Does anyone have a hobby?

I’ve just had one of those mind blank moments. I was doing a recorded interview for James Watt’s late night TalkSport comedy programme this Saturday am. He’s set up the Bum Reading Expert website as a homage to this one, and in the home he can “read bums on TV”. As my dad’s a regular Talk Sport listener, he heard this and them talking about me, and after a wee exchange of emails I thought it’d be fun to do the interview, but I digress…

What do you do other than save people money?

That was the question he asked me, and I must be honest: I blanked. Yes of course I work ridiculous hours (though less than I used to – I do a typical 70-hour week now), yet I simply couldn’t think of anything to say other than “spend time with my fiancé and scrabble.”

Afterwards I thought how bland this made me sound. Of course I like going to the cinema (The Dark Knight; amazing film), eating out, seeing friends, travelling and I’m learning to play golf (again), yet this makes me sound like a losing contestant in Miss World.

So to make myself feel better I pounced on the team here at MSE Towers to see if they had any hobbies (ignoring MSE Richard who’s an extreme sports fanatic and regularly does strange things with a paraglider, and Kate who’s a drummer in a metal band). The answers were sports, reading, cinema & opera; but do these constitute hobbies now as they did in the old days?

Comment and discuss.

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