Are there any activities or hobbies you’ve outgrown or lost interest in over time?

– Jetpack prompt

As I reinvigorate my blog I’m experimenting with different approaches to posts. In my early stages I used regular prompts as an approach, so here I go.

There are many activities and hobbies I’ve grown out of. No surprise there, I’m on the wrong side of 65.

The one that quickly came to mind was stamp collecting. As a primary school child and early teenager, I was an avid collector. I wasn’t the beneficiary of a parent or grand parent’s collection, so I started from scratch. I say that because I used to look on at envy at those who had old albums full of interesting stamps. Mine however was just ‘bog standard’. Aussie stamps collected from envelopes, swapped and bought over time. For a while my sister and I went to a local stamp club where we’d buy a few stamps, as my own swaps weren’t of much interest. I also built up a collection of First Day Covers. However, as I grew older I simply lost interest, and today I’m not sure I even know where my stamp collection is.

As for activities, I guess there have been many. I was an avid golfer for more than 3 decades. I had an eye injury as a teenager, meaning I couldn’t play contact sport, so I turned to golf. I was a keen golfer and a member of one of Adelaide and Australia’s best clubs, Kooyonga. I wasn’t a bad golfer, getting my handicap into the low teens at one stage. I played a lot with friends and enjoyed regular golf games with my father. Perhaps, no in fact, the highlight was winning the C Grade Championship, where my dad caddied for me. I enjoyed the win but having my Dad as caddy made it all the more special. Golf also provided me the opportunity to meet the great Sir Donald Bradman, who was a club member. However, as none of my children were golfers I just stop playing.

I took up bike riding and for a time was obsessed with it. I rode a few hundred kilometres a week, riding the hills and around the city. I loved my rides with friends and on my own. I loved riding around our beach house at Second Valley. Amazingly, we bought our beach house care of a ride. One of the public rides during the Tour Down Under was past the township. It was a ‘stinking, hot day. It was so hot that the bitumen was melting. I had been cramping for about 50kms. I tried to ride up the hill out of Second Valley but couldn’t. I rolled back down the hill and sat in the shade of a tree opposite Leonard’s Mill, which was a hotel in those days. As I was sitting recovering a group of locals walked out of the pub and I had a chat. They said how lovely the little seaside township was , and the rest is history.

A highlight of my riding was riding in Sicily. These days I still ride but not on the road, as we live in the city. I just don’t feel safe riding, a few near misses confirmed that. I have a bike on a trainer and use the Zwift training app.

I guess my like most people as time marches on our interests change.