Anyone like to share their own ' other' hobbies?
Before I took up cycling, I would go hillwalking -- that's anything from a bit of fell-striding to climbing any mountain that does require ropes; if you're fit enough to tour in a bike, you're plenty fit enough for amateur hillwalking. Before I gave up the car altogether I rebuilt old Bentleys, and changed a few rusted-out Mk VI into nostalgic sports cars, but those opportunities were already becoming rare 25 years ago when I gave up on the automobile.
My current hobbies are:
*** Designing and building valve (tube) amplifiers and the associated single-point loudspeaker enclosures. Voltages from about 500V up to nearly 2000V for the amps, up to 5500V for my electrostatic speakers, power tools for the speakers. A dangerous hobby requiring a decent education in electrics, and a smart mate to stand by to turn the switch when something goes wrong. Pay heed to the warnings in red at the bottom of the page at Jute on Amps:
http://www.audio-talk.co.uk/fiultra/JUTE%20ON%20AMPS.htmOr you can rebuild vintage equipment which in many cases sounds better than today's gear and is almost always at the lower end of the insane voltages of true modern ultrafi gear. See:
http://coolmainpress.com/ELECTRONICS%20QUAD%20I%20booklet.html*** I like cooking -- today I'm cooking salmon fish cakes from a fish I caught.
http://coolmainpress.com/andrejutefoodindex.html*** I don't wear a wristwatch -- I believe in punctuality but I'm surrounded by people who tell me when I'm next due somewhere -- though I do collect functionally useful timepieces if they're also well styled and not too horribly expensive. Here are a few fave pieces from my collection:
http://coolmainpress.com/andrejutewatches.html*** Painting is a restful hobby, easily combined with cycling:
http://coolmainpress.com/andrepaintings/cleanbicyclepaintingexpedition.htmlMore on combining painting with cycling at:
http://coolmainpress.com/andrepaintings/cleansketchercleanpainterenpleinairhome.html More about my painting tools and interests and samples of paintings at:
http://coolmainpress.com/ajwriting/category/sketching/ and the forum, analogous to the Thorn forum, where I hang out:
http://www.sketching.cc/forum3/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=2163*** Most of my professions started out as hobbies:
http://coolmainpress.com/andrejute.html One that isn't even on the list is music, the love of which turned me into a widely syndicated music critic for fifteen years or so; sample at:
http://coolmainpress.com/ajwriting/3052/ *** Of course, my main hobby is still cycling; all kinds of stuff on my cycling page, where you can also see my Exclusive Brooks of England Tool Rack and other wonders:
http://coolmainpress.com/BICYCLING.html***
Finding a hobby isn't much bother. Most of my hobbies have very steep learning curves, so finding time for each hobby is harder. I'm sorry now that I didn't learn watchmaking when my eyes were a bit sharper.