Hello from West Wales

Nearly 2018 and I have decided it is about time I joined the 'Networking Revolution' and got 'Social'. This is not my natural habitat, friends will attest to me being far from sociable and family will tell you that my ability to network and stay in touch is not one of my strong points. However, steemit was introduced to me a couple of weeks ago by a friend and it seems to me like a very interesting place to share, explore and develop new ideas.
Back to the intention of this post - my introduction.
As my title suggests, I live in the West of Wales on a smallholding just outside of a town called Lampeter - more on Lampeter in future posts. I live with my wife and 11 year old son and we have been here nearly 12 years. I work full-time for a large global IT company - most of the time from my home office with a wood buring stove, a view of the hills (if I stand up and wander over to the window) and usually accompanied by our cat Smudge who loves the fire more than I do.

My area of specialism is Data Centres - those large buildings that host much of the IT running today.
I am 52 so have collected a wide range of interests over the years from rock-climbing (now too old and too heavy but the gear is still in the attic and I have not given up - lots of easy routes out there), cooking (love the middle east but moving even further east recently under the influence of Meera Sodha),
real-ale (not to be confused with Craft Beer and there is maybe potential for a Lampeter Micro-Brewery),
the land, how we treat it and Permaculture in particular, Triumph Motorcycles, the Transition Town movement and Rugby (I do live in Wales !) to name but a few.
However, I guess the thing that has drawn these strands together and has me entering the world of Social Media via steemit is a desire to understand and influence the world my son and his generation will inheriet.
I have a view of that future, influenced by my role within the world of global business and IT in particular I guess. I believe technology will shape the future and we need to engage with it to make sure that the influence is generally a positive one.