In pursuit of a hobby

Recently, someone asked me what were my hobbies. I really had to think about how to answer him.

Eventually I concluded I didn’t seem to have any hobbies.

All around me, people have hobbies. Our own LoveCat Stefanie London is sewing beautiful clothes. A friend is knitting socks and gloves and sweaters that don’t need stitching together using circular needles and intricate stitches that have me mindboggled. Another friend’s house is filled with the most beautiful tapestries—I’ve begged her to leave me her cushion covers in her will. Another has taken up painting and has found she has a real talent for it. (Guess I might be talking to her about her will, too!)

But me?

I ask my husband what he thinks my hobbies might be. “Your iPad, you’re never off the thing,” he says.

“But I’m a writer,” I whine. “I have to be in touch with the world.”

“Okay, so Facebook is your hobby,” he says.

Does Facebook count as a hobby? I enjoy it as much for the social contact—and the cat and dog photos—as the writerly stuff. So maybe.

Hubby’s hobby, by the way is his bicycle. Yes, he’s a MAMAL—a middle aged man in Lycra—who takes his cycling very seriously indeed. Along with it comes a high level of physical fitness about which I’m not complaining.

I looked up “hobby” to find that its definition is a “leisure pursuit for fun”. So that’s the problem. I don’t have much leisure. Not with books to write and publicise and family and housework and four cats and two horses and other animals to feed and look after.

I ask a close friend what she thinks my hobbies are. “Gardening? Cooking?” she suggests.

“Do they count as leisure time pursuits?” I ask. “There’s a good deal of work involved there.”

She tries again. “Taking photos of your garden and your food and your cats putting them on Instagram?”

“I guess so,” I say, not totally convinced.

So I look back at my life—at the dressmaking and knitting I used to do and the embroidery I always wanted to do. At the swimming I still do and the golf I’d like to get back to. And I conclude that the thing I’ve always liked to do in my leisure time and what I think I’ll always want to do is read. Books, books and more books. Newspapers. Magazines. Articles on the internet. At any opportunity, in every spare moment, I read. Reading is my very first choice of leisure activity no matter how small the time available.

Can I count reading as my hobby? What do you think? Can we have a vote here? What about your hobbies? Care to share? I’d love to read your comment!

Game on! with Stefanie London

I most definitely grew up as part of the video game generation. I was born in the 80’s, grew up in the 90’s with a computer in the house and had my first video game console at age 12 (it was a Super Nintendo and my first game was Mario World. I’ve had a slight obsession with the Super Mario Bros ever since.)

But I’ve always loved board games and card games. I played them a lot with my younger sister when we were growing up—snakes and ladders, checkers, monopoly, sorry (which I can now only say with a terrible Canadian accent) and so many more.

When my husband and I moved to Canada we went to an awesome board game café called Snakes & Lattes. I love the concept of a board game café – you get to try out new games and see if you like them before you buy all while having a coffee (or an incredible Nutella latte).

Snakes & Lattes totally renewed my love for this fun activity and since then our collection has grown. Here are a few that frequently get played in our house which you may not have heard about:

Sushi Go! (card game)

This is a fast-paced card game that involved passing hands of cards around a circle and trying get as many points as possible. It’s played in rounds and takes about 20 minutes to play. It’s great if you don’t want to invest several hours that are required for some other games (*cough Monopoly cough*)

Pandemic (board game)

This is a co-operative board game, which wasn’t something I’d ever tried before. All players work together to beat the game, essentially. In this game you have to stop the spread of diseases around the world and each player has a special ability that helps you do that.

Lords of Waterdeep (board game)

This game is more involved, has a longer play time and takes a little while to learn. But it’s a lot of fun – you spend the game trying to complete quests to gain points all the while trying to block attacks from your opponents. It has a fantasy theme (I believe it’s from the Dungeons and Dragon’s world) and the artwork is amazing.

Agricola (board game)

This is an agriculture-themed (hence the name) game where you have a farm that requires crops, livestock and food. You’re in competition with the other players but it’s less about attacking and more about personal strategy. Bonus points for the adorable little wooden animal pieces that come with it.

Exploding Kittens (card game)

Illustrated by the same guy who does The Oatmeal (aka my favourite comics) this game is the most backed Kickstarter project in history. We have the NSFW version (of course) so it’s definitely not everyone’s cup of tea. But it’s so much fun, is very quick to play and the artwork is hilarious. It’s a game of attrition/survival.

There are so many more games I could list here! Honourable mentions go to Settlers of Catan, 5 Crowns, and Forbidden Desert.

Are you a board game fan? What’s your favourite game to play?

Who has time for hobbies?

With life so busy, I find it hard to dedicate time to hobbies. When is there a spare minute in the day to dabble in something that a dictionary defines as ‘an activity done regularly in one's leisure time for pleasure’? Sad really. Isn’t life supposed to have some time for pleasure?

Well, I have been forced, well not really forced, but encouraged back into one of my hobbies recently. My parents are downsizing so my mother’s grand piano has come to me.  It is such a beautiful, elegant instrument. I can’t believe it now sits in my sitting room.

Now, I used to play piano quite well. In fact at one point I was tossing up whether to go to university or to the conservatorium of music. However, I attended enough eisteddfods to know I was never going to be good enough to be a world-class concert pianist.  Me being me, if I wasn’t going to do it perfectly, I wasn’t going to do it at all (I have matured a little since then). So, I stopped cold turkey and didn’t play for nearly twenty-five years!

Me playing a Steinway (!!!) at the Bangalow Hall

Then, about a year ago, Mum and I were discussing her move to a smaller home and she said, ‘The grand will be yours.’ Well, I had to deserve the instrument, didn’t I; so back to piano lessons I went.

I completed my grade five exam through Trinity College last Thursday. I believe I did okay. I did muck up a couple of sections in my pieces that I’d never mucked up before which was pretty frustrating, but I’m trying hard not to be too much of a perfectionist and enjoy the process (I read somewhere that that was important).

It’s so nice to be able to play again. Nice to have a hobby that is so vastly different to everything else I do in my day.

Do you have a hobby you love or one you’d love to try but still haven’t had a change to jump into?  I’d love to hear all about it.

Jennifer’s latest book The Billionaire’s Passionate Revenge is currently available on Amazon, iBooks, Kobo and Google Play.

Who has time for hobbies?

Hobbies.  I used to have them. I used to play the piano, do gymnastics, do the occasional crafty project, like knit a jumper and travel…a lot. But now life is so busy with work, writing, kids, trying to stay fit, finding time to see friends and general 21^st century craziness that I don’t really have any hobbies. 

What happened?

My husband is good at hobbies. Always has been. He surfs, plays the guitar (and is in a band) and makes time for coffee with his friends…every day! Yes, every day.  I have to pretend that running, which I only do for fitness, is a hobby.

So, when my Mum said she was giving me her grand piano (she’s a piano teacher) when they move into their retirement village later this year, I figured I needed to take lessons again and had to earn the right to inherit such a beautiful instrument.

I used to be pretty good at piano. In fact at one point I considered going to the Conservatorium of music. But, I played in enough eisteddfods to know I wasn’t good enough to have a career as a pianist. The people who were going to make it on the stage were very obvious.

So, I’ve been going to lessons since the beginning of the year. It is really sad to realise how much skill I’ve lost over the years. If you don’t use it, you lose it, is so true.  I’m having to work very hard to get to any sort of reasonable standard.

I performed in a recital at my teacher’s house last weekend. I was very nervous and didn’t play my best.  I think the dog’s reaction says it all. At least he only yawned and didn't howl. Hilarious!

But, it is nice to have something to focus on that is only really designed to bring joy. Music!

Do you have any hobbies that bring you joy? I’d love to hear about them.

If you happen to be in Byron in May, I’m running and Introduction to Romance Writing workshop through Northern Rivers Writers Centre.  It’s being held on Saturday, 23 May from 10am – 4pm. For more information, or to book, visit the NRWC website. 

Love all!

Everyone knows I'm the sort of cat who would far rather look like this:

than this.

so no one is more surprised than I that I've taken up tennis!! I do admit that 'dragged into' is probably a far more appropriate phrase than 'taken up' but  nevertheless, I'm really starting to love it.

My twin boys began playing two years ago and invariably they were looking for someone to have a hit with so I decided to dust off my skills. I'd played tennis at high school so I was pretty confident that I wouldn't make a complete fool of myself, but oh how wrong I was!

The first difference was the racquets. When I was twelve we played with racquets that looked like this: 

now it's all graphite and heads with special weights. The fact you can get pink ones nowadays made me very happy. :) 

The shoes too are completely different too. Goodness knows how we managed, but we used to play in soft soled sand shoes like these:

Now it's all about the cushioning and the arch support and the 'side-to-side traction'. And you can get them in pink too!

The biggest change, though, is in the way tennis is actually played. When I was at high school we were told to play across the ball, so often you'd be side side on as you played your shot.

Now, you're supposed to approach every shot front on with an 'open stance' to give you more power and control.

The upshot of all of this is that I seem to have a lot of very expensive gear and absolutely no ability to get the ball over the net any more.  Luckily for me, a number of my girlfriends are in the same situation so it's down to the tennis club for us, having lessons and a whole lot of laughs.  Who said you couldn't teach an old cat new tricks!

Have you learned a new skill recently or revisited an old one?

I don't need another hobby, but...

by Michelle Douglas

Romance authors (and quite frankly probably any author of any creed) are a pretty determined bunch. For determined read stubborn.

A case in point: Recently on the television there was an advertisement for a new magazine called The Art of Crochet. I thought it sounded interesting. I thought it could be a bit of fun. But do you think I could get a copy? No. It was sold out. Everywhere. Did I retire with grace? Nuh uh. I became annoyed and fixated. Sold out, huh? Well I wouldn’t let that defeat me!

I went to the shops and bought a ball of wool and a crochet hook. I went to the library and borrowed Learn-To-Crochet books.

So, I’ve been playing with crochet. I’m hoping that when I get a little better it’ll become one of those lovely mindless things I can do while I let story ideas brew and smoulder. My family has quite a history with crochet. Both my grandmother and great grandmother made the most amazing pieces, and my great aunt still does. Have a look at some of these pieces.

I have a long way to go before I reach their standard. So it’s probably just as well that I have a lot of story ideas to brew and develop, huh?

But… the fact of the matter is I do continually bemoan the fact that I don’t have enough hours in the day to do all the things I want to do. Am I crazy adding another thing to the list? Or am I being super wise and refilling my creative well? Oh, and do you have any crocheting tips you’d like to share?