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Hobbies and past times
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08-04-2015 10:31am#1
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Me, I am a bit of a peculiar case. Let's put it this way - I am the archetypal "solitary" type. Even as a kid, I didn't quite enjoy playing with other children - I still clearly remember seeing them as a "disturbance". If it was about playing Lego, for example, even at 5 or 6 my idea of "fun" would be building fairly complex and accurate contraptions - planes, spaceships, cars. Other kids, they were only good at throwing the bricks around and making a mess. Yes, ended up being an engineer, Dilbert style!
I am not socially inept - quite the contrary actually, but I feel at my best when not a soul is in sight. It comes as no surprise that my hobbies are mostly "one-man-shows". Oh, and science/engineering related
Building model airplanes out of plastic kits - Revell, airfix and the likes. Mostly airliners. It requires a degree of precision and attention that is quite something, and the satisfaction when the job is finished can be immense. Also hones an array of manual skills - assembly, painting and the likes.
I am also building a model railway - it was one of my childhood dreams I never managed to get close to due to space and financial constraints. Now I have the resources, and lack of a wife to nag me about "playing with toys", so be it! Again, this is an activity that comes in handy because of the skills it requires you to learn: woodwork, working with plastics, electric circuitry design/building, electronics.
Being 34, I also grew up with videogames. I have seen them mature, from mostly children oriented to the mainly adult-themed array we have nowadays. I enjoy playing every now and then, although my taste has refined a bit (it's mostly just driving and strategy games now). I also like to try my hand at designing and coding some small games - never finished a single one of them, but I did start a few projects
I am also into cars - I can do some of the smaller mechanical jobs myself (essentially the stuff that doesn't require an inspection bridge), and often enjoy driving aimlessly; Especially if the weather is fair, and I can roll the windows down to savour the engine note. Sometimes I join some Alfisti meetings, but they are few and far in between in Ireland. Nice people to meet at those, anyway. Never tried a track day, but I count on changing that soon.
I exercise regularly, weight work in the gym. I pretend to not really be into it and only do it to avoid ballooning to a Goodyear-blimp size, but the reality is that I have gotten quite interested in the last couple of years. Also, seeing the result both in terms of health and appearance is extremely gratifying.
Finally, won't turn away a good book, have quite some interest in astronomy and science in general, and possibly some more I can't think about right now. In a nutshell, if I am say on a week's holiday at home, alone, there's not a chance in hell I'd ever get to the "I have nothing to do!" stage
I honestly think it's very important to have stuff you like and want to do that doesn't require any external factors to align - friends being available, weather being good and so on.
Some friends, every now and then, raise the age-old question "how do you have any time to do this stuff?"; My answer is normally very simple: how much time do you normally waste in front of the TV every day? :Pflyingsnail wrote: »About eight years ago I took up restoring and running steam trains as part of the RPSI, and I got hooked. Admittedly the interest was there before I joined but the variety of work and almost family like atmosphere that you can get in a small organisation kept me hooked. I also appreciate the really good friendships I have made there.
That is exceptional, great job sir!0 -
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I watch TV mostly
I do the gym buy that doesn't count as a hobby I feel when it's nesessary for health and astetic reasons. Sold my motorbike recently due to lack of use. Used to be out 2/3 times a week on spins but that stopped what the baby came. Tried my hand at archery but didn't last long. Trying to get into cycling but the weather doesn't help. I mostly work, go to the gym and watch TV.
I'm sad
Suggestion: get rid of the TV, or at least the Sky/UPC subscription (if you also use the TV as a screen for an Xbox/Playstation).
The fact is this: I don't like watching TV, not at all; Yet, years ago when I still lived with my parents and they had a Sky subscription, if I did sit down because there was something I wanted to follow , I ended up staying there afterwards watching some absolutely random stuff I had totally no interest in, on pure inertia, jumping from channel to channel.
So since I moved out (and 2000km away to Ireland!) seven years ago, I never felt the need for a pay tv subscription. The stuff I want to watch (mostly F1 races and Top Gear, as long as it lasted!) I can get through streaming. I have a Netflix account, but rarely use it - It's only 7.99 a month, but I'm thinking about killing it as the movies are "meh" at best, and it's becoming more and more about cr@ppy TV shows.
If there is something you want to watch (football game, movie, documentary), do it then turn off and do something that you like, rather than sit idly staring at people telling you what you should like and buy.
Also, the wife and her Coronation Street/Emmerdale/East Enders/Fair City or whatever, is no excuse - I guess she could do with a proper hobby herself, leaving the baby in your care for a while 0 -
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Hobbies.... Have very few myself. I used to be in the reserve, circumstances changed and other stuff... Resulted in me giving it up. An important chapter of my life closed.
I do clay shooting. I used a fixed choke mirouku. I love it! Contrary to my username, I don't shoot wild pigeons
My main passtime, surprise surprise, I root with vehicles. This evenings task is to setup a turbo for my daily driver. Turbo is from a C250 td, going into a reamed out T2 housing to go onto an XUD engine.
Does going out on the pull count as a passtime?
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I know that one FS. I was mad into the fishing myself. In my case the oul dry fly for trout with my dad and later a couple of mates. My da kept it going until a few months before he died in his 80's so he was lucky, but when he passed away and so did a couple of said mates at far too young an age, it really took the pleasure out of it. Like you I tried it a few times on my own, but it never felt the same.flyingsnail wrote: »When I was younger (not that I am that old) I used to be really into fishing, I would go out a lot with my grandfather, unfortunately as his health declined he could not take being in active for very long as the cold got to him. I tried it a few times solitary or with mates but it just wasn't the same.
I still have all the kit, mine and his. Joke was he was more the techie one with the latest carbon fibre/kevlar/boron and I was the split cane, later the B&W Hexagraph with silk lines fuddy duddy oddball.
It was surprisingly good exercise. I remember bringing a mate of mine, a chap far stronger and fitter than I, who after a few hours wading up a river was well knackered. Funny though I found carbon rods tired me more quickly than cane. Yea the latter are heavier, but if you let them do the work they are a better spring than the higher speed carbon stuff IMHO. Only for small rivers though, the lighter carbon is the man on lakes and big rivers. Silk lines though a pain in the arse as far as care and prep go are a superior line IMHO. Float higher, cause less disturbance, have near zero line memory and being thinner cut through the air better and with care can last a lifetime(and make the best intermediate sinker ever if left untreated). Even my modernist dad kept his 1940's silk line in rotation up to the second last time he cast a line. Eeee, t'is all coming back now.
Only if you collate your results in a ledger or spreadsheet.fancy pigeon wrote: »Does going out on the pull count as a passtime?
Hobbies? Hard to pin down TBH. At this stage my gaff looks like a museum, with examples of old furniture, fossils, flint tools from pre modern humans, old books and various antiques, art and such. That's before we get to clocks and watches. I missed my calling as a curator I think. Rejoice in the awareness of feeling stupid, for that’s how you end up learning new things. If you’re not aware you’re stupid, you probably are.
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