This article was requested of me, sometime ago, and I apologize for the length of time that it has taken to respond. Tamarii , this hub is for you, thank you for asking.

The timing of writing has not been for any other reason than I needed to dig really deep inside myself to discover why I enjoy research so much. It has held a fascination for me ever since my childhood, and believe me , thats a lot of digging.

As a child I would stay at my grandparents, they were antique dealers and their home was filled with curiosities that I would explore and touch, they had one room stacked high with books, and I remember sitting in the middle and just looking in wonder. I wasnt allowed to touch, but sometimes my grandfather would sit with me and read from one of them. He had a fascinating voice and those books just came to life.

"Remember, " he whispered, " you will learn something every day".

I watched as he turned and walked along the corrider to his shop, closing my eyes and drinking in the smell of those old books, and absorbing the imparted knowledge from my grandfather, I vowed that, every day, I was going to learn something.

I have never been content with knowing that something works, I need to know why and how it works.. at school, I infuriated the teachers with asking questions, they used to tell me that , the why and how doesnt matter, just take it that it does.

I stopped asking questions after being told this on numerous ocassions and decided to find out for myself. Years later I came to the conclusion that maybe, the questions were beyond the teachers to actually answer. Arrogant I know, but nobody knows everything, not even teachers, not even me, I am still learning, still researching, still trying to find out, why, things tick.When something or someone catches my attention, I have a compulsive need to find out as much as I can until I my curiosity is satisfied.

I heard a piece of music once that moved me to tears. I had to find out who wrote it, when it was written, what time of the composers life was it written and were their any significant events happening in his life at the time that would provoke such a response from within.

I cannot walk past a bookshop, without gazing in the window and then having to go in. Knowledge on shelves, I am like a kid in a candy store, walking round and round and just to make sure , around again. Sometimes I buy something, others, I just absorb the atmosphere and carry it with me for weeks and months to come.

For me, research is not a chore, it is a way of life.  As Louis Armstrong sings Its a wonderful world, I truly believe it is. I have my ups and downs the same as every one else, but in the main its wonderful, and I need to know.

I research for knowledge, I research for fun, I research because I do.

I cannot, for one minute imagine, my life, without, the ability, and the curiosity, to need to know, just, what, makes, it, tick.