Any less than usual hobbies?

[Izzy]

36 minutes ago, Col city fan said:

I collect antique pottery. Beswick animals, Clarice Cliffe, Royal Doulton character jugs. That type of thing. 

Its all beautifully presented in Glass display cabinets with all the lighting and whatavya.

The rarer the better, of course, and my Beswick collection must be about 50 original pieces. The dogs being my favourite ones.

Sounds like all that might be worth a few quid Col.

 

Next time you're away at your Caravan, don't be surprised if you come back and it's all gone 

[Brainy]

I sell money on ebay

[VLC86]

10 minutes ago, Walkers said:

I sell money on ebay

How much for £50 mate?

[Brainy]

2 minutes ago, Costock_Fox said:

How much for £50 mate?

For my AK47 010101, £75

[foxinexile]

I love walking. Not just a gentle stroll for a couple of miles but 20+ miles in a day. It's my idea of heaven and I rarely go with anyone else. As others have mentioned, it's a chance to get some solitude, to leave behind the daily grind  and just spend time surrounded by the sounds of nature...absolutely love it. I gave up my season ticket the year before our promotion (great timing!) because I preferred to be trampling across fields and over hills on a Saturday afternoon. Any more than two weeks without a walk and I get serious withdrawal from it. I have legs like Popeye's arms and arms like his legs and wouldn't change it for anything! 

[Milo]

I spend most evenings in the kitchen, or in the garden, cooking and generally messing about with food. 

I make charcuterie like chorizo and salami's, as well as 'Parma' hams and the like. Also have a water bath for sous vide cooking, 2 smokers, pizza oven and a Kamado Joe. 

Currently into full mash beer brewing - which is astonishingly satisfying. 

 

Neither of these particularly unusual, I suppose, though

[Carl the Llama]

11 hours ago, Col city fan said:

I collect antique pottery. Beswick animals, Clarice Cliffe, Royal Doulton character jugs. That type of thing. 

Its all beautifully presented in Glass display cabinets with all the lighting and whatavya.

The rarer the better, of course, and my Beswick collection must be about 50 original pieces. The dogs being my favourite ones.

[Simi]

10 hours ago, Walkers said:

I sell money on ebay

Is there any value in those coin sets you can get for each year?

 

I've got quite a few years from when I was younger. Always wondered if they'd be worth anything.

[notnow john]

1 hour ago, Milo said:

I spend most evenings in the kitchen, or in the garden, cooking and generally messing about with food. 

I make charcuterie like chorizo and salami's, as well as 'Parma' hams and the like. Also have a water bath for sous vide cooking, 2 smokers, pizza oven and a Kamado Joe. 

Currently into full mash beer brewing - which is astonishingly satisfying. 

 

Neither of these particularly unusual, I suppose, though

That is unusual, never heard of someone who does all that!

Always fancied a smoker,are yours homemade?

[Brainy]

19 minutes ago, Simi said:

Is there any value in those coin sets you can get for each year?

 

I've got quite a few years from when I was younger. Always wondered if they'd be worth anything.

Ask someone who actually sells money on ebay

[The Fox Covert]

11 hours ago, foxinexile said:

I love walking. Not just a gentle stroll for a couple of miles but 20+ miles in a day. It's my idea of heaven and I rarely go with anyone else. As others have mentioned, it's a chance to get some solitude, to leave behind the daily grind  and just spend time surrounded by the sounds of nature...absolutely love it. I gave up my season ticket the year before our promotion (great timing!) because I preferred to be trampling across fields and over hills on a Saturday afternoon. Any more than two weeks without a walk and I get serious withdrawal from it. I have legs like Popeye's arms and arms like his legs and wouldn't change it for anything! 

So do I. Now I work for myself, I get to to stay in different parts of the country for months at a time. Yorkshire and Scotland were great. I have been going to Scotland at least three  times a year for over twenty five years and I have walked - or scrambled - up all the Munros. A major heart operation a few years ago didn't stop me, like the late John Smith MP I got fit again and carried on. Not all the places I get to work in, however, are quite as great. At the mo I am working in the northern Home Counties. The most featureless and dreary countryside you could imagine, what there is left which hasn't been built on. At the end of the week I can't wait to hop in my car and trundle back to Somerset where I live some of the time.

[Alf Bentley]

I enjoy researching family history. Not an unusual hobby.....for a female pensioner (was going to say that even before Carl's post!).

 

I find family trees of limited interest. What I do enjoy is all the life stories and the reasons for people's life trajectories (character, chance, economic circumstances, upbringing, wider social change etc.).

Appreciating the random nature of chance is part of it: e.g. In 1909, my great-uncle, an Irish emigrant working as a barman in New York, was offered some land back in Ireland. He was newly married with a young baby and accounts suggest that he was a lively, sociable bloke who probably enjoyed his work. He declined the offer and my Granddad, who was driving streetcars in New York, came back instead. If the barman had decided otherwise, neither my Dad nor me nor 200+ relations would have existed.

 

Uncovering hair-raising stories is part of the fun.....

- In 1839, armed men burst onto my g-g-g-grandfather's farm in Ireland and cut off both of his ears.

- In 1904, my Granddad sailed to New York in a boat captained by E.J. Smith....who sailed the Titanic into an iceberg 8 years later

- In 1884, my g-g-uncle's family were evicted from their Irish farm. He was a Land League radical and allegedly took revenge. He was charged with giving the bloke who'd taken the tenancy a severe beating, pulling out all his whiskers with pliers - and slitting the throat of his billy goat, leaving it hanging from a rafter. He was acquitted but the Irish police apparently gave him and his 2 brothers 48 hours to leave Ireland. I found his emigration record - and his entry in the 1900 US Census.....he was a policeman (NYPD). My local elderly family contact sang me the ballad that used to be sung in local bars about this "bearding" of The Salmon Casey (the new tenant he assaulted).

- We already knew that my g-grandmother had been involved with the suffragettes in Sheffield (had a Pankhurst to tea, apparently). In the 1911 Census, her husband ignored the instruction to specify "Head of household", instead writing them in as "Husband" and "Wife"....though he may just have been in the doghouse over his boozing....

- In 1915, my suffragette g-grandmother was caring for her father who was dying of cancer, while her 2 sons were off in WW1 and her husband was ruining the family finances with his whiskey habit. Within hours of her Dad dying, she had a fatal cerebral haemorrhage at 45. Apparently they held a joint funeral for her and her father.

- Her sons both survived WW1, though one (a machine-gunner) was wounded in the buttocks. He then became a whiskey salesman in Hong Kong. Shipping records from the 30s/40s show him sailing to and fro via Suez, Aden, Bombay etc. During WW2 he was a Japanese POW and reduced to 6 stone weight....but still lived to 90. My Mum remembered him as a loud, pompous prat, while my uncle found him great fun. His drunken father also lived to 86, still drinking (my Mum's last memory of him, when she was late teens, was of him emerging from a city pub for a chat with her but some saucy women calling him back inside).

- 1942: I have a copy of a letter written by another g-grandfather to my grandfather enquiring about my Mum's childhood health issues. My g-grandfather was born in 1851, which blows my mind a bit.

- According to birth records, yet another of my g-granddads fathered 9 children between the ages of 62 and 80 (hats off, though I suspect his age was overstated)

- 1899: My great-grandmother died in childbirth ("post-partum haemorrhage", the cert says). She left 9 kids. Apparently the doctor called was blind drunk.

[Milo]

3 hours ago, notnow john said:

That is unusual, never heard of someone who does all that!

Always fancied a smoker,are yours homemade?

Not homemade - I'm not that handy!

 

Got a small smoker a few years ago from my wife as birthday present, which got me in to it. Have since progressed to the Kamado Joe which can hot/cold smoke and is really good at low and slow cooking for pulled pork, brisket, etc.

 

Would recommend giving it a go  

[Buce]

 

I write short stories.

[lifted*fox]

On 02/11/2017 at 13:01, MattP said:

Listening to classical music, reading a book and having a decent bottle on the table next to you in a dark room at night is one of the great pleasures in life.

 

16 hours ago, Col city fan said:

I collect antique pottery. Beswick animals, Clarice Cliffe, Royal Doulton character jugs. That type of thing. 

Its all beautifully presented in Glass display cabinets with all the lighting and whatavya.

The rarer the better, of course, and my Beswick collection must be about 50 original pieces. The dogs being my favourite ones.

 

 

 

[lifted*fox]

8 minutes ago, Buce said:

I write short stories.

 

Any particular style / theme or whatever you feel like at the time?

 

I've thought about doing some creative writing but I dunno. Whenever I read a really good novel I always wonder about the creative process for writing something so long. Planning it all out, keeping it on track, padding it out, etc. 

[Bellend Sebastian]

I keep tropical fish.

 

F*** it, just remembered I forgot to take the dead one out last night

[lifted*fox]

Just now, Bellend Sebastian said:

I keep tropical fish.

 

F*** it, just remembered I forgot to take the dead one out last night

 

I always liked the idea of keeping tropical fish. 

 

The guy we used to pick weed up off when we were kids used to have so many tanks and they were all these amazing colours and stuff.

 

BUT - there's something about watching little fish swim about with poos hanging off them that just... ruins it for me. 

 

They're all pretty and vibrant and then there's just a poo following it about.

 

I feel like I'm looking at the fish when it'd rather have some privacy.

 

Reminds me of a time we stayed in a hotel in Berlin and the toilet was only sectioned off from the room with a glass window. Trying to have a big poo whilst your missus is sat on the bed watching TV in full view is weird.

 

I guess that's how the fish feel. 

[Buce]

3 minutes ago, lifted*fox said:

 

Any particular style / theme or whatever you feel like at the time?

 

I've thought about doing some creative writing but I dunno. Whenever I read a really good novel I always wonder about the creative process for writing something so long. Planning it all out, keeping it on track, padding it out, etc. 

 

Science Fiction/ Fantasy.

 

I get most of my ideas when I'm high, tbh (top tip: keep a notepad beside you at all times).

 

 

 

 

 

[lifted*fox]

Just now, Buce said:

 

Science Fiction/ Fantasy.

 

I get most of my ideas when I'm high, tbh (top tip: keep a notepad beside you at all times).

 

Preach it brother! 

 

Anything you care to share? 

[Buce]

2 minutes ago, lifted*fox said:

 

Preach it brother! 

 

Anything you care to share? 

 

Oh, God, no.

 

I only do it for pleasure - I'm sure it's all rubbish.

 

 

 

[lifted*fox]

4 minutes ago, Buce said:

 

Oh, God, no.

 

I only do it for pleasure - I'm sure it's all rubbish.

 

Fair enough. If you decide to put anything out there I'd have a read! 

 

What are your favourite sci-fi books? 

 

I recently enjoyed High Rise (the film sucked but the book was amazing). I like that kind of dystopian stuff - recommend anything? 

[Buce]

10 minutes ago, lifted*fox said:

 

Fair enough. If you decide to put anything out there I'd have a read!

 

Cheers.  

 

Quote

 

What are your favourite sci-fi books? 

 

Tbh, I haven't read much sci fi recently, so I'm not familiar with much new stuff. I prefer the old school writers - anything by Asimov, James Blish, Harry Harrison, Arthur C, Clarke et al.

 

Quote

 

I recently enjoyed High Rise (the film sucked but the book was amazing). I like that kind of dystopian stuff - recommend anything? 

 

West of Eden by Harrison is a good read - it's based on the premise that dinosaurs never went extinct and continued to evolve, eventually evolving intelligence and developing technology.

[lifted*fox]

4 minutes ago, Buce said:

West of Eden by Harrison is a good read - it's based on the premise that dinosaurs never went extinct and continued to evolve, eventually evolving intelligence and developing technology.

 

I've added it to my kindle wishlist. Nice one dude, thank you.

[Alf Bentley]

A temporary hobby that I'd like to try again: following the FA Cup through from Extra Preliminary Round to Final, picking a match to attend in the Extra Preliminary Round, then following whoever wins each round.

 

I tried it twice before and had a great time, but aborted it: first time because my partner had a serious accident, second time because Coalville Town were too good.

Ended up in all sorts of weird and wonderful places I'd never visit otherwise: Belper, Market Deeping, Willenhall, Liversedge, High Wycombe, Scunthorpe.

I'd turn up a few hours early with a camera, have a wander around, take a few photos, neck a few pints (was still drinking then), then enjoy the match - often with a great atmosphere in those early rounds, where the FA Cup hasn't been ruined.

 

98-99: For 1st Round Proper, had a trek up north of Newcastle for Bedlington Terriers (small even for non-league) v. Colchester.

The Terriers thrashed them 4-1, and were taunting the Colchester fans by chanting "Have you got your Asda bags?" (ground was next to Asda and they had some Asda free gift pack for fans)

Here we go: 

 

 

04-05: Decided to start at Coalville as it was their first ever time in the FA Cup, expecting them to be out within a round or two.....but they won through 6 rounds, only losing 0-1 at Wycombe in the First Round Proper (late Roger Johnson header).

Couldn't bring myself to continue after that.