In defence of hobbies

I read a comment on my blog recently that stated that I didn't write on anything specific and that my first post this blogger discovered was about baking. I have contemplated this comment ever since. My blog is about changing countries and adapting to a new country and culture. Baking is very much a part of it because in a new country you have to find flour, yeast and other things for baking, and it can be a cultural shock. Yeast works differently depending on how high you are over sea level. And when there are fifty different kinds of flour in the local supermarket, you have some big decisions to make.

It is also a cultural shock that I can spend a whole day on March 19 gardening, getting sunburned and enjoying a glass of wine on the patio in the afternoon. In Sweden, there is right now a snow storm and traffic chaos.

I also feel that it is highly relevant for my professional life to know what I do in my spare time. Reading is not a hobby for me, it's work. Even when I read something not directly work-related. Gardening or miniature-making is my way of counterbalancing my academic work. It has to be something that has no relevance whatsoever to what I do for a living. Most of my thinking, indispensable for my academic work, is done during these unrelated pastimes.

Anyroad: if you are not interested, you don't have to read this.