I am not talking about a member of the opposite sex here… l am talking about something you cannot resist. It could be…
A hobby?
Certain foods?
Your family?
Animals of some sort?
Clothes?
Shoes?
Countries you have visited?
A brand of cars, motorbikes, trains, ships…
In fact, anything that you really adore…
Mine are classic cars, aeroplanes, trains and motorbikes from days gone by… Oh and poodles!
Yes, when I was sixteen I was obsessed with motorbikes. I’m not really interested in them anymore, but I still think some of the old British bikes are truly beautiful things.
Putting aside family and friends, my big love was/is Audio/Home Cinema equipment.
I started off with one of those record players that had an inbuilt amp and speaker. You could load it up with numerous records and it would auto play.
I moved from that to a Bush separates system.
As I earned money I got the update bug and started to buy better and more expensive equipment.
Then the music scene moved away from records to digital media. I stopped upgrading as family came along and the money went on providing for them.
My listening habits changed over the years to the situation I have know. That is all my music is streamed via my iPad and I listen through a decent part of headphones.
When I got disposable income again I’d moved on to home cinema. Started with a Sony cinema in a box system and upgraded over the years to a separates system. Overtime I realised that the room was overcrowded with speakers. So now I have a Sonos Arc sound bar and rear speakers. Less clutter (the speakers are wireless) and great sound.
I think I have reached a position I’m happy with. But I still dream of having the money to have a dedicated cinema room complete with projector.
Sorry went on a bit there.
Back in 1975 whilst in my last year at school I attended a day release course at Tec Collage. It was to prepare us for work & & there were a few options. I know one was car mechanics & I took the building course. During the electrical section, one of the lecturers was talking about how electronics could be a hobby, as well as a trade & started to talk about radio & asked if anyone was interested.
I had already started listening. Those wonderful place names on old radio sets, had started me listening for different stations. He took us into a back room & showed us what I would now call a shack. It was a room full of old radio equipment. He picked up a microphone, put out a call & when someone answered said who he was & asked if they would talk to us.
I spoke to some who was on a navel vessel mid Atlantic.
That was my introduction to amateur radio. I am now a licenced radio amateur myself & love returning what he gave to me. I have operated stations for the Scouts, the boys brigade, the guides, a couple of museums, in a lighthouse, a windmill,a nuclear bunker & with a wire antenna hanging off a bloodhound missile.
I have spoken to the guys on the ISS, to a USAF member who was on a rest period, whilst on active service in a war zone. I have spoken to someone who was Maritime mobile off the coast of Australia & to the station on HMS Belfast in the Thames. To people driving across the Sahara.
I love operating using a kite lifted antenna & have a 6 foot wingspan Cody Kite.
American Samuel Franklin Cody came to the UK as a Colonel, as part of a Wild West Show & become one of the UK’s first aviators. He pioneered man lifting kites & on the 16th October 1908, he achieved the first powered flight in Britain.
Samuel Cody a direct descendent of TV’s John Simpson.