Officially, I am a Swiss citizen, and as well a subject of His Britannic Majesty and a citizen of the Untied Kingdom. However, I was brought up and educated in Belgium, and I live and work in the Swiss Italian Canton of Ticino, so I’m more European than anything else, and I don’t much identify with England. I emerged from the University of London with a degree in Industrial Aerodynamics. It wasn’t the most popular subject to major in. Apparently there were precisely 4 people registered for it, across all classes. This was an early sign of my unfortunate tendency to choose the least sensible option of all possible opportunities.
Soon afterwards, I applied for, and very much to my surprise, was offered, a job in the glaciology department of the British Antarctic Survey. This led to a more than a decade of working on airborne and satellite remote sensing of Antarctic ice shelves, right at the beginning of the big climate change hoopla. Naturally, as soon as it was established that this was the place to be, I took another sharp left turn and started a new career in space science and technology consulting. This in turn led to getting involved in early experiments with satellite internet, followed by a string of start-up disasters, and finally I ended up as an IT Business Analyst in a Major Swiss Bank, which is where I remain to this day.
Is that the end of the story? Who knows.
Alongside all of this, I’ve always maintained creative sidelines, generally in order to have something to waste slightly more money than I’m earning on. Initially it was music, then illustration and graphic design, then, and far too early, interactive multimedia, and finally the relatively sensible option of photography. Along the way I found time to jointly found a record company, which swallowed huge amounts of money. It still exists, but I have nothing to do with it these days, even though in theory I possibly should have.