Brief History
Take heed gentle reader as you read this Grimorium Cantium for it begins to unravel a series of slightly unfortunate events that has surrounded a humble child of Kent...
Wayne was born of Irish ancestry in the "Pearl of Kent" during the autumn of 1967, which might explain his love for autumn - though given the recent abnormal nature of the English meteorological system, the seasons seem to be a little topsy-turvy; with that, anything is possible including raining frogs and aircraft engines.
At the age of five, he was inducted into the ways of the "Kentish Inquisition" - well, okay, I mean the local Roman Catholic Primary School - it could be said that he wasn't the shiniest of light bulbs but he wasn't the dullest either, this less than illustrious start to his shiny academic-related career could, in part, be explained by his hearing impairment. Unlike a lot of the other boys, Wayne's thoughts were not on being a train driver, a footballer or a computer specialist but that of a palaeontologist owing to his, almost obsessive, fascination and love of all things dinosauria.
It wouldn't be until his early teens that he would see his dream of being a palaeontologist flushed down the proverbial toilet when he discovered that he didn't particular like biology and wasn't particularly good at chemistry - not exactly a good start towards his palaeontologic dream and now contents himself with the "Jurassic Park" movies and the "Primaeval" TV show (that was until ITV dropped it after 3 series in 2009) to satiate his Jurassic interests. Whilst we are still floundering around his educational miasma, he still regrets, to this very day, dropping French, which he was extremely good at despite the hearing impairment, for a rubbish course in technical drawing. Ce un imbécile! However, an interest in computer programming and technology was beginning to simmer and would soon blossom into something quite wonderful.
With his formative education, apparently, over, Wayne had a spell in computer sales and technical support, then looked after the software library at Canterbury Christ Church University before going off to write some Assembler code to read and display FTSE 100 Index data onto the big screens of London's financial and stock market exchanges. He came back to Canterbury Christ Church again where he stayed there for 10 years working in an assortment of Computing Services related jobs. In 1999, Wayne gained his BSc in Information Technology and Social Sciences (with a smattering of Psychology) and duly went off again to work for a small software sales and development house based in Gravesend (Hmmm, yes I know and it doesn't have a "something of Kent" to disguise it's identity!) where he work as a senior web developer specialising in developing e-portfolio systems that were used in Primary and Secondary schools up and down the country and overseas.
In 2006, Wayne returned to Canterbury Christ Church University (he just can't get away can he?) where he is currently in his third incarnation as a learning technologist working within the Learning and Teaching Enhancement Unit (formerly the TITLE Unit) which affords him the opportunity to work with academic staff to enhance and enrich their learning, teaching and research practices through their engagement with technology. He is also a Chartered IT Professional with the British Computer Society and is half way through a MSc in e-Learning with the University of Edinburgh.
Wayne continues to live in the "Garden of England", the cultural and spiritual home of Chaucer, Marlowe, Powell, hops, orchards, oysters, sparking wine, some White Cliffs, an Archbishop, a bear called "Rupert", a cat called "Bagpuss" and "Barry" from EastEnders.
He is a cartophilist, cinephile, technogeek, a student of numerology and a veteran Top Trumps player with a taste for fine wine, fine food and as little exercise as possible, well, okay, maybe a little bit of walking. He has been known to have done some writing and regrets not playing a musical instrument and sticking with French at school and would like to know why he doesn't have an entry in Wikipedia so that he can point this "brief history" page there instead.
Postscript: The author would like his readers to note that "Grimorium Cantium" is a piece of absurd Latin which should guarantee this page being picked up in a Google search should someone be inspired enough to type it in - this, of course, could take some time!
