Hobbies and past times,what do you do.....

[smokiejoe]

Hi its sunday evening and very wet and windy out side 2night down here in devon,so i thought i would do a new thread and see what you do in your spare time,,apart from going out and smoking cigars as i see monte has an endless supply of cigaros.lucky bugger,lol.so if you have any hobbies or past times you would like to share then lets hear about it.i have many hobbies as we keep horses and one of them is a very large clydedale,she is about 16,2 hands of pure horse flesh but a gentle giant in many ways,she is a one of a kind down here in the s west as she is the only one known to the s west as nearly all of them tend to be in scotland and midlands.I also as some of you know i restore old cars for a living of which i love,i have been doing this for many years on my own now and find it very satisfying to do as i can smoke cigars in my own enviroment and restore the cars all at the same time,brill eh.I also go out on local digs with some freinds of mine as we dig for old bottles which has been buried in the ground for years.sometimes your lucky and other times not so lucky but good fun all the same as the whole family can join in.i also love music as this has always played an inportant part of my life for a very long time,ive played in bands and been a dj in many of the clubs down here,but this is just a small taste of some of my hobies,would like to see what any of you lot come up with if you can spare the time to read this.go on and lets hear about you.

[rokkitsci]

Hi its sunday evening and very wet and windy out side 2night down here in devon,so i thought i would do a new thread and see what you do in your spare time.

I play Go.

http://www.usgo.org/resources/whatisgo.html

[Montesmoke]

I like to do a few weights when i have time down the gym. Also i set up tropical Aquariums for people, used to have a 5ftx2ftx2ft tank of Red bellied Piranahas (serrasalmus nattereri) had them for about 3 years from juvenile & they grew up to 6-7"inches great fish.
Still do abit of DJing from time to time (Hardcore, Trance, House, Techno) gets the hairs stand up on the back of my neck when crowd are lovin it!
Do up/restore old school & new school BMX bikes from scratch have done a few Haros, Redlines, GT's for people.
Also love smoking Cigars
Monte.

[Robusto]

I work in a fairly demanding school teaching French (my Degree subject), IT, Drama and Music. I'm a Head of Learning Community, which means I look after about 100 kids' every pastoral and academic need. I organise Work Experience placements for about 100 different kids a year - from nail bars to lawyers' firms - and have to go and visit them in situ. I run a couple of trips to France each year which are sometimes for fun, sometimes for study. I also lead an initiative in my school called Aimhigher which tries to reach out to kids who are able but who have no family history of Further Education. These kids might benefit from considering Post 16 and University education. I have to travel around Kent leading training courses in Peer Mentoring for Aimhigher.

Life is busy.

I'm on this site because I adore good cigars, but also because over the years I have found good cigars to be a wonderful and civilised way to relax completely. If having great sex is A+ for me and the best escape I can find, then a great Havana has to be an A- or B+.

I will write about my hobbies later.
One of them is writing.

[emeraldisle]

The Hobby Debate Continued

Hello folks,

Here in my area during the week, I am I would say fairly active. I tend to walk everywhere, so keeps the weight down. I also play badminton 3 times a week, and have just recently taken up golf. I would be very much a culture/current affairs type of individual. I like creative pursuits like say photography, art, creative writing etc. I also have a wide taste in music but classical would probably be my favourite style.

Gabriel

[Robusto]

Bryan Orwell
Facebook
Personal Information

Activities:
Playing music. Keyboards and singing. In my group EK1 and with lots of other folk.

Interests:
Comedy with a brain. Weirdo art. Weirdo artists. Travel. Languages. ICT. Dogs. Fine Havana cigars. Writing, arranging, recording and performing music. Singing. Writing prose. Writing lyrics. Writing nonsense. Watching news channels like an addict. Laughing with people. Joking.

Favorite Music:
Mostly piano/keys led. Bruce Hornsby. Elton John. Ray Charles. Stevie Wonder. Keith Jarrett. John Shuttleworth. Les Dawson. Donny Hathaway. Dr John. Howard Jones. Winifred Attwell. Jamie Callum. Steve Weingart. Jacques Loussier. Michel Berger. Aretha Franklin. Russ Conway. Billy Joel. Kate Bush. For starters.

Favorite TV Shows:
Chris Morris before all else. The Day Today, Brass Eye, Nathan Barley... Alan Partridge. Dame Edna Everage. Sir Les Patterson. Barry Humphries.

Favorite Movies:
Zombie ones. 28 Days Later. 28 Weeks Later. War ones. Sci-fi. Apocalyptic. Futuristic. Mamma Mia in a funny old way.

Favourite Books:
Preferred writers are Evelyn Waugh, Tom Wolfe, Gustave Flaubert, Stephen King. Favourite poet is Dylan Thomas.


Music wins in all this. I'll never release anything, and it has to sit with the day job. I wish I'd done it professionally years ago, but I do enjoy teaching it to young kids as well as gigging and writing on a basic Portastudio at home.

Highlights have been to spend an afternoon in Elton John's management offices in London as a thank you for organising and managing a gig with 40 local musicians which raised a tidy sum last year for EJ's AIDS Foundation. (I am a huge EJ fan, and picked up the piano because of him). Also next Summer I have been chosen from the most able local musicians as the project pianist for a significant rock show in Kent. I'm excited already.

I look after the website for the band and also publicity. We are based in East Kent but travel around the south of England to gig. If anyone needs a band for business functions, anniversaries, weddings or parties, please get in touch.

Also join up on Facebook if you wish. Deano and I have already linked.

Videos of my band EK1

EK1 website

Videos of my playing. (A bit of a joke, btw).

Here are some things I've written:





I know too many teachers who are dispirited and depressed in the UK. My antidote to the nonsense of my job is to be enthusiastic in my me-time, and I know I'm doing just fine. I refuse to go under. Instead I gig up to four nights a week.

And I will mix company with anyone.

That enthusiasm bumps over to interest in cigars.
When's the next London herf, Monte?!

Bryan

[Renefatdude]

I play music in 2 bands (Blues) I sing and play bluesharp.
Got dogs and cats.
Love to drink whisky and smoke cigars to really relax.

Rene

[Robusto]

Brother!

[Wildwood]

Hobbies and interests? Got lots of them...probably far too many and I end up having to rotate them all. I'm a bit sad about collecting things as well.

Here goes:

Sport: love cycling (doing and watching), sailing, and cricket. Less wild about football these days - used to be a Southampton fan where I was a student hundreds of years ago, so that says it all really.

Passions: classic cocktails (from 1920s/30s - no plastic umbrellas in my drinks, thankyou!); single malt scotch; cigars (though it's been a while, really getting back into them again now, thanks partly to you guys); screwball comedies - again from the 1930s (I'm just out of my natural time); World film - especially French cinema; a humourous American writer again from the 1930s called Thorne Smith; the fantasy works of Thomas Burnett Swann; the science fiction of Jack Vance.

Collections: (this is where you can all mock me a bit) Rupert Annuals; early Edwardian postcards; tea cards; jigsaw puzzles; tarot packs and many others

Other interests: reading (got an English degree and I am an academic librarian by profession); old sailing ships; old board games etc etc. Been doing quite a lot of family history stuff over the last 3 years...back to 1626 now...

Got 4 kids (2 grown up, and 2 under five), and another due in December/January, so actually don't get that much time for all the above, but that's what mostly fills my head when I'm not thinking lascivious thoughts about some French actress totty!

There - story of my life. WAKE UP NOW!!

Wildwood

[smokiejoe]

Hey wildwood im glad you mentioned about the books and postcards and the tea cards as these are making silly amounts of money now mate,back a few years ago i did a very stupid thing,i have a massive amount of 1920 upwards of tea and cigarette cards of which i found in an atic of this old house i bought,they were in full sets,,i also found an old gild gilted mirror up there too so dicided to give a local antique dealer a call,he came and gave us a fair price for the lot inc mirror,well about ?90,,didnt think anymore about it until last year when i were looking at collectables on ebay and had the biggest shock ever,those cards i had were worth shite loads,,?200 a set and more ,,i had over 150 sets,,,i was pig sick.still one of those things eh.

[Wildwood]

Aaaaargh! Smokiejoe - how could you???? Next time such a thing happens, all you have to do is drop me a line, and for a small consideration I'll take them off your hands!! At least you'll know they've gone to a good home!

Happens a lot actually mate...wish I had all the original Rupert annuals I had as a kid...been trying to rebuild that collection for years, but need a new mortgage each time I buy one!

BTW - have you seen how much smoking memoribilia now costs?? I'm desperately trying NOT to start a new collection...perhaps just cigar stubs...what do you think?

Wildwood

[Gary]

I think my hobbies / past-times are a little more basic (for want of a better word) than most of the above. I enjoy a lot of sports (watching and participating), including football, rugby and golf.

For many years I collected football memorabillia (with regard to my local team), things like programes, tickets, photo's, badges, shirts, signed objects, posters, pictures etc etc, and like cigars it can be a very expensive hobby once you collect the "easy to get" stuff, I must of spent a right few thousand on it, but a least I've still got all the stuff and will probably get my money back at least should I ever decide to sell.

Other past-times include watching movies (favourite is Kelly's Hero's), especially going to the cinema, cigars, obviously, now collecting and beginning to age, shortly I plan to get a wine cooler and turn it into a humidor that will hold approximately 20 boxes, maybe more, also over the last couple of months I've been getting into wine and would like to/plan to try to learn more about it, the different growing regions in different countries, how to tell one wine from the other etc etc.

Apart from that I don't have a lot of time for much else what with work, beginning a part-time degree and home life.

PS - I also enjoy DIY and love tools and tinking with stuff

[smokiejoe]

Yeah all that advertising stuff is making a big comeback now,nearly all my olds bottles the americans always bought,now there into cigar memoribilia and advertising,the old enamal signs with caburys and tea or coco all that sort of stuff,trouble is finding the bloody stuff as it aint about so much now.I used to go to farm auctions and buy furniture and clocks ,books ,toys and enamal ware,but havent seem any auctions like that in ages.keep hold of any comic books,dan,beano,rupert,early enid blyton books as thes are becoming rare.

[Wildwood]

Yeah, didn't mention the old tool collection did I?

Ho hum! I'm hoping the drinking and smoking will get me before I start collecting toenail clippings from one-legged sailors, or something extremely rare like "nice things my mother-in-law has said about me".

Take me now Lord...I'm ready!

Wildwood (sad b**t**d)

[smokiejoe]

Hey mate dont knock it,as all these collectable things mate are worth keeping.and worth big money...he he.