About This Website
This is the personal website of Paul Chappell.
I’m a 70-year-old retired computer programmer, living in Marsden, West Yorkshire, England. I was born in Liverpool, which makes me a Scouser.
I’ll be writing about anything that interests me, absolutely anything. However, my main interests are:
Photography
I’ve been interested in photography all my life.
It all started when I was at university in the mid-seventies. In those days there were no digital cameras, it was all film. In my study, I have a large box of slides and prints. I’m hoping to digitise some of them, in order to show them on this website (though there are issues doing this, see this post).
My current camera is a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ2000 bridge camera, which I bought in September 2024. My previous digital camera broke earlier that year, it was a Canon EOS400D, which I bought in 2007 (it was getting old, like me!).
For photo editing I use Affinity Photo Two, it cost me £67.99 (there is no monthly or yearly charge), I can use it forever, and I can use it on multiple devices. Unlike Adobe Photoshop Express.
I used to use Gimp which is open source and free, but I found it too complicated to use.
I’ll be publishing a lot of my photographs (and some from my friends and family) on this website. You are not allowed to use any of them without written permission, see my copyright page for further information.
The photograph of me on the right was taken by my friend John Buckley during a visit to the Hop Vine in Burscough earlier this year. I wrote about that trip here.
Travel
I’ve been lucky to travel abroad a lot in the past, but nowadays its mostly local. Around West Yorkshire, Greater Manchester and Merseyside. With some trips further afield. I’ll be writing about my travels.
I usually take loads of photos on these trips; I’ll be publishing the more interesting ones on this website.
I’ve been a member of the Campaign for Real Ale for over 50 years! I’ll be writing about some of the more interesting pubs I visit, most trips involve a visit to an interesting pub or two. One of my sources for finding interesting pubs is CAMRA’s Good Beer Guide, I’ve written about it here.
Music
I’ve always loved music.
Back in the seventies it was mainly prog-rock and folk. Nowadays I’ll listen to almost anything (though not heavy metal, thrash metal, hip-hop, rap or anything similar). When I’m in my study, music is always playing. Sometimes the music gets in the way of writing. Sometimes the writing gets in the way of music.
Reading
Over the years, I’ve done a lot of reading. I love a good book (me).
Now, in my retirement, I’m reading a lot more. A lot of my travels are by train, it’s nice reading a book on the train, occasionally looking out of the window to watch the world go by. If I’m in a pub on my own, it’s nice to read a book in a quiet corner.
The photograph of me on the left was taken by my friend John Buckley at Edge Hill railway station, in 1977.
Science, Maths and Engineering
I’ve always been interested in these subjects.
Back in the early/mid-seventies I did a civil engineering degree at Sheffield University. I never became a civil engineer; I decided computer programming was more interesting, after learning how to program on the course. The one thing I did learn though, was how buildings are designed and built. For some reason, I’ve always loved big bridges.
The course taught me a lot about maths, most of it I’ve forgotten, but I really liked maths (well, someone must).
Programming
I’ve been writing software for over 50 years. The computer world has changed massively during that time; that’s one of the interesting things about being a programmer for so long.
I’m now retired, though I still write code. I’m currently writing a website generator for myself; I’m writing about this on another of my websites. It’ll probably be the last bit of complicated software I’ll ever write.
Websites
This is something I never thought I’d get into, throughout my career I never really programmed user interfaces, programs that interact with people.
I now write my own HTML, CSS and Java Script, as I am interested in very fast websites, websites that display in a browser very quickly. Html and Java Script where easy enough to learn (given that I’ve had 50 years’ experience of programming). CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) was incredibly difficult to learn.
21st July 2025