Toast hobbies, whimsies, quirks

Remove this Banner Ad

WalterBlaknWhte

WalterBlaknWhte

Norm Smith Medallist
Veteran Magpie Service Medal
Oct 14, 2015
6,768
34,008
Free State NSW
AFL Club
Collingwood
The Renaissance Man, TheGreatGrundy, was musing on his fellow BF-posters and their interests beyond the keyboard (so in the guise of praising him I have stolen his idea).

Do you knit? Lawn bowl? Grow tomatoes? Or wrap yourself in old speaker covers and perform interpretive dance? No judgment.

I paint. Acrylic because it drys faster. Ambition far exceeds talent. Spent a week drawing at the National Art School in July which was fun.

Please share comrades...
 
Last edited:
So glad you are back in the fold again, WBW, after what seemed a lengthy absence. I love your posts.

I don't have enough hobbies, particularly since I gave up working too early. I used to enjoy gardening till I foolishly sold my house and moved into a city apartment. I spend 4 months a year overseas and I am pretty good at speaking Thai, and follow a paid for course on the internet. I am learning now to read and write it so I can better expand my vocabulary. I have never taken to another language in the same way. I have spent a lot of time in Cambodia recently but can't even count to ten in Khmer.

I love dogs. I mind and walk them as a lowly paid pastime and live in other people's apartments pampering their pooches. I have a little Papillon at my place for the third time while her owner is in hospital (physical and mental health issues). She has been with me for a week this time and will not leave my side. She lies on my discarded PJs waiting for me to come out of the shower, watching me intently, fearful perhaps that I might disappear down the plughole on her.

Unfortunately tomorrow I have to move into a swanky apartment in Port Melbourne for 10 days to look after a standard poodle, and my poor little charge has to be shunted on through 2 other people in 2 days. Her owner was due to be released last Thursday but complications so often arise. I get too emotionally involved, and the papillon, insecure at the best of times, is going to howl the place down at her new abode when she has to be detached from me in the morning. If her owner is not out by Tuesday, she has to be moved to a shelter.

On my last trip to Cambodia, I rescued a dog from a nasty life chained under a disused building and rehoused her with an Australian woman and her Romanian husband living there. Took me 2 months to bring about the change, but I couldn't leave the country without some kind of closure. I would love to volunteer for a street dog rehab and adoption program in Thailand if only I could find one in a suitable location e.g. not Phuket where the Soi Dog Foundation is located. (My efforts to upload photos here have failed). I would also happily work with monkey, elephants or birds of any size.

I enjoy walking, and dogs make the exercise more pleasurable. Plus you get to chat to their owners while your dogs scamper about and wrestle with each other. It's a sociable activity.

I have a portfolio of shares and follow the market each day, though I invariably sell the best stocks too early and the worst too late. I should read more than I do, particularly poetry from which I gained a lot of pleasure in earlier years. I tried to return to teaching on my last trip to Cambodia, teaching large classes of year 8 Cambodian students for the princely sum of $US7 an hour. It was a tough gig and though I lasted till the end of term, I don't want to repeat the experience. I actually went there to do voluntary work, but Chinese students on long term placements had made sure there was none available. Bizarrely I had to accept paid work instead!
 
Last edited:
TheGreatGrundy said:
On my last trip to Cambodia, I rescued a dog from a nasty life chained under a disused building and rehoused her with an Australian woman and her Romanian husband living there. Took me 2 months to bring about the change, but I couldn't leave the country without some kind of closure...
Click to expand...

Empathy is good - actions much better. Thank you.
 

Log in to remove this ad.

WalterBlaknWhte said:
Empathy is good - actions much better. Thank you.
Click to expand...
Before (chained 24/7 with no interaction with the outside world except when food was delivered. Frightened of every noise with nothing but a construction site to look at. Lying on my lap in the foyer of my hotel, the owners of the dog): image-0-02-06-5cdb6f62683fec33e32c04e0ea3d2bf6e624aaa9fef55b0b4c2a99797e66e364-V.jpg image-0-02-06-60b0f45e58a915938f81148a981fd5f981c71c074f2e3a0ea16ac185d1ac00f1-V (1).jpg

Now:

21691359_1457819554331119_320522709_n.jpg
 
Last edited:
My favourite hobby is (no surprise) horse racing.
Everything about it.
Reading the history, watching them run, listening to them as they walk - all that.
I'm mad about racing history especially the Melbourne Cup.

In other things, I like knowledge so read a lot about things that interest me.
 
Saintly Viewed said:
My favourite hobby is (no surprise) horse racing.
Everything about it.
Reading the history, watching them run, listening to them as they walk - all that.
I'm mad about racing history especially the Melbourne Cup.

In other things, I like knowledge so read a lot about things that interest me.
Click to expand...
Did you have a win on the Caulfield Cup today? Any tips for the upcoming races?
 
Suggestively fondling Greek statuary. And containing the Pony Menace.
 
Apart from drinking, my hobbies include (and not limited to) - PC Car racing, camping fishing 4wding and boating, building plastic models and throwing them against the wall, building and flying R/C aircraft and when finances permit restoring cars that have absolutely no intrinsic value (i.e. Suzuki Sierra, Datsun 1200 wagon)

Did I mention drinking?


edit

I also forgot to mention being a member of a forum for years, then dissappearing with no explanation and resurfacing months later like nothing had happened :)
 
Last edited:
TheGreatGrundy said:
Did you have a win on the Caulfield Cup today? Any tips for the upcoming races?
Click to expand...
Nope my few dollars went like the wind.

Winx in the Cox Plate.

But that's the easiest tip ever
 
Saintly Viewed said:
Nope my few dollars went like the wind.

Winx in the Cox Plate.

But that's the easiest tip ever
Click to expand...
What about a double a quinella or something similarly lucrative, unlikely but cheap? I won $1700 on a $10 bet on the Derby winner (Lion Tamer) and the Melbourne Cup winner (Americain). Bet on Lion Tamer until his dying race snuffed out that flutter with fortune, not to mention the horse. Won lots of money that day on about 5 Cup Day races, pulling quinellas and winners from everywhere, but never enjoying much success again. I am only a very occasional gambler but i like a punt or two at this time of year.
 

(Log in to remove this ad.)

TheGreatGrundy said:
What about a double a quinella or something similarly lucrative, unlikely but cheap? I won $1700 on a $10 bet on the Derby winner (Lion Tamer) and the Melbourne Cup winner (Americain). Bet on Lion Tamer until his dying race snuffed out that flutter with fortune, not to mention the horse. Won lots of money that day on about 5 Cup Day races, pulling quinellas and winners from everywhere, but never enjoying much success again. I am only a very occasional gambler but i like a punt or two at this time of year.
Click to expand...
I'll think of something.
I like a small exotics for the fun of a big dividend - very rare :)

My rare wins was the Let's Elope Cups double (but Cups doubles give you a lesser dividend offer).
The Caulfield Cup quinella 1986 of Mr Lomondy and At Talaq. Paid $70 as I recall. What I don't recall was it then a $0.50 unit or $1 unit then. But you had to do 100% then, so it was $70.

Missed ones the Cups double that year I had At Talaq - Mr Lomondy but the result was the other way around Mr Lomondy - At Talaq.

And Cups double Elvstroem - Zazzman (would have paid huge) with Elvstroem winning the Caulfield Cup and Zazzman third in Melbourne Cup.
There was stable connections that had that happened would have won $1m apparantly.

Of the biggest Cups Double coup of all time apparantly was the Even Stevens double 1962 (fortune won, backed all over the country.) main reason Cups Double now has same horse has a lower dividend.
 
Last edited:
Not sure whether this is a hobby, quirk or whimsy (or just a hoarder).:(

I have been collecting pens for years and now I need a cleanout and don't know who to give them to.
Boxes of them plus highlighters, mechanical pencils and some very expensive pens (hang on to those).

Here are just some:
photo.JPG
 
Maggie5 said:
Not sure whether this is a hobby, quirk or whimsy (or just a hoarder).:(

I have been collecting pens for years and now I need a cleanout and don't know who to give them to.
Boxes of them plus highlighters, mechanical pencils and some very expensive pens (hang on to those).

Here are just some:
View attachment 430911
Click to expand...
Interesting hobby Maggie
Years ago I collected matchboxes. I never smoked, but I loved all the different designs and coloured matches you’d find in hotels and restaurants etc

Ps I love a good pen also, but.....:)
 
Magpie Girl said:
Interesting hobby Maggie
Years ago I collected matchboxes. I never smoked, but I loved all the different designs and coloured matches you’d find in hotels and restaurants etc

Ps I love a good pen also, but.....:)
Click to expand...
Collected them too, not boxes but the packets:$. Sold them at a garage sale for $30.

Some were over 30 years old, started when I visited the US, the used to come with cigarettes.
 
Love reading books(real ones) on history ect, though my command of the written word is shocking at best on paper.
Love a good pen also, but not as many as maggie.
Since I have more time than l need, trying to learn some woodworking skills.
Unfortunately l did not get any from my dad. But l can paint a house reasonably ok l found.
 
Maggie5 said:
Not sure whether this is a hobby, quirk or whimsy (or just a hoarder).:(

I have been collecting pens for years and now I need a cleanout and don't know who to give them to.
Boxes of them plus highlighters, mechanical pencils and some very expensive pens (hang on to those).

Here are just some:
View attachment 430911
Click to expand...

Wow! I've never heard about such type of hobby, your collection looks impressive! :$:thumbsu: I'm a collector too but in case of music CDs, vinyls and various wooden models :) Music is one of the main hobbies for me and I adore to get and collect CDs of my favourite bands, also I'm a vinyl lover and I have a rather big collection already too, however in this case the general number of items isn't very important for me, the main thing is to have my favourite ones. I also adore wooden models , it's such a pleasure to assemble and paint them, when I'm busy with that I always get such positive emotions and relax, that's unreal! And my favourite types in this case are planes and cars :$
I also like drawing (but I'm only an amateur in this case, however I hope someday to really improve my skills, also writing small fiction stories. Travelling and walking are my favourites too! :)
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.

Remove this Banner Ad

Back
Top