What are our hobbies?

Having a lot of time on my hands since retiring, my hobby is DIY. The pic above was last weeks project, my lawn is 2 inches higher than the block paving and to stop the grass treading down at the edge I put these edgings in. I couldn't raise the blocks because they would cover the air bricks on the bungalow. No matter what it is if I think I can do it I will. Since moving here I have tiled floors, completely tiled the bathroom, replaced old radiators, there is one job I won't tackle and that's plastering that is a skill I haven't got. I don't do this to save money I do it because I enjoy it and I get satisfaction knowing that I have done it myself.

I've not had time to do any hobbies since I moved to Hungary in 2011. Before that my main interest was classic motorcycles. I still have my 1948 BSA A7 500cc twin which I bought in 1995 but it has not been road legal for a few years. It was made before the days of rear suspension so I find it gives me backache on anything other than perfect road surfaces. Before I moved from UK I was looking for a more sedentary activity that I could cope with as my health deteriorates. I started collecting old radios, tape recorders and record players. This was really returning to a hobby I had in my teens. I was interested in electronics in the days of transistors but lost interest when the technology moved into integrated circuits. The stuff I collect now has either valves or transistors and dates from between late '30s and mid '70s. When I get more time I will restore the BSA and bring it back to UK to be sold. I might look for another classic bike after that but it will probably be something more modern from the '50s or '60s.

Before my knees became poorly I used to love decorating. In fact, when I moved to my current house in 2001 I painted and decorated it throughout. Only three years ago I actually painted and papered my hall stairs and landing! Quite an achievement for a little 5’2” lady ! I liked the wallpaper so much that I decorated my lounge the following year with it. I can still climb ladders but with difficulty. My other hobby is cake making, but my hubby has been told he must cut down a bit, so my fancy cakes now tend to go to my hairdressers! I also love gardening but even that is becoming a little difficult now, but I persevere as it is so worthwhile. Years ago I used to do a lot of knitting for a hobby and did all my family’s cable sweaters. I have just taken it up again as an excuse to sit down for a couple of hours! However, I do have a Mr Fixit for a husband who can literally turn his skills to anything - the list of jobs he has done in this house, some of them major, is endless and now he is retired and not constantly off fishing he says he must have a project. Good.

Hi all An updated picture to my music hobby, showing the laptop, which houses Hautpwerk sampled software, which literally means that I have access to a host of both classical & theatre organs. On the organ thread topic, I have posted the disappointing state of affairs where theatre organs have all but gone, & church organs are following them at a great rate of knots. During the seventies, home pianos were being chopped up, as more homes took delivery of electronic organs, even into homes which lacked a player. It seemed to be the in thing to have. Watch any older episode of "Last of the Summer Wine" where you will see an organ in most of the pubs that the trio go into. The totally inadequate Yamaha spinet organ in my church is almost a case in point, forty years old & left to the church by a family that had no use for it. There were organ supplier shops all over Coventry, Bedworth & Nuneaton. Just one in Coventry now, on the day when I have learnt that another major manufacturer (Roland) is pulling out of organ supplies in the UK. Yamaha have not supplied new organs to the UK for over a decade. My instrument came from a dealer far away in Whitley Bay. So the question that I am asking is, what is going on? I have never been a professional player. Played in bands more as a hobby, except when I earned a few bob in my early days. Yet, right now, I am being asked to play at events like never before, even with the issues of my poor vision. Is that because of such a shortage of players? Technology is such that the quality from these instruments today is unsurpassed. Is that the problem? Are these instruments too complicated both to set up as well as to play?

Listening to Philip playing on this equipment is a wonderful experience - even allowing for all the technical qualities at his fingertips, it is his talent which shines through, along with the obvious pleasure he derives from it

You are kind, Midland Red, It is such a pleasure too. My first interest goes back to watching a church organist play, where what I really found fascinating was watching the notes that he was not touching going down on there own. The piano in our home never did that. The organist was playing a tracker organ, where the notes were coupled via the stops, so playing a pedal with his foot, or another note with a finger could make a whole host of other notes go down on their own, depending on how the coupler stops were set. Now my Yamaha organ does not physically do that, but the sounds are coupled electronically. You can watch the notes & pedals go down on the computer screen, which lots of my visitors find very amusing.