BAYSNEWS: This month we’re talking to Greg Hurst.
Greg, for those who don’t know you, can you tell us a bit about yourself?
GREG: We live in Lovett Bay, the last house on the north side before Salvation Creek. Suzanne and I have lived here for 6+ years, so we made the five-year qualification for ‘almost local’. Other than some cedar windows and iron roof everything is spotted gum. It’s like living in a timber ark, looking over water and bush, with no houses or boats to spoil the view. We lucked out.
My past includes sport, fitness, dance, education and business with a good mix of success and failure. I am happily retired now, though still very busy. My occupation is husband, father and GG.
BAYSNEWS: What made you choose the offshore life?
GREG: We wanted to be mortgage free and move to the bush, but didn’t want to leave Sydney and four adult children. I had visited, paddled and walked around Pittwater, West Head, Barrenjoey, etc for many years. When Suzanne suggested Lovett Bay, it was kapow!
BAYSNEWS: What is your idea of perfect happiness?
GREG: Hmmm, I doubt there is such a thing as perfect happiness. No thing makes me happy; happiness is the way. I am most happy when fully immersed in something beautiful, risky, hilarious, technical, arduous or quiet. In the zone of complete involvement any unhappiness disappears. However, if I was to choose an ’idea of perfect happiness’ it would be spending more time with family.
BAYSNEWS: What is your greatest fear?
GREG: Luckily, I have an absence of phobias and don’t have any disproportionate fears. My past involved a lot of risk/reward assessment, and I measure things on that basis. Although I am significantly concerned about one thing. I lean towards atheistic existentialism and strongly support timely euthanasia. I am concerned that when it’s my time I might change my mind. That would be such a bummer.
BAYSNEWS: What is the trait you most dislike in yourself?
GREG: I used to think I was interesting, but whenever I talked about myself people became bored (are you bored yet?). Now I avoid myself as a topic, but when I lapse, I regret it.
BAYSNEWS: What is the trait you most dislike in others?
GREG: I like the diversity of traits in people. I am curious about their differences, so it’s hard to dislike them. There are plenty of behaviours that can be annoying, but one I particularly dislike is intolerance of tolerance.
BAYSNEWS: Which person (living or deceased) do you most admire, and why?
GREG: My parents were both admirable, as individuals and a couple. They were the epitome of ordinary people being extraordinary. My four siblings and I won the lottery in being their children.
BAYSNEWS: Which person (living or deceased) to you most despise, and why?
GREG: I don’t despise anyone, though what Putin (and similar) represents and does makes me cranky. There were a couple of people in my business life that I almost hated, until I realised, they had mental health challenges and were incapable of being rational.
BAYSNEWS: What is your greatest achievement?
GREG: My wife Suzanne and four kids Scarlett, Poppy, Dallas and Marlow all love me.
BAYSNEWS: What is your greatest regret?
GREG: I was fortunate that nature and nurture gave me some talents. But I was so lazy as a teen and twenty something that I didn’t fully make use of them. The regret is not the lack of achievement, rather the waste of good fortune.
BAYSNEWS: Which talent would you most like to have?
GREG: That’s easy. I join a squillion other people who would like to be musically talented. Oh well, dream on.
BAYSNEWS: What is your motto?
GREG: For three decades I followed Goethe’s advice: “Whatever you do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.” Now I am a motto free zone.
Note: This Q&A was adapted from Antionette Faure’s 1886 questionnaire. It was made famous by its first contributor, Marcel Proust, and is now known as the Proust Questionnaire. Of course.