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Music, comedy, the outdoors..

“It is not how much we have, but how much we enjoy, that makes happiness.”
– Charles Spurgeon

Interests / Hobbies

Music

I used to play the Cornet (a smaller version of a Trumpet) and then the Alto Saxophone. I passed my Grade 3 exam with the latter and then unfortunately stopped taking lessons – with hindsight, a big mistake. These days, I generally listen to music than create it – but my interests are rather varied, from electronic, ambient and trance, to classical and jazz.

Television

My main interests lie in BBC comedy – particularly from the 1970s and 1980s. Favourites are:

TV

  • Fawlty Towers
  • Yes, Minister and Yes, Prime Minister
  • Only Fools and Horses
  • Blackadder

Here are some of my favourite quotes:

Fawlty Towers – Basil in Communication Problems
[to a complaining guest about a view] “Well… may I ask what you were hoping to see out of a Torquay bedroom window? Sydney Opera House perhaps? The Hanging Gardens of Babylon? Herds of wildebeeste sweeping majestically…”

Yes, Minister – Sir Humphrey in One of Us?
“You can’t check up on everything – you never know what you might find!”

Yes, Prime Minister – Bernard Woolley in The Tangled Web
“Apparently, the fact that you needed to know was not known at the time that the now known need to know was known, therefore those that needed to advise and inform the Home Secretary perhaps felt the information he needed as to whether to inform the highest authority of the known information was not yet known and therefore there was no authority for the authority to be informed because the need to know, was not, at that time, known or needed.”

Computers, electronic gadgets, etc!

I’ve been interested in computers ever since my dad brought home an IBM XT from work in 1986 (I was about 5 at the time!). It has 128KB RAM, a 10MB hard disk, 5.25 inch floppy drive and a green display. Impressive at the time!

I used to build PC systems for friends and family between 1996 and 1999, but these days machines are so cheap that it hardly makes sense to build your own.

Since April 2009, I’ve become an Apple and Mac OS X convert.  Extremely happy with my 24″ iMac.  Pure computing pleasure – fast, reliable, aesthetically pleasing, space saving, true quality.

I’m certainly no web guru, but I have some knowledge of HTML, PHP, mySQL, JavaScript, ASP, JSP and Perl.

Some websites that I find useful:

  • gradwell.com – where most of my web domains are hosted, highly recommended – top products and exemplary service
  • digitalspy.co.uk – news related to digital TV, satellite, ADSL, cable modems etc.
  • Webmonkey – great info and tutorials on web programming
  • PHPBuilder – the ultimate PHP site
  • Shorewall – a wrapper around IPTABLES for easy configuration of firewall rules, highly recommended!
  • ShieldsUP! – test your firewall
  • TheRegister – excellent IT related news site

Other interests

I like the outdoors – running, cycling, hiking.  I also play the odd bit of badminton but not as regularly as I used to before.  As you may discover from the other pages on this site I’m also extremely fond of good vegetarian cuisine, and glued to my Nikon DSLR – photography is most definitely a passion.