Serge Demeyer - Non Academic

This page has nothing to do with my job at the university. It contains information about things I keep myself busy with during my spare time.

Family

I don't know whether you can call it a hobby, but it is certainly time-consuming and fun ;)
I am married to Ann Vandenbusche and I have a lovely daughter named Sara (January, 31rst 1998) and two strong sons named Niels (April, 21rst 1999) and Jens (July, 13th 2002).

Music

My main hobby is Music. That is, I am a heavy listener of all kinds of music (from the heaviest rock and punk, over high-brow jazz, to serious classical music and opera). Moreover, I played some guitar in a fun time rock'n' roll band covering tunes from Neil Young, Muddy Waters, Lenny Kravitz, ... . Since a few year I joined a band named "de peperclips" which is playing evenry year at the local school.

Food

I am quite fond of food as well. My motto is "men live to eat" rather than the more widespread "men eat to live". Here again I have a very broad taste and I must confess that I practice cooking during my spare time quite a lot.
With good food, goes a quality drink. As a Belgian, I am quite fond of beer, although I won't say "no" to a glass of wine or single malt whiskey.
On Janury, 6th, 2005 (after the Belgian Symposium on Software Restructuring ) I joined the Beer Tasting Association a club of Brussels PhD students which collects reviews of Belgian beers. A fun initiative and as far as the club claims, it even improves research productivity -- now who can be against that ?

Reading

I am a heavy reader of everything I can lay my eyes on. Just out the top of my head I would mention newspapers, literature, thrillers, phantasy, comics, .... And of course --knowing the above-- books on music and cooking.

Movies

I like to see a good movie now and then, although I usually experience "the book is better" phenomenon. In Bern I encountered the CineMatte, which provides an appreciated selection of "quality" movies.

Sports

I used to practice judo and swimming and when I live in Switzerland I switched to hiking and skiing. The latter two remain my favourite sports, although it sure is a hell of a lot more difficult to practice in this flemish flatlands.

Unlike most other Belgians I hate football (or soccer as they call it in the US).

My two suns were into basketball and I occupied myself with filling in the score-sheets and keeping the time.

Games

I like to play all kinds of games. In my opinion, computer games are fun but good old fashioned card- and board games are still more fun. I am into the "Magic: The Gathering" card game, but I am not such an addict like most other Magic freaks I am aware of.

Boy-Scout

For quite a long time, I have been a member of the boy-scouts. My collegues keep telling me that it is important to know that if you have to work with me ...; they should know I guess.