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Along with a couple of other obsessions I've always had a guitar (or 4) knocking around.
Up here in Oxfordshire I have a through neck 24fret shred monster that I bought off a pub wall in Weymouth.
For the past 5 or 6 years I've played now and then, once or twice a month through a headphone amp.
Since lockdown I've bought a new guitar, FX board, PA amped speaker and a smaller amp, and that cheap guitar has has the fingerboard cleaned and oiled, the frets touched up and a replacement Floyd Rose is coming Monday to replace the work/ corroded old one. Four or five hours a day and I'm started to get back up to speed (except for the actual skin of speed.).
Anyone else rediscovered an old hobby?
Mastered splitting a apple in half with my bare hands. Thanks to a repeat of Would I Lie To You where Bob Mortimer does it... tried doing it a while ago but gave up.
Like a chopping action or do you pull it apart?
I've started with 1:24 model cars again. My 9 year old loved building a Z1 so we've bought a few more to build together. Our first couple turned out a bit crap but I used to be good so they should improve. I think starting with Heller and Revell kits probably didn't help, because even now they're still crap to build.
Zwifting.
Call of Duty.
super monkey ball, mario kart double dash, and a few other old gamecube titles
I'm also doing a bunch more cycling than I have done before lockdown - the daily exercise is often turning into a ride with the tagalong behind and doubles up as 'getting one of the kids out the house for a bit'.
Wood carving. Specifically completing a project I started in 2011
I've returned to being really irritable and short-fused.
Riding bikes with my daughter.
Mario Kart World Tour on Mobile.
Tom Clancy's The Division, it seems a few years worth of patches and a fibre connection has made it a decent game. It's set in a modern day New York, a deadly virus has wiped out a large part of the population and the remaining survivors are under siege by armed bastards controlling the food and utilities as you fight to regain law and order.
Riding bikes.
Gave up proper mountain biking a couple of years ago due to back problems that aren’t going to go away. Assumed that was it. But in the last few weeks have been out every second day, just in the cycle paths, but really enjoying it.
I fired up the Nord and downloaded a how to play the piano app. Really enjoying it
Being a drunk.
alcoholism
Like a chopping action or do you pull it apart?
Pull
hopefully that link works, can't view it in work....
Foraging for food - went out yesterday and picked some wild Garlic that the missus turned into soup.
The garden looks the best it ever has but the opportunities to do any big projects in it are limited by the fact that so many places I'd need to get the materials from are closed.
My BBQ arrived yesterday, along with the smoker box and all srts of other fun things, so of course the weather has chosen today to go to pot.
Apart from that, music and Apex legends mainly.
Louise
Properly listening to music. As in actually sitting or laying down and paying attention. Discovered or got deeper in to some artists I’d only had on as background music previously. Sturgill Simpson, Gary Clark Jr, Quaker City Night Hawks, Jason Isbell, Fantastic Negrito and Young Fathers to name a few. Forgot how much I love it. Helped by being ill and isolating!
Guitar as well. Always wanted to try an alternate tuning and I'm motivated at the moment so making the most of it
Computer games, more specifically on my Playstation. Just ordered a copy of Gran Turismo 5 so I can do the endurance races again.
Fixing electronics. Wanted to watch a BluRay but my PS3 wasn't working so had a go at fixing it. A few dry solder joints identified and fixed together with cleaning out an awful lot of dust and it works again! Hence the order above. Got a week off work coming up so plenty of time to do a 24hr or two.
I've discovered the garden.
I've never had this much spare time and as we're usually away nearly every weekend it was a right state. Cleared away the brambles at the back, bench cutting a little trail with some lumps in the process. Then I moved some serious amounts of earth, so now there's a berm around a vegetable patch. I'm not going to want to go anywhere when confinement is lifted
Trail building
Garden for me too. I've always felt rushed and torn before and to be honest there was never enough time between work and riding bikes or just mooching about. A few days of concerted effort and it's all looking some way in better shape - raised beds, greenhouse, couple of areas still need attention but feel better about it all (and my head is better as consequence).
The garden but for me it's the first time. My ex wife was the gardener and after 3 years camping out at my mum and dad's I've bought her out and now I have a garden to look after. I've also inherited most of the garden tools I'll ever need which has been a nice coincidence as they are getting used again. If only I'd know about all the tools you can use I'd of got into it years ago!
Guitar as well. Always wanted to try an alternate tuning and I’m motivated at the moment so making the most of it
I bought a Variax and the alt tunings and acoustics are the things I get most from it.
Skankin_giant
Like a chopping action or do you pull it apart?
Pull
Brilliant. Is there a twisting action? I need apples to practise this.
Beer. Damn Tiny Rebel for delivering.
Also growing stuff in the garden.
Along with riding lots more. I’ve done more in the last month than the rest of the year so far.
Sourdough bread.
Baked 3 loaves in 2019
Baked 9 loaves during lockdown.
Not really returned to but I’ve got a huge amount of landscaping done in the garden and really enjoyed it.
was going to try and really improve on guitar. Started with Justin guitar but my problem was I was to far on for the basics but had to much missing for the intermediate courses but still made progress, I’ve actually kept myself quite busy!!
Brilliant. Is there a twisting action? I need apples to practise this.
Nope, just leverage, it's all about where you place your hands.
Here's my go, I'm not quite at Bob's level, I'm trying to learn not to use my leg for leverage.... I'm blaming my broken wrist/loss of hand/grip strength...
Mindfulness.
@funknasterp ooh Thanks for the music suggestions.
Just been blasting out Sturgill long white line.
Now playing Quaker City Night Hawks - Good Evening.
Liking this a lot 🤘
When I was at 6th form college there was someone could do that apple thing. I seem to recall he used Granny Smith's and he did it a lot quicker than in those videos, just seemed to twist it apart in one go.
Been WFH so not THAT much extra time - furloughed now, so totally smashing computer games. 😀
I'm old enough to still think of them being "computer" games... 🙁
Sleep.
Usually up at 6am, turns out my natural wake up time is about 7.
IL2 Sturmovik in VR, I've even roped in a couple of idiots to be my gunners.
IL2 Sturmovik in VR
Used to love the original back in the day with a Microsoft sidewinder force feedback 2....
Slacklining.
Haven't done it in years. Dug my kit out and a few evenings a week, when it's dry and quiet out front, I'm rigging it between the tress and the kids and me are doing it. My youngest (6) is just having a giggle but my daughter (8) really wants to learn to walk it solo. It's lovely to have the shared learning experience with them because I'm having to relearn it too.
Not had this much non-cycling time on my hands since I changed jobs back in 2001 and was put on 6 months garden leave just as foot and mouth countryside lockdown happened. Then I lived in a house whose garden was basically a huge boggy ravine. I had a mate who had a skip hire business and gleefully delivered over 500 loads of building rubble to fill the hole, levelling it with a JCB. Topped the rubble with 100 tonnes of soil which was delivered from a local sugar beet plant and made a lawn. A year later got divorced and sold the house for double what we paid for it.
Now live in a 7 acre finca in Cataluna with about 100 olive trees that had been neglected for years so these are being cleared and we're building a stockpile of wood for our wood burner which gets about 2-3 months use a year. We've also upgraded the pool and are landscaping the area around it, the local quarry reopened this week so ordered 10 tonnes of decorative gravel to tidy the area up. Not doing much for my cycling fitness but part of the clearing has opened up a 2km loop around the land which I've done a few laps of as we're officially not allowed out at all here in Spain apart from food shopping.
Hope history doesn't repeat itself on the marital front.
Home recording - can't jam with the band so demo-ing all the songs for the guys to figure out parts to.
Cleaning my bikes.
DIY - got a lot of projects done I had been putting off
Planting plants/flowers. Have a roof terrace, so not a garden - just have pots. Have got some wildflowers and cat-grass seedlings getting ready. And chilli peppers!
Photography. My mobile phone camera is excellent so haven't used my main camera for ages. But taking that (with telephoto lens) and binoculars out on my walks.
Press-ups - 200 a day.
Cleaning my house - got to the point of pulling appliances out so I can clean under them.
Cleaning my house – got to the point of pulling appliances out so I can clean under them.
Oh God, has it come to this?
Home recording – can’t jam with the band so demo-ing all the songs for the guys to figure out parts to.
Andertons have some fun lockdown jam stuff with Pete. Makes me get out my usual rut.