[Capstan]

All hail, leedsveg, our newest VB Star! Here's our chance to learn all about this prolific poster- a VB member since April, 2012! Leedsveg's interview will run through Aug., 26th.

Our outrageous rules-

-Please ask only a few questions at a time, so everyone has a chance to participate. (You can come back often to ask more questions!)

-Anyone can be a VB Star. If you would like to be a VB Star, just send me a PM, and we'll arrange to get you into the hot-seat! In the event no one comes forward, it will be up to our current Star to choose next week's victim, er, interviewee. If you're asked to be a Star, but don't want to be one, you may take a pass; likewise, the current Star is free to pass on any questions they are not comfortable with answering.

-Please keep our posting rules in mind, and let's keep this PG-13 or better. And remember, if our current famous person expresses an opinion with which you disagree, please do not give an argument in return. This is an interview, not a debate!

NOTE- If you'd like to read about our previous Stars (they go back several years,) all of their interviews are archived in the Meet Outstanding Users forum!

Here's some must-know information about our current celebrity!

Quote:

-Real first name? Ian

-Age? 66 and three quarters

-Sex/Gender Identity? Male

-Relationship status? Married

-Location (as specific as you are comfortable being)? Leeds, West Yorkshire, UK

-Religious beliefs (or lack thereof)? Atheist

-Political leanings? Leftish, but disillusioned with all current political parties

-Are you a vegetarian, vegan or raw foodist (or something else)? Vegan

-What is the meaning behind your username? Er, I was a veggie, now a vegan, living in Leeds.

-Have you ever met anyone famous? Nobody even slightly famous...

-Do you live with any companion animals? No

-Do you live with any companion humans? Yes, my wife

-Where is your favorite place that you have visited? Sea of Galilee, Israel

-What do you enjoy most about being veg*n? Not having the responsibilty of being omnivorous

-With whom would you most love to have dinner? My parents and grandparents, all now passed away

-Do you have any secret talents? I can sing like the late Elvis Presley

-What dish/recipe can you make that knocks people's socks off? I'm a rotten cook. Anything that I make will knock people's socks off, but for the wrong reasons.

-What's your favorite restaurant? Qumquat Mae in Sheffield. Brilliant. (It closed down around 8 years ago.)

-What do you do to cheer yourself up when you're feeling blue? Listen to Leonard Cohen.

-What's your biggest cooking/baking disaster? I made a vegan chocolate cake in two layers and forgot to remove the metal plate from under the top layer...

-What's the one food/product, that you'd love to "veg*nize"? Men's shoes so that I can go into Leeds and have plenty of choice in the shops.

Bring on the questions!

 

[lavender phase]

Hi leedsveg!

What Elvis Presley song do you enjoy singing most?
Do you and Mrs. Leeds have any children? Grandchildren?

 

[leedsveg]

Quote:

Originally Posted by lavender phase

Hi leedsveg!

What Elvis Presley song do you enjoy singing most?

Here's a few Elvis songs I enjoy singing, with no particular favourite.

Wooden Heart

It's Now Or Never

Peace In The Valley

Do you and Mrs. Leeds have any children? Grandchildren?

Not so far...although we do have a gooseberry bush.

 

[Capstan]

Hi Ian.

What was it about the Sea of Galilee that appealed to you?

Beyond the U.K. and Israel, where on earth have you traveled?

Who is that in your avatar?

 

[lavender phase]

Leedsveg

do you have a favourite colour?

When is your birthday?

What is your favourite season?

Do you have a favourite book or movie you would suggest to read/watch?

 

[leedsveg]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Capstan

Hi Ian.

What was it about the Sea of Galilee that appealed to you?

What happened was that I was a rent collector for Sheffield City Council in the late 1960s and my girlfriend at the time traded me in "for a better model" just before my 21st birthday. This upset me a bit and so I decided to try living in Israel on a kibbutz. It's all so long ago now, that I just cannot remember how I'd even heard about the kibbutz system. I'm not Jewish and my family background was Salvation Army for a couple of generations. Maybe playing with toy camels in the sand-pit at Sunday school had planted an early seed in my mind about the Holy Land? Anyway I arrived in Israel in September 1969 expecting somebody from the kibbutz agency to be there to greet me. Wrong! I went around to the agency office the following morning and a pleasant young lady asked me which kibbutz I had a preference for. As at that time, they were all the same to naive me, she suggested "How about a little fishing kibbutz on the shore of the Sea of Galilee?" And so that's how I arrived at Kibbutz Ein Gev, where I stayed for around 6 months. I then moved down the Jordan Valley to Kibbutz Massada for a few months, despite that area getting mortared from over the River Jordan quite regularly. After a few months there I hitch-hiked down to Eilat and worked as a labourer at the Timna copper mine. I was trying to save money to go along the hippie-trail to Nepal, then Australia but the pay was so bad that I returned to England in September 1970.

Beyond the U.K. and Israel, where on earth have you traveled?

After working in Sheffield as an "electrode inspector" (I hadn't a clue what I was doing) for Union Carbide, I finally set of for Australia in June 1972. I travelled through Europe to Cyprus and then on to Lebanon. From there I went through Jordan, Iraq, Kuwait, Iran, Pakistan finally reaching Varanasi, India in late September. By this time, my money was getting quite low as I wasn't a proper hippie and so I decided to turn around and go back to Kibbutz Ein Gev. Through Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran and Cyprus I went and I arrived back at the kibbutz in October, where I stayed until two weeks before the Yom Kippur War in October 1973. I then flew back to England and moved to Leeds where I worked as a tax collector for over 33 years.

Since marrying Jean in 1984, we've been to NYC twice and the usual tourist destinations in Europe. (We were due to have a 3 week honeymoon in India but Mrs Gandhi was shot a few days before so we stayed at home instead. And it rained.) We did go to Israel in 1988 and 1993 and although we visited Kibbutz Ein Gev, we didn't go inside because I didn't know then that there were still people there that I'd been a volunteer with all those years ago. To belatedly answer the 1st question, the scenery in and around Ein Gev was fantastic and there were incredible sunrises and sunsets. At night, looking across the water to the lights of the town of Tiberias, was like looking at a sparkling necklace.

Who is that in your avatar?

This is a gentleman I met at a village in the Khagan Valley, northern Pakistan in 1972. He had such a kind face that I tried to have a chat with him but as my Urdu and his English were almost nonexistant, we didn't get very far. He kindly let me take his photo though.

 

[leedsveg]

Quote:

Originally Posted by lavender phase

Leedsveg

do you have a favourite colour?

Two favourite colours, red and white, the colours of my football team Sheffield United, the "Blades".

When is your birthday?

In November, I'm a Scorpio (not that we Scorpios believe in such nonsense...)

What is your favourite season?

The season when all the snow and ice have finally gone and I can go running without being afraid of falling and landing on my backside.

Do you have a favourite book or movie you would suggest to read/watch?

My favourite book has to be The Dark Threads by Jean Davison aka Mrs Leedsveg. I would say that wouldn't I? While I was swanning around the Middle East, Jean was having a terrible time coping with the UK mental health system having been diagnosed with chronic schizophrenia. Since then, Jean obtained a 1st class degree with honours, she works as a councilor for a mental health charity and she gives talks about mental health issues at universities and on local radio. The Dark Threads is not only about what it's like to be a patient in an asylum and be given shock therapy, it's also about a child, growing up in a Bradford slum in the 1950s, living with a disfunctional family, being the most bullied kid in school. To do all that and be able to write a beautiful book full of insights and flashes of humour but absolutely no self-pity, no bitterness is remarkable. If I'd met Jean in 1969 instead of 1979, things could have been so different for both of us...

My favourite movie is Bladerunner because it raises important issues of what it means to be a human being and also about the nature of free will.

 

[Tom]

No questions right now, but I'm really happy for you and your wife, and hope you both have many happy years ahead of you! I enjoy your posts (and liked "Blade Runner" too).

I've travelled a bit, but not nearly as much as you have.

 

[leedsveg]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tom

No questions right now, but I'm really happy for you and your wife, and hope you both have many happy years ahead of you! I enjoy your posts (and liked "Blade Runner" too).

I've travelled a bit, but not nearly as much as you have.

Many thanks for your comments Tom.

I'd love to go back to places I've previously visited but for each, I'm also remembering a time as well as a place and you can't go back in time.

 

[Aristede]

1. How did you met Jean and what drew you to her? What keeps the flame going on such a lovely marriage?

2. I understand that you enjoying running. What got you into running? Do you enjoy any other sports?

3. What was your favorite meal pre-vegetarian and what's your favorite meal now?

 

[jpaul]

I always think of Live at Leeds (big Who fan here) when I see your user name. Was recorded in February of 1970 I believe but from reading this thread, looks like you were in Israel at that time.

Anyway, in the spirit of this thread, here's my question: Better band, The Who or Led Zeppelin?

 

[veganality]

How long you been vegan? Is your wife vegan?

Tax collector! Did you like that? What do you do now? If you could do any work, what would it be?

When is the last time you ate animal product (accidental or otherwise) and what was the scenario involving the incident?

Why did you decide to settle in Leeds?

 

[leedsveg]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aristede

1. How did you met Jean and what drew you to her?

When I decided to move back to England from Israel in 1973, I more or less stuck a pin in a map of northern England for where to move to and Leeds won/lost! I moved to Leeds but although on the surface I'm quite sociable, below the surface I'm rather shy and absolutely rubbish at making friends, or even knowing how to make friends. One day when reading the column of an agony aunt at the back of a tv listings magazine, I notice mention of a new nationwide organisation, Wavelength, that had been set up to help people improve their communication skills. I contacted Wavelength and was given a list of other people from Yorkshire who had also contacted them. I wrote to the people who lived closest to me and gradually we met up, Jean being the first. Jean and I arranged to meet at Leeds railway station under the clock, 7.30pm on a Tuesday in early February. I arrived there first, waited and then I sensed her walking towards me. I half turned to give her the chance to walk on if she didn't like what she saw but she smiled and said hello and the rest is history. We did meet up with other Wavelength members for quite a while but gradually we lost touch. Ironically Wavelength eventually folded after the directors had a big row. So much for their communication skills. Oh, I almost forgot to say that it cost Jean and I £1 each to join Wavelength!

What keeps the flame going on such a lovely marriage?

I think it's all that gas from the beans we eat.

2. I understand that you enjoying running. What got you into running? Do you enjoy any other sports?

When I reached 30 years of age in 1976, I decided that I needed to get exercise to prepare me for the downhill years ahead and so I started running. Each morning I'd run around 4 miles before setting off for work. Looking back, I should have joined a running club rather than engaging in running as a solitary pursuit but I have to remember that mass running/jogging was in its infancy and running clubs were still quite elitist. In 1980 I moved in my job to a new office that was just at the side of large woodland areas and also next to the Leeds to Liverpool canal. At lunchtimes, two or three times a week I and a few work colleagues would have up to an hours run. My retirement from work in 2007 put a stop to that but I'm now in Baildon Running Club and we often run past my old office. The runners at Baildon are extremely nice people and I'm enjoying the social side of it all, as well as the running.

I don't take part in any other sports but I do follow the fortunes of Sheffield United football (soccer) club which is a bit disheartening given their slow decline over the last few years.

3. What was your favorite meal pre-vegetarian and what's your favorite meal now?

My favourite pre-veggie meal would be fishcake and chips on the way home from a Sheffield United evening match. The chip-shop was called the White House and was a former 14/15? century farmhouse. Up to a few years ago before Health and Safety Regulations kicked in, your serving of fish and chips would be wrapped in an old newspaper. With a bit of luck, mine would be wrapped in the front and back pages of the Sunday newspaper, News of the World. The front page for the latest sex scandal and the back page for the football reports. This was not a paper that my parents, as Salvationists, would ever buy.

My favourite meal now would be two large slices of potato with a slice onion in between, dipped in batter and deep fried. It's what my Mum used to make me when I was a kid and it's still veggie.

 

[leedsveg]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jpaul

I always think of Live at Leeds (big Who fan here) when I see your user name. Was recorded in February of 1970 I believe but from reading this thread, looks like you were in Israel at that time.

Anyway, in the spirit of this thread, here's my question: Better band, The Who or Led Zeppelin?

Yes, I would have been busy harvesting bananas in February 1970.

I think that Led Zepplin came along a bit late for me so by default the "better" band would be The Who. You have to remember that when The Who came along in the mid 60s, I'd already been listening to pop music for 10 years, with performers such as Bill Haley & His Comets, Tommy Steele, Elvis and so on.

My favourite group group was/is The Beatles and I have happy memories from 1970 of finishing work for the day at the Timna Copper mine where I worked, coming back to Eilat and sitting outside the Red Sea Fish cafe bar with a drink listening to Abbey Road blasting out over large speakers. The album had come out in the previous year but in those days, music could take six months before it arrived and became popular in Israel.

 

[leedsveg]

Quote:

Originally Posted by veganality

How long you been vegan? Is your wife vegan?

I think I went vegan New Years Eve 1996 when I ate my last piece of crumbly cheese. I'd gone veggie around 1990 following the BSE/Mad Cow scares and although I'd said to Jean that I'd never go vegan "because it was too extreme", I obviously changed my mind. Jean knows the arguments for going vegan but she sticks at being veggie, although she eats a total plant diet 98% of the time.

Tax collector! Did you like that?

It was strange coming from working outside in shorts as the kibbutz garbage man, to a few weeks later, working in a suit in a tax office but I must have liked it to do it for over 30 years. In fact I did apply for another job in 1981 following a 5 months strike at the tax office. I was a bit fed up so I answered an advert in the Leeds Evening Post saying "Travel Clerk wanted". Nobody at the travel agency looked thrilled when I walked in but they gave me a bit of an interview and then admitted that they were really looking for "someone slightly younger". Well I was 35. The advert reappeared in the following days newspaper but this time saying "Young Travel Clerk wanted". Well that was telling me something.

What do you do now?

Totally retired so the only work I do is house-work. Jean is semi-retired so I do occasionally chauffeur her to and from work. It's great having so much time to go running, visiting relatives, keeping up with the news, going out for meals and so on. It's a lazy life but at the end of it, I'll be just as dead as some hardworking bugger.

If you could do any work, what would it be?

I used to do voluntary work at a Leeds hospice and really enjoyed it. I only stopped when my co-working friend Ruth became more unwell than some of the residents. I think that bereavement counselling would be very fulfilling and maybe it's something I'll do in the future.

When is the last time you ate animal product (accidental or otherwise) and what was the scenario involving the incident?

Not sure about accidentally but I deliberately ate Quorn mince, maybe 6 months ago. Jean's friend Sue who is a veggie, had cooked us a meal containing a large amount of Quorn, not realising that because it contained egg, it would be unsuitable for a vegan. I had a quick think about the ethics of the matter, then decided to eat it. My reasoning was that my veganism is part of my "wanting to do the right thing" and sometimes the spirit of "doing the right thing" might fall outside the strict wording of the vegan definition. It didn't seem wrong then and looking back at the circumstances, it still doesn't seem wrong. I told Sue afterwards but didn't make a big deal about it. Suffice to say I don't think she'll be giving me Quorn again. Could it have been the start of a slippery slope for me? I doubt it as such occasions have been very rare in my life as a veg*n. I want to do the right thing for animals but I also want to do the right thing for other people. I'm sure that some/many? vegans will think I did the wrong thing.

Why did you decide to settle in Leeds?

I think I mentioned earlier that when I decided to move back to England from Israel, it was a matter of luck where I finished up. I'd decided that I didn't want to return to Sheffield, but still wanted to live in a northern English city so that visiting my parents wouldn't be too difficult. It could have been Nottingham, York, Manchester, Liverpool, Bradford and so on where I settled but I stuck a pin in a map and Leeds "won". The way I look at it, I may have left the Holy Land but I've returned to God's Own County, Yorkshire.

 

[veganality]

I think it's so cute how you recall the details of when you and your wife first met. A bereavement counselor~ hats off to you, wanting to be there for people. Regarding the Quorn, isn't it so weird how the choice to not consume animal product could cause such an offense? Anyway, always a personal decision. Running club sounds cool.

 

[ponyboy85]

Are you a fellow united fan? MOT!

 

[leedsveg]

Quote:

Originally Posted by veganality

I think it's so cute how you recall the details of when you and your wife first met. A bereavement counselor~ hats off to you, wanting to be there for people. Regarding the Quorn, isn't it so weird how the choice to not consume animal product could cause such an offense? Anyway, always a personal decision. Running club sounds cool.

Hi veganality

Jean remembers coming to look at an apartment at the address I first lived at when I moved to Leeds but she didn't take it. So maybe we could have met 5 years sooner? Or maybe I could have moved to Manchester rather than Leeds and we may never have met at all? Such is fate.

I certainly have the interest in being a bereavement counselor but not sure if I'd have the skills. I'd perhaps get too emotional and would be bawling away too much.

Not sure that friend Sue would have been offended, more disappointed in herself that she'd not realised that it wouldn't be suitable for a vegan. I don't imagine that any vegan is 100% "pure" and so how we each define and maintain what might be termed "personal vegan purity" will be as you say down to personal decision. I'm sure that we must have had threads on this but I can't remember any recently.

Yes the running club is cool and full of really decent people. Nicest part of the Saturday club runs I go on, is sitting in the cafe afterwards, having a coffee and a chat.

 

[leedsveg]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ponyboy85

Are you a fellow united fan? MOT!

A fan of the first "united" team, Sheffield United, yes. Other "uniteds" such as Newton Heath LYR Football Club aka Manchester United, came later and in the case of Weeds United, sorry Leeds United, 30 years later.

UTB

 

[ponyboy85]

Ahhh a blunts fan? There's only one united and that's Leeds!