Hobbies

I have always been interested in all sorts of things. I enjoy  going to the gym as well as playing the occasional game of racketball, and an even more occasional game of cricket. I used to enjoy playing football but hung up my boots when I was 55 (the aches and pains were taking longer than a week to subside). I now just watch the game and imagine myself playing for Liverpool FC.

 







Since childhood I have enjoyed Astronomy and have two telescopes. Although I never went to university, I belatedly, in my fifties, embarked on courses at the University of Central Lancashire in Astronomy, then Cosmology and latterly Astrobiology - but my brain hurts slightly now so I shall leave university study to my daughters (one at Reading and the other in Canterbury).

Since retiring, my main preoccupation is writing and I have had short stories and articles published, and several plays performed.

Attending a poetry workshop week in France with the poet Roger McGough.

I try to travel as often as possible while I still have the energy and wherewithal to negotiate airports and foreign terrains, although that 'enjoyment' has diminished over the last few years.



 

In 2011 Sally and I visited a country I had yearned to go to since my teenage years and eventually achieved in my first year of retirement. Peru: what a fantastic country. If you get the chance, you must visit the place and its wonderful people.







In2012 we visited Alaska, 'the last frontier'. A vast country in its own right with a wild, unspoilt beauty. Long may it remain so.