Off Topic Hobbies

Given you created a thread about your poxy trip of a lifetime to Vegas, the idea that you're the sort of bloke who nips over to San Fran for a road race is highly unlikely imo

Post a pic of your medal with a message and I'll eat my words

 

Why should I? I don't have to prove anything to you. You seem to be under the impression that I give a toss what you think, Tobes.

Why don't you post a photo of yourself playing golf? Then, we can all have a right laugh.

 

Here, I've saved you the trouble....

 

Music is very important to me. I have some 2000 vinyl LPs and about 800 cd's. Mostly Jazz and classical. My house is detached in a village that is quite spaced apart so if I want to play Mingus at 5 in the morning at top volume I can, that's a great luxury because I come from the South of England where it's not possible to do that without causing mayhem. I play Tenor Sax badly for myself.
I have many books on many subjects and I am now on my third cull of them. I collect Folio Books, I've been picking them up quite cheap recently as collectors die and presumably their children just view them as junk and off load them to charity shops. I always visit charity shops especially in affluent areas the bargains are amazing.
I watch a fair amount of films, another thing that has to be culled regularly to just keep the ones I may watch again.
I am a golfer but in the last couple of years have not played as often as I used to. Played West Hove last week, not may favourite course but a friend is a member. The next time will be Troon which is where I usually play.
I am retired and heavily involved in my village and politics, being chair of a potential buy out of our village and surrounding lands from the largest landowner in Scotland.
I am into photography used to develop and print but now it's digital with my Canon 5D and Lumix.
Wine the drinking of and whisky are also interests, at one time I planned to drink all the malts in Scotland but now they are coming out with new ones every week so that's not possible anymore especially when they want £100's of pounds for some of them, ridiculous!
That's a few of things I like, some other interests are far too personal to put up here but I still surprise myself from time to time with my stamina.
I have been a Spurs fan since the 1960's so I remember the double winning team. I'd love to see them win a league title again.

Enough!

 

Ok mate, so you've bottled it.

#standard

 

You strange man

 

Music used to be big for me when I smoked a lot of hash/grass but not so much now. I only have the odd toke and I mean odd, probably only three of four times this year. I used to smoke between 1/8 and a 1/4 every day. I no longer go to big live gigs, I prefer pub rock bands, it's far more comfortable with a decent beer in one's hand. The on-set of partial deafness might be something to do with the change in my love of music. Nevertheless, when I want to switch off, I bung in a pair or earphones and set the tablet on 'Random". Reggae, punk, R&B (that's rhythm and blues in old money, not what they call R&B now) and good old fashioned rock and roll is my cup of tea.

I like watching open wheel racing, but working in Africa makes it difficult to attend. You couldn't have a Congolese GP, there would be people herding cows or goats on the circuit and they'ed nick all the tyres. It would also take them about 4 hours to do a pit stop because they'ed get their wives to change the wheels while they sat around drinking beer.

I have to put up with F1 on television. Not been to a circuit for about 6 or 7 years now. I have a kit car that I bought needing work, which I pulled apart and rebuilt. It's having it's second rebuild now but as I'm away and have no time, I'm having it done professionally. I'm switching the pinto for a 2.0 duratec, wacking on a dry sump, OMEX ECU and roller barrel throttle bodies so it should tick over like a pig but go like **** off a shovel with the mushroom down. I 'ummed and 'arred about supercharging it but decided against (for the time being). Providing I can pull about 195 bhp in a car that weights about 700 kg that should be enough to see-off most Porsches away from the lights. My current BMI might slow me down a bit though.

I always carry a camera (Canon SLR), I've just finished taking some for the companies website, I guess it's a hobby but I'm not mad on it.

I used to enjoy DIY but as one gets older (and fatter) it becomes more difficult. I call it DYI nowadays, (do yourself in!)

I enjoy test cricket but not to shorter forms of the game, to me cricket is a five day affair, one can forget everything else that's going on in the world and concentrate on the cricket, a bit a like five day meditation event with beer and sarnies.

I played rugby when I was younger, but like Brian I suffer as a result nowadays, in particular the right knee. Great game but my advice to any kid is to watch it, not play it.

I cook, one has to living in Africa. It's the only way to stay safe. Even then my latest blood test revealed salmonella in the blood stream (typhus), no wonder I'm alway knackered. Like having a permenant dose of the flu. Curry is the love of my stomachs life, I'm trying to master Indian restaurent style food (as opposed to Indian food). I'm getting there. The toilet will soon require mud flaps.....

 

Sorry - never got the PM - just checked and still can't see it.
Tallis is a fantastic composer. Weelkes isn't as good but quite weird.
Look up Striggio and I Fagiolini if you want something else interesting....

 

Surprisingly I don't take loads of selfies on the golf course

As it happens I've only played about 4 times all year, and I won't claim that those rounds were at Augusta, St Andrews and the Belfry either.......

 

I mainly use an Olympus OMD and a little Lumix LX7.

The Lumix is a great little camera, and highly portable, and I tend to take it with me everywhere I go.

I have a ton of old mechanical cameras, including some rare ones. I suppose you would call me a collector, although I didn't consciously set out to become a collector. I've used most of them, but don't really have the time, anymore, for film photography.

 

Neither would I. I haven't played any championship courses.

I play golf - although haven't played for a couple of years.

I took it up in order to get closer to certain business contacts for the purposes of better PR for my firm (at the time). I cannot claim that golf has ever been a hobby of mine, or that I am particularly good at it. I enjoy those occasions when I get to play a round, but it isn't something I have ever craved.

 

I've played since I was 11. I could play to a decent standard when in my late teens, but now I play so infrequently that my game is largely crap.

Which is extremely frustrating. As and when (God willing) I can take early retirement, I intend to take it up seriously again.

 

I mainly use an Olympus OMD and a Lumix LX7.

The OMD is for the serious stuff. I love the 45mm lens I have (doubled to 90mm on the 4/3 format).

The LX7 is my take-anywhere camera. I love the crisp Leica lens, and have achieved some great results with it.

I'm thinking of moving to full-frame with a Sony A7.

 

Yeah, that's the thing I have come to understand about golf - you have to play it regularly to maintain any kind of standard. I never got any better than playing off 20, but that was at a time when I was playing two or three times a week, every week, for two years. A client of mine plays off 2 on his home course, but he is a golf fanatic - the type who jets off (with buddies - no wives) on golfing holidays. That's the kind of dedication that I put in to my guitar playing. I don't have the time or the energy to have two obsessions in my life!

What was that old golfing joke...?

A man with a handicap of more than 28 has no business on a golf course. A man with a handicap of less than 10 has no business.

 

Photography used to be a hobby when I used film cameras. Digital cameras seem a bit like cheating when you get so many chances to get a good photo! Most of my best photos I took with a Canon A1 - a marvelous camera, and properly robust. I also own a pre-war Voigtländer bellows camera that my father obtained during the war, which is properly impressive, although I just checked out possible value and it's hardly worth anything. Funny how some things that I value highly aren't worth anything these days!

 

Canon is one make of camera I have never owned! There is no rational reason why. I have always been an Olympus man. In my collection I have quite a few of them - OM1, OM1n, OM2n, OM3, OM4, and OM4Ti. The OM3 is the rarest and most expensive, although it's the OM4Ti that I have used the most - a fantastic bit of kit!

I have quite a few Zuiko lens, too, including the fabled 55mm f=1:1.2 lens, which I have used to take some fabulous portraits.

I have a number of lovely Miranda cameras and lenses from the 60s and 70s which I started to collect by accident, when someone sent me an SE Sensomat my mistake, following an Ebay purchase. I particularly love the G I bought, matched with the Miranda 50mm 1.8 lens, which has some excellent contrast.

You're right, those old bellows cameras don't fetch the prices you would expect.

 

A bit off topic but there are 12 top of the range Hasselblad cameras sitting around for the first person to pick up. They are over 40 years old but guaranteed perfect condition. They are on the moon. They were left behind to save take off weight.

 

Imagine what any one of those would fetch at auction!

Not sure it would cover the costs of recovery, of course!

 

It was ages ago and probably not even a PM but a post that got lost in a thread probably.

Cheers for the recommendations. I'll check them out.

 

Yes I am always surprised by the quality the little Lumix produces. I have always been a Canon man Ftb was the first then I finally got the magnificent A1 which I still have, can't bear to part with it. Now the 5D which can produce wonderful images.