When we went to the Maldives rather than just sitting on the beach all day we went off walking and diving. He has been my tour manager so we have been able to travel together frequently.Beach bum, culture vulture or adrenalin junkie?I’ll try anything once but I’m not great with adrenalin sports. I do love a beach holiday because I can take all my books and read. Also, when I’m abroad I try not to eat anything that I recognise, so when I was in the Seychelles I found out at the end of the week that I’d been eating fruit bat, thinking it was beef!Holiday reading?I’m doing an astronomy degree, so anything to do with stars. I also love things like Beloved by Toni Morrison or Harry Potter.Where has seduced you?The Maldives because the scuba diving was amazing there.

I’ve also come to realise that there’s a greater world out there beyond work. I recently came back from Sierra Leone, which was fascinating. I really enjoyed roughing it and going where the locals go.Ideal travelling companion?My partner Gray, because he’s got the exploration bug like me. Because my mother’s from the Philippines and my father’s from Austria I’ve got an appreciation of mixed cultures anyway and have been able to travel a lot. Now I’ve moved to London I realise how lucky I was to grow up so near to the beach. I recently played a concert in Norwich Cathedral, which was amazing particularly because it was to a home crowd.What have you learnt from your travels?I’ve got a good understanding of different cultures. Because I’m a classical musician it’s heaven.Favourite place in the British Isles?I love Norfolk, where I was born and bred.

When I was younger I’d go strawberry picking after my piano lessons. I remember playing with beer cans and using them to build sandcastles. My father is a navy diver so we spent a lot of time travelling. I used to travel on his DP (dynamically positioned) vessel and he even let me sail it through the Suez Canal! It was very tight but I managed it.
Best holiday?I’ve really enjoyed our family holidays My father is half-Austrian, so I love going back to Vienna. In contrast, the briefs will be put on specifically for a swim and taken off afterwards; thereby, yes, greatly reducing the amount (and provenance) of germs.For the same reason, you cannot reach a French swimming pool from the changing rooms without crossing a disinfecting p?luve, or footbath, and you may notice that the attendants wear minimum footwear reserved for use around the pool.Even after close to 30 years in Britain, I still cringe seeing local bathers able to walk straight back from the toilet into the pool, supervised by attendants in socks and outdoor trainers.By Yves Salat.

First holiday memory?

The first holiday I can remember was to Nassau, in the Bahamas. Flights to the islands are expected to take around six hours – although coming home the Manchester service will have to stop to refuel at Banjul in the Gambia.By Simon CalderWarning of the week: British bathing habitsMay I offer the final word on French swimming pools, where baggy trunks are interdit and only Speedo-style briefs are allowed?As a French pool attendant explained to me, the baggy type of trunks are likely to have been worn all day, sometimes for several days, before hitting the pool. The timing coincides with the start of the dry season in this former Portuguese colony off the coast of West Africa. BMed currently flies to a wide range of Middle Eastern, Asian and African destinations. “It’s a break into West Africa that’s very important to us, and we hope to expand further into the region,” said Jonathan Grisdale, the airline’s commercial director. The airline has had to revise its schedules due to its flights to Beirut being cancelled in the present conflict.Across at Gatwick, Astraeus (01293 568666; www.flyastraeus ) is expanding its West African network with new flights from Gatwick and Manchester to Sal, in the Cape Verde Islands. What happens on land is even more spectacular: a huge amount of diversity is compressed into a narrow strip of land between the mountains and the sea..