Andrew Upton - an introduction

How does someone describe themselves?

It's not particularly easy. Although, I may think I'm an interesting person, others will clearly disagree. So let me tell you a little of my history.

I'm English by origin, growing up in Hucknall, a small mining town, just a few miles north of Nottingham. It was a very vibrant place to grow up in. However, the closure of the local mines during the mid 80's saw the demise of the town.

After leaving school/college, I joined the computer industry in 1980 as a mainframe computer programmer. Oh, how things have changed since those days. And, yes, I do remember using 80 column cards and helping a computer operator lift a 96MB ICL exchangeable disk pack. Today, I have more data in my pocket than we two could lift then

In '86 I started a small software business with Robin Brown called Sovereign Software. We developed bespoke database driven systems for local companies. In '89 I bought a Grade II listed cottage in Bulcote Village, Nottingham. It was a fantastic place to live in and a very friendly village.

Getting tired of our 24hr/day business. Robin and I amicably parted company and I closed the business in '91. Following which, I started offering my services as a freelance consultant and moved to London, buying a home in Highgate Village.

After a succession of extremly interesting assignments, I was offered an opportunity to work for Crown Agents in Jamaica. Before leaving the England, I had a 3 month gap in my schedule. I decided to fill this with a short, two months technical consultancy role in Utrecht, Netherlands and one month to relax. It's here in Utrecht that I met Doris Jeckle, who later became my wife.

I had an unforgettable experience living and working in Jamaica and returned home after 12 months to a warm welcome and an appointment at the Alter.

Doris moved from Utrecht and we continued to live in Highgate, London. It was Doris' influence that helped me find my feet on the dance floor. I took professional latin dance lessons for nearly 6 years and ended up teaching Colombian Salsa with José Polanco at Pineapple Studios, Covent Garden.

London is a thrilling place to live and work and we took as bigger bite of the cake as we could. However, while we enjoy our good health and freedom. It was quite clear that Doris' parents were starting to slow down. For that reason, we decided to move to Munich, Germany in May 2002 and to be closer at hand.

We are now living in the picturesque village of Oberhaching, a few miles south of Munich. Work, social life and even language have completely changed beyond expectation. It just keeps on getting better.

So there we are, you now have a brief glimpse into my life...please enjoy the rest of my web site.