New year, new skill

[Beardy]

I had a habit, which lapsed a few years ago after it got buried in the mire of depression, of committing to learning a new skill each year. This habit has for example seen me gain proficiency or certification in subjects as diverse as playing the saxophone, learning to ride a motorbike, passing my RYA day skipper and scuba diving.

I’ve been feeling better in and off myself recently and so have decided that I will try and continue that trend by reintroducing the old habit. But as I approach my 57th summer I have to admit that I’ve accrued a modicum of mass that will make some activities more difficult to follow, and my various medications and deafness make others near impossible.

I’ve got a few ideas, but welcome any suggestions for consideration.

I also offer this as a suggestion to anyone who might be feeling a bit staid or bored as a strategy to chase both away.

[Jurek]

What about something which doesn't involve the physical / fitness.
Another language? BSL? Maybe?

O/T, a bit.
My dentist, a Venezualan, learnt Russian as she loved the work of Chekov, and wanted to appreciate his plays in the language in which they were written.
Props to her for doing that.

[Basil]

+1 to BSL.
Latin?  Welsh?

Piano?  Drawing?

Building and flying model planes?  Or boats.
I always fancied building model sailing boats with radio controlled rudder and sail trim.

[Paul]

Coincidentally, I'm playing with the idea of making a bow and learning how to use it.

One immediate problem is the fact that there is a children's nursery at the bottom of my garden...

[Polar Bear]

One thing on my list is to start making the occasional 10 minute vlog episodes.  I have a whole list of subjects and just fancy giving it a try.  I imagine that even learning how to edit the footage will be difficult let alone actually planning, scripting and shooting it.

[ElyDave]

I bought myself a ukulele for my 40th birthday - easy to travel with and easy to pick up a tune
Year after that I built myself a recumbent
Last year, not quite sure some decent advances in my yoga practice, also wheel-building, but I'm carrying that forward into this year as well - still not confident that I have it mastered.

I need to put soemthing on my list as well.

[andytheflyer]

Building and flying model planes? 

Don't even think about building and flying model aeroplanes.......

TheLurker OTP and a few others will, I'm sure, testify, it's addictive, and you have to be prepared to go home with a model that's cost £00s, plus many, many hours of emotional investment, in a bin bag.

Having said that, I've been building for about 15 years, and I learn a new modelling skill every few weeks - so it ticks that box.  Unfortunately, my prowess on the transmitter sticks does not keep pace.  More practice required.

How's the saxophone skill development going Beardy?  I started about 18 months ago as a retirement project and will shortly go for my Grade 1 exam!  (at last...).  I hadn't picked up an instrument for 50 years before picking up my son's old school sax, so I had to start from stone cold.

[De Sisti]

Learning to play the saxaphone is one thing. To stay at the level you achieved you'll have to practice a lot.
To improve you'll have to practice even more.

[Ham]

Isn't the definition of a saxophone an ill wind nobody blows good?

[ElyDave]

Isn't the definition of a saxophone an ill wind nobody blows good?

I thought that was the oboe?

[Beardy]

Building and flying model planes? 

Don't even think about building and flying model aeroplanes.......

TheLurker OTP and a few others will, I'm sure, testify, it's addictive, and you have to be prepared to go home with a model that's cost £00s, plus many, many hours of emotional investment, in a bin bag.

Having said that, I've been building for about 15 years, and I learn a new modelling skill every few weeks - so it ticks that box.  Unfortunately, my prowess on the transmitter sticks does not keep pace.  More practice required.

I did the building and flying of models in my youth, though radio technology has moved on a lot since then. I moved on to flying in gliders as funds allowed, but that stopped when the children joined the family. I’m not sure how I’d feel about flying models again now.

How's the saxophone skill development going Beardy?  I started about 18 months ago as a retirement project and will shortly go for my Grade 1 exam!  (at last...).  I hadn't picked up an instrument for 50 years before picking up my son's old school sax, so I had to start from stone cold.

l’m a bit of a serial hobbist to be honest. I learnt to play, and practised for a while, but the practice lapsed with most other things when the depression came back. I’ve been picking up various threads for the past 18 months or so, and Dr Beardy (Mrs) has been encouraging my to try the sax again. I was never bothered about doing grades though.

[Tim Hall]

One of my nieces ever so kindly gave me a ukulele for Christmas. She's really good at it so thinks I would like it too. I can almost play four chords now, with better results now I've cut my finger nails.

[Jurek]

Isn't the definition of a saxophone an ill wind nobody blows good?

Let's see what nicknack has to say about that!

Good call.... I've just come back from a very blustery couple of days in NN's neck of the woods.

[Andrij]

One of my nieces ever so kindly gave me a ukulele for Christmas. She's really good at it so thinks I would like it too. I can almost play four chords now, with better results now I've cut my finger nails.

Four chords?!  That's more than most popular beat combos can manage.

[clarion]

Building and flying model planes? 

Don't even think about building and flying model aeroplanes.......

TheLurker OTP and a few others will, I'm sure, testify, it's addictive, and you have to be prepared to go home with a model that's cost £00s, plus many, many hours of emotional investment, in a bin bag.

Having said that, I've been building for about 15 years, and I learn a new modelling skill every few weeks - so it ticks that box.  Unfortunately, my prowess on the transmitter sticks does not keep pace.  More practice required.

I've just rekindled my deep and abiding love of aviation, and am getting into RC planes.  My aim is to have my BMFA A and B Tests completed by the end of the year.

[Tim Hall]

One of my nieces ever so kindly gave me a ukulele for Christmas. She's really good at it so thinks I would like it too. I can almost play four chords now, with better results now I've cut my finger nails.

Four chords?!  That's more than most popular beat combos can manage.

There's an interview with George Hinchcliffe of the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain:
"People say, learn three chords and start a band. We say, three chords, why so many?"

[nicknack]

Isn't the definition of a saxophone an ill wind nobody blows good?

Let's see what nicknack has to say about that!

I get paid for it so somebody must like it. Poo to you Mr Ham!

[Ham]

Hmph. Next you'll be accusing me of having people like Sonny Rollins, Coleman Hawkins, Canonball Adderly, Wayne Shorter, Johnny Hodges, Branford Marsalis, David Sanborn in my record mp3 collection.

Oh. I appear to still have the records.

[nicknack]

Hmph. Next you'll be accusing me of having people like Sonny Rollins, Coleman Hawkins, Canonball Adderly, Wayne Shorter, Johnny Hodges, Branford Marsalis, David Sanborn in my record mp3 collection.

Oh. I appear to still have the records.

[Aunt Maud]

I've bought an old strip built mahogany canoe for fifty quid, which I shall be restoring as my new year project.

Once it is watertight I intend to be a menace to the local pike community.

The restoration of said canoe is a dry run for my attempt at building a traditional Adirondack guide boat, sourcing all the materials from the local woods.

[Asterix, the former Gaul.]

I'd like to learn to be a warm water Scuba diver.

[Wombat]

And hoping to learn to be a not homeless* person!  It looks like our  pre-Christmas ranting fit at both the estate agent and the solicitors may have borne fruit.  As our sellers have backed out of their purchase, its dawned on them that they pretty well have to very belatedly honour their promise made in writing, to move into rented accommodation by Christmas.  It'll be February 1st, with exchange on 12th Jan, but our solicitor has countered with "well if you can exchange on 12th, you can exchange tomorrow"  We shall see.  Maybe the light at the end of the tunnel isn't a train coming the other way.

*not homeless as in literally nowhere to sleep, but homeless as in we (including Alfie) don't have a home of our own, so all our possessions are in a very expensive storage unit, Alfie is n a very expensive (but excellent) cattery, and we are stretching the bounds of friendship, of some long term friends we have otherwise seen once about every two years, and staying with them, and luckily only paying a small amount rather than market rent. 

Real skills to be learnt include understanding the structure of music, and having another bash at playing the keyboard, and, like Basil, Welsh!  If nothing else, Mrs Wombat needs to be able to consistently pronounce Pen Y Berllan...

[Wombat]

The light at the end of the tunnel was indeed a train coming the other way.  They have reneged on their written offer, which was accepted in writing, of yesterday. 

Absolute bags of shite.

[Somnolent]

The light at the end of the tunnel was indeed a train coming the other way.  They have reneged on their written offer, which was accepted in writing, of yesterday. 

Absolute bags of shite.

Instruct your solicitor to wait until last possible moment before exchange, then tell his opposite number you want to reduce the price you are offering?

[TheLurker]

Building and flying model planes? 

Don't even think about building and flying model aeroplanes......

Don't listen to that bad man AndyTheFlyer; a bad prang is simply an excuse to rebuild it better. 

Joking apart RC, even these days, is the expensive end of the hobby.  Free flight gliders and free flight rubber powered stuff can be built pretty quickly, if you avoid the scale side of things, and for not very much money at all. However it is, like cycling, one of those things that can get a bit ummm... involving.