HI!  I'm Derek and I'm an ex fed-up Senior Lecturer in Chemistry. Life was getting hard - anyone who has read Scott Adams'  'The Dilbert Principle' will know what I mean - but I managed to get early retirement in September 1994 at age 57.

I'm fortunate to enjoy a variety of hobbies and pastimes including Scouting (gaining a Wood Badge from Gilwell Park), | Write to G4UXD | , Pot-holing (spelunking)  (one time member of the Northern Pennine Club and Yorkshire Ramblers Club) which produced major original explorations (including discovery of Link Pot (Link Pot Exploration-1, exploration-2 )and Tatham Wife Hole), a bit of filming, Blasting with gelignite (for cave exploration), Computing, Caravanning, French Cuisine and tasting wine in the French vineyards.  (The latter, together with the steady decline in caving and increased sitting in front of rigs and computers has done nothing for my figure - in my serious caving days I could get through less than 8", but 12" would be nearer the mark now!).

An unlikely interest is in being the President (1997-2009) of The Association for The Centre of The Universe. If nothing else, the ACU has a nice Home Page! And nosy visitors might like some of our private photo albums and our house in the south of France.

In the early 60's I became interested in Folk Music, and accompanied my wife Jean playing banjo, both regular 5-string and fretless. Bluegrass became an interest from the very early Edale days but it was more recently that I started playing Bluegrass proper, after many years not playing at all. I've resigned myself to the fact that I'll never be much good at it because I have too many other interests, but that didn't stop Jean and I running a Bluegrass Club in Chester, nor my being onetime Committee Member of the British Bluegrass Music Association (I'm almost embarrassed to say...)

Nowadays we play only in and around the San Francisco area (with our daughter Belle Monroe and friends) and sometimes in France. I spend a lot of time studying Relativity Theory, Super-string Theory and Cosmology (excellent exercise for a damaged brain...)

Early September 1997 I had the misfortune to suffer a stroke.  But all the tests proved the plumbing to be in A-OK condition and I recovered fairly quickly.

I had to reduce my stress level. Running the NWBN was very hard work and very time-consuming, so I eventually decided to give it up - almost... Now it's essentially an archive to preserve the many good articles. Nonetheless we still get thousands of visitors, so please help out, whoever you are; please help if you can by sending articles, CD reviews, etc., etc., without me having to mither for them constantly!

Thanks!  Write to Derek

Updated 27th February 2009