Havenswell – Marcus Hazel-McGown – Life outside Work.

Private Life

I am going to start this story later than my education and work data, and all will become apparent why.

My interests are vast:

• Reading*: I love to read I have now adopted a kindle reader, and have thousands upon thousands of books ranging from work-related to history, geography, science and technology, fantasy, and fiction. You name it if it’s interesting I will read it including books on business management.
• Music, Whilst I find time to play every day, I have been limited to stage performances due to COVID-19. I do hope to do a lot more gigs in the near future and possibly even some busking too. I limit myself to Tuba and Guitar these days. I also love going to gigs as a punter.
• Amateur Radio: I am a full license holder and teacher in the UK for amateur radio, under the callsign MM0ZIF (Scotland), M0ZIF (England), MW0ZIF (Wales), and MI0ZIF (Northern Ireland). My specialized area of interest is VHF and above (INC Microwave). I hope to be back on air soon enough, although updates to under what callsign will be under is in the air at this time.
• Community: I love promoting my community in 2015 for example I was chair of a group that raised £67,000 to replace all the Christmas lights for our town, and organise a fayte, Which included a free visit to Santa, which gave every child a few minutes of his time, and a book* and an advent calendar. I also went on to become a community councilor, until I moved out of town and COVID restrictions put an end to this. (expanded below)
• The Outdoors: I love to walk, to photograph to be at one with nature. I find it very theraputic.
• Cooking: After Music, my favorite pastime is Cooking and entertaining. I am told I could have been a professional chef but the hours wouldn’t have suited me not that IT hours did either. I love to cook food from all over the world, and I have a restrictive diet but I also can cater for Vegans, Diabetics, and other dietary requirements.
• Sightseeing: Being in Scotland has really made me explore the landscape we live in, from the old towns to the coastline and the lochs, I love it and can’t get enough.
• Poetry: although I go through periods of not writing, I do love to compose good verse.
• Writing: I am writing a novel at the moment, its slow going due to other commitments.
• Learning: I love to learn new things every day, to be more the perpetual student, is my life. I know I will never become a grand master at everything so I strive to have knowledge that I aquire from day to day, and to share that knowledge.
• Acting. I love to be on stage, or on set, my Instagram account has some photos of me from on set. https://www.instagram.com/marcushazelmcgown/

Outside of my hobbies, I love to be involved in the local community, and the extended community also. I served as a volunteer for the Radio Society of Great Britain, as Regional Manager for region One (South Scotland and the western islands) when I started I had one volunteer area manager and nine vacancies, in three months I’d filled the remaining nine positions. My role was to report back to the Regional Council that met via Skype call once a month and once a quarter in person on how the membership felt about the society and its work. I was also the Secretary for the Regional Council (who report directly to the board). I decided whilst in office that I would organize a Convention, the last one prior to this had been in the nineteen-eighties. I arranged for us to take over the convention center at Braehead. I was responsible for arranging traders, public speakers, and the website and social media. Seeming nothing like this had been run in many years we managed 2,500 people through the door, two talk streams (Of which I spoke in both streams), and donated the profit of the Event to the Scottish Air Ambulance Service. Another part of my role was to visit all of the regional clubs, listen to people’s gripes and praise and report it back, but also to put on a series of technical talks about not just the society but also about other areas of the hobby, my specific area of interest is UHF and above communications and digital communications.

When I wasn’t doing this in Jan 2015 after a dreary Christmas, where I noticed that there were no events on or festivities in the local area for the children and their families. I networked with a lot of community members and businesses and we founded the “Saltcoats Community Action” a group whose aim was to promote events for families, that were free. We did an Easter egg hunt, a series of summer events. Our main objective was to sort a Christmas event out, As chair of the group I was directly responsible for raising £67,000 for Christmas lights, that were erected in the town center, I arranged local artists, and entertainers for switching on of the lights, and the most important part, in my opinion, Every child got to see Santa free. Saltcoats is one of the most deprived areas in the UK, if not Europe, We arranged for Santa to give out advent calendars and a book for each child. I felt very strongly about making sure it was a book, not something that would easily get forgotten. Literacy is something that is very close to my heart. I established this group and ran it for two years until I was asked to Co-Found the new Community Council, which I did for a further two years until I moved out of Saltcoats.

My greatest love is also my greatest tragedy, My Family. I love them with all of my heart no matter what. I have children, they are my most treasured achievement. One thing I will be passing on to them all is a family tree that goes back to the 1200’s.

*Books every child should have access to them!

My Education and Work here