Friday Blog

Hi FAU Bloggers, Today I'd like to tell you about my main hobby, which is making music. It's something I've done for most of my life. I have lots of other hobbies like reading, walking in natural places, playing football or cooking (to name a few ), but making music is my current favourite. I do this hobby whenever I have free time. Obviously, it's better if I can dedicate a few hours to doing it, but often I'll just make minor adjustments to songs or pieces of music I'm working on. The equipment I use most is my computer, a microphone, a midi-keyboard (that connects to my computer) and a guitar. Then I use a programme, a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation), to record and mix my creations. I've had this hobby for many years. I wrote my first song when I was about 13 or 14 and started recording when I was about 18. After that, I played in bands and did lots of home recording for at least 10 years. Nowadays, Technology has made music making a lot more accessible T

Hi Fau Bloggers, Today I'm going to write about a beautiful place I have visited in Chile. Actually, it's very difficult for me to choose only one beautiful place because I have had the chance to visit many beautiful places in Chile (I've lived her for about 23 years). To make life easy for myself, I'll tell you about the last beautiful place I visited in Chile which was the Torres del Paine National Park. I went there in March with my wife and a sister who was visiting from the UK. My wife and I had always talked about visiting the park to do some trekking, but we had never managed to make time to go. My sister's visit was a good reason to do something different so we went to Punta Arenas for 5 days. Punta Arenas was a good base for us to do the different activities on offer. One over to Tierra del Fuego and visited a colony of King Penguins. Another day we did a 10-kilometre walk in the little national park to the north of Punta Arenas. We also visited the Fish Ma

Good morning Bloggers! Today I'm going to write about a photograph that brings back happy memories. This particular photo was taken in Wales in 2011. I like it because it's the last time all my family got together.  So, as I think I mentioned last week, I  have 5 sisters and 3 brothers. Both my parents passed away at a fairly young age by today's standards. The age range of my brothers and sisters is from 70 to 50 so most of them also have grown up children of their own - many of whom now have their own children. The main problem with getting all my family together is that my brother Adrian lives in New Zealand and I live in Chile. Trying to organise a holiday at the same time is always complicated, especially because I have to comply with the academic year and take holidays in February which is normally cold and wet in the UK where the rest of my family live. However, in 2011 I manage to travel to the UK in July for a special family reunion.  Among all my brothers and sist

Hi FAU Bloggers! Today I'm going to tell you about a television programme I used to watch as a child. It was a science-fiction series called "Dr Who". Actually, Dr Who is still running today in the UK but it originally ran from 1963 to 1989. I mainly watched it in the 1970's. The show was a family show so it was broadcast on a Saturday afternoon at about 5pm after the sport's programmes had finished. I used to watch Dr Who with my whole family. When I first saw the series I would run and hide behind the sofa when there were any scary bits. I guess Dr Who helped me develop a love of science fiction. There was a lot of advanced technology in the programme. For example, the Doctor's time travelling machine (called the "Tardis") looked like a small police telephone box on the outside but it was bigger on the inside (an impossible thing). Also, the Doctor's enemies were often quite terrifying - especially to a young boy with a bit imagination (lol). I

Hi FAU Bloggers, Today I'd like you to write about a piece of technology you use a lot. It could be a phone or a computer or some other gadget you have. In my case, I have to admit that I love electronic gadgets. The ones I like most are generally connected to either music or capturing image (photo/video). I think the piece of technology I use most is my laptop. It's a silver, 15' Macbook Pro from 2015 but I bought it refurbished during COVID in 2020. I chose this model because I need specific characteristics (size, RAM, processor, etc.) to run my music making software. I switched from PC to Mac in 2011. I find Macs are more sturdy and durable (they last longer). They also have less problems with viruses. I couldn't justify paying for a new computer (I often buy 2nd hand) when I could get a good refurbished one for half the price. I used my laptop as my main music making computer from 2020 to 2022. Nowadays, I use it as a potable music making machine because I bought my