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Off Topic The Hobby thread

Discussion in 'Sunderland' started by Nig, Jan 19, 2025.

  1. Powellinho

    Powellinho Active Member

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    Bird watching. Nothing more relaxing
     
    #21
    NC Sanddancer likes this.
  2. OldNewtown

    OldNewtown Well-Known Member

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    Which pubs do you frequent to watch said birds :emoticon-0105-wink:
     
    #22
  3. Essayyeffcee

    Essayyeffcee Well-Known Member

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    I've been known to go on ghost hunts as a hobby but not as often as I used to, mainly due to watching the grandson play football on a Saturday or Sunday morning when I'm off work
     
    #23
  4. Brainman

    Brainman Well-Known Member

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    We pottered around in the garden for a few years. Until we got old. Now we have a gardener to do the back breaking stuff.
    A couple of years ago our parish council imploded. They published minutes which said some stupid things about individuals in the village. All 5 had to resign.
    So 4 of us stepped into the breach. I’m now parish clerk.
    It’s unpaid, takes up a lot of time and it’s fun (now I know what I’m doing).
    So it’s like a hobby.
     
    #24
    rooch 3 likes this.
  5. OldNewtown

    OldNewtown Well-Known Member

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    My hobby used to be visiting whisky distilleries in Scotland, mainly in the Spey Valley but went up as far North as Wick and as far West as The Isle of Skye.
    Quite a pleasant drive in magnificent scenery and because my young lady didn't like whisky I would drink her taster and then allow her the pleasure of driving us back to wherever we were staying. :emoticon-0100-smile
     
    #25
    Last edited: Jan 21, 2025
  6. smithy in nl

    smithy in nl Well-Known Member

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    Darts is my main hobby now, and just took up clay pigeon shooting absolutely love it got my shotgun application in but it's a long old wait for that.

    Apart from that like a good bike ride or a cold plunge followed by a sauna.
     
    #26
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  7. Sol97uk

    Sol97uk Well-Known Member

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    I took up leather work the end of last year, very rewarding when I finally finish a piece of work and relaxing sitting alone in my shed. Summer time hobby is all about the motorbike though
     
    #27
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  8. RTB

    RTB Well-Known Member

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    I do a bit of cycling locally as we have some great cycle tracks - definitely no lycra though. I used to swim a lot as a kid but got sick of the sight of the pool floor, I now prefer outdoor swimming. I really enjoy spending time in the garden - when I'm not doing match threads <laugh>
    I mentioned on the Collections/Investment thread that I have quite a collection of Walkman cassette players - I buy broken ones, take them apart and fix them.
    Capture.JPG

    Here are a few of my shiny ones

    20211001_232050.jpg
     
    #28
  9. Montysoptician

    Montysoptician Well-Known Member

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    After accepting that my sporting days were over, my focus turned to Genealogy. I’ve skirted with family history for about 40 years, but since retiring I've become engrossed in the subject and much more serious about my research.

    The wife can watch her TV and I just stick my headphones on, listen to my music and get on with my work in peaceful oblivion :emoticon-0102-bigsm
     
    #29
  10. becs

    becs Well-Known Member

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    I'm keen on doing that when I retire and have more time.

    All the relatives I can remember on both sides were white and from north east England. My Dad just used to look at the sun and he'd go olive brown. He used to joke he came from the Med.

    I did one of them DNA tests out of curiosity. It came back that I have 8.1% Greek/South Italian DNA.

    Now I'm curious about why I have that and maybe there is more truth to my Dad's skin than we thought!
     
    #30

  11. Montysoptician

    Montysoptician Well-Known Member

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    DNA doesn't lie Becs, so it will be interesting for you to find out where your Italian/Greek comes from. Which company did you do your DNA test with?

    Make sure you question every member of your family while they are alive and make notes to use in the future when you begin to build your tree. I left it too late and initially struggled to get my tree started.
     
    #31
  12. becs

    becs Well-Known Member

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    It was My Heritage.

    There's nobody left on Dad's side. Both grandparents and his brother have passed away. His sister is still alive but she's lives in Yorkshire and doesn't do the Internet. The only contact we have is sending each other a Christmas card!
     
    #32
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  13. Montysoptician

    Montysoptician Well-Known Member

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    It's a shame that Becs but don't give up, it's just a little bit more difficult.

    It's also a shame that your DNA is with My Heritage, Ancestry have the biggest database and you can upload your results to all of the other sites.
     
    #33
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  14. Nig

    Nig Well-Known Member

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    It's not all it's cracked up to be apparently.


    https://www.theguardian.com/lifeand...estry-does-dna-testing-really-understand-race
     
    #34
  15. Montysoptician

    Montysoptician Well-Known Member

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    DNA can't show race or ethnicity Nig, it can only ever provide an estimate based on the locations where groups of people with similar DNA are recorded on a database. In fact all of the companies who provide the service are quite open about it and insist that DNA testing is about the matches and not ethnicity estimates.

    Where DNA comes into it's own in genealogy and never lies, is if you and I match our DNA at any level above 10cM's (the level for false positive results) then we are related and depending how high the match is we can work out how we are related.
     
    #35
  16. Nig

    Nig Well-Known Member

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    Aye but it doesn't go back very far and is dependent on the amount of people tested.
    My eldest daughter bought me a test through ancestry years ago for my birthday.
    (I used to do their family tree until they got greedy bastids with the price hike, plus the fact I'd canceled the automatic subscription but they went ahead with it and wouldn't refund me, I only noticed about 8-10 months later when thinking of paying again :rolleyes:)
    I was reluctant to do it to say the least <laugh>
    And I'm not that impressed. :emoticon-0148-yes:


    Not knocking it for others mind.
     
    #36
  17. Montysoptician

    Montysoptician Well-Known Member

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    Thats what I mean, it's only good for finding people related to you, it's up to you to work out how they are related.
    I have a link for half price World wide Ancestry £89.99, if you are interested let me know
     
    #37
    Last edited: Jan 21, 2025
    Makemstine Roger likes this.
  18. Nig

    Nig Well-Known Member

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    Nah, cheers, I get emailed offers by them all the time, sometimes up to 50% off.

    Oh I've had email's from overseas off "distant cousins" .

    I'll stick with the family I know thanks :emoticon-0148-yes:
    <laugh>
     
    #38
  19. WillD

    WillD Well-Known Member

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    Drinking
    Playing Dom's
    Watching footy

    Doing FIFA or now EA FC SIM challenges.
    Unite the brothers challenge. Bellinghams.

    This weekend I started with Sunderland and started a manager career and after wheeling and dealing sorted my side for the season, without playing a single game, simmed all the way to the end of the season, I finished 2nd.

    Next weekend I'm simming to the January transfer window, then making adjustments and simming to the end

    The aim is to buy Jude for Sunderland.

    It can be done.
     
    #39
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  20. alcoauth

    alcoauth Well-Known Member

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    8% is typically a great-great-grandparent.

    Assuming you were born in the 70's and your parents were born in the 40-50's (total guess) your GG-grandparents could have been born around 1900. Your ancestor could have been a local Cypriot woman married to a British officer during the British administration in Cyprus, just as an example, these things aren't common necessarily but not unheard of either.
     
    #40
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