Those Other Interests

You determine where someone's heart is, by observing how they spend their time and money.  If I look back over the past few years there are clear winners.

My Faith  I am an evangelical Christian.  This is core to who I am and my value system.  My wife and I currently attend Ascot Life Church.  I've met many of my friends though church and church related events.

My Family I am married to the wonderful Linda and I have three awesome daughters, Louise, Cordelia and Tazmin.  Whether it's on holiday, out on an activity, playing a game or simply chilling watching a movie at home - time spent with family is time well spent.

Gaming I love games, especially those with a strategic basis or involve story telling and imagination.  This is a huge area to cover and could be split into many sub-categories: Euro boardgames, wargames, role playing games, computer games and live action role playing.

Gardening I can easily spend a day in the garden, cutting back hedges, digging over a plot, pulling up some weeds, planting out some seedlings and finish the day wondering why it went by so fast, yet content with a sense of achievement.  Nothing beats the pleasure of bringing a basket of home grown fruit and veg into the kitchen, ready to be consumed.  I especially enjoy growing a selection of chili pepper varieties in my green house.

Walking I enjoy walking - particularly long distance walking.  Last year I took time off work so that I could walk the Thames Path and covered about 200 miles in six days.  The Thames Path is one of sixteen National Trails.  One down, fifteen to go....

Modelling & Making Stuff So there's a huge overlap here that has been driven by my gaming interest (but I also use to have a model railway layout when I was a kid).  I have always enjoyed casting lead soldiers, painting them and making scenery and models for wargaming.   This has been further fueled by my recent acquisition of a laser cutter.  My model making (I hope) will rise to a new level.

Finance Over the years I've dabbled in investing, to the point where I kid myself that I've developed a reasonable level of expertise.  I can happily spend a morning reading a company's latest results, reviewing the prospects of an investment trust, planing some projections in a spreadsheet or deciding how I'm going to re-invest some dividends.  I seem to get things right a bit more than I get them wrong - which is good, because that's what I'm going to be living off for the next few decades.