Hey everyone, I thought I'd start a thread where we could share our other hobbies with each other. I'll start with a few of mine. Reading I've got a good-sized library of both rail-themed books as well as other fiction and non-fiction. Both my fiance and I love to read, and I've just started her on reading both canon and legends Star Wars books. I spent a lot of time in high school reading books like the X-Wing and Clone Commando series' and continue to enjoy others like them today. Here's the stack I'm currently working through...
Dungeons & Dragons My fiance and I got into playing D&D during the pandemic as a way to connect with friends we couldn't regularly see. We started off playing with them using our laptops and webcams but are at the point where we go over and do our sessions. At the moment we are doing both a traditional D&D campaign as well as a Star Wars SW5E campaign. Doggos Our neighbor has an older pitbull named Titan that basically lives with us, as she works long hours and weekends. He's a very good boy and behaves more like a lazy house cat than a dog. My fiance has a big fluffy yellow lab named Gunner. He lives with her dad as we can't have two dogs in the apartment. He's not super bright but he is the sweetest dog you will ever meet. Hiking Where I live in the Hudson Valley provides ample hiking opportunities. The Appalachian Trail has several trailheads nearby and I am surrounded by the Taconic, Berkshire, and Litchfield Hills, as well as the Catskill Mountains. These photos are taken from the top of a mountain in my town.
Star Wars Toys As you can see from my bookshelf, I have a slight appreciation for Star Wars toys old and new. I have a particular soft spot for Galoob Micro Machines and Action Fleet toys as they are what I grew up with through the 90's and early 00's. Legos I have always been a huge Lego fan, ever since I was a child. Today I continue to collect current Star Wars sets and have started collecting 90's/00's Town and Star Wars sets for display. I recently began building community-designed MOC's and posting reviews to Rebrickable. That's all from me for now! What else does everyone do when they're not playing Train Sim?
I love going for bike rides and try to do a 50 mile round trip at least once a week as I spend a lot of my life either inside an office, house or train so it’s nice to be free and to go to places where my predecessors lived before moving away from the various villages and into the town. Also I like to look into my family and local history!!!
Whether it's a hobby or not I don't know but I like going out in the car and just driving round and enjoying driving the car on the windy country roads in the area I live.
My boss does that on weekends. I complain about huffing and puffing up the mountain, I couldn't imagine biking that kind of distance lol. I'd say that qualifies as a hobby. My fiance and I will do that from time to time. During the height of COVID our poor friend tested positive but was asymptomatic. We asked him if he needed anything and he replied "beer and milk!". So after we dropped off his care package we went for a drive... and eventually ended up in Vermont lol.
Yes it was during the lockdowns when I started doing this, though I left the wife at home! I I think the furthest I've accidentally gone is Skeggie which is about 50 or 60 miles from where I live. I must admit that I did have fish and chips and a Mr whippy before returning home!
Walking is one I enjoy, similarly to your hobby of hiking. Albeit I don't go up mountains, but hills are quite a good thing for just walking, taking in the fresh air, and relaxing in nature's beauty. Quite an abundance of places to do it being in Western Scotland, too. Not sure if this counts as a hobby or not but I'm a diehard football fan on the weekends, supporting the local in an old-school terraced stadium, so that's something. "Exploring" is something I enjoy. Just going here there and everywhere, finding new things, places to see, and so forth. Developed this during my childhood, as me and my dad (mainly) would travel across Scotland (and then some)- on trains, no less - going to places for nice wee days out. Exploring in quotations because, well we're hardly Columbus Tied in with the Walking, and the "Exploring", I gave recently developed an enjoyment of photography. I developed the skill for it during lockdown, as the occasional trip to shops or whatever would usually involve a drive up the back roads, just to get some fresh air for once. The "back roads" - or country roads - here go straight up onto hills, so it's pretty much the start of the countryside outside my town. What else is there... I enjoy drawing. No real specific themes, just sticking pencil to paper and seeing how it turns out - I drew a line on myself after I finished one of my prelim exams in January, and by the time I left the room I had drawn a scene with trees, a cliff, background scenery and even a sun/moon Others would be studying History and Politics/Modern Geopolitics (they fascinate me both, so studying them and learning more is always a joy); Napoleonic-Millennial History is my main era, as for Politics, I'm pretty clued up about the UK, America, China, and large parts of Europe. I think I've done quite well to make my life seem a little bit interesting..
Not gonna lie, I had to Google Mr. Whippy, haha. Here in the States we have Mr. Softee, and hopefully Mr. Whippy doesn't play the loud annoying loudspeaker jingle that Softee does. Locally we have a shop called Holy Cow that's open all year and will have a line out the door in December.
I'd say those are excellent hobbies. Like you my dad and I would go exploring local trails around New York and Connecticut when I was growing up, minus the trains however (we did visit various museums though!). I took drawing for a year in high school as my art elective. I would say I was okay at it but never stuck with it. Occasionally I'll try to dabble by reproducing a photo in a book but end up getting discouraged and giving up. If you ever make it to this side of the pond, the forests and towns in my neck of the woods are full of history. The parts of Connecticut around here very much still have a colonial vibe and there are several remnants of the iron and cannon-making industries from when our ancestors had our little scuffle over taxes and tea lol.
Ha never realised it was called that in the US. The ones here can play a variety of tunes my favourite being the motd theme tune as I too am a big football fan which until it was said above I didn't even consider to be a hobby. The only time I'd buy ice cream in the winter would be at the beach and even then I would probably go for sugar doughnuts.
To be honest I live in Stamford so most of the miles is over the south Lincolnshire fens so not too many hills and I try to stay away from Rutland as best as I can to avoid hills as they aren’t pleasant!!!
Other then Trains I do like Buses as well (Fun Fact: I liked buses before trains but trains are superior) here's a photo of MoreBus' 1610 I found while I was in Ringwood earlier. I also like Space. Found the moon and Jupiter in October last year! I have been trying to look for other stuff but whenever I do clouds get in my way as that's their hobby :/. Other than that I'm not sure
Glad I'm not the only ones who buy ice creams/ice pops in winter. Never know when they'll come in handy.
Fish and chips and an ice cream/doughnuts are mandatory when you go to the beach no matter the time of year.
I started getting into reading in Jan 2022, something of which I never really took up beforehand. Regrettably I haven’t done any since the Summer (Weeks feel they been flying by) I play other Xbox games aswell, Cities Skylines/Fallout/Hogwarts Legacy/Enlisted/Fernbus to name a few recent ones I’m quite big into watching Netflix tv series and a few films I’ve had on a sort of list that I’ve been meaning to give a try to. When giving the chance I enjoy a game of Chess /Draughts/Monopoly and trivial pursuit style things. I also have a few collections, I started a bit of train model collection, nothing too expensive but nice to have. I also when travelling out of the country, collect landmark souvenirs such as the Effiel Tower from Paris, Edinburgh Castle from Edinburgh, Knossos from Crete and Big Ben (Elizabethan Clock Tower) from London to name a couple. Also got a a bit of coin collection coming along of everything not standard, I have a coin or two from 1800’s and several celebratory created ones on the £2 coins and unique 50p to name some.
