Leave- what does everyone get up to?

[laura]

Hi,

I was just wondering what people do with their time off at home:

Spend it with family, go travelling, watch nothing but full box sets, restore old furniture, work another job, have a serious hobby/ sport, drink too much and fall down a lot? Do people feel they throw it away or use it to full effect?

Just wondering what other people get up to purely for curiosity's sake! Periods of leave are definitely one advantage of this career... So go on, what do folk like to do?

[YoungMariner]

I have a private pilots license, so consume my spare time and money on that when my wife lets me, otherwise travelling and visiting new places.

[IFHP]

On a 4 week off/on at the moment. Play golf, go on holidays, gym, cycling - got a road bike so trying to clock up the miles in prep for when I get invited on to the Tour De France for Team Sky.

[IFHP]

So we know that YM pilots A380's in his off time How about you Laura what do you do?

[bobofinga]

Im on 4on/4off at the moment also and I tend to go a lot of holidays , went skiing 6 weeks this Winter due to my friend living in the Alps.

Been away for 2 weeks in Lanzarote Surfing also this March.

Apart from that , play quite a lot of sports ... outdoors wise if its nice weather for it. Keep fit.

But then mostly drinking and going clubbing to be honest... ha

[MacNeil]

What do you fly with your PPL?

[chris]

Im looking forward to skiing in my winter leave and windsurfing in the summer. All inclusive package holidays the rest of the year. Im not a fan of independent travel, culture, history holidays. Prefer to watch tv shows rather than trek about myself.

[laura]

Everyone seems to do some pretty cool stuff, but I think you?ve got to! I couldn?t imagine just moping round the house in your time off, you?d go nuts... pilot?s license is pretty cool though!

I go on lots of small holidays mostly in Europe, with a bigger one thrown in once a year, spend a lot of time travelling between UK and Norway on account of the other half, love to snowboard (home or away), swim in the sea/ days at the beach with fish n chips and ice cream (the swimming I miss out in winter), watch a ton of films, try to catch up with everyone at home which does involve a lot of running around and occasionally the ?odd? drink. When I am home I like to bake cakes... and then swear loudly as half of it has managed to go up the wall.... leave goes very quickly!

[YoungMariner]

What do you fly with your PPL?

Generally depends what I can get my hands on, since we aren't in the position to buy yet so tend to rent either in the UK, Europe or the USA, although the plan is to by an LSA in the near future. Generally fly the PA-28, occasionally Cessna 172 or at a push the 150/152. Have flown a few other more obscure types.
It's the kind of hobby that is very different from the outside, to what is on the inside. Very social, a lot of cost splitting, a lot of sitting around in airfields.

I think you need a strong hobby for when you return from sea, whether its 4 weeks or 4 months on leave, you need something for yourself. Until wife and kids come along, and demand to dragged along to your little haven of peace...

[YoungMariner]

Everyone seems to do some pretty cool stuff, but I think you?ve got to! I couldn?t imagine just moping round the house in your time off, you?d go nuts... pilot?s license is pretty cool though!

I go on lots of small holidays mostly in Europe, with a bigger one thrown in once a year, spend a lot of time travelling between UK and Norway on account of the other half, love to snowboard (home or away), swim in the sea/ days at the beach with fish n chips and ice cream (the swimming I miss out in winter), watch a ton of films, try to catch up with everyone at home which does involve a lot of running around and occasionally the ?odd? drink. When I am home I like to bake cakes... and then swear loudly as half of it has managed to go up the wall.... leave goes very quickly!

You'd make great TV on an episode of The Great British Bake Off. We have a breadmaker, voila, we baked hahaha.

[CharlieDelta]

I run a website. That keeps my hands full!

[GuinnessMan]

I run a website. That keeps my hands full!

Aye! Plus trying to keep some of us in line is a full time job!

[Clanky]

I spend alot of money on booze, birds and fast cars...

















...the rest, I just squander.

[Clanky]

On a slightly more serious note, I spend a lot of time kayaking, climbing volcanos, swimming and lounging by the pool in the sun. My kids still live in the UK so I spend about a weekend per month in Portsmouth visiting them and I make my dutiful visit to ireland every year to visit my parents (I try to make that one in the summer).

Things are about to change in a fairly big way though as my girlfriend has just got a job in Lanzarote and is moving in with me, so I guess I will be spendiong more time cooking than I did when I lived on my own.

[size4riggerboots]

Good grief you lot are adventurous! I'm afraid I'm pretty lazy, there are reasons for that though - my boyfriend works every morning from 0730 so I do tend to luxuriate in having a double bed to myself until he comes home mid-morning and brings me a cup of coffee (I have him well trained!). He only works a few hours, but works every day of the week so he can't afford the time or the money to go places, and he doesn't like the idea of being a kept man for some reason, and his passport is out of date. Oh and he sees his daughter every other weekend so we couldn't go anywhere for more than 10 days at most. Saying that I have told him that we ARE going on a holiday in the summer when I get home.

*sigh* When I started my cadetship I imagined I'd be spending my leave periods travelling and exploring the world. Instead I find myself doing the cooking and the washing up. And this place takes up a lot of time.

Saying that, last leave there were many many nights with our mates either playing Arkham Horror or watching Game Of Thrones or down the pub, and I did get a long weekend in Istanbul with my sister, and the boyfriend took me to the poshest hotel I (a castle!) for two nights at Christmas (lucky windfall), and I went to Winchester, Devon and Bristol to stay with friends (left himself behind), and I spent a weekend in a house in the middle of a forest playing a demon possessed crazy old lady in a 1920's horror LRP game, and an axe wielding manaic briefly too, before I died.

I feel less boring now.