Anyone else have fleeting special interests? Mine's been air traffic control.

[Megamegablahblah]

I have been watching You Tube videos of interactions between Air Traffic Controllers and Pilots on repeat, some funny ones. Also sad ones. I practically feel like I have learnt how to fly a plane. Clearly I haven't!

The ones I like best are where the ATC puts the Pilots through their paces. They are so good at their jobs. They also have some amusing interactions. I also just really like, I mean love, the sound of a voice over a radio frequency.

I'm not sure but I think historical disasters could become a special interest. There's something so all encompassing about learning everything about a past event from perspectives of different people and also through the lens of technologies.

I wonder how the 'smart phone age' will be studied in future centuries, it's been a mixed bag so far 😂

Yes, and it’s getting even harder to separate fact from fiction these days eg the transcript going around of one of the 9/11 planes between ATC and Todd Beamer. Fascinating, emotional, 95 percent made up.

I have found my people. @Bjorkdidit what is your job. It sounds amazing.

I loved The Boring Talks and also listen to Cautionary Tales. BT is probably still available somewhere and highly recommended. The best one was, wait for it, about the European Pallet Pool. You know pallets, that goods get delivered to shops on? There is a system, and they're all collectively owned and tracked. It was fascinating, honestly.

Mountaineering. I’m an utter couch potato: I’m not outdoorsy, I don’t go to the gym, I can’t stand being cold - the prospect of climbing a mountain holds no appeal to me at all. But reading about other people doing it is weirdly fascinating.

Ah, now that would be outing because it is (genuinely) very niche, there's only a few hundred people who do what I do, and we all know each other. It's a specialist safety consultant sort of role, with a side order of disaster planning.

I expect you’ve already come across this story, OP? So sweet:

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2026/sep/06/pilot-air-traffic-controller-love-story

It’s a fascinating hidden world isn’t it, of pilots and air traffic control who know each other’s voices as part of their job.

I had a phase of insomnia where I got fascinated by Romanov impostors (there were a lot more than the most famous, ‘Anna Andersen’, claiming to be Anastasia). Also art heists, early Hollywood, and trying to find country houses associated with the Bloomsbury Group on Google Earth.

I have also zero interest in climbing but for some reason got a book about the ill fated 2006 season on Everest and almost thought I could actually climb it by the end. I was Everest obsessed for a while.

I find childbirth absolutely fascinating!

I am exactly the same! Terrified of heights. But read all the mountaineering books from Krakeur to Herzog.

I do. I love air traffic control, plane disaster analysis stuff, so much tension and so much at stake. You should listen to the last 15 minutes of discussion between the pilots of the tragic AF447 flight as it was falling into the sea. Awful and gripping at the same time.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_France_Flight_447

Fleeting? No. Becoming my entire personality, my side hustle and everything I talk about? Absolutely

I love all the emergency 999 ambulance programmes and have researched so much I reckon I could solve all the logistical problems of the NHS single handedly. If only they would listen to me.

Currently it's the aurora borealis and formula one.

castles - i bag castles like a mountain climber bags munros.
In the past it's been Eddie Stobart lorries and their names (at the time DH was working for a competitor).

And yes, also a phase of fascination with the Romanovs and the missing daughter. That was so interesting.

For all the aviation geeks (of which I am one) Mentour Pilot has great videos particularly covering air disasters and going through exactly what happened. I learnt so much about aircraft and flying!

That's reminded me of another of my interests, long distance travel decades/centuries ago, especially on foot. How did they find their way around?

I've read about Gerald Brenan, who was on the fringes of the Bloomsbury Group. He moved a remote part of Andalucia in the 1920s, not far from where we've been on holiday a few times. He used to walk many tens of miles a day over mountainous terrain in scorching hot weather and I just think how? I'll walk about 5 miles in modern lightweight kit, specialist shoes etc and be tired and too hot and he talks about doing it in 'rope soled sandals'. Once he walked about 60 miles over 2 days to Granada to meet up with some of the Bloomsbury group and missed them by about half an hour, because obvious no/limited phones and he just had to walk back home again.

Also Laurie Lee who walked from the Cotswolds to Southern Spain at about the same time. And the people who set out to sea and spent weeks/months travelling along not knowing where the next land was.

My most recent obsession was Roman history - couldn't get enough of it and started to refer to it in conversation at every opportunity! I've got burnout now but will revisit it in the future.

Another passion which can be fleeting is different foods and spices. The latest one has been miso. Researching and trying different recipes. I then get bored with it and move onto another food or cuisine. One time it was Cuban cuisine. I think it's my way of vicariously travelling there.

Also survival stories with pushing themselves to their limits. This one is an enduring interest though.

I spent a ridiculous amount of time a while ago watching a man from Kentucky make cowboy hats. I had to consciously stop myself.

Every time I go to our pharmacy I'd love to sort out their filling systems. It's all so inefficient!

I also went through an Everest phase about 6 months ago.

I remember that bit about Gerald Brennan narrowly missing a couple of Bloomsberries after a colossal walk! But have always suspected he missed them on purpose after Lytton Strachey was a colossal pain in the ass (literally, as he had piles and complained 24/7) on his previous visit…

Wow that sounds awesome. Do you have links? As a kid I remember watching documentaries on making bowler hats and top hats. Might go digging for those again!

Dark matter. My pet subject for about 10 years.

Yes I was a bit obsessed by her until they found she wasn't missing at all. Sadly her remains were found and she had died along with her family.