I suppose choral singing would be my main past time. When I was 8 years old, the conductor of a local choir in Taunton in England, where I lived at the time, came to my school to audition people. I went for it and got in. We then moved to Ireland, where I joined Marion Doherty's Enchiriadis, and the rest is history. I have had choral scholarships in St. Patrick's Cathedral and UCD, sing with Anuna and am generally a bit of a choral whore. Rent-a-voice. Go where the money is - though I still sing with Enchiriadis. I love it.
I also love travel. My last trip was to Cambodia/Vietnam/Laos/Thailand. I also went for a trip to India the previous Summer to work in a hospital in Calcutta and then did a wee bit of travelling. Click here to see my the blog I wrote on both trips.
Other places I have been include Spain, Italy (8 times - can't seem to get enough of it), France, Belgium, Germany, Sweden, Cyprus, Egypt, Israel, Australia, Chile and Argentina, Canada and the US. Many of these were thanks to Anuna. Thanks Anuna. I have plans to see Eastern Euprope too, though I get the feeling the time to do it was 10 years ago.
Nobody. People suck.
Seriously.
Pop music these days sucks. I mean, I had always planned to lose track of popular culture at some stage, and had resigned myself to the fact that it would probably happen to me earlier than most, but I watched the Top 10 on Top of the Pops last week and not only did I not recognise any of the songs, but I didn't even recognise any of the performers. Nor did I like any of the songs I heard. They were crap.
So the music I listen to most these days is rock/pop from the 80s and 90s. I used to be a greasy, grungey 14 year old, so I'm currently revisiting those days by listening to Metallica, Nirvana, Rage Against the Machine, Faith No More, Pearl Jam, Greenday, NOFX etc.
Fortunately this goes hand in glove with my other favourite genre - choral music from the Renaissance and Baroque periods. I have this most amazing recording of Allergri's Miserere that I can't stop listening to. I think the soprano is Emma Kirkby. She's great, but does anyone else think she looks like an Alto?
On holiday in Southest Asia, I embraced the opportunity to read books that didn't end in -ology.
They were:
The Curious Incident of the Dog In the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
Captain Corelli's Mandolin by Louis de Bernières
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
The Iliad by Homer (probably)
Far from the Madding Crown by Thomas Hardy
I enjoyed all of them, except possibly for the Hardy, which was a little drear. Corelli's Mandolin was excellent and is set to become a classic. Just like that Da Vinci Code. Not.
I also picked up War and Peace. It almost gave me a hernia so I put it back down again.
I wanted to read Les Miserables. Unfortunately it too was a substantial tome, and it turned out that was just Volume II. I think I'm going to have to cop out and read the abridged version.