To paraphrase Orson Scott Card I am a:
Given all those wonderful things in my life, being paid to do what I (mostly) enjoy doing anyway is a bonus.
The family menagerie currently consists of the chooks.
My favourite ways to spend my time are activities with the family, growing fruit and vegetables in the back garden, and reading. Playing the 'cello would be on the list, if I could
just divert the energy
from other things to do the practice required to get my skills back up to the point where it was enjoyable rather
than painful.
Cycling is how I got to work pre-COVID, I am slowly getting back to bike commuting. Like most people, I find it difficult to motivate myself to exercise, so riding the 20 kilometers between work and home was the best way for me to stay fit. My new cycling route (having moved offices) is mostly on bike paths. Upside? Fewer cars and buses. Downside? More off-leash dogs and should-be-leashed owners. Currently finding it challenging to go for a ride just for the ride's sake, rather than as a form of transport, but that is just a switch in my head that I need to learn how to switch.
To complement the cardio, since 2009 I have attended LesMills BodyPump (lifting weights to music in a group fitness setting) classes 2-3 times a week. I am now so addicted that on work trips I actively look for a location near where I am staying so I can keep up my schedule. I'm never going to look like the people in the videos (indeed, I never did) but I am finding the reappearance of muscles and the post-exercise endorphin buzz deeply satisfying.
When away from my bicycle, I'd resorted to running as an alternative form of exercise. However, knee osteo-arthritis took this off the menu for now. Post knee surgery I could start again, but my surgeon is not keen for this to happen.
In 2025 I also started exploring small group training through my local gym. I find the variation — a different focus each day (Cardio/Strength/Mix), and never the same set of exercises within each focus — helps avoid mental boredom and provides a good physical challenge.
I have now spent more of my career in non-academic roles than otherwise (although I think I will always be a teacher in some sense). During the 16 years I worked at Deakin University (and its antecedent institution Victoria College) I taught across a very wide range of information management and computing units, including:
Information about my non-holiday out of office email reply variables
information about my holiday practices and consequential email auto-replies