Leisure time and hobbies

Free time after work or study is call leisure time. It is time for fan and entertainment. Most of us, unfortunately, don’t have of spare time. Due to work, studying and taking care of the family we’ve got no time left for hobbies. Why do people devote themselves to various hobbies anyway? It is that everybody likes to carry out an activity that makes him feel good, relaxes him and so on. It actually gives him fresh energy for his other work.
Some hobbies tend to be a men’s affair while others attract mostly women. Most hobbies are a mixed affair. Children have their hobbies too. When we’re young we have lots of time to do we enjoy.
 
There are many types of hobbies:

Collecting various things
It is one of the most popular hobbies. It is a passive hobby. This prediction often starts at an early age and becomes life-long hobby for many people. We can collect stamps, picture postcards, matchbox labels, flags, coins, model cars or ships, chewing gum, chocolate wrappers, beer-bottle labels, caps and other things. Collectors exchange objects with one another, compare their collections.
 
Keeping pets
Is interesting, useful and popular hobby. We can keep a dog, a cat, a fish, a canary, a parrot, a guinea pig other exotic animals.
The British people love animals and almost every family has a pet, usually a cat or a dog, which becomes parts of the family.
 
Sport
At present, more and more people of all ages are concerned with their health and spend some of their leisure time doing excercises to keep themselves fit. People try to improve their health and protect themselves from a host of illnesses. We can devide sports in two groups:
 
a. Winter sports: downhill skiing, cross country skiing, skating, tobogganing, snowboarding, and ice hockey. In winter, when the mountains are covered with snow, ponds and rivers are frozen, comes the time for all winter sports.
 
b. Summer sports: cycling, walking, golf, tennis, volleyball, and football. Very popular is cross-country riding, riding into the woods. Sport goes hand in hand with tourism. The main thing is to go out into nature. There we can look at surrounding countryside and the life of animals. We breathe fresh air and move around in a beautiful natural environment. In summertime we often go swimming - in a pond, a lake or the sea.
 
For those who prefer physical exercises indoor, bodybuilding fitness centres are opening up all over the world.
 
Singing and dancing
Singing is also qualifies as a hobby. There are choirs - girls, boys or mixed. Many young people take an interest in dance. We could say it’s something of a fashion. But every young person needs space to express his or her feelings and ideas. Dance ensembles taking part in competitions, visiting other cities and countries.
 
Film
One of the most popular ways of spending leisure time is watching films. It is possible to watch some films on TV or to go to the cinema or some people prefer watching video. We can see feature films, news, live sports programmes, programmes for schools and further education, bedtime story and many musical programmes. Although the number of cinemagoers has dropped many people like going to the cinema. There we can see thrillers, action films, psychological drama or witty comedy. Some people prefer foreign films that are not dubbed but provided only with subtitles because it is a good opportunity for them to test their knowledge of foreign languages. Video became very popular among young people. They can borrow videocassettes and see them at home in a very comfortable way.
 
Do-it-yourself
It has become a very popular hobby. Many people like to do some practical jobs in the house or weekend cottage in their leisure time. They can repair or even make some pieces of furniture or other things. They also like to repair radios, faulty alarm clocks or lights that don’t work. Sometimes this hobby turns into a real necessity.

Gardening
Is counted among the most widespread hobbies. Taking care of trees, flowers and vegetables requires a certain amount of effort, but is also a form of rest and relaxation. Many people live in their house with own garden, other people live in a flat in a housing estate, but they have a cottage in the village. Most of them have a garden where they spend all weekends from spring to autumn. This garden usually has three parts. In front of a cottage there is only lawn (trávnik). The second part is the orchard (ovocný sad) with fruit trees and shrubs (kríky). And the third part is a garden where they grow the vegetables.

Lawn – almost every weekend they mow (kosiť) the grass with mowing machine. In spring the lawn is very nice.
The orchard – in spring they have to plant some new trees and prune (prerezať) the old trees. There are many shrubs – gooseberry (egreš) and red current (ríbezle). They have to hoe (okopať motykou) every shrub.
The garden – in spring they have to plant the seeds of onion, garlic, radish, carrot, parsley, bean, pea, potato and lettuce. If they want to have a good harvest, they have to weed and water their garden. Then they begin to pick up vegetables, fruit – apples, pears, cherries, apricots, peaches, nuts, plums, grape and berries. They can eat them fresh or can preserve (zavárať) them. In late autumn they have to rake (hrabať) the dry leaves, dig up the ground, add fertilisers to the soil, in the orchard they should spray and prune fruit trees and shrubs. We know a whole series of other hobbies too – photography, keeping aquariums, cooking and baking, literature, history, science, etc. Time that is spent in these activities won’t be only pleasant but useful as well.