Guy, what kind of hobbies do you have?

[A+J]

As most other guys I´m interested in cars, motor cycles and motor sport and all kind of sport. My girlfreind tells me I have a female side too.
I have alwaysed been interested in clothes and fashion and over the later years me starting dressing as a woman from my waist and down I have become more and more interested in female clothes aned female fashion.
I like to read about female fashion, I like to talk about it too. I have started reading female magazine about female fashion. There´s no other way to do. I talking about it with my girlfreind and my female colleagues at work. I can´t talk about this with any other guy I know. They are not interested.

One other hobby of mine is shoping. Yes I know its a bit "girly, its a bit feminine but I like it. I love go shoping with my girlfreind. We can be out shoping for hours and hours looking for clothe, heels everything.
I have even bbeen out with the girls at thee office. We are going shoping. They are exactly like me and my girlfreind.
The guys I know have not this interest. I can´t for instance say to them, "hey I saw such a nice looking skirt, I got to have it".
No they would not understand. Women though does, they are a bit like me.

So guys, what is your hobby?

[ChrisM]

I would love to go out "girly shopping" in the skirt department at H&M, with a group of women from the office! How lucky you are!

I have of course gone clothes shopping with my wife, but it's not at all the same experience as the stereotype clump of chattering girls trying on skirts and blouses. Indeed, it looks a lot more like a woman who has a cross-dressing husband taking him out shopping.

I realize that the culture in USA is very different from that in Sweden, but I say "well done" for you attitude toward clothes!

As for hobbies: Well, I am a 52-year old Graduate Student, so I don't have much time left for hobbies. But my greatest interest is sailing...and I would love to sail the Swedish coast someday!

Chris

[A+J]

Hi Chris

I see you´re like sailing. I´m afraid I don´t know anything about sailing or boats for that matter.

Yes I´m a lucky guy. Going out shoping together with my girlfreind I didn´t at all feeling like a cross-dressing husband. I felt I was out there with my lady. Looking for clothes. Ok I was in a skirt and high heels but I don´t feel as I´m cross dressing. I´m a man out there with my lady trying to brake some ice, perhaps we´re creating a bit of a new fashion.
My girlfreind love it too. She sees me as hers boyfreind (we´re talking about getting married you know) but for the moment I´m her boyfrien. She has told me though when we´re out she can talk to me as she do with her female freinds when we are discussing clothes. She has told me I´m a bit of both a boyfreind an a sister to her. I don´t mind that at all. You see my girlfreind never had a sister and now I can be both her boyfreind and her sister too. Its cool.

The same when I´m out with the girls from the office. I don´t feel any different at all. I´m a man dressed in a skirt, pantyhose and high heel that´s all.
The girls tells me they can talk to me as they do with other women about clothes and heels. The tells me that they don´t know no other guy that they can speak to the way they speak to me about clothes and things.
They thinks its so cool I´m going with them, we trying female clothes and high heels.

I think its great to going out with my girlfrend or the girls from the office trrying cothes. There is so much for us to talk about but still even if I´m wearing a mini skirt, pantyhose, my 4 inch stiletto pumps, having my purse hanging over my schoulder I am a man.

[Big and Bashful]

Now that I have a boat my main hobby is also sailing, when not doing the boat thing I like to play guitar, acoustic these days, good enough to accompany myself singing, well it's a start.
Other than that, mainly playing with my collection of computers, either surfing, maintaining my music collection or playing a variety of simulators.
That only leaves the telly watching.
Oh and cleaning up the bits after my cats have been hunting!

[Since1982]

I have an acoustic boat, been looking around for a waterproof guitar...hehehehehe



.................................................My Bad....................................

[Big and Bashful]

Skip,

I thought of buying some acoustic waterproofs, but I can't even picture a sailing guitar!

[crfriend]

I can't even picture a sailing guitar!

All you need is a stiff enough wind -- and then the sound of the wind through the rigging might be pretty nice.

[crfriend]

Hobbies? I have a few, and have been though a few more....

At the moment, my primary is that of computer historian, in which capacity I study, and try to bring the now long-dead world of pre-PC computing to the modern day so folks might see, hear, smell, and feel what these systems were like and what they were like to work on. This also means that I must restore systems that have failed and maintain ones that still run. Bill Gates DID NOT invent computing any more than Al Gore invented the Internet. Gore gets more credit, because he actually helped the technology along rather than shoving it backward.

I enjoy photography, but find that the modern world of the digital "point and shoot" doesn't suit me well; I need to dig out my old "chemical cameras" and exercise them whilst film is still available. As a bit of a traditionalist, I hate auto-focus and the way most modern "cameras" operate, and prefer to shoot in aperture-priority mode whenever possible because it gives the best range of focus, and I don't like selecting settings from a menu. I'll take rings and knobs, thank you.

Music and audio remain core pieces of who I am, but my audio-reproduction gear has taken a beating over the years and some of it has simply quit working at all.

And, finally, I partake of some typically American activities that really bother our tender cousins in Europe, so they shall go un-named here.

[ChrisM]

B&B: What kind of boat do you have?

Our primary residence is a vintage Columbia 36...and yes, my guitar has survived fairly well the years it has spent tucked up in the forepeak locker!

Chris

[Big and Bashful]

ChrisM,
It's a Verl 27, a fibreglass 27 foot 6 berth masthead rigged yacht. 35 years old but sails really well. I was out last Sunday sailing with a friend who took his Sadler 26. I had to keep turning back to let him catch up as my wee boat was sailing over a knot faster. That was in very light winds (force 2 ish)
I have a fair amount to do to it but I like her already!

[Milfmog]

Hobbies... OK I guess mine would list as walking, photography and scuba diving. I'll give a little more information about each of these:

Walking. Usually with my dog, Taz a Labrador / Boxer cross with all the intellegence of both breeds removed. He's best described as 75 pounds of muscle and bone with no evidence of brains or malice. My wife is not a long istance walkers so these days my walks tend to be between an hour long on a working day and eight or so hours if I can find a whole weekend day. I no longer have the time or opportunity to do long distance walks over several days.

When walking I frequently carry a camera, though not as often as I used to. Like Carl I generally prefer the quality of older film cameras, unlike Carl if I want to go purist and stay away from electronics I go all the way and use a fully manuaql Rollei twin lens reflex or my early 50's interchangeable lens rangefinder (a German made Diax IIa). Neither of these has so much as a built in light meter so neither has ever suffered from a flat battery. I also have a Canon EOS650 with a bag full of lenses. This is fully automatic but with manual overrides available for everything and is probably the best ofthe cameras in terms of build quality and flexibility. I also have a pair of digitals, both Canons, one of which is pocketable and the other has a far longer zoom range and excellent options for taking control but is too big for most pockets. The majority of my pictures are landscapes or family and friends pictures.

My third hobby, which sadly I seem to do less of each year as other things get in the way, is scuba diving. I generally dive UK waters and have yet to find anywhere overseas that I enjoy as much, though Californias giant kelp forests get very close. Overseas I have dived in the mediterranean (multiple locations), the Red Sea and California. Although many holiday divers turn their noses up at UK diving, saying it is cold and the water is murky, I contend that we have a variety of habitats and marine junk (wrecks from two world wars and hundreds of years of navigational errors) that are unequaled anywhere. Cld water is easily managed by wearing appropriate insulation under the drysuit and poor visibility is largly a matter of expetation and focus. If you want to see a whole ship in one piece on the bottom and be able to see from one end to the other, the way they look in movies, the UK is not for you. However in poor visibility getting closer and looking in more detail at each part is very rewarding. I have been diving for more than 25 years now and use a variety of gas mixes to allow me to access depths to about 75m (about 245 feet). That depth will let me get to pretty much anything in the English Channel, which is my primary diving patch.

I used to sail both dingys and Yachts, however time and money meant something had to give and in the past 20 years I have only done about ten hours in dingys. Though I did cross the equator four times in (on?) a Hobbiecat.

Have fun,


Ian.

[RichardA]

Kayaking and cycling

[Kirbstone]

I'm a bit like a juggler and try to keep too many hobbies up there all going on at once, but I haven't cracked the bi-location thing yet, so one hobby gets an outing to interrupt the others.
1/ Competative Rowing. At age 68 I still indulge with a group of other like-minded geriatrics. At international 'Masters' regattas one sees and meets thousands of lean tall guys & girls who don't trade in adipose tissue (fat) at all! Rowing tourism is expensive, though.
2/ Sailing, both dinghies and offshore. Not competative anymore, and these days I'm into teaching grandchildren the pleasures of same. I get invited to sail offshore in friends' yachts, as I have a little experience there.
3/ DIY. A German visiting friend looked into my barn/garage one day and said: 'Tom, you have work here till you die' . He's perfectly right. Largest project was doubling the size of a Tudor cottage in England, sold in 1985. Largest recent project was a 'Victorian' glass house at home.
4/ Music: Piano daily, Serious Tin-whistle, a bit of Oboe & 'Cello, but lots of Choral Singing. July 11th: sang in the World Premiere of Karl Jenkins's 'Gloria' in the Albert Hall, London. 2.550 singers + the Royal Festival Orchestra...I kid you not!
5/ Astronomy & photography....more expensive kit there. I have drawn up plans for a Mount Wilson type domed observatory hut in the grounds, but haven't gotten the Wifely go-ahead for that one yet.
6 Chess & Bridge....indoor games for cold long nights.
7/ Oh yes! .....& Shopping. When I do this I do it alone, preferrably with a little ruler, as womens' sizes vary so much and I daren't ask to try on anything!

[Kirbstone]

These were meant to accompany my post above.

[crfriend]

Like Carl I generally prefer the quality of older film cameras, unlike Carl if I want to go purist and stay away from electronics I go all the way and use a fully manuaql Rollei twin lens reflex or my early 50's interchangeable lens rangefinder (a German made Diax IIa). Neither of these has so much as a built in light meter so neither has ever suffered from a flat battery.

I have but one word about those cameras: "NICE!"

My main "chemical camera" is a Nikon F3 with a 70-210mm zoom on it, and really the only automatic stuff it does is have an on-board light meter and can automatically set the shutter speed if one wants it to; everything else is pretty well manual, and if the battery goes flat it's still capable of releasing the shutter at a 1/60s speed but nothing else which most more modern ones can't. I also have my late grandfather's Nikkormat which aside from an on-board meter is fully mechanical with a clockwork shutter; the battery in that one has been dead for years and the type is no longer manufactured so if I want to use that I get to use Sapphire's late step-father's light meter which has a selenium element to drive the meter so it doesn't require batteries. The lenses are somewhat interchangeable betwixt the two.

[...] I contend that we have a variety of habitats and marine junk (wrecks from two world wars and hundreds of years of navigational errors) [...] I have been diving for more than 25 years now and use a variety of gas mixes to allow me to access depths to about 75m (about 245 feet). That depth will let me get to pretty much anything in the English Channel, which is my primary diving patch.

If you ever get into these here parts 245 feet might get you to a rather notable wreck that's off Nantucket Island -- the Andrea Doria. That, however, is claimed as a very technical dive and quite dangerous from all the reports I've heard of it. Somehow I always find it amazing that the ship sank in a depth less than its length, and that as the last portion slipped below the waves its bow may well have already been on the bottom.