01 Up and at it – what is your morning routine?
About 7am when I reach out my hand and turn on the radio news channel.
02 What might you eat in a typical working day for...
Breakfast? Breakfast is invariably strong coffee, porridge and bananas with milk. I have a delicate little tummy and have had to be careful with food ever since I was a student of architecture in Edinburgh in the 1960s. This was gothic, pre-curry Scotland; a Scotland of the deep fried Mars bars, potted haugh and multitudinous blood soaked puddings. My tummy fought the good fight… and lost.
Lunch? Lunch, if I'm making it myself, will be some kind of vegetable stew with lots of onions and ginger.
Evening meal? If my wife is cooking, it will be a fabulous gourmet experience, nothing processed and never the same thing twice. Coming from the continent, she has an instinctive feel for herbs and spices and seasonings and a withering disdain for processed food. We eat very little meat. I am nut-allergic and have developed nut-detecting antennae which generally keep me out of trouble.
03 Is nutrition important to you?
No, not really. I have this notion that the very dark green, outer leaves of cabbage contain something wonderful, but I don’t know what it is or where I got that idea.
04 Best meal ever?
That was definitely a meal of mixed fish, spinach and wild herbs from our coastal meadows about six weeks ago. I’ve also had great meals from Aldo’s in Ardglass, and, about 30 years ago, a great meal in a pub somewhere in mid-Wales which our complete gang of Penny Farthing cyclists agreed was the best ever.
05 Do you have a guilty pleasure?
Yes, caramel eclairs like the ones you’d get in any patisserie in France. A shop on the Lisburn Road in Belfast did them for a while about three years ago, but then, one morning, they weren’t there any more. Maybe I was their only customer. I have had to make do with ordinary chocolate eclairs ever since.
06 Have you ever been on a diet? If so, how did it go?
No, I haven't been on a diet, as such, but the delicacy of my tummy means that my normal intake is a bit like a diet. I’ve always been jealous of people with strong stomachs.
07 Do you take health supplements?
Just Vitamin C tablets and a hot whiskey if I take a cold.
08 How do you relax?
Slumped over the drawing board, cycling as fast as I can on geriatric bicycles and briefly not worrying about the environment.
09 Teetotal or tipple?
Tipple in moderation – I love the taste of Guinness and red wine. I would 'tipple' to excess if I could get away with it, but my wretched belly would have a field day.
Ian Knox's cartoon gallery
10 Stairs or lift?
The stairs for two storeys, then I take the lift.
11 Do you have a daily exercise regime?
My exercise regime consists of getting up, getting to the shops, either by bike or walking, and sometimes carrying bales of hay to the car. When I get my many punctures fixed, I’ll cycle more often.
12 Best tip for everyday fitness?
Do things you like, but do them a bit more often.
13 On a scale of one to 10, how fit do you think you are and how fit would you like to be?
I think I'm a three and would like to be a 10.
14 Have you tried, or would you try, alternative therapy?
I don’t think so, but I would certainly give it a try if mainstream therapy wasn’t working. In Germany, I believe, one can only take up a course in homeopathy if you have already achieved a top mark in mainstream medicine.
15 Were school sports happy times or do you have a memory you would rather forget?
School day sports were quite happy times. I enjoyed middle distance and cross-country running, although I wasn’t much good at either. I found running to be so much more pleasant than body contact sports, which I dreaded, and less difficult than hitting balls with sticks.
16 Did you ever have a health epiphany which made you change your lifestyle?
No, nothing, apart from learning to manage my 'belly bully' and not eat anything that traumatises it. I've had scares which produced hints of mortality, but no wondrous insights.
17 Best health/lifestyle advice you were ever given and would pass on to others?
Just 'relax', as advised by Michael Johnson, US 400m world champion. Unfortunately, he’s suffered a stroke since, but I doubt it was caused by being too relaxed, Another good one: 'Don’t race motorbikes!' from my dad. His elder brother, Jim, was killed racing bikes back in the 20s or 30s before I was born. A good friend, David Pinkerton from Birmingham, was killed in a side-car race on the Isle of Man. I do understand the thrill, but it’s too dangerous.
18 Who inspires you or who would you try to emulate in terms of fitness / attitude to life?
Fausto Coppi, the great Italian cyclist, inspired me – until I realised he hunted animals for pleasure and probably took drugs. Then I turned to Marco Pantani, another great Italian cyclist, until I found out he took drugs too. That leaves Superman, or maybe Batman – if I can avoid Krypton – and the Sydney funnel-web spider.
19 What time do you normally get to bed and do you get enough sleep?
I get to sleep around midnight. Thankfully, I don’t have to be in some sort of office or factory by 9am and am able to ease myself into the day with a lazy breakfast and listening to traffic reports of gridlock. If I feel under-slept, then I avail myself of the great luxury of crawling back into bed for 15 minutes.
20 Would you say you have a healthy attitude towards your own mortality?
A healthy attitude to one’s mortality is a bit like like overcoming one’s fear of heights – it's not logical. There are some things one should dread and put off for as long as possible.
I rather like the young Jane Eyre’s answer to Mr Brocklehurst when quizzed as to how she planned to avoid going to hell: "I must keep in good health and not die".
