Other hobbies, pass times and talents, extra curricular activities

[Den - aka Wolfgang]

Besides the obvious and to get to know each other a little more, and of course give ammunition for some good old fashioned light hearted p1ss taking,

What are your other hobbies and things you are into,

I’ll start things off, I play football, have in the past collected retro games, and consoles, played Xbox for years, was into cars for years owned an Impreza for 14 years and built it up to 600 bhp, I drag raced this for years and years at Santa pod, owned and raced a few go karts, few motorbikes, was big into bmx and jump bike but couple of years back stacked it and broke collar bone, 5 ribs and bruised lung so stopped now.
But my main pass time other than pinball is urban exploring, I do this a lot including exploration of abandoned houses, mansions, schools, hospitals and at the moment bunkers, forts, castles, from ww2 and some Napoleonic,
Great fun climb in/up/down into these places, some easy and some sketchy as hell, only Tuesday gone I scaled half way down a cliff in Dover to get to a hole leading to a bunker and the opening had suffered a cave in,

Itch

Nice one for starting the thread Brad! ; have been enjoying reading all of this on my lunch break and it's great to get to know what everyone get's up to outside of Pinball

Some great pics there of your urban exploring - I'd like to do a bit of that myself! That Dover bunker sounds cool - wouldn't find me scaling down a cliff though - I'm scared of heights/falling he he

Sounds like you gave up drag racing at the right time, but that sounds mental!

 

[Den - aka Wolfgang]

Pinball has become my main hobby and for the better really. My other hobby is music but it's a solitary hobby, I'd go to gigs but to enjoy and share the experience not to socialise. Pinball has given me a hobby where I feel a part of a great community and made great friends.

Music has always been there for me, but I've had other hobbies come and go, pc gaming, guitar, writing music. I spent 5 years studying music and met a few people who are still my friends and part of my local pinball crew now (two are coming to Pinball office on Sunday).

I've been fascinated by urban exploring for years. I have a thing for derelict and decaying structures, they can be mysterious. It ties in with my fascination with railways (moreso before it became my job), there's something about rails that has always got me. Especially old abandoned railway lines.

I used to live near Severalls hospital which was an urban exploring hotspot. I think one of the biggest asylums left in the UK, I always wanted to get into it but didn't get round to it.
Plus I'm easily scared even though I don't believe in anything supernatural

I've spent hours watching urban exploring stuff on YouTube just to get that hit as I don't do it.

Have you ever been to the Royal London Hospital in Whitechappel David? About 10 years ago a mate of mine who'd just started working in TV/Film as a location manager* was prepping the place for a shoot and invited me down as I work fairly nearby.
Was a pretty creepy place and apparently that where The Elephant Man died. Not sure if they'd renovated/repurposed the place since, or if they do tours there, but it sh*t me a bit walking round the dimly lit corridors and thinking about all that must've gone down there.
My mate told me that they used to have nets outside the windows for when the patients would jump out of the windows.

*since then he tends to work in sunnier climates and has been on Death in paradise for years!...

 

[Den - aka Wolfgang]

I love attending gigs and festivals and have been fortunate enough to see huge range of amazing bands over the last 30 years. I started collecting retro console games about 25 years ago and now have over 4000 games . I started collecting and refurbishing arcade machines about 15 years ago. I got my first pinball about 5 years ago. My wife agreed to me getting pinball machines, so long as I supported her in her new hobby, Burlesque. That was a really tough decision . She now has loads of new girl friends who all enjoy taking things off and I also get to play lots of Pinball. I call that a Win Win

You've gotta post some pics of your collection Andy! I still have a (fairly small) collection of retrogame stuff, but will likely sell it all this year, as I tend to just play older stuff via emulation these days (although my mates take the p!$$ out of me, as I'm obsessed with good scanlines when using emulation (if using older consoled on a HDTV, I use an OSSSC which I think's great)

 

[Den - aka Wolfgang]

I only rediscovered pinball 2 years ago (after playing a bit at college in the late 80's), so it's a relatively new hobby for me.
Other hobbies include:
Cricket - been playing for the same club for 27 years - not league, just friendly matches, but a great bunch of lads. Ages range from late teens to 70+.
Music - I play the violin (very badly) - started at school and still pick it up from time to time.
Music - Harmonica - did a few terms with Greg Miller, and got to meet some harmonica legends via concerts and several workshops, along with a new appreciation of blues music.
Juggling - not to @Juggler Spencer standard, but I can just about manage 5 balls, and am ok with diabolo, devilstick, and recently started to mess about with a yoyo.
Cars - (see the car porn thread) have done quite a few track days including SIlverstone GP, Rockingham, Spa, Nurburgring.
Kayaking - did loads in my 20's - whitewater rodeos, canoe polo, was a senior instructor, and at college, we were lucky enough to have Shaun Baker as our coach for 3 years, so we paddled a lot with him. I've recently been in touch with a local club and am intending to start paddling again this year.
Photography - I saved up my pocket money to buy my first camera (a Praktica MTL3 film SLR for £50) in about 1980, and have enjoyed taking photos ever since. A few that I'm quite pleased with:

The first was with my first camera, back in around 1984. The rest are more recent shot on mainly various DSLRs.
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Great pics conrad!

 

[Den - aka Wolfgang]

Outside of pinball, my main interest is music - apart from going to gigs/festivals, writing and playing music in bands. I've been playing guitar since I was 15 and playing in bands since I was 16.
In my early 20s I was fortunate enough to join a band which turned out to have some financial backing and so was doing that full time for a few years. We nearly got signed, but it all fell apart unfortunately - was fun (ish..) while it lasted though!
*a poster above mentioned New Model Army - our bass player in that band, who I heard sadly passed away a couple of years ago actually produced/engineered one NMA's albums I believe; great band and I saw good doc about them a while ago).
Since then I've played in various bands around London (if you went to gigs around Camden during the 00's you may have seen a band called MY EMPIRE I was in - I'd say playing the Camden Underworld a couple of times were high points).
The last band where we recorded was called Human Herd and I decided (possibly a bad decision!..) to sing and play guitar, since I pretty much wrote all the music/lyrics anyway. I think it's been about 10 years since the EP we did and it can be found here: https://humanherd.bandcamp.com/ - that was recorded on a shoestring budget (only drums were recorded in a studio) and so sounds a bit ropey (my vocals make me cringe a bit - I'd only just started singing and didn't really know what I was doing; didn't help that I was trying to sing so high all the time lol! - bit over ambitious for my skills I think). That band was a lot of fun and before we disbanded we did the usual London thing, but also did a mini tour of Scotland before playing a gig in Amsterdam.
Pre-lockdown I was rehearsing new material for a new band with a drummer I was working with , but now I need to get off **** and find a new bass player and Drummer! My current plan is to record an EP/album at home (am getting better at using Logic X) and use that to find peopple to play gig with a work on more tunes.

Although I don't put as many hours in to it as when I was single, I'm also a pretty big gamer and film fan; from retrogaming through to PS5/Series X. I still have some old consoles and games (JPN megadrive, Super Famicom/Dreamcast etc) from when I was collecting, but as I've gotten more in to emulation over the years and don't have space for a large collection (would rather have a 2nd pin;-) ) I'll sell that stuff off soon I think.
Love 80s and 90s arcades too, but I play all that stuff via emulation (Big Capcom/SEGA fan) - during the 00s though I used to have a MAME cab in a tiny studio flat I used to live in on Holloway Road/Archway - that was mental, as I was struggling for space even without it, what with guitars and amps all over the place he he

Sports wise I've done Karate and Kickboxing over the years, but haven't had the time/enthusiasm for it (thus piling on the pounds again!..) I did get in to playing Table Tennis a few years back though as they put a table in our work canteen - if anyone fancies a game at any point over teh park; let me know!

I've really enjoyed reading everyone's posts (apologies if I've rambled here about guitars/playing music - that's the thing I'm best at; I only wish I could get anywhere near as good at pinball!...) - I think it's really important to have other interests outside of you main passion. I know for me, Pinball or gaming is a bit of a break from thinking about music/guitar all the time and it's great meeting new people.

 

[VeeMonroe]

We used to own > 1,000 board games and now have a mere 250 or so (one sixth of our collection is pictured).

We also enjoy hiking, triking, and spending time with our kids and dog.

I paint models when I can. I used to paint with acrylics, as well, but stopped when I got married. I’m a published science fiction author (only short stories so far) and like to create maps and drawings from my fictional worlds.

 

[Itch]

Outside of pinball, my main interest is music - apart from going to gigs/festivals, writing and playing music in bands. I've been playing guitar since I was 15 and playing in bands since I was 16.
In my early 20s I was fortunate enough to join a band which turned out to have some financial backing and so was doing that full time for a few years. We nearly got signed, but it all fell apart unfortunately - was fun (ish..) while it lasted though!
*a poster above mentioned New Model Army - our bass player in that band, who I heard sadly passed away a couple of years ago actually produced/engineered one NMA's albums I believe; great band and I saw good doc about them a while ago).
Since then I've played in various bands around London (if you went to gigs around Camden during the 00's you may have seen a band called MY EMPIRE I was in - I'd say playing the Camden Underworld a couple of times were high points).
The last band where we recorded was called Human Herd and I decided (possibly a bad decision!..) to sing and play guitar, since I pretty much wrote all the music/lyrics anyway. I think it's been about 10 years since the EP we did and it can be found here: https://humanherd.bandcamp.com/ - that was recorded on a shoestring budget (only drums were recorded in a studio) and so sounds a bit ropey (my vocals make me cringe a bit - I'd only just started singing and didn't really know what I was doing; didn't help that I was trying to sing so high all the time lol! - bit over ambitious for my skills I think). That band was a lot of fun and before we disbanded we did the usual London thing, but also did a mini tour of Scotland before playing a gig in Amsterdam.
Pre-lockdown I was rehearsing new material for a new band with a drummer I was working with , but now I need to get off **** and find a new bass player and Drummer! My current plan is to record an EP/album at home (am getting better at using Logic X) and use that to find peopple to play gig with a work on more tunes.

Although I don't put as many hours in to it as when I was single, I'm also a pretty big gamer and film fan; from retrogaming through to PS5/Series X. I still have some old consoles and games (JPN megadrive, Super Famicom/Dreamcast etc) from when I was collecting, but as I've gotten more in to emulation over the years and don't have space for a large collection (would rather have a 2nd pin;-) ) I'll sell that stuff off soon I think.
Love 80s and 90s arcades too, but I play all that stuff via emulation (Big Capcom/SEGA fan) - during the 00s though I used to have a MAME cab in a tiny studio flat I used to live in on Holloway Road/Archway - that was mental, as I was struggling for space even without it, what with guitars and amps all over the place he he

Sports wise I've done Karate and Kickboxing over the years, but haven't had the time/enthusiasm for it (thus piling on the pounds again!..) I did get in to playing Table Tennis a few years back though as they put a table in our work canteen - if anyone fancies a game at any point over teh park; let me know!

I've really enjoyed reading everyone's posts (apologies if I've rambled here about guitars/playing music - that's the thing I'm best at; I only wish I could get anywhere near as good at pinball!...) - I think it's really important to have other interests outside of you main passion. I know for me, Pinball or gaming is a bit of a break from thinking about music/guitar all the time and it's great meeting new people.

Sounds fun mate, I enjoy table tennis, your a rockstar then,

 

[Den - aka Wolfgang]

Sounds fun mate, I enjoy table tennis, your a rockstar then,

We should play some time mate!

 

[ianw]

Either drinking beer or in the gym

2 new additions today.

 

[Andypc]

If I had a Gym like that I would be trying to squeeze a Pinball Machine in somewhere

 

[C&C]

I did get in to playing Table Tennis a few years back though as they put a table in our work canteen - if anyone fancies a game at any point over the park; let me know!

Sounds fun mate, I enjoy table tennis.

We should play some time mate!

I'd also be very much up for a game at some point. I'm not very good and pretty much never get a chance to play as there's no-one living nearby who's interested, despite the fact I picked up a table from the local charity shop for £10, which can be set up in the (sloping) garden, so even that's not ideal.

@Den - aka Wolfgang - where's your local park with a table?

Similar situation with darts (lack of anyone to play against), which is also fun, although at least there's space indoors and you can practise that on your own!

 

[johnwhitfield]

GBoA

Never got around to seeing them in the late 80s. Apparently seeing them in Nov supported by Crazyhead at the Dome in Tufnell Park.

I suspect we know a few mutual non pinball friends. Thunder and Consolation is still a classic album. Spent a lot of 5k e at NMA gigs as well as seeing bands such as the Newcranes, Levellers etc. always had a soft spot for Loud ever since they supported the Nephilim.

 

[Den - aka Wolfgang]

I'd also be very much up for a game at some point. I'm not very good and pretty much never get a chance to play as there's no-one living nearby who's interested, despite the fact I picked up a table from the local charity shop for £10, which can be set up in the (sloping) garden, so even that's not ideal.

@Den - aka Wolfgang - where's your local park with a table?

Similar situation with darts (lack of anyone to play against), which is also fun, although at least there's space indoors and you can practise that on your own!

There's a TT table in a park about 5 minutes walk from us in E13 - a better one to go to would be the park areas near Embankment there's I think 3 or 4 in total spreak across two parts - also; places to have a beer wthin walking distace too!

Love a game of darts too, despite not being great at the game

 

[David_Vi]

Have you ever been to the Royal London Hospital in Whitechappel David? About 10 years ago a mate of mine who'd just started working in TV/Film as a location manager* was prepping the place for a shoot and invited me down as I work fairly nearby.
Was a pretty creepy place and apparently that where The Elephant Man died. Not sure if they'd renovated/repurposed the place since, or if they do tours there, but it sh*t me a bit walking round the dimly lit corridors and thinking about all that must've gone down there.
My mate told me that they used to have nets outside the windows for when the patients would jump out of the windows.

*since then he tends to work in sunnier climates and has been on Death in paradise for years!...

Nooooopee.
Sounds cool, I believe I've seen it on TV lots, it's a popular filming location.
I have a fascination but I rarely go places... Proper lazy

Music. Everything related to it. I missed live gigs so much during lockdown, I try to catch at least a couple of gigs a month. Used to work in the industry and was going to start promoting again but that plan has kind of gone out of the window. Now the kids are older I’m having a bit of a second lease of life and they are introducing me to new bands. Felt like I was going to be investigated by Operation Yewtree when I took the girl to see Yonaka recently. Currently trying to see anyone who plays locally if I previously bought a couple of albums by them. Kind of explains why I’m off to see Helloween , Anthrax, WASP, PWEI and Magnum. . Haven’t seen a goth gig (unless you count NMA) for a couple of years which is weird as I used to be so involved with the scene.

I used to be big into Helloween and the euro power metal scene. Last time I saw them was the special tour with all the different members. Was a great gig!
Moved more into post metal/rock since

Usually my gigs are small affairs, not a fan of arenas. I found Brixton too big .

Goto deal with an arena for Tool next month it's for @Lecari or I'd not bother.

Before COVID I'd go to so many gigs but since I've not really been bothered as I saw most of my favourite bands already.
Got Arctangent festival booked for the weekend before Pinfest. Best festival I've ever been to for music, atmosphere, size and friendly people.
I've only done Wacken, Bloodstock and Hellfest in the past but my tastes have evolved slightly since those days.

 

[Den - aka Wolfgang]

Nooooopee.
Sounds cool, I believe I've seen it on TV lots, it's a popular filming location.
I have a fascination but I rarely go places... Proper lazy



I used to be big into Helloween and the euro power metal scene. Last time I saw them was the special tour with all the different members. Was a great gig!
Moved more into post metal/rock since

Usually my gigs are small affairs, not a fan of arenas. I found Brixton too big .

Goto deal with an arena for Tool next month it's for @Lecari or I'd not bother.

Before COVID I'd go to so many gigs but since I've not really been bothered as I saw most of my favourite bands already.
Got Arctangent festival booked for the weekend before Pinfest. Best festival I've ever been to for music, atmosphere, size and friendly people.
I've only done Wacken, Bloodstock and Hellfest in the past but my tastes have evolved slightly since those days.

Which day are you going to see TOOL on David?; I'm there on the Monday I think !

 

[David_Vi]

Which day are you going to see TOOL on David?; I'm there on the Monday I think !

We're going to Birmingham as it was the only days I had off

 

[MajesticPinball]

Interesting thread so far, nice to see peoples interests besides pinball shine through. I've had quite a few hobbies really most have been and gone.

I used to play the saxophone but haven't for the past 5 years or so since living in a flat (Unlike all of my neighbours I'm as respectful as possible and try to keep noise at a minimum) Used to play in a few bands, one was a large big band jazz orchestra which was a lot of fun.

Bowling preoccupied a lot of my childhood and teenage years and is something that I only just recently got back into. I used to bowl in endless leagues and tournaments, was in the Essex team for a few years too but working as a technician in multiple bowling alleys over the years sucked out the fun from the sport so I gave it up but have been really enjoying training again recently - looking to join a league again sometime soon hopefully.

I used to collect retro gaming consoles etc. like many people here. I mainly focused on the Sega Megadrive but had a pretty large NES collection too as well as a few others. Ended up selling most of my collection a few years back and just kept my absolute favourites.

Took up juggling late last year and have been really enjoying that, it's amazing watching your muscle memory slowly click into place while learning new tricks and I just love the really obvious progression of skill - have been having a lot of fun with it. I'm hoping to learn to juggle clubs in the summer as I'm a bit tight for space indoors so don't really fancy throwing them about until I can get outside.

 

[VeeMonroe]

I used to play the saxophone but haven't for the past 5 years or so since living in a flat (Unlike all of my neighbours I'm as respectful as possible and try to keep noise at a minimum) Used to play in a few bands, one was a large big band jazz orchestra which was a lot of fun.

I played alto sax until I went away to university. It was the only musical instrument I ever got along with - largely because I got to perform outside school in a jazz band.

I still have the saxophone at home. Really miss playing, but it’s probably too late to restart…

 

[C&C]

Took up juggling late last year and have been really enjoying that, it's amazing watching your muscle memory slowly click into place while learning new tricks and I just love the really obvious progression of skill - have been having a lot of fun with it. I'm hoping to learn to juggle clubs in the summer as I'm a bit tight for space indoors so don't really fancy throwing them about until I can get outside.

If you are ever near Camden Lock, pop into Oddballs there (or even phone in advance to check for stock), and try out their "Fluozie" juggling balls. They are far and away the best balls I've ever used, and I've tried many different types.

They are almost never available online as they sell out immediately (the link I posted will say "out of stock"), but they usually have a few in the shop. Added advantage of going to the shop is that you get to try them to see if you like them. The disadvantage is that you'll likely come away with several other items as well!

 

[Paul]

Bowling preoccupied a lot of my childhood and teenage years and is something that I only just recently got back into. I used to bowl in endless leagues and tournaments, was in the Essex team for a few years too but working as a technician in multiple bowling alleys over the years sucked out the fun from the sport so I gave it up but have been really enjoying training again recently - looking to join a league again sometime soon hopefully.

Interesting! I used to bowl League in my late teen/early twenties years, until a back injury set in meaning i wasnt able to do it without considerable pain any more.

Like to pick up a ball every now and again, however without my own ball nowadays and having been out of it for many years, now struggle to reach anything over 150

 

[BigIan]

Interesting! I used to bowl League in my late teen/early twenties years, until a back injury set in meaning i wasnt able to do it without considerable pain any more.

Like to pick up a ball every now and again, however without my own ball nowadays and having been out of it for many years, now struggle to reach anything over 150

Very similar here. Used to bowl a few nights a week. Played singles, double and mixed doubles at senior level. Even represented ireland a few times in the early 90s. Machine chewed my ball up in Miami at a comp, got a new ball but it never felt the same and dropped out of favour a few months after returning. Still play for fun maybe 2 0r 3 times a year, can’t play l9ng as the house balls ripped the skin off my thumb (has been figuretip bowler for years previously) never really get more than 150-180 now, also tend to bowl to fast (which helps with the skin removal)