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Creative
kitchen
- I love to cook. I don't always
follow recipes religiously, but I use them as a
guideline. If a dish is new to me, then I'll try
and follow it quite closely, and fine tune it
afterwards to meet my taste buds' liking.
Sometimes, I try and find more than one recipe
for the same dish, and see where I can improvise
(especially if I have limited ingredients). CHECK
OUT THE LINK BELOW FOR SOME OF MY OWN RECIPES.
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- pots
and pans - a history of my passion for cooking
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- Creative paint
- I started having a keen interest in art
from a small age. I suppose it was because my eldest
brother, Winston, was quite skilled at drawing and model-making.
Later on in life, I became interested in graphic art and
airbrush painting because my other brother, Vernon, was
quite drawn to it. I am self taught in everything I do,
and I suppose one can see the limitations in my artwork.
I wish I could have gone to study graphic design, just as
I'd wanted to study to become a chef. At least I still
dabble in my hobby when I get the time, which is more
than what my brothers have done...
- At school, I was always drawing, as I had
a competitive rival in this field - my friend Keenan (check
out Keenan's Art). Another
person who was immensely skilled was my friend Kim Yeh.
He was influenced by Japanese and other Far Eastern
comics, and had a natural flair for drawing almost
anything using this genre. I hope he sets up a site with
his artworks so that I can let you see them for yourself.
SOME OF MY OWN ARTWORK
Creative Writing
Whether it is poetry, lyrics, or just stringing
words together, I love conveying my feelings through this
wonderful medium. Some of my works are very personal, not to say
that I don't share them, it's just that not everyone will know at
once what my motive or intentions were when writing them.
Unfortunately, all my poems are in a book back in South Africa.
Actually, I don't like using the word "poetry" as I
feel people have expectations as to what they should look like or
mean. If I can put words together to communicate a message,
whether in the form of rhyme, verse or essay, I feel I have done
something. Here are some words, lots of them, strung together....
- Nightmare house-sit (a.k.a. background story
to Duck & Cherry Pie Recipe)
- Oh Sh*t! (a true experience I had
when I arrived in London - not for the squeamish! Some
have had the opportunity to read my handwritten accounts
of this - this is for those who missed out or would like
to refresh their memories!)
- Photography
- Again, a hobby that my brother was into
but something that I took further and to a higher level.
I used my brother's camera and experimented. At
university, I joined the photographic society and did a
darkroom and a studio course. I managed to use the
facilities there and when I graduated, had no more access
to a darkroom. I was lucky in that I managed to find some
great bargains in the second hand newspapers and
classifieds. I have set up my own black and white
darkroom, and have recently acquired more equipment from
a friend. The background to this page is of the near-total
eclipse that was visible to Londoners in August. Because
I was still at work when the eclipse took place, I had
set up my camera by my desk and took the pictures through
the window. I used a Nikon zoom, at 300mm, and while I
was unable to obtain a special filter for my camera, I
made my own by placing 2 polaroid filters at right angles
to each other, and added a neutral density filter. This
set-up was used to take the initial pictures when it was
still very bright. The picture on this page was taken
without a filter, but at f22 and at a shutter speed of 1/1000.
If there is no background, then click below to see the
picture in question:-
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eclipse3
Photo Gallery (CHECK OUT THE NEW STUFF!!!!)
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- Flyfishing
- And yet again - my brother Winston was
first to start this hobby in our family. I love this
pasttime. It might sound cruel to some, but I believe it
is a fair "sport". I believe in the practice of
catch-and-release and only use barbless flies. I buy
normal flies and use a pair of pliers to either bend the
barb or break it off completely. My dream is to fish for
Salmon in Scotland later this year, as well as to fish
the waters of Lesotho in Southern Africa on my return
home to South Africa. In Lesotho, the cost of a licence
is very cheap, and it is reputedly one of the last places
stocked with true wild trout.
More on my flyfishing
hobby
Scuba Diving
I am a NAUI Advanced Diver. I started diving in
1994, when my friends Glen and Chi Hang roped me into joining
them on a scuba course. In short, I was the only one who has
actively gone on pursuiing this expensive but exhilirating
pasttime (or is that exhilirating but expensive pasttime?). The
reason? They both succumb easily to sea-sickness! In fact, it was
due to this that we managed to see a baby whale shark on our
second-ever dive! Thanks again, Glen!
At that stage, one would have thought that I'd
have an immense fear of the ocean, given my near-death experience
in the Knysna lagoon a few years previously.
I have bought my own soft equipment, as well as
an underwater camera. Although I don't have that many dives under
my belt, currently due to my residency in London, I have been
very fortunate in what I have experienced. I have seen humpback
whales from up-close, dived with ragged tooth sharks, hitched a
ride with another whale shark, had close encounters with
stingrays, turtles, Zebra fish, Potato Bass and Honeycomb Moray
Eels, the list can go on.
I hope that I'll soon be able to give a more
detailed account of my diving experiences, but you'll have to
wait for now...
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