The best part of the end of the football season for me is the chance to do some other activities other than football. I will kick this topic off by confessing that I am a railway modeller and am a keen club cricketer. I just know the Ipswich fans will have some fun with me now. Anybody else have any interesting hobbies?
Cycling for me. I'm cycling from Tunbridge Wells to Lille (France) and back over the bank holiday weekend. Hopefully the weather won't be too awful!
Rock climbing for me, specifically bouldering. I hate the gym, so it keeps me fit, and it's a never-ending challenge, which I like. It's a way of pushing yourself to your physical limits, in terms of strength and more importantly balance. I like the mental side to it too, planning how you're going to approach something, and thinking about how to minimise the amount of effort you need. Hopefully after exams I'll have the chance to get out onto real rock in the peaks, rather than the local wall.
Just a leisure cyclist now.I did a 50 mile run last August bank holiday.Also interested in history and a few years ago did the Western Front and Normandy WW2 sites by bike.Swim for an hour every weekday and now restoring a 1958 MG Magnette.
Rowing, which has tailed of a bit since I broke both my hands but I still love it, I know it is normally associated with richer people, but coming from a public run club and going to a welsh uni that only funds rugby!!! Then its bit more of a challenge rather than having done for you.
Gardening now Cotswold. I am almost embarresed writing it but there it is, particular favourite is home grown spuds - Wiljas this year! Coat!!
With you there Thurnby and no embarrassment in gardening - an Englishman's pleasure is his garden. Bit of a challenge here in the desert and am limited by what survives in the heat here, and the saline in the water means that a lot just whithers and dies. Still, my compost turns over in double time and looking out of the window at greenery in what is otherwise a very "lunar" landscape gives me a lot of joy
I'm a bit of a transport nutter - I'm into planes (military and civil), trucks, trains, buses and ships. Photography is a major passion - especially of all the transport I go out and "phot". I like nature and am into music big time with two gigs coming up in the next four days (Rush on Sunday and Journey/Whitesnake on Tuesday). Makes me wonder how I have time to fit anything else in - good job the missus loves me (I think).
One of the joys of being retired - you can do what you want when you want provided health and finance allow. My wife is the gardener - by the way Thurnby she says put a cloche over them - leaving me to play golf ( I needed a cloche over me yesterday and I aren't even going to bother today ) and build up my collection of Classical music. My two more unusual hobbies are beer - proper beer not the fizzy tasteless chilled crap. I will travel miles to try a brew or a brewery that I haven't tried before - and before you think it I am not an old soak - show me a man who says he has seen me drunk and I will show you a liar - and retirement has allowed me to visit a lot more beer festivals. My other unusual hobby is ancestry. I started with my immediate family tree but have now expanded it into the wider family. It is very time consuming and costly because of all the death, birth and marriage certificates you have to buy but it is very interesting and throws up a lot of coincidences. I have found that a great great grandfather once ran a pub I used in my younger days and that another distant relative was buried in a cemetary in Australia about 400 yards from the house I lived in when I worked over there for 2 years. Next time I am over there I will try and find his grave. I also intend to visit the war grave in Belgium of a great uncle who I never knew existed until my research which will also allow me to track down and consume a few more Trappist beers that I have not tried before. The only problem with being retired is that you are getting older!!
Duly noted 1950 and thanks to your misses. Good advice and something I should have done really - Bugger!
I tell you what 1950, if my eventual retirement ends up involving either/both of these things I will be a happy man!
I've always been fascinated by film and TV and I'm a bit of an 'anorak'. I have a massive library of DVD's and Blu-Rays. I won't settle for second best when it comes to TV's and other home entertainment products. As I think I may have said on here before, my Sony TV was the price of a good second hand car and I've never told the missus how much I paid for my cables as she could have bought a week's groceries for the price of one of them ! My favourite era for TV was the sixties and early seventies even though I was just a nipper at the time and didn't see many of them when they were originally broadcast. i.e. The Champions, Department S, The Persuaders, Randall & Hopkirk Deceased, The Avengers and IMO the best sitcom of all time 'Whatever Happened To The Likely Lads?' Needless to say, these are all in my collection. If you're ever struggling to find a certain DVD even though the're probably not the cheapest, you're bound to find it here: http://www.classicmoviestore.co.uk/?gclid=CIfS3eG4rrcCFYXMtAodgwkAtA I'm also fascinated by local history and will spend hours researching on the internet. Some marvellous pictures here of Norwich starting in the early thirties many of which are in colour: http://www.georgeplunkett.co.uk/Website/index.htm
I like course fishing. In the summer Tench and Carp but not really camping, although have done it a few times. In the winter fishing on the Wensum and rivers for Chub etc.... Mainly float fishing on the bottom for tench and carp using old techniques on fairly light tackle and quiver tip on rivers with a feeder or just bread/cheese paste on a light lead. I love it! Also enjoy a bit of Pike fishing every autumn/winter. and you Welly?
Carp, pike, catfish and barbel for me, I'm lucky as there's a lot of great carp lakes around here in the Nene Valley, and one particular lake that's home to some big catfish... http://www.fisheries.co.uk/pitsford/ (Yet to catch one of those monsters, though, although my 14 year old son caught his first carp there, a beautiful black mirror, 21lb!) I'll fish for pike at any time of year, I find that summer pike fight harder than winter pike, but my favourite is fishing for barbel on the Great Ouse, at night, a beautiful river to fish and the home of some really big barbel!
For my sins I am a Football Referee and I also Umpire Cricket in the summer! I still play Cricket for a Sunday side and Bat at No4 and throw down a decent Off-Break now and then! Nothing better than after a day's cricket to return to the Pub with the players and have a jolly good piss up!
I used to be a National-level Judo competitor, but since repeatedly dislocating my shoulder I'm a very mediocre one! Now coach and train a bit, and help out at the Martial Arts Center in Wymondham
