Lynda Hardman - Hobbies

I misspent my youth playing the violin, at which I spent a lot of time studying and was quite good, and the piano, at which I was pretty bad and enjoyed thoroughly. While studying at university I spent my spare time learning the martial art of Shorinji Kempo. I was never particularly good at it, but it taught me how to train physically.

I started running when I was working at ICL in Dalkeith - the palace grounds were a great place to train - and learned to play snooker in the basement of the palace. I also started yoga classes. Moving from Glasgow to Edinburgh meant I left the Shorinji Kempo club behind, but, when I started working for OWL, I met Peter McGregor, who trained at Aikido - so I did that for a couple of years.

When I moved to the Netherlands in 1990 I kept up the running, but started playing the violin again (dropped at university since studying and bending your wrists at Shorinji Kempo don't really mix with delicate bowing actions). I also discovered how to juggle, although the web site for the Department of Theoretical Juggling (Faculteit Zuivere Jongleren) is one of the few sites that hasn't survived the faster paced lives of the jugglers involved.

Ice-skating is something that you can do in the Netherlands, and I'm a regular skater at the Jaap Eden-Baan. CWI organises yoga classes, which I attend whenever I can.

One must not, however, forget the chocolate. Lloyd Rutledge changed my life in 1995 when he gave me a box of Puccini for my birthday. Since then our group carries out dedicated research on chocolate shops.

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