I’ve banged on for a while now about looking for a new hobby, but where do you start?

I had considered over the last ten months taking up falconry, but aside from the costs involved being too high for me to even consider currently, and due to the fact that after my dealings with certain elements of the falconry community, it somewhat sullied the whole idea for me, there is also the resonsibility factor to consider, and I have to ask myself honestly with all my other responsibilities, will I be able to do the best for a Bird of Prey, and the honest answer is not at the moment.

So that leaves me with a dilemma, having had many hobbies over the years, ranging from martial arts to Airsoft, and with all of those passing me by interest wise as I grow older, what is there left to do that I can actually afford these days?

So i’m going to list various hobbies here ive been involved with in some capacity over the years, more for something to do in my current state of boredom that out of actual intent in participating in them again, and alongside I shall give reasons why I cant take them up.

Falconry - ruled out for the above reasons, maybe in my retirement if I live long enough

Martial Arts - too old now really, and cannot afford time off work if injuries are sustained. I had considered Tai Chi, but there is nowhere close enough to get to easily.

Weight and fitness training - used to do weights, badminton and swimming, and tbh honest at the time really enjoyed it, when I gave it all up became overweight and far less fit very quickly and in truth no longer have the commitment required to get myself back even closely to the peak of fitness, and find this sort of physical exertion rather tedious.

Football - no where near fit enough any more, and if i’m honest if you’re not playing with mates, its far too clicky and competitive.

Golf - great game I do enjoy playing, and I even have a full set of clubs despite being no good at it -  trouble I dont know anyone who plays and its absolutely no fun playing on your own and can be quite costly for green fees, so is more a once in a blue moon hobby than a regular weekly thing.

Fishing - its been many years since I last went fishing, and having looked at my gear recently I would need to buy some kit before I could retake it up with any seriousness, plus as with Golf, its no bloody fun going on your own and I know nobody who goes fishing.

Computers - I used to really enjoy computers, and all things computer related, but I find them now something I can only be bothered with for short periods of time. I admin several forums, but rarely visit them now.. one because there is nothing to do currently as we dont have a site (Airsoft forum) , and the other because its a falconry forum that is now running itself quite smoothly, so I wont need to go back unless there is something I am needed for.

Airsoft - This has taken up quite a few years of my life, but i’ve found that I just dont enjoy it the way I used to, partly because of my involvment with the political aspects of airsoft, and partly because its just not as much fun as it used to be for some reason.

There have been other minor hobbies mixed in there somewhere, but those I think are the main ones i’ve had involvment with.

So here I am, 41 years old with bugger all to do that really interests me, and I think the most frustrating and dare I say depressing part of it all is knowing that there is bugger all that interests me that I can think of that I can actually afford, either financially wise or even time and commitment wise as with all the kids my free time is at a premium. I recently spent time getting the garden sorted out, and the shed etc turned into a play room for the girl, that is pretty much finished now and come the end of this week they’ll be out there playing hopefully, so thats another thing to do thats finished. I plan to take the kids away for a camping holiday next year to cornwall, and have even decided on the site we will go to (Perran Sands, Perranporth) so have been spending a small amount of time trying to figure out how the hell I am going to afford to buy all the bits we’ll require – not so much a hobby but a declaration of how skint I am currently…and am thinking once again of selling some airsoft equipment to try and raise some funds, time will tell on that one though -  maybe if I sell some kit I can fund something new…….if I can ever decide what that something new will be

Well I deactivated my account finally, what a pain in the arse facebook is with its bullshit quizzes, and bloody annoying cause requests.

Who fucking cares if people are using cats and dogs as shark bait, do these people honestly think my pissing around getting countless people to join their cause on an online social  networking site they’ll actually stop it from happening??

yeah people all over the world will immediately stop doing bad things…..because some cock on facebook decided to make a cause and send it everyone!!

Bloody idiots….. so yeah I deactivated my account, and I only did that because I couldnt find a fucking delete button…..

I’ve got a cause…. get rid of all social networking sites cause, facebook, twitter and all the other crap, it really needs to be destroyed before too many more airheads starting thinking they can actually influence the internet and the world with their bullshit!!!

Sparrowhawk on a kill Copyright Thomas Hanahoe

Some of you may have read one of my previous Blog entries entitled “Falconry F**kwits”, the writing of that post got me to thinking about many things i’ve seen and read over the last ten months or so such as “Tie em up Tim the bondage king” but nothing was more unbelievable than what I am about to go into here and the utter shit storm that was caused over someone not believing it actually happened and a huge fan of the falconer in question staunchly defending his honour, like some sort of Middle ages Knight defending a maiden.
Now you might glean from this that I wasnt overly surprised about “Tie em up Tim the bondage king”, well to be honest, if you saw his photo i’m sure you would’nt be suprised either, as he so looks the type…but thats another story.

I have to say though, that I don’t want to keep harping on about falconry and falconers, as I honestly believe the majority of the folk involved are sound, and the sport is bloody fantastic, but as my previous post suggested, it does attract a fair percentage of idiots, with some outlandish claims that are just too good not to share.

A while back a post was made regarding a Sparrowhawk, taking down a bloody great pink footed goose which to be honest even though I am not a falconer, still made me laugh purely in how inconsistently it was presented, as it was also re-presented later but with slightly different information, and also at the fact of how it was dragged up over and over again by the knight protector in an effort to make it believed, and to smite the non believers, causing all sorts of arguments which tbh was utterly amazing.

If it was a true fact then what a fluke and well done that man, if was total fabrication then well done that man for fooling the fools. I have to admit to not caring either way, but also to being in the doubtful camp, but then as I stated above, I’m not a falconer and have no experience of my own to draw on.

And so, just picture this as a wrestling match for a moment:

IN THE RED CORNER WEIGHING IN AT 6.53 lb’s IN THE PINKISH GREY, ITS THE TWITCHERS FAVOURITE…PINK FOOTED GOOOOOOSSEEE.

IN THE BLUE CORNER, WEIGHING IN AT JUST OVER 9oz? IN THE BROWNISH FEATHERS, IT’S THE KILLER FROM THE VILLA, THE SPARROWHAAAAWK.

Now can anyone else see the problem with a match up like that?

Just looking at the weight differential it should tell you, that its a bit of an uneven fight about to be going on, and unless the sparrowhawk is packing a flick knife, or a sawn off shotgun under one wing, its very unlikely to be winning the day there.

This is where the story unravels for me, as to begin with it was stated (in print) that the Spar, of its own accord wanted to go at a flock of geese still on the ground but just taking off, and slammed into one as this happened.
Now that might be semi believable as by all accounts the Spar is vicious little bugger that is pretty much willing to take on anything, but even with a Spar attached to its head which was stated, the size of the goose and the power it holds in its wing beats, surely still would’ve allowed it to get off the ground and into some sort of flight even if at low level, and it would’ve done so out of fear more than anything else, moving it potentially out of range of the falconer, where it would have been able to shake the Spar loose and carry on as normal.

I mean lets be honest here and put it into perspective…if your young baby grabbed on tightly to your head, even with sharp talons would you automatically give up, or run like a bugger to try and shake him loose before his bigger mate smashed your head in?

But by all accounts this happened only 15 yards away (in the first post at least) and he was able to leap a fence and dispatch (kill) the goose before it got away and this apparently counted as a kill, and loads of people were patting this person on the back, and he was swimming in the adoration and man love.

Oddly enough, a mate of mine had a phone call from this guy the day before which added to my doubt, telling him that he was going to be posting a wind up on another forum, by putting his spar on a deer or something, and asked him to back him up with it by saying he had seen it bind to it, or some such load of horse shit…. then out of the Blue we have Spar on goose… maybe the deer were on holiday?

The later version of events had the goose, “dropping from the sky”, which renders the 15 yards a little dubious as if a falconer can cover 15 yards in a flash, how quickly could a goose do it in mid flight? And it makes me wonder at the implications of what he was suggesting anyway, I mean ok if a Spar or any other bird of prey binds to something that’s way bigger than itself, should you automatically kill it just to try for forum kudos, or drag the bop off and let it go on its way as its not a legitimate quarry for a bird that size anyway?

And as a well respected Falconer of considerably more years stated, and which is a very valid point because the bird could stand a good chance of getting killed as a result;

Lets face it, he’s got a very good point

So whats next for this man, an eagle at some sort of light aircraft, lets hope its not a jet engined one, or he might not be quick enough to dispatch it

I found a small artists rendition here of another potential target should he be passing any wildlife sanctuaries, lets hope if a spar of his hits this one that he has a shotgun in the car