If you'd told me at the start of 2026 that by summer I'd be running a business, heading back to university at 49, and voluntarily spending my evenings learning software development, I'd probably have asked what you'd been drinking.
Yet here we are.
January started with a diagnosis that turned my world upside down. PPPD — Persistent Postural-Perceptual Dizziness. It's one of those conditions that sounds fairly harmless until you're the one living with it. Imagine feeling like the world is slightly off balance all the time. Busy supermarkets, crowds, bright lights, movement, visual clutter — my brain treats them all like a personal attack.
I ended up losing my job because of it. I won't pretend I took that particularly well. For a while it felt like someone had pressed pause on my life while everyone else carried on as normal.
"The world was wobbling. The computer screen wasn't."
While everyday life seemed determined to throw me off balance, sitting in front of a computer felt steady. The screen wasn't moving. The code wasn't moving. The computer wasn't asking me to navigate a supermarket under fluorescent lighting.
For the first time in months, I had somewhere I could focus without constantly fighting my own balance system. What started as an escape slowly became a plan. Or at least the closest thing I ever have to a plan.
I'd already earned a BSc in Applied Computing years ago, but life had taken me in different directions and I'd never really done anything with it. Suddenly that dusty old degree started looking a lot more useful.
Enter Code Badger
By March I'd launched Code Badger, offering web design, software development and PC repairs here in Perth, Scotland.
At almost exactly the same time, I applied for the BSc (Hons) Computing degree at Perth UHI and entered directly into Year 3 through Recognition of Prior Learning.
Starting a business and going back to university at the same time might seem a bit ambitious. Some folk probably thought I'd finally lost the plot. To me it felt like the most natural thing in the world. I love learning, I enjoy solving problems, and for the first time in my life I actually had the opportunity to throw myself into something I genuinely cared about.
So Why A Badger?
Badger has been my nickname for years.
Partly because I'm stubborn. Partly because once I get my teeth into something, I refuse to let go. And partly because "Code Capybara" sounded absolutely ridiculous.
Badgers aren't glamorous. Nobody sticks a badger on a motivational poster soaring majestically over a mountain at sunrise. They're scruffy, determined little tanks that keep digging until they get where they're going.
That felt about right.
There's also a charitable side to it. For every £249 small business website sold through Code Badger, I make a donation to Scottish Badgers, helping support badger conservation here in Scotland.
Finally Understanding Why Some Things Were Hard
Education hasn't always been straightforward for me.
I've spent years feeling like I was working twice as hard as everyone else just to keep up. Understanding the material was rarely the problem. Getting it out of my head and onto paper was a completely different story.
Through Perth UHI's student support team, I was assessed and diagnosed with dyslexia. Suddenly a lot of things made sense.
A Personal Learning Support Plan was put in place. More importantly, people actually read it. For the first time in education, I felt like the system was working with me rather than around me.
That might not sound like a big deal. Trust me, it is.
When you've spent years wondering if you're simply not clever enough, having someone explain that your brain just works differently can change everything.
"You're allowed to start again. Even at 49."
I'm 49 years old.
I have PPPD. I have dyslexia. I have enough random aches and pains these days that standing up too quickly occasionally feels like an extreme sport.
Yet here I am, building a business, studying software development, learning new things every week and making plenty of mistakes along the way.
The point isn't that I've got everything figured out. Far from it.
The point is that you're allowed to change direction. You're allowed to start over. You're allowed to chase something that excites you, even if everyone else thinks you've left it a bit late.
This is The Brock Log.
It's where I'll share the journey as it happens. The business, the degree, the wins, the mistakes, the occasional coding disaster that somehow turns out to be a missing semicolon, and everything in between.
It'll be honest, occasionally sarcastic, probably fuelled by too much coffee, and written in plain English.
Sometimes with a little help from AI when dyslexia decides that turning thoughts into sentences should be today's boss battle.
Thanks for stopping by.
Pull up a chair. The kettle's on.