The World’s Weirdest Hobbies
Most of us have some favourite way of spending our leisure time. It could be crocheting gifts for friends and family, reading everything on a Best Books list, or keeping a journal. But there are also several very strange ways that people fill their time!
Competitive Dog Grooming
Dog grooming refers to the efforts made to give your dog a hygienic makeover and usually involves the cleaning and cutting fur, the trimming of nails, and the seeing to whatever other needs your particular breed may require.
Dog groomers earn their living taking care of our pets, but there is a subculture that’s grown up around this activity that sees Fluffy wearing fancy collars that match their recently coiffed fur, or being cut and dyed to look like one of the Ninja Turtles, a panda, or a tiger.
Extreme Ironing
This hobby has a very tongue-in-cheek aspect, but the strange, and sometimes dangerous, places being found to iron in are something else!
People are removing wrinkles from their clothes while being dragged from the back of boats on skis, after jumping out of aeroplanes, and even hooked up to taxi cabs!
Faking Your Death
The Dead Body Guy, Chuck Lamb, had dreams of becoming an actor but knew he wasn’t very good. So, he’s stuck to non-speaking parts, or playing corpses, and has not only appeared in multiple movies and television shows, but even picked up some awards along the way. Check him out in the likes of Book of the Dead, Stiffs, and Thankskilling.
While most of us prefer the Blackjack, Roulette, and slotsoffers, talking long walks with our pets, or even collecting stamps or postcards, it’s rare that we manage to turn it into a job, which is exactly what Mr Lamb has done.
Mooing
We all know someone great at imitating bird calls and there are people out there who can exactly replicate a donkey braying or a pig’s snorts. Well, there are actual contests in rural areas of the United States of America where the person with the most realistic cow-sound gets a prize.
Polishing Dirt
As strange as it may sound, polishing dirt is not only a thing, it enjoys the status of an art form in Japan. Known as Dorodango, it requires you to make a ball of mud and draw the moisture of it while you coat it with finer and finer grains of soil. The dirt is then worked by hand until it’s a high-gloss sphere.
Toy Voyaging
If you can’t afford to travel overseas, what about letting one of your toys go instead?
Toy Voyaging involves sending your playthings off on a world tour. There’s a website dedicated to this hobby that lets you choose a temporary home for your lucky possession as it enjoys the gallivanting you can’t.
There’s a travel log that lets you write to your toy and you can send pictures to it wherever it is as well as get some back. When it’s time for it to come home you just contact its hosts and they return it at once.