PERSONAL INTERESTS

Just so you know I am not a complete desk-bound nerd I thought I would share with you some of my many interests which include:

Anything to do with good food and wine. My wonderful American wife Nicole and I both like to cook and enjoy trying out new recipes quite often. Some of our favorites are ginger rub planked salmon (of course we’ve never had the patience to use the plank), mustard and rosemary marinaded rack of lamb and five seed ahi tuna. I’ve broadened my knowledge of Californian wines since living here of course though I already had some knowledge gleaned from twenty years of attending wine tasting lunches in Sydney once a month. A visiting German vintner was clearly perturbed that we actually drank all the wine at our supposed tastings!
 
Sailing. I go out fairly regularly with a friend sailing on the Bay in his 28ft Triton and every so often on my own 25 ft Coronado on the lagoon that starts at the bottom of my garden. I have only recently gravitated (some would say graduated) to sailboats after owning powerboats for significant portions of my life.
 
SCUBA.  I like to dive in absolute safety in clear, warm, sunlit water with lots of beautiful, colorful interesting fish to view. So I love Hawaii, Cebu and of course the reefs, cays, atolls and islands of the Great Barrier Reef in my native Australia. Haven’t yet figured out how to get a physics consulting job in the Caribbean though I’ll keep trying! Northern Californian waters are a bit cool for me to enjoy another passion which is bodysurfing.
 
Travel. Nicole and I love to travel and have done a lot between the two of us – not necessarily to the wildest places on earth but to some of the most culturally interesting and naturally beautiful. Too many places to mention but we are always up for a trip to London and Paris whenever time and circumstances permit (along with another dozen destinations of course). I once lived in London for two years and Nicole lived in Paris for a year.
 
Genealogy. I am one part Scotch (sic) one part Irish and two parts English with an Australian mother and New Zealand father. I’ve tried tracing my family history but, especially on the Irish side it is made very difficult by the destruction of most church and civil records during “the troubles”. Nevertheless, I have discovered a strong engineering streak in my Scottish forbears, an entrepreneurial streak in my English forbears and a journalistic streak from both. My father and his two sisters were all journalists at one time or another – one of whom made it from NZ to Fleet Street London. Perhaps my love of travel comes from the Irish side where my grandfather and grand uncle, born in Ireland in the 1820’s, sailed around the world to various places as if there were 747’s at their disposal. My granduncle actually fought with the Missouri Irregulars in the Civil War, married a niece of General James Freemont and took her, first back to Ireland, then to New Zealand and finally took her to settle alongside his brother, my maternal grandfather, near Brisbane, Australia - where my mother and I were both born (31 years apart).
 
I have many other interests but you get the drift – I like to stay active both mentally and physically – tennis anyone?

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