What do you do too 'chill out' ?

[ChrisV]

Relevant question I feel.

 

My life has changed so much in the past few months. Becoming a dad, changes at work and a general shift in so many different areas - I really have relied on my hobbies to keep my feet firmly on the ground.

Apart from playing some music - like drums and guitar, which I'm very fortunate to have access too - my trains have really given me some time out from the hassles and stresses of everyday life. Sitting down - putting on some tunes and watching the JR run in my room is the best way to forget about the world outside - at least for a few hours anyway.

 

What about you guys!?

[Bernard]

Chris - Congratulations on becoming a Dad! Now I can see why your life has changed a lot but for the better (I hope)

My favorite activity is horses. I have been around them for most of my life and no matter what, if I've had a bad day at work or any other stress, once I'm working with a horse, it all goes away and there is a big smile on my face. When the weather starts changing to winter, trains are another thing I like to do. In the Spring & Summer I'd rather be outside. I used to play guitar a lot when I was younger and wished I had kept it up, I also found that very relaxing. But to be honest, there isn't a lot that gets me stressed out and if I find something that does, I just tell myself is it really worth getting all upset about.

[bc6]

I build computers, surf the web checking out electronics blogs and of course run trains.

[scott]

Right now, reading is about it for solo relaxation--anything else turns into a conflict with something else I should be doing.

 

Speaking of guitars, I can't play for ****, but I've been trying to build a couple out of parts. I wouldn't say it's a "chilling out" activity yet, since I'm still pretty rough at it and have to do it in scattered spare moments, but I'm hoping it'll work out OK.

 

Trains, of course--that's mostly something I can do with the kid, which is fun. It's harder to get time alone with it, which is why I've made so little progress on the layout.

[Martijn Meerts]

Only thing I can really do to chill out is listen to certain types of music. Anything else just sucks me in too much to be considered "chilling out".

 

I have a soft spot especially for Maaya Sakamoto. Her more cute j-pop-ish music tends to get me through tougher times, and her slower stuff is great for relaxing.

[to2leo]

Wrap a fleece blanket, cure up in my favorite Ikea Poang chair and watch world documentaries on nature and city...non of those NatGeo craps on lockdown, dog whisperers and the lot.

 

Train is my second choice.

 

Or hang out with friends.

 

Travel to a different country.

[ChrisV]

Music is very important I feel - whether you play or listen as long its around it helps me a lot.

 

I normally give the trains a run once a day depending on my activities or i'll head out to meet some mates etc.

 

Otherwise its dad duties, sleep and work!

[Guest ___]

My answer would violate at least 3 TOS violations.

[grumbeast]

I also have the dad thing (my daughter is 2 1/2 now.. and a wonderful handful) and work for my wife when  I'm not doing my day job so chill out time is really important.  Anything to do with trains helps, I occasionally go an have my lunch trackside and watch them switch the local yard here, doing a little modelling on the layouts (I managed 10 minutes of platform construction this evening) and of course music is super-important (although I'm limited to listening only, I haven't a musical bone in my body!).  Now I have to work on getting more than an hour of time to myself a month!

 

G

[traindork]

Video games are a great escape for me.

I also like to read. And yes, my trains. I can get lost in those all day. 

[disturbman]

Nice, the two of you have the same avatar. I thought I was drunk for a moment.

 

So what do I do too chill out? I don't know really... I used to go out have a beer with my friends but these are starting to be a very scarce comodity those days. Being alone or the inconvenience to be an expatriate. When they decide to go back to their own land or town you are left behind... yeah, with very deep insomnia.

 

When I was leaving in Paris I was going photo hunting. Walking down numerous streets, taking pictures. But here, I'm not completely at home. The distance are so huge that it's more exhausting than chilling. Maybe my eyes are sore too, taking pictures and processing them as a work can be pretty frustrating.

 

Used to read a lot and lsiten music all day long but my interest shiffted to videos... yeah videos, they do help me chill. Shit I'm an image addict and I didn't noticed.

 

Anyway, running train or looking at them is allways nice. 

[ChrisV]

Nice, the two of you have the same avatar. I thought I was drunk for a moment.

 

So what do I do too chill out? I don't know really... I used to go out have a beer with my friends but these are starting to be a very scarce comodity those days. Being alone or the inconvenience to be an expatriate. When they decide to go back to their own land or town you are left behind... yeah, with very deep insomnia.

 

When I was leaving in Paris I was going photo hunting. Walking down numerous streets, taking pictures. But here, I'm not completely at home. The distance are so huge that it's more exhausting than chilling. Maybe my eyes are sore too, taking pictures and processing them as a work can be pretty frustrating.

 

Used to read a lot and lsiten music all day long but my interest shiffted to videos... yeah videos, they do help me chill. Shit I'm an image addict and I didn't noticed.

 

Anyway, running train or looking at them is allways nice. 

 

Taking pics is a great stress release I find. Especially with Digital these days so you do not have to wait for your roll of film to be developed to find out 50% of your shots are crap!

I was down at Sydney Harbour today - awesome day and I regret not having my camera there. I did have my mobile there so I took a small shot but it turned out rubbish. The P&O Sea Princess was in and my god - what a massive ship!!!! Must have been 10 storeys high from the waterline!!!!

[scott]

non of those NatGeo craps on lockdown, dog whisperers and the lot.

 

Heh--the NG channel was my biggest disappointment when we got satellite TV.

 

Or hang out with friends.

 

Where can I get a few of those? ;-)

[Martijn Meerts]

So, after waiting for what seems forever, I finally managed to see a live performance by Maaya Sakamoto on DVD. I ordered it from Japan a while ago at a ridiculous price, but whatever ;)

 

The DVD is actually well worth the price, performance is absolutely fantastic. At some point she sings the first song I've heard by her, which must've been about 11 years ago. It's the theme song for the Visions of Escaflowne anime. She was 15 or 16 back then. It was a while since I last heard the song, and I was actually quite surprised she sang it during the concert. I was even more surprised when I noticed at the end of the song, that I had tears running down my cheeks .. Guess I really am a fan :)

[Darren Jeffries]

Resurrecting this thread, i'll chip in here.

 

I also have the Dad thing going on, my youngest is four and a half, and my eldest is eleven today!!!

 

When i am not being "Dad" or working, I like to dream about finally getting my outbuilding started so i can get a layout built. Other than that I like to build scale aircraft. I am a bit of a techie too, having just built a HTPC for the lounge and purchased another smaller HTPC for the Bedroom, networked the house with Cat6 and built a Frontend for both PC's using mediaportal (excellent for those interested).

 

I love movies (hence the HTPC's) and I have a fairly nice setup in the lounge, 50" plasma, Blu-ray, x-box360 elite, PVR (soon to be retired due to adding sattelite card to HTPC), and HTPC... I watch pretty much anything from 'The Other Bolyn Girl' to 'Drag me to hell' and all in between! Had I not got sucked into doing insurance work for my career, i would have loved to be a film critic!

 

Thats my Chill out routine, lets hear of some more!

[Kabutoni]

To relax I watch Sci-Fi series (Firefly, Battlestar Galactica) and occasionally an anime or two. From the latter only utterly absurd series as: "Sexy Commando Gaiden: Sugoiyo!! Masaru-san", "Excel Saga", etc. or serious series as: "Ghost in the Shell" and "Initial D". However, in that regard I'm more of a manga reader, rather then an anime watcher. That's because I grew up with comics and am an active publishing artist myself as well.

 

Regarding drawing, I'm now busy with a friend working on a long story about trains in space, but not like Galaxy Express 999. These things are much larger, contain no common sense and are totally unrealistic in their functioning. That's all I'm going to mention about it as we're still working on finishing the first chapter. Next to the story there will also be fitting music (composed and produced by my colleague and myself).

 

Other things I do to relax is hanging out with my gf, go boozing and partying with friends, lurk stupid documentaries about gods from space on YouTube and to really turn my brain off, watch car-chase videos. Very relaxing :3

[Claude_Dreyfus]

Watching my fish is very relaxing. Our Goldfish - Sushi  - is very sociable fish, and you can watch him for hours, with a nice glass of beer and some Bach playing on the stereo.

 

In fact all our animals are a great way to relax, our Tortoises - Wasabi and Wakame (there seems to be a pattern emerging with our pet's names!) are a lot of fun when they go for their wanders around the house causing mischief. The Guinea Pigs (Dhansak and Dhal) are kept in their run, but are very diverting - and seem to have worked out the sound of the veg draw in the fridge. Go anywhere near it at a cacophony of sqeaks fire up!

 

Of course model railways are relaxing, although a lot more now I have moved away from UK stuff...not very relaxing when you constantly have to shove an uncooperative engine, or re-rail troublesome carriages!