IPH interests

My interests have always been important to me. Even when I lived abroad, I tended to develop hobbies where I lived rather than spending most of my out and about. During some periods abroad, this was impractical and as a result I found it difficult to use up all my free time, because doing things in my own place has always been what some people would call “an important part of who I am”.

I have never defined myself in terms of the job I did for a living. Rather, I have always considered myself as a person who happened to be doing a particular job at a particular time, even though for three decades the jobs I did were in information and communications technology. Part of my view of who I am has always been the things I did because I was interested in them, or because I enjoyed doing them when it was necessary. I have always tended to do practical things, such as work in my house or garden, myself rather than paying somebody else to do such work. The exception is my car — see my page Things I am not interested in.

Things I am interested in

• Art — I paint in oils and acrylics and sometimes make works of other kinds. My paintings are available for sale. See my art gallery.
• Music from a variety of standpoints including singing in opera and musical shows (see next), playing several instruments (clarinet, guitar, ukulele, ...), and composition of pieces for organ, solo piano, orchestra, and other ensembles.
• The theatre especially the kinds of production with music ranging from pantomime to opera
• Languages — apart from the (dead) classical languages I learnt French to O level at grammar school, and Russian in a once-per-week evening class held by one teacher there from my 6th year on. At university (1990) I had occasion to translate a Russian poem into ancient Greek
  While at ICL (1984-6) I did a one year (1985-6) French A level evening class, got an A grade pass, and then when I lived in Paris (1976-8) and in Puteaux just outside Paris (1981-2) I became native fluent. In later years, French people I talked to would ask: “Vous êtes français? Ou vous êtes anglais?”
  I learnt German from scratch when I lived in Korntal (near Stuttgart, 1979-81) but became native fluent in that so that German people I talked to on holiday many years later would say “Was? Du bist kein Deutscher?!” after chatting for a while and then asking where I was from.
  As for the Russian, when I married a woman from St Petersburg in 1997, her English was so good that she did not think there was any point talking Russian with me because I was never going to need it, or visit let alone live in Russia; and that was (and remains) true. (We parted after 18 months but she was happy to have moved to England.) However in 2017 in a conversation about having learnt Russian in 1966-8 with a lady from Lithuania I was still able to recite the whole Russian (Cyrillic) alphabet in Russian, and I can still be polite and talk a little in Russian 50 years on despite only ever spending one week there.
  My interest in English language continues, and as well as being the editor of the Mensa South East England monthly regional newsletter (see IPH and SEMantics) I was asked by a Mensan friend to consider setting up what is now a project at www.worldenglish.org.uk.
• My practical hobbies have in the past included DIY, gardening, hobby electronics, and miniature model railways, including a project where I designed and built a digital electronic model railway control system.
• Conversation and debate specifically about ...
• Science & philosophy
• Mensa

Things I am not interested in

To see what these are and why I would have anything to say about them see my page Things I am not interested in.