 I was working on a contract for Hyder in Cardiff when I meet my wife to be, Shân. initially, we were just good friends so I had no hesitation in accepting a contract with Sage back in Gateshead. I’d been working around the country for almost 4 years and was keen to take a contract back in the North East.

Shân and remained in touch and things progressed that I moved back down to South Wales in September 2000 and we were married the following year. Four years later and we had our first child, a girl. followed three years later by her sister – and that will probably do.

I’ve been working as a freelance IT developer since September 1995. I survived Y2K, the big IT recession of 2003 and I lived through the global recession of 2009.

 

Career

I left the University of Central Lancashire with my degree in Industrial Information Technology (BSc Hons 2:2) in 1992. Keen to take some time off, I spent the Summer and Winter of ’92 ‘chiling out’ whilst I decided exactly what career path I wanted to follow.

In January 1993, I decided to enroll onto a local 3 month course entitled Graduates Into Enterprise North East. The aim of the course was essentially to cross train any graduate into IT. It may seem a rather odd move for a graduate in IT but I still hadn’t decided what area of IT I wanted to follow.

The course offered an introduction into a broad range of IT disciplines and I felt it would help make my final choice on career path. Plus the course offered a temporary place in idnsutre atthe co,pletino of the course. Thus I could effectively ‘try before I buy’, without actually committing to a job position. The course proved to be enjoyable and indeed did give an insight into the differing aspects of IT.

My placement was with a small software house developing a bespoke FoxPro application for security alarm installers. It didn’t take me long to realise that developing application software was the way to go for me, I was loving it! I loved being in my own little world of coding and the challenge it presented.  I loved going on site and dealing with customers face to face whilst installing and training the users on site.

 

Interests & Hobbies

Body Building

My main non work related interest is weight training, or to name it correctly, bodybuilding. What’s the difference ! I hear your cry! Well, weight training is actually an activity of body building that is used specifically to build\shape target muscle groups. Weight training provides the stimulus for muscle growth, nutritional provides the building blocks and sleep provides the time for recuperation.

Although body building has been a part of my life for almost twenty years now, I’ve always ensured it remains no more than a part of my life. It’s a sport that can easily consume almost every aspect of your waking (and sleeping) life. If allowed, body building can totally dictate what you do and don’t eat & drink, the exclusion of all other sporting activities and even your sleeping pattern.

Serious body building can be likened to having a new born baby – it needs feeding every 3 hours (on a diet of high quality protein and lots of it!), and requires a good ten hours sleep every night.

Paragliding

I had actually planned to fulfill a life long ambition of learning free flight flying in 2004. The plan was to have our first child, give it a few months for us to all to settle into a routine and then I would begin upon my quest. Such was my naivety. I (we) was quite unprepared for the magnitude of shock having your first child has upon your lifestyle, as many of you reading are doubt well aware.

 Five years later in January 2009, I finally joined a local paragliding club Paraventure. Although my choice in club selection was based simply on location, I struck gold with Paraventure. The owner and Chief Flying Instructor, Paul Williams, has been invovled with the sport for over twenty years. He was instrumental in helping the governing body, BHPA formulate its rigorous training syllabus.