So tea lovers, what are your other interests? Do they relate to tea in any way?

My other interests all have to do with Japan: Cooking, learning Japanese, drinking sake, and karaoke.

The only interest I have that is somewhat related to tea is cooking and being a foodie. I love to cook and bake and do it often, playing with new and interesting flavors. I also love going to gourmet restaurants (and I’ve turned my boyfriend into a foodie too).

Other than that, my latest all-consuming interest is birding; I bird in all my free time, and I also try to do a lot of bird photography.

I like to bake and cook, a lot of Asian, Indian, and Middle Eastern dishes, and the bread I usually bake is most like Cuban or French bread.
I play violin and guitar in classical and non-classical styles, and for the past couple of months I’ve been studying sitar and the hindusthani tradition. The only style of music that I haven’t really been able to get excited about is the electronic/house/dubstep type stuff that seems to grow ever more popular :(
The emotion and unique music theory of North Indian music has really drawn me in lately, and I hope to start taking lessons soon from a local teacher. :)

Wow, everyone here does really interesting stuff!

As I suspected there are a lot of foodies and wine/beverage connoisseurs here! Makes sense because those involve appreciating and contrasting subtle scent/taste differences, just like tea drinking does.

There are quite a few things I enjoy… To sum it up:
Tea- everythign about it!
Reading- Books and graphic novels… Recently re-read The Sandman by Neil Gaiman… Highly recomend it!
Travelling- I love travelling when I get the chance! I always keep my eye out for new teas! :) I will be going to the US in November to be part of the Organizers program for the ING marathon. That should be interesting! :)
Running- I love running and racing. I am not great at it, but I do enjoy it! I also organize a relatively big race here in Ecuador, so it is great to see both sides of races!
Ice Skating- I love skating and coaching! I used to do a lot more of it, but lately I have been too busy to really keep up with it… I miss it!
Animals- I love animals, especially dogs. In particular, my furry Sencha is my French Bulldog of choice.
Baking and desserts- Yum… anything spicy or vanilla…
Video games- If only I had more time….

I think I need at least 36 hours in each day to be able to get everything I would like to done…. But, I enjoy my 24 hours the best I can! :)

I enjoy beer in a way similar to tea. I like trying all different types of beers and trying to taste all the different aspects of them. This hobby however is not nearly as healthy or acceptable during all times of the day…

I am a rat lover. I am extremely passionate about these little animals. They are much more intelligent than most people think and they just make wonderful pets. My furkids are all rescues and I just love each of their different personalities, quirks, and noses. They are spoiled to death.

I love football. I’m a huge Detroit Lions fan and I just love watching the game on sundays when I’m not working. Currently looking for careers which don’t include working on sundays haha. If only the world were so perfect.

And I also really enjoy learning about different things. You’ll almost never find me watching movies – I’m more of a documentary/science channel type of girl. Some of the things I enjoy learning about aside from tea include buddhism, the universe, physics, and almost anything science related.

- Tea!! I have really become addicted to everything related to tea, shopping, reviewing, etc.
- Reading- I will pretty much read anything. But, I don’t like to read the back of a book because I don’t want to know what it is about before I read it.
- traveling- there is so many places I want to visit. So far, I have visited Italy (Rome and Florence), Athens, quick stop in Paris, Belize, Honduras, Grand Cayman, Mexico, Florida, Las Vegas, Hawaii, Cuba, and some traveling within Canada!!
- Football—-GO Riders!
-Baking and cooking is the only other hobby that really relates to tea
-photography-everything and anything
-scrapbooking and cardmaking
-crocheting

I have a lot of hobbies. Most of them are related to creativity!

It is so interesting to learn others’ hobbies as well!

I love writing songs and music! I love the emotion that goes into writing a song. Tea always helps with the creative process. You will never find me at my weekly band practice without some sort of tea in my mug :)

I enjoy all aspects of food, cooking it, reading about it, baking, going out to eat, making new recipes and best of all, eating it!

I’m really keen to try making some green tea flavoured cupcakes – I’ll let you know how they turn out!

I also love tenpin bowling which probably isn’t the typical interest of a tea drinker! And running – I ran a marathon and two half marathons last year.

None of my other interests really has anything to do with tea:

Reading. I like the fluffy stuff. Almost strictly fiction, except for biographies. Humour (Terry Pratchett), horror (King, Koontz, Barker), children’s/young adult books (Harry Potter, Narnia, Patterson’s Maximum Ride series, etc.). I like (love, really) the idea of comics and graphic novels but have a tough time getting into them. I adore the entire Sandman series by Neil Gaiman. I think part of the problem is that there’s so much out there. If you have any suggestions for a series I could get into, I’d love to hear them. My favourite magazines are WIRED, MIT’s Technology Review, .net, and Edge.

Unlike most of the people I know, I have always disliked paper books (I never had a sentimental attachment to their feel and smell, blech) and have pretty much always yearned for the day that e-readers would become a reality (an affordable reality, that is). I’ve been happily reading on my iPad since day one (it’s so much better on the latest model’s retina display, though) and will not buy a book/comic/graphic novel if it’s only available in paper form.

Watching films. Anything by PIXAR/Disney. Chatty films with ensemble casts are fun. Bollywood. Queer films. Videogames. I’m mostly platform- and genre-agnostic, meaning I’ll play almost anything, anywhere, but despite the stacks of shrink-wrapped games waiting to be played, I spend most of my carefully rationed leisure time playing WoW, Guild Wars 2, or iPad games. Playing pool. I’m no pro, but I really enjoy it. The biggest surprise for me was when I discovered that the principles I learned whilst playing carrom with Mum as a child helped me play pool better. I was in a league, once, for just a little while before life’s obligations made it impossible for me to maintain that commitment. My biggest claim to fame during that time was winning a 9-ball game on the break. Total fluke, but they didn’t know that. =P I hope to return to playing regularly again one day. Music. Listening and occasionally playing (tabla and sitar). Old Hindi film songs, Celtic music, electronica fusion, almost anything with amazing percussion. Learning languages. When I was really little, I used to have two dreams: to be able to speak every language and heal by touch. Eventually I discovered that you can’t just decide to grow up and be Superman, unfortunately, so I got as close as I can: I love learning new languages and I’m a pretty good masseur. Writing. My life is a run-on sentence. I used to write a lot more when I was young (around 16). I’m trying to get back into it now, with the blogging and whatnot. Geekery. Gadgets, home cinema, incorporating new technology into our everyday lives (like with cool new kitchen appliances), new web services, things of that nature. I’m addicted to NEWSHINY, sign up for every open beta, am an early adopter, etc. I am fascinated by the brain. Human factors, human-computer interaction, and related fields are awesome. I learn what I can, whenever I can, about designing interfaces and optimising the user experience. Currently I’m studying (self-teaching) mobile application development. Art. I can’t draw to save my life, but I like to pretend. I love doodling with a graphics tablet and ArtRage (OS X, Windows, iOS). I like playing with fractals, specifically fractal flames. I also like playing with 3D modeling software like modo and ZBrush, and environment generation software like Bryce (back in the day) and e-on software’s Vue. Jigsaw puzzles.

There really aren’t enough hours in the day, or days in a lifetime. =)