Hailing from the world’s “2nd best London”, I love to travel and when I’m not busy working or parenting, taking up some hobbies. This post is half-baked (and somewhat stale!) – will update as time permits.
Hobbies
Too many hobbies, not enough wallet. My hobby interests are circular – they wax and wane depending on the season, the triple constraint, or current events.
Triple Constraint: Time, Money, Hobby
- Books: I was never really a reader growing up. I’d read the Hardy Boys, Encyclopedia Brown but honestly, I am pretty sure I was older than the target audience by the time I got to reading them. I was more into technical books, books about computers, electronics, and cars, etc. Fast forward for my late 30s – and I discovered Lee Child’s “Killing Floor”. Since then I have read the entire series, the entire series by sir Ian Flemming, Diana Capri’s Reacher spinoff series, and several ‘historical’ books including many works of Jules Verne. As an aside, I am super pumped for hte Amazon Prime series Reacher coming out – I loved the first movie, the second was ‘meh’, but this series looks incredible.
- Ham Radio: First licensed in 2015, ham radio has been an interest since I was quite young. Really into repeaters and UHF\VHF. Discovering FT8 or low-power digital modes. See http://ve3foo.ca for more info.
- Trains: Have an N Scale kit I am putting together to run with the boy – and am currently stockpiling select HO gear from my late father’s train room for future use (when I can’t see what I’m doing!)
- Models: As a kid my dad did a LOT of planes and trains and the occasional boat. I had a few planes but I was more interested in building cars. Right now I have a stockpile of kits saved up, planning on introducing the we’an in the next year or two. I have been known to dabble in painting WH40k Ultramarines but I haven’t done that in years.
- R/C: I have a few RC projects, mostly micro helicopters and drones, biggest one is my E-Savage which I’ve found out after using and abusing it that it’s technically a collectors item and parts are hard to find. I’ve had a few RC boats in the past… I’ve grabbed some of my dad’s RC gear and may resume something like that down the road.
- Fish: Growing up apparently I became attached to an aquarium at the store, so my dad went out and got one. Seems like we always had an aqauarium. I had one myself at my first house but haven’t returned to the ‘hobby'(?) in many, many years.
- Planes: I love the airshow mainly because of my dad. My favourites are the F-4 Phantom, F-117 and the SR-71. I’ve been lucky enough to get in an F-4 when I was younger, thanks to my dad’s contacts.
- Cars: BSCCoC and London Auto Modifiers
- Electronics: I was a huge electronics geek as a kid, learned to solder when I was about 6. In highschool I could turn out 2-3 kits for every 1 another student would complete. Getting back into this hobby with a few cross over interests (like the Nixie clocks)
- Computers: When i was about 5 my dad sat me on his lap and I coded my first program. It wasn’t hello world, but “hi c”, the drink i don’t think I’ve ever had since inspired my first forway i to computer programming. I’ve had Timex Sinclair’s, Vic 20, c64s, built 8088s, 386s, 486s, pentiums, core i7s, and so on.
- Photography:
- Astronomy:
- Camping
- Music
- License Plates
Clubs\Afilliations
- Proud Past member of the 73rd Scouting in the London Area (With some hard time at the 29th)
- Vice President of Canada’s oldest hot rod club, the London Auto Modifiers
- BSCCoC
- Past manager of the London Lynx