Dating, women and the 'hobby'...

[johnofwessex]

Funnily enough my ex wife declined a trip to Wolsztyn thinking she would end up on the shovel.

 

Subsequent ladies in my life had no such reservations - they weren't interested in doing it but if asked would be willing.

[Steamport Southport]

 

 

[The Johnster]

8 hours ago, rob D2 said:

At the end of the day I can replace my wife , I don’t want a new hobby ...

 

Trouble is, she can replace you as well, and if she ever reads this...

[rob D2]

4 hours ago, The Johnster said:

Trouble is, she can replace you as well, and if she ever reads this...

That’s true.....I may have to edit that considering her martial arts instructor background .

 

living on the edge as usual !

[Grizz]

Once any partner, wife, girlfriend etc knows about ‘your little hobby’, I wonder if the most often asked questions are ‘So why do you need so many of those??”......and the probably far more likely “Do you really need any more of those????”.......

Accompanied by “But haven’t you already got one / some of those??”.......uttered with the possible prefix and using a particular voice tone.....”Really.....”....

 

To which various responses might be.......

 

1. “At least you always know where I am.....roughly”.

2. “It could be far far worse...I could be drinking all this money away”.

3. “It is an investment!”

4. “It’s Art man!!!!!!!” - .......followed by 

5. “Therefore that makes me an artist and we are a much misunderstood and maligned minority! “(Although I might not use this unless I was feeling particularly courageous or I was hammered or both!)

6. “One day this could / will all be worth a fortune!”
7. “Er that....oh that! Oh you’ve seen that before....I’ve had that for ages!”

8. “What delivery van???.....”

9. “You and the kids are going to stay at your sister’s / mother’s house.....how long for?” .....(probably worth trying your upmost to hide your glee at how much unfettered and uninterrupted modelling time you are going to have whilst they are away)....

10. “What...nnnoooo....I have never even heard of Hattons, or Rails of Sheffield or Kernow Models etc.....I really have no idea what you are talking about...” 

11.”Where I am going with what parcel / package / forklift truck full of boxes???” (delete as appropriate)

12. “Oh that...no that’s not mine...thats Dave’s / Kev’s / Bill’s / Brian’s / Jim’s ..(delete as appropriate and try not to really drop your mate in it the next time he meets your other half......because she WILL remember to ask, where as you will have forgotten about it 5 seconds after you said it! Count on it!

 

Follow me for other useful conversation scenarios that might save your relationship, marriage, models etc.

(Note the Author of the above takes absolutely no responsibility for any potential life changing responses to using any of the above phrases or statements in real life situations).

[Satan's Goldfish]

4 minutes ago, Grizz said:

Once any partner, wife, girlfriend etc knows about ‘your little hobby’, I wonder if the most often asked questions are ‘So why do you need so many of those??”......and the probably far more likely “Do you really need any more of those????”.......

Accompanied by “But haven’t you already got one / some of those??”.......uttered with the possible prefix and using a particular voice tone.....”Really.....”....

 

 

It doesn't help when you're sorting through some boxes and she's unknowingly in earshot and you mutter 'huh, when did i end up with 2 of those?!' Must have been the result of sneaking things in when she wasn't looking...

[Grizz]

19 minutes ago, Satan's Goldfish said:

 

It doesn't help when you're sorting through some boxes and she's unknowingly in earshot and you mutter 'huh, when did i end up with 2 of those?!' Must have been the result of sneaking things in when she wasn't looking...

Mmmmm sneaking things in when she wasn’t looking..........sneaking things in when she wasn’t looking........Nope sorry Satan’s Goldfish you’ve lost me on that one mate! 

[cypherman]

Hi all,

I must be one of the few lucky ones. My 3rd date with my wife was to a local model railway exhibition. She takes an interest in my modelling with passing that's nice view. She can appreciate a good model railway but quickly becomes bored and likes to move on to the next one. BUT and this  is a big BUT she has learnt all the engine wheel arrangements and is proficient with naming them. Plus she loves real steam railways.

I am a lucky man.....

[billbedford]

4 hours ago, Grizz said:

Once any partner, wife, girlfriend etc knows about ‘your little hobby’, I wonder if the most often asked questions are ‘So why do you need so many of those??”......and the probably far more likely “Do you really need any more of those????”.......

Accompanied by “But haven’t you already got one / some of those??”.......uttered with the possible prefix and using a particular voice tone.....”Really.....”....

 

 

 

Maybe it's time to admit yourself that your hobby is really about hoard collecting stuff. 

[Grizz]

In the interests of fairness I would like to clarify my personal experience regarding Mrs Grizz’s attitude to the hobby over the years. She has been fantastic, all things considered. She doesn’t understand all the ins and outs of it all. It is the mess that goes with building anything really she struggles with but she is a truly wonderful person for tolerating me in the first place so I consider myself truly blessed. 
 

To top it off she has also had to come to terms with our son having the same hobby. Everything is trains from Lego to working on the real thing and his room contains all sizes from G scale to N and masses of Lego. 
 

A truly amazing woman and a wonderful wonderful person, the kindest and most considerate and the smartest person I have ever met. 

 

She has always been a ‘horsey girl’ and I have always taken a keen interest in talking to her and occasionally helping with her ‘field ornaments’....so it goes both ways. 

[Wheatley]

4 hours ago, Grizz said:

To which various responses might be.......

 

13. It's my money, I'll spend it on what I like. At least I've still got most of the stuff I bought, you feel free to carry on spending yours feeding bedding plants to slugs. 

[The Johnster]

My squeeze is fully aware of how much I spend on trains, and does not mind; her view is that it's my money and that how I spend it is none of her biz, that I am entitled to a hobby she approves of because it is  creative and gets me out from under her feet when she's busy or doing her stuff, which mostly seems to involve Facebook.  I think that relationships are highly dependent on honesty in all things, and as Grizz says, it's futile to try to sneak things past them anyway.  Also, it is very useful to have someone willing to accept deliveries when you are up the shops/pub/whatever.  I am lucky but I made my own luck to an extent.

 

It may be pertinent that half of the bedroom was dedicated to trains before she moved in, before I met her in fact, and that she was presented with a fait accompli, but she maintains that this is irrelevant and she would have had no objection to the defacement of her bedroom even had I started after she appeared on the scene.  I'm not sure this is true, that she would have been happy with the messy construction phase, but I am sure that she believes herself. 

 

That said, I would not dare to suggest expansion encroaching on the territory on her side of the bed!  Cwmdimbath is the size it is and that's that, don't push your luck, Johnster...

 

She takes a passing interest and likes to drive occasionally, and has an instinctive feel for realistic control, but has no interest in the modelling side of things.  She would be bored at a show, though I offer to take her out of politeness she always refuses in a sort of 'no, that's your thing' way.

 

This  one's a keeper!

[PhilJ W]

7 minutes ago, Wheatley said:

13. It's my money, I'll spend it on what I like. At least I've still got most of the stuff I bought, you feel free to carry on spending yours feeding bedding plants to slugs. 

You'll be sharing the same bed as the slugs for the foreseeable future then. 

[Grizz]

11 minutes ago, billbedford said:

 

Maybe it's time to admit yourself that your hobby is really about hoard collecting stuff. 

“My name is Grizz....and I have a problem” ...........

 

 

 

 

 

 

[PhilJ W]

Your stack of boxes is a lot tidier than mine.

[Grizz]

1 hour ago, Wheatley said:

13. It's my money, I'll spend it on what I like. At least I've still got most of the stuff I bought, you feel free to carry on spending yours feeding bedding plants to slugs. 

13. It’s my money.......it’s my money........

 

Mmmm I am struggling with this concept. You actually have your own money.....sir you are truly blessed. 


 

14. Always remember in any divorce she will get at least 50%. So play nicely! You might not think she has paid any attention to your chuntering on about this and that over the years but you can bet your arse that she’ll know what is the most valuable and what are your most precious, precious things!!!!
 

15. Play Nicely. You could come home one day to find she has cut up your hobby instead of your clothes.... because be sure that your sins will always find you out!!!!!!!

Edited December 27, 2020 by Grizz
Spollin

[PhilJ W]

11 minutes ago, Grizz said:

13. It’s my money.......it’s my money........

 

Mmmm I am struggling with this concept. You actually have your own money.....sir you are truly blessed. 


 

14. Always remember in any divorce she will get at least 50%. So play nicely! You might not think she has paid any attention to your countering on about this and that over the years but you can bet your arse that she’ll know what is the most valuable and what are your most precious, precious things!!!!
 

 

16. She doesn't know what they are worth and she sells them for what you told her you paid for them.

[SM42]

4 hours ago, Grizz said:

Mmmmm sneaking things in when she wasn’t looking..........sneaking things in when she wasn’t looking........Nope sorry Satan’s Goldfish you’ve lost me on that one mate! 

 

Whilst being honest about stuff arriving being modelling supplies, not filing a detailed customs manifest can often make the passage through the border a lot easier.

 

Andy

[Chuffinell]

Lucky here as my lady was always into the hobby. Bit of a bonus too as I was able to re-use the mechanism out of her old "Rampant Rabbit" to power my working model of a beam engine. Had to gear it down quite a bit obviously...….but on the other hand it gets through far fewer batteries than when it was in its previous usage

[Wheatley]

1 hour ago, Grizz said:

13. It’s my money.......it’s my money........

 

Mmmm I am struggling with this concept. You actually have your own money.....sir you are truly blessed. 
 

We each draw the same amount of hobby money out of the joint disposable income each month. If I was spending mine on tarts and beer I can see how that might be a problem but it's not really about money any more by that point is it ?

[The Johnster]

We don’t have a joint account, both having been ripped off by previous partners.  She says they’re more trouble than they’re worth and she’s right.  As a matter of trust, we can each access each others’ balances at home on computer, but never do.  
 

It’s a system that works for us, and we sub each other if one is a bit short at the end of the month.  I pay bills and she pays groceries, meaning I’m losing out this time of year but she loses out in summer; swings and roundabouts, and close enough for jazz; neither of us can be *rsed to count pennies. 

[Enterprisingwestern]

35 minutes ago, Chuffinell said:

Lucky here as my lady was always into the hobby. Bit of a bonus too as I was able to re-use the mechanism out of her old "Rampant Rabbit" to power my working model of a beam engine. Had to gear it down quite a bit obviously...….but on the other hand it gets through far fewer batteries than when it was in its previous usage

 

I bet that chimney smells a bit strange then!!

 

Mike.

[PhilJ W]

38 minutes ago, Chuffinell said:

Lucky here as my lady was always into the hobby. Bit of a bonus too as I was able to re-use the mechanism out of her old "Rampant Rabbit" to power my working model of a beam engine. Had to gear it down quite a bit obviously...….but on the other hand it gets through far fewer batteries than when it was in its previous usage

I honestly didn't know what a 'Rampant Rabbit' was so I Googled it. 

[Grizz]

Dating, Women and ‘the Hobby’..

 

Let’s face it in the past ‘the hobby’ has suffered from what is now referred to as ‘Image Issues’. And not without justification.
This has not helped in the dating stakes for some. Although as some have previously said it is slightly more acceptable today.

After a few years together I clearly remember one of the very few exhibitions that Mrs Grizz kindly consented to attend with me, many years ago before we had kids. It was a very hot day in a small market town in East Sussex and the annual model railway exhibition was rammed.

 

On the particular day in question several less fortunate members of our model railway community had clearly be allowed out without supervision.....or their annual bath......based on the eye watering, nose bleeding, face evidence of it. I mean it was REAL BAD! 
To paint the picture, the prime specimen of this unfortunate breed was significantly overweight. Carrying a little extra weight, not a crime in itself as I can myself attest to, however I think it was a combination of firstly the aroma and secondly the clothes. Although to be fair one may well have been the primary cause of the other.

Description.

Age 35-40 but looked like a younger man in his grandads clothes. Well worn shoes that were at least 20 years old, with one sole coming away at the front. Beigey brown, but were definitely once grey, trousers with various unmentionable stains in unmentionable places. A greyish yellow shirt that was once definitely white, with the same staining motif! A greeny browny greyish patterned knitted tank top, with added staining......obviously mostly food based. 
Hair, greased by lack of water and soap. 
The smell was unreal! To be fair this poor guy was by far the worst example I have ever seen. He was carrying a tartan shopping bag and insisted on push his way to the front when at any of the layouts or trade stands. At one point we watched him take out of his bag a flipping great wedge of cash to pay for several locos. He then just kept showing up going around and around the rooms, but by this time pretty near everyone had noticed but the crowded event made it impossible to move away quickly. He was not the only guy like this though, but the others weren’t so hardcore. 
 

After passing an initial, very discreet, comment to me regarding this episode nothing else was said, but Mrs Grizz and I later talked at some length about the show and the characterful nature of some of the attendees. She asked why you don’t see these people on a daily basis in the street. To be clear she wasn’t being derogatory or unkind in her comments, possibly a bit shocked. Couldn’t really answer her question. . What is it about ‘the hobby’ that attracts people of a certain appearance and, for want of a better word, Smell?????? They seem to be drawn to model railways, railways, steam and diesel galas in general and possibly buses? 
 

Anyone else noticed this? Is it something that is peculiar to the UK? I have travelled extensively on railways in Northern Europe and hung around railway stations taking photos etc and been to numerous model railway events and museums etc and yet I have never seen the equivalent obsessive, often disheveled type of character? 
 

 

[Grizz]

14 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

I honestly didn't know what a 'Rampant Rabbit' was so I Googled it. 

 Well it’s been an eye opener for me as well this afternoon. Up until I Google searched it earlier I thought a ‘Rampant Rabbit’ was one of these under full power!!!!!!!!