James D. Grierson

After two years of boredom in my first job, I answered an advert  offering "A Life of Science and Adventure".     The following five years  were spent with Seismograph Service where the adventure was provided  by flying in planes where there were more crew than passengers because of hijak scares, and armed rebels requesting that their vehicles were repaired in our camp in the middle of the Omani desert.  Fortunately, it was before rebels really got their act together.    The science was provided by operating and maintaining equipment which might have been at home in a laboratory but not being shaken in cross country vehicles.

After a two year spell  in Algeria, I returned to UK to work with early computers used for geophysical processing.     At that time 16 Kb of memory occupied a board 18 inches square and simple programmes to diagnose peripherals could be entered through push buttons on the front panel.

The boredom was kept at bay by short visits to vessels in the North Sea and subsidiary companies in other countries and increasingly complex computers.  I continued to work with the same company through various name changes and owners and retired in 2004.

In 1991 I started to keep bees and they have ensured that I have never had a dull moment during retirement.

I am married with a son and daughter.    My wife, Mavis, and I have lived in our present house for thirty nine years.