I was born in Sutton, Surrey, in 1962. I lived and worked there until moving to the Netherlands in 1990. I was there for some 18 months before making a permanent base in the United States. The reasons and details behind all this are not important, but I am now happy to be making a home in Loveland, Ohio (after 22 years in St. Louis).
As an experienced world traveller, I adapt pretty well to different cultures, and I now consider myself an American. However, I am still proud of my heritage, and the British way of life, and I try to hang on to some of aspects of that life. The most important of these - quite unsurprising to those who know me - is the food!
When I arrived in the US, I didn't cook. As a kid - and as an adult, in fact - my mum didn't want me anywhere near the kitchen! So, when I got here, I discovered that things like steak and kidney pies, toad-in-the-hole, mushy peas, and spotted dick were not widely available. Starting to miss some of those wonderful comfort foods, it was a choice of making them myself, or going without. I'm sorry, the latter was not an option. Today, many British foods are quite common here, but I still love to make them myself.
Thinking about it, my love of British food is possibly overshadowed by my love of British sport. I have become a big baseball fan (GO CARDINALS!), yet it is the only American sport in which I have any interest. Real football (you know, the one where they actually use their feet...) is still very important to me, but speedway was always my first love. My parents met at Wimbledon speedway, and although the Dons are no more, I do follow the sport as much as I can, thanks to the wonders of the internet. Cricket, rugby union, and F1 are also among my faves.
Music has always been a huge part of my life, and I basically listen to anything except rap! Having said that, British 70's Glam Rock (Slade, Mud, Sweet etc) still has a tremendous appeal for me, as does ska (particularly from the Two-Tone revolution in the UK in the 70's and 90's), new wave, and British R&B from the 1960's. As a big fan of classical music (I was the principal guest host on Classic Tracks on the sadly defunct KFUO-FM in St. Louis), I do have a certain penchant for English composers, notably Delius, Vaughan-Williams, Arnold, and Warlock.
Now, this is where it gets weird...
I wouldn't say I have a fascination about death, but maybe? I think it is more that, while I am very philosophical about death and its impacts (as far as family and friends are concerned) I do feel that it is important not to forget people when they are gone, and certainly any kind of disaster with a loss of life is worth remembering. Having visited the National Coal Mining museum in Huddersfield in 2007, I found it a very exciting (for some reason, I have always been fascinated by heavy industry of years gone by), and extremely moving experience. That is how I discovered my interest in mining and mining disasters. That led to an interest in other disasters, I suppose.
Morbid perhaps, but keeping on the subject, I have always enjoyed walking through cemeteries. As described in the paragraph above, this too developed into another field; visiting graves of the famous. Of course, there are some great cemeteries in the UK, where some very notable names are interred. My particular favourite is in Limpsfield, Surrey, where Frederick Delius, and a number of other musicians are buried. A close second would be Streatham Vale Cemetery, where a sizable group of entertainers are laid to rest, including comedian Will Hay, American pianist Charlie Kunz, and music hall star, Gus Elen.
I enjoy studying historic buildings and architecture, and this developed into a somewhat quirky interest in urban decay! It is heartbreaking to see so many beautiful buildings demolished to make way for totally uninteresting modern structures, or simply left to stand and rot. This is a definitely a topic that I will be discussing on here in the future.
Other topics in which I possess more than a passing interest, are true crime (there I go with death again!), the supernatural (a variety of topic sup for discussion there), holiday camps (some of my fondest memories as a child), and the two World Wars. With regard to WWII, what intrigues me most of all is what the British went through on home soil, enduring air raids and blackouts, rationing (which led to some very interesting recipes!), and evacuation.
There you have it. A glimpse into what you can expect from me in the coming months.
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