Other Interests and Hobbies

As an retired teacher of Design and Technology (formerly Metalwork and Technical Drawing) I now have lots of free time, whereas when I was working, I had lots of long holidays and very little money (now retired I have even less)....

 

Thus DIY and building projects took most of my free time - my first house was a conversion of an old Methodist chapel (divorced and long since sold) - that took 15 years....

 

Currently I am finishing off a 12 year build of an extension to the house (much to the relief of my long-suffering wife, Lyn), and last year I started to build a new shed to house some of my collection.....

Extension from the north - must cut back the ivy...
Balcony (over the kitchen) - from the east....
Shed - view from south....

Looking down on the shed from the balcony in the photo above. I have now cast some 19.5 inch x 30 inch coping stones to match some 18th century originals to finish off the garden wall.... The roof is now ready for battening and slating... (Update April 2013 - 50% slated, but run out of slates).

 

Diagnosis of prostate cancer in November 2011, and subsequent treatment , has slowed down work - the prognosis is good, and radiotherapy was started in April 2012 and finished at the end of June. I also stopped the (female) hormone treatment (which has similar effects to the chemical castration they forced upon Alan Turing in the 1950's  - not that I have his proclivities). However I still have hot flushes and a few other side effects.... (Update March 2013 - PSA count low - urology specialist has said that he no longer wishes to see me...)

 

Back of the roof in April 2013 - just enough slates to finish this pitch, have to buy some more....

Front of roof in June 2013 - new slates are a slightly different colour, but what the heck - it's only a shed....

I was for a long time an active member of White Horse Morris Men, and also danced with Gloucestershire, the now defunct Herga and was a founder member of Gloucester Old Spot with Ken Langsbury and a few others in the late 1960's. (From 1967 to 1973 I was alternating between Gloucestershire and London every six months, as I did my engineering apprenticeship and sandwich degree course).

 

For a while I also danced with the short lived Wylye Valley side, and the equally short lived Kensington & Chelsea Morris (founded about 1970 to rival the then renowned Chingford Morris Men  - as well as me there was Jim Reynolds, Doug Sherriff, Dave (Buttercup) Roberts, Dave (Daisy) Armitage, Colin Dipper and John Holman - more musicians than dancers...). From those days the England's Green & Pleasant Band was formed (finally settling on the Wiltshire/Dorset border - I played with them when they were short of a musician)...

 

These days I am still an occasional musician for White Horse Morris (no longer Men, as to stay alive they had to let Women join), and still play in the White Horse Country Dance Band, which was an offshoot from the morris side some 25 years ago....

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