I'm pretty sure that people who've read my blog for a while know my hobbies but I'll share them again for today's BEDN prompt.
Card-making: I have been making my own cards since I was very young, starting from drawing cartoon cards for my family and then photocopying a Christmas design I'd make. In my 20's when I was really on a kick to recycle and reuse as much as possible, I started to make more collage cards, using old packaging- costa coffee cups and violin strings and it all sprang from there. From that time, I've made hundreds of cards, many of which can be found on the 'cards tag!
Swing Dancing: In recent times, swing-dancing has been my most loved hobby. I absolutely love the whole thing- the steps, the music, the atmosphere, the dressing up, the swishy skirts, the whole scene is brilliant. I have realllly missed my swing classes since I've moved and I need to get going again, it's just hard from where I live! Swing dance consists of loads of styles: the main one I learn is lindy-hop but there is East Coast Swing, Hollywood swing, Balboa, Shag, Charleston, Blues and more I've probably forgotten. I really want to aim to get better at swing dance to get to advanced level and be really at home with all the moves and to become a better follower. Through my lessons with Simon, I learnt to be better at the connection but I've got a lot to learn. I'd really like to learn some more Shag - it's so fun! If you are in London and want to Swing dance, go to the London Swing Dance Society website
Orchestra and music in general: I play in an orchestra in London and I have played in orchestras all my life. I adore playing flute in the centre of a wonderful group of musicians. There is no feeling like it. I feel my heart soaring as I play my flute and my orchestra is known as the friendliest amateur orchestra in London! Musicians are really sociable and it's by playing my flute that I met CBC, so I am glad of all the concerts I have said Yes to in the past. Nowadays, I don't do as much playing, just my regular orchestra, church and occasional one-offs but in my early 20's, I was out every night! I have also enjoyed being in musicals and I looooooong to do this again!!! SOOOO much fun!!!
Composing music: This is something I have done since I was about 11, composing music has always been a joy for me. I shared this in my first blog 'award' but I had a piece published when I was 12. Nowadays, the pieces I write are mostly songs for school and for church, but though I don't do so much, the ones I write for school are always popular with the children and I sometimes think I should try and send them off to see if I could get them published. I tend to write one every Christmas in the hope I will eventually have a complete Nativity musical. Not because I think they're overly good or anyone would accept them(because my piano-parts are pretty simplistic and badly written- I write for MY piano skills!) but since the children really enjoy them and I just guess, it would be nice to have something to aim for! This Christmas, my song is called The inn keepers' rant and I had better get on and finish it!!! I also owe my Grandad a piece for Orchestra that he commissioned me to write over 15 years ago. I have a lot of materials and parts written (including the main theme) but getting a piece for full orchestra completed is time-consuming!! I also started writing a Magnificat for solo voice which I would love to sing for our carol service but I need to finish it off! Oh dear, it appears I have the musical equivalent of a dozen unfinished knitting projects!
Reading: If you've read my book reviews (look under the tag 'books'), you'll know I love reading and I am a voracious reader. As a child/teen, my Dad and Step-Mum would always wonder where I was when I'd come to their house and they would inevitably find me curled up in a corner (more often than not by a radiator- I'm like a cat), reading a book. Hours would go by and I would be content. A child yesterday said to me that he hated reading and how sad I found that. In the 3 minutes I was waiting for his Mum to come and pick him up, I earnestly tried to share with him my joy of reading. Hope that changes.
Coin-collecting: This isn't a current hobby but something I did as a teenager but every now and again, I love to look at my album. I managed to collect together a large amount of foreign coins, courtesy of various friends on holiday and my own travels. I was also lucky to be given several First Day covers of new Royal Mint coins and have a few old Victorian coins etc. I always think I must take them into school to show the kids as I quite like old hobbies like this and it would be nice to show some of the more unoriginal boys (you wouldn't think it at primary level) that there are other hobbies to football and computers.
WHat I would like to take up: I have always wanted to learn to fence. And do you know, it all stems from a really silly memory from childhood. You've all watched Downton Abbey right? Well, when I was a child and teen, my dance school used to have a yearly Choreography competition in which we had to make up our own dances and enter. Michelle Dockery, who plays Lady Mary, used to go to my dance school and Senior School and one year, she and her friend Amanda made up a dance to the music from Hook and she was Hook and at the beginning, she did some fencing style movements which loooked really cool (I don't think she did fencing but she was just really good at dancing, drama and movement in general) and stylish and I thought- that looks so elegant and genteel, I want to learn how to fence! I signed up to the Fencing Society at University but it was on a Tuesday night when I had a part-time job, so I never got around to going. One day, one day...
