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Other hobbies/Obsessions?

2shea

So is it just watches people on here are obsessed with or have you other interests?

For me it's Motorbikes. Watches came first but I love my bike and everything to do with it.

Two costly hobbies but it keeps me occupied.

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blue5000

I've already admitted that I do a bit of blacksmithing, this tends to have a few knock on affects, like a keen interest in 'old stuff'.

I have to confess I have more hammers than watches.

I don't deliberately collect them, it just sort of ............you know,

happens.

Seeing as these pics are a few years old, maybe I should take another pic and see how many I have now:D

Edit; there seems to be quite a few squares, you know the type that carpenters use, in various places too. Is there a (polite) word for someone with a 'thing' for squares........?

And tape measures.......

Cyclingtourist

Thirdfox wrote: »

I've actually never heard that proverb before - why "a bad name kills" - and how does it relate to cycling/nursing? Or is the postcard saying that if "those bloody cyclists who never obey red lights anyway " don't obey rules etc. they'll develop a bad reputation?

^Tongue in cheek as I do cycle to work/for fun too and you can be sure I always obey red lights

Apparently it's a Scottish proverb or rather their version on a general proverb against 'bad mouthing' people and spreading gossip. The guy who's having his leg bandaged doesn't look like he's going to heal anytime before the compo case is over.

Here's a card that was meant to be humorous.

Thirdfox

I've actually never heard that proverb before - why "a bad name kills" - and how does it relate to cycling/nursing? Or is the postcard saying that if "those bloody cyclists who never obey red lights anyway

" don't obey rules etc. they'll develop a bad reputation?

^Tongue in cheek as I do cycle to work/for fun too and you can be sure I always obey red lights

Cyclingtourist

Thought I'd post (virtually) these two postcards from my 'cycling ephemera' collection as a bit of light relief. Neither were originally published as humorous but I find them funny.

This one dates from about 1905. Shows a very staged looking bicycle accident in an equally unlikely location. Looks like the poor guy had a collision with a grey squirrel and lost his leg without managing to shed a drop of blood.

This is WWI vintage. A card published on behalf of the German Red Cross and shows what looks like an Austrian soldier escaping wild-west style from Italian troops in an Alpine village.

Cyclingtourist

A new addition to my 'cycling ephemera' collection.
This is a cycling route guide from London ("for all cyclists & roadmen") published by the Victorian equivalent of eBay 'the Office of the Bazaar Exchange & Mart '.
The map dates from the early 1890s when cycling was becoming the domain of the middle-class rather than the preserve of the wealthy it had been before the introduction of the safety frame, chain drive, pneumatic tyres and mass production.

Often the advertisements are as interesting as the publications themselves. I love the 'Weak Men Scientifically Treated' promoting electrotherapy, one of the quack-remedies popular then.
In cycling publications I've never come across advertisements for watches but in the late-Victorian period there are many for cameras as amateur photography was developing (no pun intended) at the same time as cycling was becoming more popular.

Cyclingtourist

IrishPlayer wrote: »

Aah but the tan mark is a sign of a true watch guy

Ash but in 2004 I wasn't a watch guy, just a guy with a watch.

njburke

Northern Monkey wrote: »

^^^Where is the watch?

Never mind the watch, the Brooks saddle is the focus here. I'ld trade a good saddle for a good watch on a cycle like that.

IrishPlayer

Cyclingtourist wrote: »

Probably on the handlebars. Wrists need to get the sun. As it is you develop cyclists' body tan, white body and tanned arms, legs and everything above the neck line.

Aah but the tan mark is a sign of a true watch guy

Cyclingtourist

Northern Monkey wrote: »

^^^Where is the watch?

Probably on the handlebars. Wrists need to get the sun. As it is you develop cyclists' body tan, white body and tanned arms, legs and everything above the neck line.

Northern Monkey

^^^Where is the watch?

Cyclingtourist

As my username indicates I'm an avid cycle tourist. Been doing it regularly for the past 20 years, mostly in France and Spain but also Cuba, Sicily, Portugal and of course Ireland.

This was me in 2004.

redlead

Northern Monkey wrote: »

Cars and tech/gadgets for me.

Speaking of cars and tech, I was cleaning out my second car yesterday which is used and abused being honest and there is a little side compartment in my boot. To give an idea of how long crap has been sitting there, there was one of my accountancy revision books from 2010 in there.... But anyway, I found one of those iPod Nano things which I'm guessing is of a similar vintage or older . Just goes to show how fast tech goes out of date. Its really pretty much an antiquated piece of technology now.

I've just sort of fallen out of love with tech over the last few years. I find most of it now is just stuff you really don't need, sort of commercialism gone mad (maybe it's always been like this, I don't know) . Seem as we are in the watches forum, a smart watch is the classic example. It's not doing anything you don't already have in your pocket isn't already doing for you, yet every Tom, Dick and Harry seems to have one.

Northern Monkey

Cars and tech/gadgets for me.

Cyclingtourist

Another interest of mine is polar exploration, particularly the so called 'golden age'.

There are lots of books on Shackleton and Scott and I have many of them but this one is fairly rare. It's a numismatic book by Seaby's listing the Antarctic and Artic polar medals awarded by the Royal Geographical Society between 1818 and 1961.

Cyclingtourist

In the 1920s & 30s the British Ordnance Survey illustrated their map covers with fine illustrations that were classics of graphic art design. Their most admired artist was Ellis Martin who had been a war artist in the Great War.
This is an example of Martin's work 'A Cyclist seated on a hillside'.

Rover were a respected British bicycle manufacturer and they produced a special model for the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC). This is it in the Rover catalogue for 1911.

Cyclingtourist

Some more items from my cycling history collection.

Cadburys were Quakers and anti-alcohol social reformers who tried to encourage people into healthy pursuits away from urban temptation so cycling was a pastime that featured in many of their adverts.

A point of sale display card from about 1900

A journal advertisement from 1887

An early cycling map of the Bristol area by Bacon from the mid-1880s showing tricycles that were popular with women (due to dress conventions) and older men for reasons of respectability or lack of the necessary athleticism required by high wheelers.

Cienciano

oxocube wrote: »

Dan Carlin's podcasts are excellent. Blueprint for Armageddon was especially very well done. My wife was just after having our first child when I listened to the letters from the Somme section of the podcast on my way to work.

The letter from a Captain to his wife and new born baby about not fearing for his own life, but regretting that if he's killed he will not be able to help is wife raise his child, guide her through growing up, and being the father he knew she would need was hearth wrenching. When Dan states that he was KIA after going over the top the very next day really got to me.

I had to take a few minutes in my car to compose myself before starting work. I don't think I talked to anyone until the afternoon and gave my wife and daughter a massive hug when I got home.

Podcasts are very good at depicting emotions that you just don't seem to get from reading prose.

He does some amount of research, and as you said, the personal stories really make it. There was one about guarding a fort in Belgium and the artillery kept missing them. They were all laughing and joking until it stopped and the germans adjusted their aim. Some crazy stuff. I think there was one on the french line and one artillery shell killed 70 people who were at a mass. Or people falling into artillery craters and can't get out because it's too muddy and no one can help them, so it's just 2 or 3 days of them moaning until they die.
Blueprint for Armageddon is my favorite one too. The whole intro about who is the most important person in history is brilliantly done.

Wrath of the Kahns is shorter but brilliantly done too.

oxocube

Cienciano wrote: »

Dan Carlin's hardcore history podcasts are brilliant.

Dan Carlin's podcasts are excellent. Blueprint for Armageddon was especially very well done. My wife was just after having our first child when I listened to the letters from the Somme section of the podcast on my way to work.

The letter from a Captain to his wife and new born baby about not fearing for his own life, but regretting that if he's killed he will not be able to help is wife raise his child, guide her through growing up, and being the father he knew she would need was hearth wrenching. When Dan states that he was KIA after going over the top the very next day really got to me.

I had to take a few minutes in my car to compose myself before starting work. I don't think I talked to anyone until the afternoon and gave my wife and daughter a massive hug when I got home.

Podcasts are very good at depicting emotions that you just don't seem to get from reading prose.

Wibbs

Theodora was some woman alright. Though it seems "actress" was a euphemism, as it has often been, for what was seen as a lady of variable virtue. IIRC when she was not far off 16 she had shacked up with a guy many years her senior and maybe had a child with him. Then ends up meeting Justinian and he faced some resistance to marrying her. It was illegal for anyone of high born status to marry an actress. He changed the law, as you do. She brought in a load of laws herself that pertained to women. She made pimping illegal, but not prostitution directly. Went after the pimps and madams not the women themselves. Very wise. She also drafted anti corruption laws and was a big influence on her husbands legal changes like making rape a capital crime.

Thirdfox

Don't forget the ladies though - Theodora has probably as big (if not bigger) impact on Justinian's reign - and kept the empire from falling apart during the plague/coma... didn't let him run during the riots... and she started life as an actress(!) (considered a ultra lowly profession back in Roman times).

Justinian's father was a farmer who became emperor I believe - say what you like - but that's some rags to riches story (and based on merit too from what I've read).

banie01

Thirdfox wrote: »

Remembering of course that the "Bzyantians" considered themselves fully "Roman" - never called themselves Byzantines - that was a later name for them give to them by others.

Oh if people like audiobooks - this is one masssive audio history of Rome:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItwGz43a_ak&list=PLmhKTejvqnoOrQOcTY-pxN00BOZTGSWc3

Around 72 hours of wonderful history.

The Caliphate and the Ottoman also considered them Roman.
I have 1453 and another more complete history of Byzantium here that I've yet to read but whose name escapes me.

The exploits of Belisarius, Justinian and the creation of the codified Roman law are one of my very favourite chapters of history.
Only Heraclius victory over the Sassanids after his campaign on their soil stands with it IMO.He did a Hannibal, and actually subdued the enemy empire!

But the reign of Justinian...
Wagging the dog with foreign wars, reconquest of the old empire and a superpower struggle with the Sassanids.
A struggle that left a vacuum for the Arabs to explode into.
All counterpoised with extreme domestic unrest, plague, vanity building projects and the anarchy,riots and a near abdication.

Was IMO one of the highpoints of Byzantium and I forget which historian said it, but to paraphrase...
The dying gasps of an empire are often its highest.

It's also a lesson for current Geo-political worries and the unforeseen costs of victory.

Thirdfox

Remembering of course that the "Bzyantians" considered themselves fully "Roman" - never called themselves Byzantines - that was a later name for them give to them by others.

Oh if people like audiobooks - this is one masssive audio history of Rome:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItwGz43a_ak&list=PLmhKTejvqnoOrQOcTY-pxN00BOZTGSWc3

Around 72 hours of wonderful history.

Wibbs

Thirdfox wrote: »

https://www.amazon.com/Great-Game-Struggle-Central-Kodansha/dp/1568360223

If you're into history then this is a recommended read also - charts an interesting history into areas we don't learn a lot about in Irish history class.

I was always that contrarian nerd back in school - Teacher: "write an essay about an ancient civilisation" Me: "Is ancient China ok?" No... "What about ancient Egpytians?" No... "What about South American civilisations?" Teacher: "just pick Rome or Greece"

I hear that. Hell, even closer to home it always fascinated me how the Byzantine empire was almost completely ignored in our history. Greece, Rome, then Rome falls and "dark ages". Completely ignoring that the Eastern Roman Empire didn't fall until the 15th century. Like it never existed. Maybe it ruined the whole Great Rome fell left us in the dark until the renaissance narrative. And don't get me started on the dark ages.

banie01 wrote: »

Recently finished SPQR by Mary Beard and Tom Holland's Dynasty and Persian Fire and Shadow of the
Persian Fire needs to be read with an implicit awareness of Holland's pro-western bias.

The shadow of the sword in particular is meticulously researched and gives a very strong counterpoint to the longstanding belief that Islam arose in the full light of history.
It gives a really fascinating insight from the rise of the Arabs, their embrace of a warrior religion and their 2 centuries of near unfettered conquest.

Beard's SPQR is a great book alright. The shadow of the sword another and yep it's another blindspot for western historians. The assumption and wide acceptance that the internal narrative of early Islam is taken at face value. So you have some western historians do the critical analysis thing and question if Jesus actually existed, even though writings of people who knew him in life are extant, yet Mohammed is seen as most definitely an historical figure, yet the first biography of his comes along at least a century and a half after he died. The only contemporary source barely deserves the title and it could be anyone, the internal narrative has them dealing with the Byzantines, yet the Byzantines are strangely silent on the matter until much later and none of the well known place names within the narrative show up on contemporary maps, mainly because they were way off the trade routes in the middle of nowhere. What is incredible is how a small band of largely illiterate traders and tribes from the middle of nowhere joined up and spread out and built an incredible empire and culture in a very short time.

banie01

Cienciano wrote: »

Ken Burns biography :pac:

It's sad to say, since audiobooks and podcasts came about, I haven't read a book in about 10 years! An audiobook I can listen to when driving, or doing housework.
If you're interested in history, Dan Carlin's hardcore history podcasts are brilliant.

Can't argue with the 1st suggestion I suppose! :pac:

I've never gotten into audio books tbh, but what I have found very handy for study is the read aloud feature or TTS. Reading legal notes and legislation just turns to blah, blah sometimes and the TTS makes it far easier.

Don Carlin's podcast is excellent, but at 3hrs + an episode it can sometimes be an awful slog to get through.
Mike Duncan's history of Rome podcast is also quite good and Fin Dwyer's Irish history podcast does a fair job of trying to present a balanced Irish history.

Cyclingtourist wrote: »

Recently read 'Into the Silence, the Great War, Mallory and the conquest of Everest' by Wade Davis.
Very interesting and wide ranging history covering the British in Tibet, surveying expeditions from India, WWI, the redemptive post-WWI British attempts to 'conquer' Everest and the deaths of Mallory & Irvine.

That's added to my "to read" list.
A lot of what I'm reading at the moment is history,
Recently finished SPQR by Mary Beard and Tom Holland's Dynasty and Persian Fire and Shadow of the
Persian Fire needs to be read with an implicit awareness of Holland's pro-western bias.

The shadow of the sword in particular is meticulously researched and gives a very strong counterpoint to the longstanding belief that Islam arose in the full light of history.
It gives a really fascinating insight from the rise of the Arabs, their embrace of a warrior religion and their 2 centuries of near unfettered conquest.

In a very much related fiction book, I'm currently re-reading Dune...
Again

Almost forgot...
Letters to a law student, and Burne and McCutcheons on the Irish legal system, followed by bouts of self doubt and coffee! :pac:

Thirdfox

https://www.amazon.com/Great-Game-Struggle-Central-Kodansha/dp/1568360223

If you're into history then this is a recommended read also - charts an interesting history into areas we don't learn a lot about in Irish history class.

I was always that contrarian nerd back in school - Teacher: "write an essay about an ancient civilisation" Me: "Is ancient China ok?" No... "What about ancient Egpytians?" No... "What about South American civilisations?" Teacher: "just pick Rome or Greece"

Cyclingtourist

banie01 wrote: »

Any suggestions?

Recently read 'Into the Silence, the Great War, Mallory and the conquest of Everest' by Wade Davis.
Very interesting and wide ranging history covering the British in Tibet, surveying expeditions from India, WWI, the redemptive post-WWI British attempts to 'conquer' Everest and the deaths of Mallory & Irvine.

Cienciano

banie01 wrote: »

Any suggestions?

Ken Burns biography :pac:

It's sad to say, since audiobooks and podcasts came about, I haven't read a book in about 10 years! An audiobook I can listen to when driving, or doing housework.
If you're interested in history, Dan Carlin's hardcore history podcasts are brilliant.

banie01

Cyclingtourist wrote: »

Or you could try reading a book, just saying.

Any suggestions?

Cyclingtourist

Or you could try reading a book, just saying.

banie01

hitemfrank wrote: »

The Vietnam War by Ken Burns is good viewing. 10 episodes that are all feature length so it'll keep you occupied for a few days.

It's currently on Netflix.

Cienciano wrote: »

Anything by Ken Burns is good viewing

I'd agree with this in the main, but I thought Jazz was poor.
The Civil War if you haven't seen it yet really is a must watch, Senna, Penn & Teller, Bull****, BBC's The Great War (Really fantastic and the prototype for all the other living memory Docu's IMO), Any of the 30 for 30 ESPN docu's, even when you arent into the sport itself, really compelling stories. Pain, Pus and Poison(Any of the Max Mosley Stuff actually), The Brain with David Eagleman, Lots of the Channel 4 oneshot docu's are quite good too.