4 Unusual hobbies Unusual hobbies: Are they real? a) In pairs, pick one of the green words below for your partner. Your partner has to try to explain it in his/her own words. Then take turns. If you don’t know anything about this unusual hobby, make up a plausible explanation. aircraft spotting beachcombing button collecting scrapbooking cloud watching embroidery garage saleing matchstick modelling papermaking calligraphy yo-yo b) Research these spare time activities on the internet and find out what they are about. c) In pairs, discuss which of these activities you would/would not like to take up. Reading: Top six of the weirdest hobbies a) Read the text about weird hobbies. Answer the questions (1–6) using a maximum of four words. Write your answers in the spaces provided. The first one (0) has been done for you. Do you have too much free time but no idea how to spend it? Maybe it’s time to take up one of the world’s weirdest hobbies. Admittedly, other people might shake their heads when they see you engaging in one of the following unusual activities. But they are simply sheer fun – and that’s all that counts when it comes to hobbies, doesn’t it? 1. Toy voyaging: You basically send your toys off on a world-wide adventure. The website, ToyVoyagers, lets you choose wherever your toy should travel to, and off they go. You can use the travel log to write to your toy, as well as send and receive pictures from them. Once you want them back, you just contact your toy’s hosts and ask them to return them to their rightful owner. 2. Extreme ironing: This hobby was first carried out in 1997, in Leicester, UK, by a man who thought ironing was the most boring thing in the world. So, he decided to take his ironing outside. From there, the hobby developed and people started to iron in even more extreme places, such as mountains, helicopters, caves and even mid-air during a skydive. This bizarre hobby somehow managed to gain more and more fans and eventually lead to a book, a DVD and even a Channel 4 documentary about its founder. 3. Tattooing vehicles: A pensioner from Taiwan has an entirely original hobby, he enjoys tattooing quotes from Buddhist texts onto all of his automobiles. His family told him not to buy any new vehicles as they know exactly what will happen to them. However, his grandson promised that once he is older and has made some money for himself, he will buy his grandad a big bus so that he can carry on with his hobby. 4. News-bombing: A gentleman from England has a particularly unusual hobby. He tries to find out the locations of live news reports and then makes sure that he will be there, in the background, whilst the journalist films. He has made it onto many prime time news reports. Many people think that he is just a man who is desperate to be on television. He, however, says that he wants to criticise the fact that TV stations only allow good-looking people on screen. 5. Collecting in-flight sick bags: One of the original founders of this hobby is a gentleman from Singapore who has managed to collect 388 different bags from 186 airlines in 81 countries. And his collection is still growing. Many people may think this is a slightly odd hobby. Yet, there are even websites for fellow “baggists”. There, they can buy and trade any sick bags they may not have found yet, or discuss their bags with fellow enthusiasts. 1 t 2 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 50 Free-time activities Nur zu Prüfzwecken – Eigentum des Verlags öbv
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