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That isn't searching for the next thing to stream on TV! 🙂
• Cycling - been there, done that, to an obsessive level for nearly 25 years.
• Model making (Airfix etc.) - always like the idea of this and have done some F1 cars in the distant past, but my patience and skills run out when it comes to painting.
• Tried archery for a year. Reached a plateau and didn't feel inclined to put the hours in to improve.
Just having a mental block about what to try so chuck your ideas at me!
olympic masturbation?
Need some criteria - solo or social, cheap or costly, indoor or outdoor etc.
How 'bout flying a drone 😉
I'm finding lego soothing at the moment, bought a large bag of it off ebay with all the instructions (mainly starwars and city). Now sorting and building the models one by one - hopefully sell it on once they're complete. It's a bit like doing jigsaws.
joshvegas is being horrible,we all know the Olympics are not going to happen this year.
Learn a musical instrument. Then when we come out of lockdown you can look at jamming with other folk.
Try the Tamiya RC thread.
The build is fun, the painting is as faffy as you want to make it, and you have something fun to muck about with after.
OU degree or other OU course, there are quite a few free ones. Cut off date for starting a degree is in the next few days
joshvegas is being horrible,we all know the Olympics are not going to happen this year.
WFH meant it was happening but then they sent the kids home from school and now its not.
Making really good sourdough/sourdough pizza is a good un - your waste-line might not thank you though.
Drawing/illustration/watercolours are really rewarding also.
Need some criteria – solo or social, cheap or costly, indoor or outdoor etc.
I was trying not to steer the thread too much! 🙂
- Solo or semi-social when lock down ends. I'm not one for big groups of people.
- Cheap to middling. Not costly.
- Don't mind indoor or outdoor.
olympic masturbation?
The wife works from home now so I never get the house to myself!
If you like making model kits but not painting them then would gunpla (plastic kits of Gundams, a variety of Japanese giant robots) be suitable? Most gunpla kits are moulded in multicoloured plastic and the hobby seems to encompass both those who paint their kits and those who don't.
Another option for model making without the painting are building kits with photo-realistic finishes. You print them out and stick them to cereal box card so they cost almost nothing to have a go at. A lot of them are aimed at railway scenes but something like the fire station and a couple of die cast fire engines or the farm buildings with some die cast landrovers would be a nice thing.
These are very good, they have a free sample kit at the bottom of the page-
Running, cheap, outside and if you join a club quite social as well.
At least with the Olympics likely to be cancelled, anyone training for the masturvation event will have more training time.
- Music?
Sold my old road bike last year as injury forcing me off riding (limited to bimbling) and with the cash bought an electronic practice drum kit (for £200 squid)
10 months on am still practicing nightly. Could even have bought a practice pad alone and just practised the rudiments. 20 quid all in, combined with a free metronome app. Only regret is that I hadn’t started younger as I really, really enjoy it/benefit a lot from the discipline, learning curve and outright fun.
- Electronic pianos are very good these days. Bought Mrs P a Casio Privia many years back and was honestly surprised at how good it was (sound architecture is more my background than drumming)
- Also sketching, painting and drawing. Watercolours someone mentioned, they can be an economical way in to painting. Cotman student colours, some paper (300gsm minimum, IME) and use Youtube for tutorials. Plenty of training books for next to nowt these days.
Cheaper still is drawing,ink, pencil, charcoal, blending sticks etc.
- Digital photography? I started out 20 years ago (via an interest in fine arts/photography as an art and also landscape) with a budget used Nikon Coolpix and found it to be engrossing, and again a usefully smooth learning curve with plenty to research and discover both online in bad weather, and of course when actually out looking/shooting.
Why not shortlist things that you are passionate about and see if any avenue can be explored?
I second painting. It's cheap to get started, and is a frustratingly satisfying / satisfyingly frustrating way to spend some time creating something.
the-muffin-man
The wife works from home now so I never get the house to myself!
She clearly gets her pleasure, why shouldn't you too?
Learn a musical instrument. Then when we come out of lockdown you can look at jamming with other folk.
This! never been a better time, happily rumbling along with a Bass Guitar that I borrowed off a mate who wants someone to jam with when we come out of this. Only been going a few months or so but I'm getting there, just had an Orange amp arrive for far greater neighbour annoyance potential.
Loads of online courses and youtube teachers out there.
Guitar! Picked mine back up last March during first lockdown. So many free online resources nowadays (compared to when I first tried to learn from books 20 years ago).
My original target was just to learn enough chords to knock out some Oasis and Beatles, but I've progressed beyond that now to learning solos and noodling about in Pentatonic scales. Still playing daily almost a year on.
Can't wait to jam with all my mates once lockdown is over properly
I need one too! The thing is I have little motivation for anything other than cycling walking and a bit of open water swimming. Inside the house I'm pretty much looking for something to watch too. I think my head is just too fried from sitting at the kitchen table wfh each day?
I do some stretching (but usually watching TV), I do some meditation/relaxation, but that leaves a lot of time to do something inside that is not watching the TV.
I have flute, whistles, guitar, cornet and didgeridoo all to hand. I have sketching, water colour and acrylics all to hand. Wood work tools and carving chisels, even a sewing machine. But I really CBA doing anything other than getting out for exercise, which is limited, or watching TV.
I've always fancied learning the guitar but I'm musically inept. Best I managed was Smoke on the Water riff when at school 35 years ago! And at Primary I was always the first to be handed the triangle.
Can you learn rhythm and a musical ear?
olympic masturbation?
The wife works from home now so I never get the house to myself!
Oh, you live in one of those open plan Grand Designs type houses..
How ’bout flying a drone 😉
Genuine questions - how can this be a hobby? They go up, down, sideways, etc. It's surely whatever you're doing that requires a drone that is the hobby, not the act of flying the drone itself?
Making things (useful, decorative or both) out of wood.
Learn an instrument - I'm too far into guitars to stop now, but if I was starting from scratch I'd choose a simple keyboard.
Learn to write and record your own music. Free apps on laptop are fine.
Learn Spanish (I like Michel Thomas, it's conversational and interactive in a nice way) for when we can travel again. And you need to ask "¿Dónde está el hotel de cuarentena más cercano?"
Are you a foodie?
So much to learn if you enjoy cooking from making jams, pickles and preserves to curing your own meats.
I've upped my game a bit over the last year and improved my BBQ/Low'n'Slow cooking quite a bit, and had a lovely sandwich with our first batch of home cured bacon on Sunday.
Plan a holiday for when this is all over and start learning a bit of that language (on Duolingo etc)
Learn to play chess and jump on the next STW tournament (or challenge someone randomly off the chess thread)
(these 2 appeal to me as can take as little as 15 mins a day but you'll see yourself improving!)
bit more effort required:
Buy a Raspberry Pi and learn a bit about programming/electronics
Get a 3D printer
(combine these two and you'll never be bored as you'll always have a project on the go!)
Cooking?
online poker?
poultry farming? (we got some chickens after the 1st lockdown, they're awesome)
Electronic music, IPad, midi keyboard and a few apps and you'll be away.
how can this be a hobby? They go up, down, sideways, etc. It’s surely whatever you’re doing that requires a drone that is the hobby, not the act of flying the drone itself?
Erm, can't help but feel you're missing about 99% of the operator skill there.
obvious legal disclaimers apply, don't fly near people etc etc etc.
drone in vid is about double the weight of UK no-license limit but micro size drones are now not a problem to buy
there is organised drone racing too
Lego - can be fairly cheap, can also be bloody expensive. I have a few sets I got cheap in sales as I'd never have paid full price for them. As an example I got the Porsche GT3RS for £130 from Argos when it was end of line. I missed out on the two sets they knocked right down recently.
RC Cars - as above, cheap if you want but can get very spendy.
I looked at scale model kits as an alternative to the above. The kit I wanted was quite reasonable at £25, only then did I realise I'd need to add at least another £50-60 for tools, paint, glue etc and that without even thinking about an airbrush & compressor.
Learn a musical instrument.
Another vote for this. Though sadly the past year has meant no orchestra or other ensembles to play in, no visits to my teacher and my motivation has suffered. Just trying to kick start my enthusiasm so I can hopefully hit the ground running when we are allowed out to play again.
Try getting into cooking it can be very theraputic, especially if you enjoy asian, middle eastern, mexican food which is not too technical but fun to prepare. Once we get some daylight back get out walking if you are near the countryside. Spice it up with some basic bird spotting, photography or geocaching.
cheese@4p
Full Member
Try getting into cooking it can be very theraputic,
@cheese@4p
Reported for self-dealing.
Oh yes and cheese making is good for you
Home brewing. Yes, there is a bit of lead time between the making and the drinking, but if you plan it right, you could have a three tap bar with a constant supply of beer on tap to help you through the day/week/lockdown/Zoom meetings
Grassing yer neighbours new fence
pizza ovening yer frozen sausages
Footpath Vigilante
Droning about drones
Cooking rice and eggs
Use your imagination man.
• Tried archery for a year. Reached a plateau
I used to enjoy walking up Table Mountain but felt the same after a while to be honest.
Home brew is a good shout.
Maybe something like lock picking could be a random shout. Look up the lock picking lawyer on YouTube.
Maybe something like lock picking could be a random shout. Look up the lock picking lawyer on YouTube.
I was literally just about to suggest that, you beat me by about 10 seconds.
Honestly, LPL is worth a watch even in you've no real interest in locksport. He's basically the Bob Ross of locks.
Cycling – been there, done that, to an obsessive level for nearly 25 years.
How about just ride a bike for fun?
Apple tree growing
Baking
Bushcraft
Bonsai
Coding
Cardboard engineering
Digital art
Dancing
DIY
Engraving
Electronics
Ferret-keeping
Footbag/hackeysack
Gardening
Hiking
Indian-food cooking
Juggling
Jogging
Kombucha brewing
Knifemaking
Language (learning new)
Meditation
Novel-writing
Origami
Parkour
Quizzes
Reading
Sculpting
Screenwriting
Tantric sex
Urban Exploration (Urbex)
Virtual Reality
Whittling
Xylophone
Zen Buddhism
Borrow some school age children
Then combine home schooling, work and general life and you'll be so busy you won't have time for any hobbies.
Problem solved 🙂
And at Primary I was always the first to be handed the triangle.
I used to play the triangle in a reggae band.
I ended up quitting because it was just one ting after another.
@p7eaven, I saw those marble track videos a while ago and gave it a try; I don't know how he does it but my soldered joints weren't anywhere near as strong or easy to make as his were, so after a few evenings of giving it a try I gave it up as a bad job!
Soldering one joint risked heating the wire enough to pop joints I'd already done, or the joints would fail while trying to bend the track into shape. It was somewhat frustrating. I wasn't sure where I was going wrong so I have a reel of wire and a bag of marbles sitting untouched in a cupboard instead.
I moved onto playing with electronics instead, with a raspberry pi and various odds and ends from RS and Farnell. Most recent project was putting supercapacitors in some of my daughter's light up stacking blocks so they stay lit even after you've removed them from the stack, which is quite cool...
I’ve always fancied learning the guitar but I’m musically inept.
Then you, sir, are ideally suited for the bass guitar. 😉
Model making > upgrade to RC cars
Archery > upgrade to playing with guns
HTH
Get a Drone.. there's no end to the number of STWers you could annoy the shit out of
I used to play the triangle in a reggae band.
I ended up quitting because it was just one ting after another.
I think you'll find you 'just stand at the back an ting' 😂
The wife works from home now so I never get the house to myself!
Danger **** in the local woods?
Figure skating ?. Get yourself a nice little tutu.
I'd pay to watch that. Entertainment value would be off the scale.
I used to play the triangle in a reggae band.
I ended up quitting because it was just one ting after another.
I think you’ll find you ‘just stand at the back an ting’
Ha ha ha - that's hilarious! 🙂
Great thing about the triangle is that 'you can move about an ting'
I'm similarly bored. I'm thinking wheel building. Anyone got any suggestions for good starting guides?
I’ve always fancied learning the guitar but I’m musically inept. Best I managed was Smoke on the Water riff when at school 35 years ago! And at Primary I was always the first to be handed the triangle.
Can you learn rhythm and a musical ear?
My mate learnt to play guitar over the course of a year.
No ear, no rhythm. I've never seen anyone with no rhythm before. It was very confusing to try to explain rhythm! He kept going and has an ear and rhythm! Mostly self taught from YouTube.
My mate learnt to play guitar over the course of a year.
No ear, no rhythm. I’ve never seen anyone with no rhythm before. It was very confusing to try to explain rhythm! He kept going and has an ear and rhythm! Mostly self taught from YouTube.
There’s a condition known as ‘sortoftriedatschoolandfailed’. It dogged me for decades before I figured out by myself that learning was fun and I could learn hobbies at my own pace. And that the few hours of unfocused semi-practice at school all of those decades ago is best simply ignored/disregarded. It doesn’t define you. It took me about 3 months daily practice to learn basic decent limb independence on drums for instance last summer. I never would have had that chance at home or school as a kid
Having an active interest helps. If you don’t ‘actively’ listen to music (active listening) then you’re already on a back foot.
We are too often our own worse enemies? I told myself I can’t learn languages, and have always struggled. So with maths foreign languages I get stressed and annoyed at rate of progress, and do give up more quickly. Am facing a similar problem with drums. I get 4/4 and can play in time now, but odd time signatures and actual sheet music I’m still shy of. Need to do small attainable chunks every day. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. You can actually feel and observe the progress of your mind I suppose ‘re-learning how to learn’ as new/old neural pathways are connected and built. I kept a daily drum diary and the findings were really interesting even after a few months.
Here's a hobby for those who trained themselves to not believe that they can learn music:
https://www.masterclass.com/articles/how-to-build-music-listening-skills
A nice pair of midrange reference quality over-ear headphones would be a good start. Then a darkened room.
Bird watching? Think of it as a good excuse to get out and explore new areas around where you live, combine with photography or drawing if that interests you.
Other then biking the only other hobby that "stuck" was metal detecting. If you have patience, love history, the outdoors and treasure hunting (duh!) it might be for you.
Can't do it under lock down that said as it would be a leisure activity rather than exercise I would say.
En plein air painting/sketching?
James Gurney demonstrates with gouache from a parked car and small sketchbook
Baking is good and makes for extra brownie points on the WFH snacks.
Could start with these to ensure living up to your forum name 😉
metal detecting. If you have patience, love history, the outdoors and treasure hunting (duh!) it might be for you.
Can’t do it under lock down that said as it would be a leisure activity rather than exercise I would say
Got to be closer to exercise than fishing, and I've seen loads of maggot drowners out recently. 🤔
Got to be closer to exercise than fishing, and I’ve seen loads of maggot drowners out recently
Helps with mental health.
I imagine so. Still not really exercise though is it? 😉
Got to be closer to exercise than fishing, and I’ve seen loads of maggot drowners out recently
Helps with mental health.
When I am old and unable to run/cycle any distance (and when I am free of child/work commitments TBF) I fully intend on taking fishing up again – I spent my childhood fishing (going so far as taking a poaching rod to school so I could nip out at lunchtime). Every birthday and Christmas was simply fishing equipment, fishing-themed cards, fishing books etc. Unfortunately being an adult happened and I just don't have the time but it is such a wonderful experience - just sitting by a riverbank, flask of milky coffee in hand, eagerly awaiting that elusive bite (imagine that 'twich' Roy Shieder experienced when the water rippled with Jaws first tug on the bait - just like that but with a 14oz tench). It's amazing and so utterly mind-emptying.
Baking is good and makes for extra brownie points
Please tell me that gag was intentional, because it's glorious.
Rock-climbing / bouldering once the centres open up again? The latter you can do solo, the former semi-social if you can bring a friend or sign up to a course.
Helps with mental health.
100%. People (often men) in our culture do better with a focus/locus and/or ‘excuse’ to be outdoors, near water, with some peace and quiet for a day.
śamatha meditation for the British may involve tea, beer, pastried goods, fags (delete as applicable) and sticking things in other creatures, but at least it’s not that hippytrippy nonsense! 😉
Some of my fondest memories are of fishing. Eel fishing by the full moon especially.
Eel fishing by the full moon especially.
I used to go lamprey fishing (ie, stand downstream of a clutch of them with a keep net open, then just poke them off their perches). I could fill a net pretty quickly sometimes.
Helps with mental health.
All the people I know who fish regularly are caning tinnies and spliffs the whole time, which might counteract the mental health benefits.
Painting is quite relaxing and can be fun/frustrating. Pour painting is about as simple as it gets or as complex as you want to make it. If you want to start really cheaply then use floor tiles instead of canvas as these can be reused indefinitely if you don't like the picture and although you want to use acrylic paints for proper pictures, kids poster paint works just fine for playing / practicing. If you end up with a tile you want to keep then either resin or spray lacquer and it is fine. These two have been in the garden Cabin for about 3-4 years I think.
Alternatively what about a bit of decorative bowl making?
Cleaning cat litter seems to be my hobby - bloody five cats... aka man servant
I'm going to get flamed for this but..golf..at least if you are in scotland and courses are open
Use to be quite good, gave up for 10 years but took it up again during first lockdown and after playing 4 times a week finally broke par just before Christmas
Can be quite expensive, just bought myself new bats costing about 2k, but second hand a quality set can be had for 200 bucks
Its bloody addictive as well, if slightly frustrating.
Stocks and shares.
Would love to get back into fly fishing. Just not gonna happen at the mo. Summer evenings on the tarns, fishing the rise. Ahhhhhh.
Magic the gathering, especially if you have any 8-13yo child around to play with.
Maybe something like lock picking could be a random shout. Look up the lock picking lawyer on YouTube.
Get a VPN or the Old Bill may pay attention to you! 😀
A lot of detectorists are either current or past anglers etc actually.
There is a big cross over, a very relaxing, calming hobby that requires patience and also gets you in to the most beautiful scenery and wild life locations.👍