My Family and Stuff
Hello, welcome to the family Gwatkin-Williams web site.
My main purpose in maintaining this site is allow my family, who live over the other side of the world, and any other friends who are interested, to keep in touch with what I’m up to. If you don’t fit in to this category you probably won’t be very interested. However, it’s a free world so do dive in and have a nose around.
My name is John and I’m a computer programmer, primarily writing web applications in C#. As you’ll gather from this site I’m also a bit of a cyclist and I dabble in photography.
My wife, Gemma, teaches ballroom and latin dancing and is an excellent teacher. If that’s of interest to you, and live near Leatherhead or London, you’ll find a link to her web site in the side bar.
My daughter, Elspeth, is very bright and, at the time of writing, can tell you pretty much anything you could reasonably want to know about dinosaurs.
She is very good at art as well as many other aspects of natural history, and can draw you a splendid dragon if asked.
In September 2012 we were expecting a new addition to our family. Sadly our son, David, died only hours before Gemma went in to labour.
As yet we do not know why he died and it is possible we never will. His absence has left a big hole in our lives, but we have been greatly helped by our wonderful friends.
Apparently one in 200 births in the UK are stillbirths. The UK rate is higher than almost all other high-income country and the rate hasn’t changed in the last 10 years. Since we have suffered this loss we have been amazed by the number of people who have told us that they too suffered a stillbirth, late miscarriage or neo-natal death. If you’re interested in learning more please have a look at the following web sites:
- Mama Academy (www.mamaacademy.com) – An educational charity.
- Surrey Sands (www.surrey-sands.org.uk) – the Stillbirth and Neo Natal Death charity.
We are also immensely grateful to the wonderful midwifery team at Epsom General Hospital for all their kindness, suggestions and help. We hope we’ll be seeing you all in happier circumstances.
According to this amusing article I am a Contraption Captain:
This is my contraption. I know it looks a bit odd, but it’s fast and comfortable, and great fun to ride. Everyone should have one.