SecretLeeds - History, culture and architecture in Leeds

I was wondering what other members did has an hobby.Mine are fishing and photography it was Sparkys post about breeding moths and butterflies that got me thinking what other members did for an hobby.

For the last 18 months its been ancestry, along with visiting churches and graveyards. Had so many surprises along the way, and found a few hero's.One of my relatives was a First Fleeter (one of the first convicts to arrive in Australia), but that's enough about that.Found even more relatives in the USA than I knew about, and my wife is a far distant relative of Gerald Ford, Lucille Ball and the Dole pineapple heirs.Once you start its hard to give up, just waiting for the next surprise around the corner.

I been doing the ancestry bit got back to 1600s all round Church Fentonthe bit I cannot find out about is my Grandfathers first world war antics he won the militry medal or my fathers in the second scrap and his trip to ItalyOther than that play golf badly

Mine are photography, archaeology and catching up on SL.PC

I enjoy geocaching (like a GPS led treasure hunt) and have been to a few places of interest that have been featured on Secret Leeds.

Reading, listening to music, performing music, astronomy, railway history, industrial archaeology.

Croggy1 wrote: I enjoy geocaching (like a GPS led treasure hunt) and have been to a few places of interest that have been featured on Secret Leeds. Hi Croggy1. You may therefore have liked to join in (assumimg you have not!) the treasure hunt currently going on at Folkstone beach where 30 gold bars worth a total of £10,000 have been hidden and people are trying to find them.

I collect and tinker with Vintage Japanese watches. Large collection of Seiko ,Citizens and Orient brands. Strong focus on early divers and 70s digital watches . Also have the odd rouge Swiss ones too.This from July 1969.

Passenger transport history and developmen and rolling stock. Music, theatre, car & motorcycle driving, British and European travelling (incurable air terror prevents any further areas unfortunately).Thirteen years retired now - how can anybody possibly be "bored" ??     

I've had a bewildering array of hobbies in the past but currently I enjoy collectiong and playing vintage battery powered handheld electronic games from the late 1970s-early 80s. The games titles includes typically 'Astro Wars', 'Munchman', 'Firefox', 'Galaxians', 'Space Invaders'etc largely made by companies in Japan but then rebranded as Grandstand, Tomy etc. The models I prefer feature colourful VFD (Vacuum Flourescent Displays) instead of the monochrome LCD ones. I have books on collecting of these games which help me look out for particular models. I used to be able to buy these around car boot sales for pennies sometimes, however since I started collecting them in the mid 1990s largely due to eBay the prices have rocketted and the games are harder to find as other people are on the lookout for them. I have over 100 different games now, mostly playable and some still with their boxes and manuals. All donations welcome!During the 1980s-mid 90s I collected and restored Raleigh Chopper bicycles. Similarly back then you could buy an old Chopper bike for as little as £5. I once got a totally MINT condition one for £25 and another for swapping a set of handlebars. At my peak of collecting Choppers I had 11 complete bikes in total including 3 of the rarer MKI's, all the others were the MKII version which I preferred. I sold my last Raleigh Chopper last year, a black and silver MKII to a chap in Edinburgh for £550 - not bad considering I bought it from a guy in Morley's Peel Market for only £18.I also still collect vintage calculators by the likes of Sinclair and Commodore, companies that went on to develop home computers. I also used to collect all home computers and games consoles although I''ve sold the greater part of my collection over the years. I still have a BBC Master computer with CUB monitor (Made in Bradford!) and a 5/4" Floppy Disc Drive. I also collect and grow cacti and succulent plants which I've grown for a couple of decades now, many of which I collect by asking people for cuttings if its a particular species I dont have. Many are types of Crassula (Money Tree's) or Sedums, I grow them both indoors on my window sills or outdoors in pots as some types are surprisingly hardy to frost (others really arent as I found when they turned to a blackened mush!). Quite recently I've had a couple of my cacti put out enormous and delicate white flowers for the first time in over 10 years. Also earlier this years one of my 'Money Trees' put out some small white flowers which I'd never seen before. I'll try add a photo when I download them from my camera.