Getting on my Hobby Horse...

Why is it that anybody with a hobby other than heavy drinking, football hooliganism and watching pornography are characterised by the media as being somehow weird? Collectors of anything, be it stamps, old pulp magazines or Nazi memorabilia are all lumped together as being 'obsessive'. Bird watchers and their ilk are all treated as if they are potential voyeurs, whilst anybody who builds anything as a pastime., be it plastic kits or doll's houses are clearly immature and have never grown up. It doesn't get any better if you are into more modern interests, like computer gaming - borderline psychopaths - or programming: geeks. It doesn't matter who you are, as soon as you admit to having a hobby, you become the object of ridicule. Take Rod Stewart, for instance. No sooner had his model railway layout been featured in 'Model Railroader' magazine then the snide comments from TV presenters and journalists commenced. Similarly, I recently saw Pete Waterman having to endure the usual derision and contempt when his railway modelling activities were brought up on a BBC chat show. Interestingly, at no point did anyone question the male presenter's infantile obsession with West Bromwich Albion. Surely going to watch twenty two grown men kicking a bladder around a field every Saturday - whilst shouting abuse at eleven of them - can't be classified as 'normal', or particularly mature?

Here, of course, I have to admit a vested interest: I have a model railway in my spare room. Indeed, I've had a model railway since I was about six - first of all clockwork, later electric. For several years it was all packed away. Indeed, I nearly sold all my equipment a few years ago. However, I decided instead to finally try building my 'dream' layout. Believe me, researching, planning and constructing a model railway is in no way 'childish'. It involves a lot of effort, both physical and mental, and the mastering of a wide range of skills, from soldering, through carpentry to precision painting. What it does provide is a degree of pleasurable escape from the demands of real life. It represents a whole alternative world one can become totally absorbed in for a few hours. Even just watching those little trains running round the track can be terribly relaxing. All of which, of course, is the purpose of any hobby. As you can tell, I'm tired of the media sneering at the whole idea of hobbies. Particularly as they don't actually seem willing to suggest exactly what it is that we should be doing in our spare time instead of playing with our trains? Drinking? Aren't they always telling us how bad that is? Watching football? Hooligans. Going to strip clubs? Sexist exploitation. Nah, I'll stick to the trains...