A Billinghams Web page

My name is Ivone Billingham and I was born in 1959 in Point-á-Pierre Trinidad in the West Indies. Unfortunately I was too young when I left to have any but the vaguest memories. I remember the UK, where I spent my childhood and where the rest of my family are now, a lot better. I used my time during National Service to get myself a Technical Diploma in Electronic Engineering and saved up to put myself through University. I attempted my BSc in my second language but unfortunately the dream I had followed for 5 years turned out to be vastly different to the reality. Meeting my future wife at the end of my first year was the final straw changing the direction of my studies from BSc towards computing.

I married my wife on the 24 August 1985 in Pretoria South Africa. I joined a firm in a workshop fixing computer hardware in the days when they tended to explode if you got it wrong. I have spent a few years writing test programs in assembler and machine code but this is my first attempt at HTML. I Wrote my CNE "Certified NetWare Engineer" for Novell 2.15 in 1991 which I still maintain, now version 6, and so I progressed to networks. In 1998 I was given a Linux box set of RedHat, Slackware, Debian & Suse and have never looked back. I work now mostly in FreeBSD for my servers and SuSe for my work stations.

For many years my computers were my life. I pulled the network through to the kitchen so that I could access the servers and chat with my wife while she was preparing supper. You reach the point where you come home, switch on your PC then greet the wife while it boots, (efficient use of time). Work on it until you fall into bed, wake up save what you were doing last night and hurry off to work to complete it. Somehow this lifestyle was never appreciated by my wife. Our circumstances changed a lot after my Mother in Law passed away and we found a lot more time to spend together. We have a very quiet life with few hobbies and interests but some of these I have tried to lay out on this web page for you to see.

I was born in Vryheid, Natal but have spent most of my life in Pretoria. I was widowed in 1978 and left with two children, Michael and Lisa and my aging mother to look after. I bought the house next door to the Billinghams and subsequently met Ivone. We were married in 1985. We have shared many good times and hobbies together which we try to share with you here. We have a small house with a wild unkempt garden with many pets and wild birds. Here are a few photographs of some of the wild life in and around our house. I have recently become interested in digital photography and am responsible for supplying some of the photographs.

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