Hobbies and personal projects

I am a general fan of being outdoors – MTB, running, hiking, swimming, climbing, camping.
Here are some hobbies and things I do in my spare time (read: keeping myself out of trouble). It’s fun to keep my mind busy and always thinking about new topics.

Some examples below include: repairing my bikes (road, commuter, MTB, folding), servicing film cameras, home baking focaccias, and curing biltong.

My 'gold nugget' Suzuki Jimny

I repaired most of the mechanical systems, including: engine swap, gearbox rebuild, rear wheel bearing and brake replacements, front swivel hub refurbishments, suspension bush replacements.
(Click here to read more about this car. )

Mountain bike repairs and adventures.

Repairing the snapped dropout retaining grub screw on my mountain bike.

Out on an adventure ride with my mates Zac and Ali, exploring part of the Brisbane Valley Rail Trail. We did 50km, rode through baking sun and torrential rain, and had great times all round.

Film cameras

Repairing one of the film cameras that I own. If you’re interested in seeing some pictures, I also have my film portfolio linked here.
This repair was cleaning and re-greasing the aperture rings on a Konica Hexanon lens, as the aperture blades were operating slowly and not closing to match the shutter.

Baking Focaccias and Curing Biltong

These are two small cooking experiments I started while living in London. They both came about in drastically different manners. While scrolling, I saw a recipe for a focaccia that I thought I could try. It didn’t rise at all, and had the consistency of a rock cake, but the flavours were there! I would revisit this later when I was looking for work, and finally got a recipe I started to master. This was in perfect timing for summer, where we had many picnics and enjoyed the (rare but brilliant) British sun.

The Biltong story began about two months after focaccias.
As a member of the London Hackspace, during a community day I was lucky enough to have another member put on a South African-style braii. Given that my girlfriend is also from South African, this brought back a flurry of memories of all the delicious foods and snacks she’d introduced me to, which we hadn’t been having as frequently while living in a new place. The main one was Biltong, a dried beef/venison snack.
After this day, and off the back of a successful small focaccia production, and a previous attempt years ago in a borrowed dehydrator, I hatched a plan. To simplify construction (make it a project I’d actually finish), I used the laser cutter at Hackspace. I drafted a simple box shape out of 2D profiles, and cut-and-glued them into form. I also etched the name “Biltong Boi” on the sliding door, to give it a lick of character. Once it was home, it was straight to work, using a recipe I’d found on Reddit (of all places). Since then, I don’t think it’s had two consecutive weeks without being used, as it makes such a simple and tasty snack.

Home