hobbies
dance
I always wanted to do ballet. As a child in Australia my
only ballet contact was family friend, Prue Coffey, who was
a dancer. It wasn't until I was 9 years old in England that
I went to ballet lessons and continued until I was 15 years
old. I went back to ballet after Daniel was born in 1984 and
happily exhausted myself every week for the next 15 years
until a recurring problem with my knee lateral cartilage forced
me to stop.
I enjoy having a go at other styles and types of exercise
and have dabbled in Keep Fit, Pilates, Tai Chi, Line Dancing.
I have more than "dabbled" in sacred dance which
was a big part of my life in the church for 22 years. I started
up the group in 1975 and finally 'retired' in 1997. This is
a big topic which I might cover in more detail on the special
interests page.
crafts
Variety is the spice of life! Mum taught me to knit when
I was about six, then later on to crochet. Then there was
sewing, also taught and encouraged by Mum; I remember at junior
school when I was nine I hand sewed a pair of pyjamas with
french seams and buttonholes done on the machine at home.
(It even impressed my teacher Miss Hardcastle, who was not
impressed by anything else I did!) It seemed a backward step
at secondary school to have to make a sewing bag!
In my twenties, Jill passed on her knowledge of a variety
of crafts she learnt when part of the Post Green Christian
community. First there was tatting which I used to make edging
lace for my wedding dress. Then came decoupage, 3-D pictures,
canal art (Sue's input).
Seeing a physiotherapist colleague making a patchwork quilt
in her lunch breaks started an interest in patchwork and quilting,
which I took up particularly when I stopped work to be a mother!
I tried a variety of different patchwork styles - pentagons,
log cabin, shadow, catherdral, quilt squares. I have made
cushion covers, cot quilt, floor rugs.
My friend Gail has always been full of good craft ideas which
have inspired me (or did I just copy them?). My cross stitch
phase lasted quite a while, with various pictures for the
wall, for greeting cards, cushion cover panels, christmas
tree decorations. A brief sortie into decorating polystyrene
eggs is one thing I will never do again since the time I was
pushing a fine crochet hook through it to pass a hanging thread
and inadvertantly also pushed it through my thumb. Being a
hook, it would not pull out, so it was off to Casualty for
minor surgery!
music
When I was about 12 years old, I was wanting to learn the
piano (as Jac and Jill and Paul did), but I had to choose
between having either ballet or piano lessons. After some
thought, I decided to continue with the ballet as I could
more likely teach myself the piano. So that is what I did,
with a bit of help from various family members. Quite a good
way to learn for someone doing it for fun as I didn't have
to practise boring scales and exercises!
Also in my teens, everyone was learning the guitar and using
it to accompany songs at church. I think Jill started learning
first on a guitar that her then boyfriend, Nigel, had made.
Paul was next and I had a go. I never got very good at it,
but I was able to play, mainly for myself, and later on occasionaly
at the children's club (Dove Club) which I helped to run.
A combination of thinking in terms of chords, as in the guitar,
and some knowledge of harmony from O-Level Music has helped
me improvise for my own enjoyment at the piano. Once, when
I had been fiddling around a particular chord sequence, a
friend John gave me some words he had written for a carol
and wanted a tune for. It came at just the right time and
the music I developed from my chord sequence came together
with his words quite well. I sent a copy of the words and
music to Mum and Dad who were living in Australia at the time.
Dad entered the song into a competition run in South Australia
by a church organisation and it won! Unfortunately, John and
I could not attend the winners ceremony, but Dad went in our
place and heard the carol performed in a special service.
For a while, I was part of the music group at church, playing
keyboard/piano. We had some good times in the late '90s developing
'The Zone' services which were particularly aimed at the young
people and those who enjoy an upbeat style of contemporary
music in their worship. Steve (guitar) and Mark (bass guitar)
still play every week in church.
current hobbies
Due to ill health, my current hobbies are rather more restricted!
I like feeding and watching the garden birds, reading, doing
the Guardian quick crossword, computer stuff, playing the
piano, a little bit of light gardening. I spend a fair bit
of time resting, preferably with a view of trees which I love
and find very therapeutic (I have well-positioned chairs in
the house and a comfortable garden lounger!)
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