Pleasures

There never seems enough time to pursue the hobbies, pastimes and pleasures that I share with my family and friends. But then mostly what I enjoy is those family and friends … and a good bottle or two of gin (Sipsmiths for preference).

Our Tonkinese cats.

Scuba diving.

Cooking is one of life’s great pleasures. A day in the kitchen with my wife and family or friends turning out tasty food is a genuine treat. I love baking but perhaps my greatest delight is in trying out new skills; making sausages, salami, cheese, butter, jams, drinks (soft and alcoholic), pickles, sweets, drying herbs and fruits and smoking anything that comes to mind (as in smoked cheese and other foods!).

My wife and I love to travel and, over recent years, have been to many countries, mostly for the purposes of diving. Indeed, if it hadn’t been for the diving we might never have seen (or perhaps even heard of) Bonaire, Great Exuma and the Turks & Caicos Islands nor ventured into the Andaman Sea (and experienced dynamite fishing first hand) before Mayanma started to slacken its borders.

Earlier hobbies included

  • Classic Cars: I owned a Bristol 405 which my first wife and I used to show and I was once the Oxfordshire 2 Litre Bristol Handling Champion! I was a member of the Bristol Owners Club and assisted in the production of the photos for the definitive history.
  • Cameras: I had a massive collection of old cameras, including many old Kodak models as well as plenty of specialist European and Japanese cameras and was a member of the Photographic Collectors Club of GB
  • Cactus & Succulent: I was a member of the UK Cactus and Succulent Society … a bit random but there you go
  • Photography: A passion for many years but much less so now although I am in a project to digitise and catalogue all my physical photos and slides going back over 50 years