And now, for something coompllleeeetly different.

This is a tricky question because my instinct is to say EVERYTHING. I live by the theory that you should try everything once - hopefully going for a flying lesson from Staverton this week.

I play games as in card & board games a lot. Computer games & RPGs much less. If that helps with your bet :)

I learn to play the piano, a little bit, every year at around this time so that I can play carols for Christmas. Never particularly bothered to take it further than that. I also do quite a lot of gardening (we have quite a big space to look after, though luckily most of it is woodland so that's low maintainance), and I enjoy cooking though I don't have enough time to do it.

I spend most of my money on travelling, or if I'm not on holiday then I'll be looking for somewhere new to go locally, or something new to try. One reason that writing would be a dream career is because I can try out all the many crazy different things that I like to try anyway, and call it 'research'. (Anyone know if a trip to Chicago to research my historical novel set there is tax-deductible?)

I've been flying at staverton - they're really friendly and they have a nice fishtank :) and the flying is of course awesome! I had a few lessons (more than I did driving a car lol) and hope to get a PPL once I sell my novel for millions!

I used to play piano and clarinet but have let both slide since moving out and not being hassled to practice by my mum ^^;

Got into the gaming / RP crowd in 2005, other than that I just mess around on the internet... opened myself an IMVU account yesterday just for procrastination purposes - block has struck!

Sorry, I also MMORPG, occasionally WoW but mainly LOTRO now (well, not now, obviously, because it's forbidden this month). I also dip into console games, particularly on the DS.

Apart from that, reading, reading and more reading, and movies. I have been known to knit, crochet and embroider, but this seems to go in bursts and is mostly a winter thing. Previous more active hobbies seem to have fallen by the wayside, hence my spreading behind.

My partner and I do go out a fair bit to visit historic places, particularly Welsh castles as we both like them, there are billions of them within easy reach, and they have been great research for the medieval aspects of my novel!

Whatcha sorry for? I used to play and blog about Eve-Online (awesome space race style game - I THINK I still have a couple of free passes if anyone is interested) and will be back on WOW as soon as my new laptop is with me.

We've got two kids as a hobby (and if you knew them both, you'd understand that comment too ;)), and I run a very tiny publishing house for myself and a couple of freinds. I also roleplay, write roleplaying games, take photos, go for long walks in the country (when the kids let me ;)) and I'm about to start vollunteering with my son's Scout troop, just because he loves it so much, and anything that brings that much joy to my son is something I'm going to support.
Plus I write very specific, adult material, which isn't so much writing as much as amazingly good fun ;) And blog for about a dozen places, run ezines and all the other fun stuff I get busted for year round :D Its cut back a bit cause of Uni, but I'm still keeping my hand in.

I should also point out that I'm bipolar, which means because of how quirky I am, I don't sleep much. I think I'm currently on six hours a night, but only cause my mom was down this weekend and ran me ragged ;)

Kai

t can be if you have a good accountant. But IIRC it will only apply if you are actually making money from writing to set it off against - you can't claim something as a "business expense" unless you actually have some income to prove you are doing it for business purposes.

Coolness. I probably won't do it until I have enough writing income to cover the month or so off work, so that seems okay. (Besides I have a five-book fantasy series to finish off first ;) )

Congrats on the 50k!!! (To both Kai and Rachelemma, it looks like...)

(I'll be interested in one of those Eve passes if they're still going in December!)