Unusual hobbies

1. Unusual hobbies • Hobbies differ like tastes. If you have chosen a hobby according to your character and taste you are lucky because your life becomes more interesting.

2. Pooktre tree shaping. • Pooktre tree shaping is a unique eco-art form created, developed and perfected by Peter Cook and Becky Northey in South East Queensland, Australia. Pooktre is a dream made into a reality through inspiration, love of nature, tree finesse (see the photos), persistence and understanding trees and how they grow.

5. Collections of elongated coins • Elongated coins (so-called because of their shape after they are rolled) are part of what's known as "exonumia" - that is, they fall outside the usual numismatic interests. But rest assured, if you have a few, a few hundred, or a few thousand of them, you are not alone! Founded in 1966 as a non-profit organization, The Elongated Collectors (TEC) now has over 650 members in several countries. Our purpose is to 1. encourage the study, acquisition, and exhibition of elongates and related items, 2. research and publish articles in TEC News and elsewhere, 3. assist new collectors, especially youth, and 4. promote the realistic and consistent valuation of elongates. Basically, we care for and foster interest in these marvelous souvenirs from every source and every era!

7. Beetle Battlefield • For generations people in the North of the country have taken part in a rather unusual pastime which involves catching and training small black bugs which are natural brawlers and never shy away from a fight. Saiarun Pinaduang As the rain stops falling and the cool season approaches, people of all ages in the northern provinces enjoy one of their favourite pastimes - traditional beetle fighting. A showdown between two battling rivals always captures the attention of beetle enthusiasts.

9. Hoop • Hoop began designing art cars in 1985, and often uses small foreign cars such as the Fiat 850, the Italian Isetta, the Volkswagen Beetle (the old kind) and small 3 wheel cart vehicles. • Hoop often covers his vehicles with what is called fun fur. Since it comes in many bright colors, it is well suited to his type of art. Hoop has created time machines, space traveling vehicles, vehicles devoted to luck, and even a vehicle that is a self portrait. • Hoop created the King of Art (and the requisite costume and crown) after appearing on some tv shows such as Richard Bey. It gave him a persona which made him stand out from other artists.

12. Collection of teabags. • I'm Geert Vinck, 29 years old and I live in Belgium. Since 5 years I collect teabags and now my collection exceeds 12000 teabags. Perhaps you think it's strange to collect teabags, but if you take a look around, then you'll see there are a lot of people collecting teabags. In Belgium and The Netherlands there are more then 200 people who share this hobby. I also exchange teabags with people from France, Germany, The Czech Republic, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Poland, Greece, Denmark, Sweden, Iceland, The United States of America, Canada, Brazil, Argentina, Israel, etc. If you are also collecting teabags, and we haven't exchanged yet, please let me know.

14. Collection of cigarband. • For many cigar smokers, the small paper band encircling their stogy is just a piece of trash, to be discarded along with the shrinkwrap around the box. But for others that cigar band is a bit of history - a collectible that adds immeasurably to the romance and mystique of smoking. What is the cigar band, and how did it become so important? As is so often true when it comes to cigars, the story begins in Cuba - early-19th-century Cuba, to be exact, when that island nation had already come to be recognize as the cigar capital of the world. At that time cigar packaging was minimal - often no more than a wooden barrel or box, with the manufacturer's name inscribed. The cigars themselves were generally left blank. This situation, not surprisingly, created a cheat's paradise, in which cheap European cigars were bundled in boxes with "Cuban" markings on them and sold, domestically, to unsuspecting customers who thought they were getting fine imported Cubans.

16. Noodling. • For those of you not familiar, noodling is basically fishing with your hands. A noodler feels around the snake infested water with his hands and feet for a large hole. Then usually goes underwater to ram their fist down a catfish’s throat. The catfish (the largest of which can be 50-70 lbs.), will latch on to the fisherman’s hand, trying to protect it’s comfy home. The noodler then has the task of dragging their catch (still latched onto their arm) out of the water and either onto shore, or into a boat. On the plus side, if they manage do all of this before they run out of air, and then retrieve their arm from the grip of the catfish’s many teeth… well, they’ve got dinner for a week.

18. Egg art. • Egg art is one of the earliest forms of art. There is something fascinating about the shape of the egg, and the idea of making this into art. Many early civilizations regarded the egg as a fertility symbol and decorated it as part of their fertility rites. But modern man still values egg art, possibly because it has become ingrained in our nature, or because we are amazed that art can be made from something as fragile as an empty eggshell. Whatever the reason, there are many artists throughout the world that paint, decorate, and even carve shapes into eggshells.

20. Green art. • Green art and environmental design are often thought of as pragmatic strategies for promoting sustainability such as guerilla gardening. However, these terms can also refer to a variety of creative art from colorful plantings to amazing living walls. Here are seven examples of green creativity that involve alternative uses of natural materials.

22. Hobbies are divided into four large classes: doing things, making things, collecting things, and learning things. The most popular of all hobby groups is doing things. It includes a wide variety of activities, everything from gardening to travelling and from chess to volleyball. Sport has always been popular in our country. There are different sporting societies and clubs in Russia. Many of them take part in different international tournaments and are known all over the world. Our sportsmen take part in the Olympic Games and always win a lot of gold, silver and bronze medals. Millions of people watch figure skating competitions, hockey and football matches, car races, tennis tournaments and other sports events. Certainly watching sports events and going in for sports are two different things. Now everybody knows that sport can be a profession and a business. But sport can be fun as well. Besides, it helps to stay in good shape, to keep fit and to be healthy. Doing sports is becoming more and more popular. Some people do it occasionally - swimming in summer, skiing or skating in winter - but many people go in for sports on a more regular basis. They try to find time to go to a swimming pool or a gym at least once a week for aerobics or yoga classes, body building or just work-out on a treadmill. Gardening is one of the oldest of man's hobbies. It's a well-known fact that the English are very fond of gardening and growing flowers, especially roses. Millions of people all over the world spend their holidays travelling, they travel to enjoy picturesque places, or just for a change of scene. It's always interesting to discover new things, different ways of life, to meet different people, to try different food, to listen to different musical rhythms.