What are you going to do with all that time you'll soon have?

[AleisterCrowley]

Hmm, well I work from home 3 days a week normally so moving to 5 isn't a big change but I'll miss the social aspect of the office. Worst thing is with the pubs being shut i'll have no social interaction at all -I live alone which suits me most of the time , but I like going out and meeting up with people a few times a week. Most of my friends are back in my home town in Shropshire and I go back regularly - we have many great nights out down the local boozers. I guess Easter is not going to happen, particularly as I stay at my mum's (she's 78) and the pubs will probably still be shut.
To avoid cabin fever, and ultimately madness, my plans are as follows;

I'm going to...

Get out more, do more walks around west Berkshire. Plenty of quiet footpaths, sadly no hills.
Sort out my paperwork.
Finish unpacking stuff from my move..which was in 2018
Finally build the IKEA 'Billy' bookcase which I bought last year..
Work through my unread book pile
Learn some more songs on my guitar(s) - the Songsterr web site is great.
Check/repair my camping equipment
Watch lots of hiking/survival/bushcraft videos on Youtube*
Design a multi-function torch/strobe and get the parts from RS/Farnell
Start doing more indoor exercise to strengthen core muscles (I had a bad back for many years)
Stop thinking about my ex girlfriend
Phone my mum more often
Stop worrying about my investments, other than to drip cash into VUKE/VWRL occasionally.
Buy more from the local farm shop (only place I could get potatoes today!)
Drink!

Cheers, and stay safe people
AC

* I know some here are outdoors types. My fave YouTube channels below;
Hiking
Bruises and Backpacks
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxSKTJ ... NB8C6CQ1GQ
Spend more time in the wild (Abbie Barnes)
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6ekNj ... G2zHmG7IEA
Laura Griffiths outdoor
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrYLKg ... subscriber

Survival/Bushcraft
Survival Lilly (English channel of Austrian survivalist)
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCS4LBg ... jiQI4aPjtg
Wild Woman Bushcraft (Vanessa Blank, English channel of Bavarian Bushcrafter)
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuQV_7 ... nhfEShubZQ

[edit , just realised they are all women. I think I prefer the style to some of the more macho male outdoors types]

[johnhemming]

I did OK building a Billy book case that my daughter had started to build until .. I sat on it to force things in the right place and it all broke rather badly and unrepairably. I think the real secret (if a bit expensive) to Ikea furniture is to buy more than one of each and use the first one for practice. I probably put together a piece of Ikea furniture every two years and it is a bit of a re-relearning experience each time.

In any event I am a bit of a key worker as I have sent all my staff to work from home and I need to maintain the office (because one of my tenants is a domicilliary care operation and needs the office to be opened up and the door handles disinfected) and also keep the tax submission servers whirring.

Although (some of) my children are complaining about being bored I have the interesting challenge of writing Open Banking software which from a practical sense is quite curious.

[AleisterCrowley]

Having successfully built a lot of IKEA stuff (there's one walking distance from me in Calcot) I reckon the trick is to read the instructions all the way through at least twice before you start. You end up with a mental model of how the whole thing fits together.

[Wuffle]

I am likely to take quite a hit in this.
I need a cheap hobby.
Always been a hi-fi fan and might make some fancy speaker cabinets.
Reasonable raw materials but time consuming to get the finishing right.
A really fancy folded horn maybe.

W.

[redsturgeon]

I am likely to take quite a hit in this.
I need a cheap hobby.
Always been a hi-fi fan and might make some fancy speaker cabinets.
Reasonable raw materials but time consuming to get the finishing right.
A really fancy folded horn maybe.

W.

I built a pair of transmission line speakers using KEF drivers while I was at university. Nice sound but they were big brutes!

https://www.perrymarshall.com/articles/ ... sion-line/

John

[redsturgeon]

Just sitting at home a bit bored, wondering what I am going to do tonight. I've given the dog a trim, washed the car and daughter has offered to fetch pizzas. Then I get a text from my local. They have started a beer delivery service! Top notch!

John

[ReformedCharacter]

Just sitting at home a bit bored, wondering what I am going to do tonight. I've given the dog a trim, washed the car and daughter has offered to fetch pizzas. Then I get a text from my local. They have started a beer delivery service! Top notch!

John

That suggests one answer to the question of what to do with one's time - take up beer brewing. And then take up drinking one's own beer. I think there are some pretty decent kits these days and probably available for delivery.

RC

[bungeejumper]

That suggests one answer to the question of what to do with one's time - take up beer brewing. And then take up drinking one's own beer. I think there are some pretty decent kits these days and probably available for delivery.

Aaaah, those were the days. Set up a pressure barrel or a beersphere, insert kit (preferably with late-added hops), and substitute brown sugar for the standard white variety. Pretty damn good.

The reason I stopped? The catch with making forty pints of beer was that you drank forty pints of beer. And these days, in self-isolation, that might take on a whole new dimension. Besides, you'll quickly run out of crisps and peanuts.

BJ

[AleisterCrowley]

The catch with making forty pints of beer was that you drank forty pints of beer.
BJ

And the problem is ...?
Sounds like a good weekend

[Dod101]

Being long retired, and now poorer than I was, I really have no problem with filling my time. We had a beautiful spring day today so I walked about 6 miles. Then got into my garden and raked a lot of twigs and debris off my grass and maybe will give it a first cut tomorrow. Did some more tidying and then decided that it was time for a beer. Thereafter, I just gently enjoyed the sun in my garden. Just prepared and ate dinner and now will sit down with a book for the next couple of hours or so. Bound to be interrupted by son and daughter (both married with kids of their own) And so to bed. I rise just after 6 am and as long as the weather is good I will have no problem filling my days.

I have, in view of the stockmarket collapse, set myself a goal of cutting my expenses by around 25% and that takes a bit of thinking about although with most restaurants and pubs closed that makes for a saving in itself. One thing I do not understand, incidentally, is that hotels seem to be able to continue with their restaurants and bars with no restriction. certainly the large one near me is very much open for business, even as far as I can see, for non residents although I have not tried it as it would counter my aim of saving 25% of my expenses and I am supposed to self isolate.

Dod

[didds]

Next Tuesday we're going to attempt to do our usual quiz online.



R6

our local has a "virtual" pub FB group now, and we had similar last night

good for you R6

didds

[tjh290633]

I have just emptied my compost bin. 6 bags of compost to my neighbour for their allotment.

I need a rest after that, but at least I could mow part of the lawn once the flowers have shown their heads. I also need to get my petrol can filled.

TJH

[Dod101]

I have just emptied my compost bin. 6 bags of compost to my neighbour for their allotment.

I need a rest after that, but at least I could mow part of the lawn once the flowers have shown their heads. I also need to get my petrol can filled.

TJH

I now have the best tended front garden I have ever had at this time in March, thanks to a few days of good weather and plenty of time on my hands. I am moving to the much larger rear garden now, and today cut my grass for the first time this year and bought grass feed in case our local hardware shop closes which Nicola has asked it and other 'non essential' shops to do. Pity because the lady who runs it has been doing a great job. She is never too crowded in her shop but it has everything you could want in her line and will be missed by tradesmen as well as people like me.

Dod

[DrFfybes]

Watch DVDs of lots of series that I've already seen but would like to rewatch. Over the years I've built up a reasonable collection. Hill Street Blues, Northern Exposure, Justified, Sons of Anarchy, The Sopranos, Boardwalk Empire, 19-2, The Brokenwood Mysteries, Lovejoy, etc.

I really loved 'Northern Exposure' and found it odd it wasn't easier to find or endlessly repeated.

I thought the same - and even more annoying I missed the last episode so not repeatng it is a real PITA.

As part of the preparations for the house move (ironically scheduled for April 1st, now postponed) I found a load of DVDs of Lexx - a strange 1990s Sci-fi thing.

I'll need to so something - the garage door frame has had 2 coats of paint and the gutters, soffits and fascias are cleaned. And it's only Tuesday. Windows next to be cleaned, then garden tidied, etc. At this rate well be harvesting the seedlings we germinated to plant in the new place.

Paul

[tjh290633]

Today I purchased £5 worth of petrol and mowed my lawns on the highest setting. This afternoon I have been weeding the grass/moss. Removal of big flat weeds seemed to be a good idea.

Tomorrow is another day.

TJH

[kempiejon]

I have been vetoed from learning banjo.

[UncleEbenezer]

I have been vetoed from learning banjo.

It may be an ill wind from which you should take your cue.

[servodude]

I have been vetoed from learning banjo.

It may be an ill wind from which you should take your cue.

what heathen would bar anyone from learning the greatest of stringed instruments (assuming it's a 5 string)?
- I picked mine up about 18 years ago after a work colleague was forced to get rid of it by his wife (obviously a heathen)

plan to give it new strings this week (they're on the way)

have we got space in the snug for a session?

-sd

[DrFfybes]

I have been vetoed from learning banjo.

What's the difference between a Banjo and an onion?
A: People cry when you chop up an onion.

Gentleman (n): Someone who knows how to play the Banjo, but doesn't.

We locked the keys on the tour bus last night and had to break a window to get the banjo player out.

No Banjo players left in the van overnight.

etc etc.

Paul

[kempiejon]

what heathen would bar anyone from learning the greatest of stringed instruments (assuming it's a 5 string)?
- I picked mine up about 18 years ago after a work colleague was forced to get rid of it by his wife (obviously a heathen)

plan to give it new strings this week (they're on the way)

have we got space in the snug for a session?

Yes a 5 string, I've a mind to try 3 finger picking. I did grasp the basics of 4 string plectrum banjo many years ago but didn't get as much of as kick as playing guitar and I can fumble around bass and ukulele necks.

Willie said "Perfect pitch: When you toss an accordion into the trash can and it hits a banjo."