[mrjonathanr]

Despite our ‘narcissistic look at me’ culture there must still be loads of people who do things they know they really don’t do well or look good doing, but enjoy doing and plough on anyway. Maybe most of us? Climbing, for some of us, for sure.

I’ll start the ball rolling with Rotherham Tuneless Choir

When Nadine Cooper was 11 or 12 her music teacher asked her to stop singing as she was “spoiling it for everyone else”.

She spent the next few decades avoiding public singing, but got increasingly frustrated when hearing how good singing in a group is for us. 

The “singing like no-one is listening” takes place at Whiston Parish Hall:

https://www.tunelesschoir.com/join-another-tuneless-choir/rotherham-tuneless-choir/

[andy popp]

Swimming, I'm rubbish, but love it, in the sea especially.

[Fiend]

Yup, climbing.

I feel pretty good at the other hobbies / activities I do, in comparison. I certainly paint orcs a few "grades" above my climbing.

[36chambers]

playing the piano.

I've been playing blues guitar for 20 years but I'm too lazy to learn any music and always just mindlessly doodle away. This approach works fine on an instrument I know, but sounds god awful on the piano, even though I absolutely love doing it. (Same for the tin whistle and a few other things.)

[mrjonathanr]

Dancing. Zorba the Greek Mrs mrjonathanr calls it. Picture a very drunk Anthony Quinn.

Blues guitar is pretty cool.
Suspect you are being too modest there Fiend.

[Ged]

Aside from climbing, growing veg. My allotment is an absolute shambles compared to the manicured offerings of my retired fellow plot owners. But my "stick some seeds in the ground and hope for the best" approach is great fun, and I usually get a fair bit of produce.

Also take a huge amount of pleasure in dishing out justice on the racist and bigoted plot owners by letting my little girl scrump their raspberries.

[tomtom]

Sex 😁

[andy popp]

Aside from climbing, growing veg.

This is a good one. My parents were fantastic gardners - flower beds etc., but also just incredible amounts of fruit and vegetables. I never had any interest, but started getting into in the US. Now we just have a balcony and a small roof deck but we're growing multiple different herbs, peas, green beans, chillis, tomatoes, cucumbers, radishes, and lettuce. I still have no clue what I'm doing and I expect most of it will fail, but it's still very satisfying, which leads to ...

... cooking. I'm not a bad cook, competent (and sometimes better than that) but not great. It gives me great pleasure though, and is even better with produce we've grown ourselves.

[andy popp]

Sex 😁

I knew that was coming. It was just a matter of time.

[tomtom]

Sex 😁

I knew that was coming. It was just a matter of time.

It didn’t take long either…

[tomtom]

Apologies - for sullying the thread.

I think climbing is the only thing I enjoy doing that I’m alright at/have shown some ability for (it’s relative..) - pretty much everything else I do I’m crap at but enjoy anyway

[cheque]

Climbing, for some of us, for sure.

  I mean I’m not terrible  but I’m far from a natural despite having the ideal build. I’m fact I love it even more since the odds have moved against me physically. There are loads of things that I’m brimming with confidence at, it wouldn’t be a stretch to say I’m have a natural talent for but I just love to climb more than doing them. I had a period where I thought that the climbing itself wasn’t really the thing I liked about being out at crags but that turned out not to be true. I love everything about it but the challenge of the climbing itself the most.

Swimming is firmly in this category for me too although I don’t do it regularly. I used to love playing football too (apart from playing in goal) but I was absolutely useless at it. 

[mrjonathanr]

Yeah absolutely. For me it’s trad climbing. I spend most moments in a state of inhibited semi-terror but utterly enthralled by it.

[Moo]

I do a bit of woodwork avoiding power tools as much as possible. I enjoy working with my hands and having a finished physical thing at the end of it. It takes me ages to make anything but I like the fact I can take my time and enjoy each step of the process.

[Fiend]

MRJR I have little modesty about my toy soldiers albeit I am very lazy about getting them done, and the one time I entered Golden Demon, I only go finalist pins, no statues.

I think the thing I tried that I was the worst at was trying to skip. A good hour or so and I managed two consecutive steps just once. Desperate. I didn't enjoy doing it though.


P.S. cos it just got posted, woodwork is ace!

[Wood FT]

Mixing music, I'm even crap using Traktor (the DJ equivalent of having the rails up in bowling) but I absolutely love it. The only shame is I got into it too late and now too old and past the cellar parties of yore. 

[Ged]

Aside from climbing, growing veg.

This is a good one. My parents were fantastic gardners - flower beds etc., but also just incredible amounts of fruit and vegetables. I never had any interest, but started getting into in the US. Now we just have a balcony and a small roof deck but we're growing multiple different herbs, peas, green beans, chillis, tomatoes, cucumbers, radishes, and lettuce. I still have no clue what I'm doing and I expect most of it will fail...

I always thought that, but it turns out plants are pretty good at growing! Just stick to the basics of defending them from slugs, and plenty of sunlight, and they'll do what they're good at. I reckon for July August September we don't buy any fruit or veg, just eat what we've grown. But I totally give up over the winter. Seems like a lot of effort for very little produce

[rginns]

What a great thread!
For me it's playing cricket.
I'm a complete butterfingers and can't run for toffee. I rarely score runs but being part of a team is brilliant and I love the game, can't get enough of it, especially bowling.
Luckily I play for a social team so there's usually not much pressure you might get in a league.

[Oldmanmatt]

Singing.

Alone in the car, or in the shower when everybody is out.



By order of the United Nations Security Council.

[battery]

Running. I'm so slow no matter what I do but I have times when it just feels like utter freedom and brilliance -i like the way it leaves me feeling most of the time too.

[nai]

Trad aside, I love fishing but am a disaster zone on the bank. Probably the organisation, patience and concentration required for success.  I watch others manage to carry out all operations from their chair and wonder why I'm up and down. over here and there every few minutes.
Get distracted looking for birds, snag the scenery and lose tackle every session, never manage to keep a swim going and the big one ALWAYS gets away.
Joined a club with a private lake so I can flail in peace and spare being glared at by all competent punters.

[spidermonkey09]

What a great thread!
For me it's playing cricket.
I'm a complete butterfingers and can't run for toffee. I rarely score runs but being part of a team is brilliant and I love the game, can't get enough of it, especially bowling.
Luckily I play for a social team so there's usually not much pressure you might get in a league.

I played village cricket through my teens and absolutely loved it despite being bang average. I have scored one 50 in my life and I would count it in my top 5 sporting experiences, along with somehow holding on to a steepling catch to win a game when I was about 13 and 4 foot high.

If I was given the choice now of being world class at climbing or cricket, I would choose cricket in a heartbeat. I haven't played since I started climbing as I wouldn't be any good at committing to every weekend, but I always say I'd start again if/when I get a finger injury.

[rginns]

What a great thread!
For me it's playing cricket.
I'm a complete butterfingers and can't run for toffee. I rarely score runs but being part of a team is brilliant and I love the game, can't get enough of it, especially bowling.
Luckily I play for a social team so there's usually not much pressure you might get in a league.

I played village cricket through my teens and absolutely loved it despite being bang average. I have scored one 50 in my life and I would count it in my top 5 sporting experiences, along with somehow holding on to a steepling catch to win a game when I was about 13 and 4 foot high.

If I was given the choice now of being world class at climbing or cricket, I would choose cricket in a heartbeat. I haven't played since I started climbing as I wouldn't be any good at committing to every weekend, but I always say I'd start again if/when I get a finger injury.

Ah yeah, problem being that you might make the finger injury worse catching a leather ball at 60mph!
I know what you mean with committing, I'd be the same. Luckily we play 8 or 10 games a season all on a Thursday night, 20 overs. Seems to work out.

Singing.

Alone in the car, or in the shower when everybody is out.



By order of the United Nations Security Council.

I can relate to this Matt!!😂

[Will Hunt]

I spent a portion of my childhood begrudgingly chained to a piano because my parents thought it was something kids should do. I hated it all, practice was at gun point, and I eventually got a grade 1 - pass. Which is as bad as you can be at the piano while still holding some certificate.

Fast forward to the end of uni after Neil Dickson (the very good climber) introduced me to folk music. I got a violin and took fiddle lessons. Irish trad - because that was what my (very Irish) teacher taught. I really enjoyed it but because my teacher NEVER gave any sort of encouragement or feedback I never knew whether I was actually playing well.

I went to sessions in the Chemic and The Grove in Leeds, and The Manor House in Otley and played there. I was always very very nervous because if you're crap and you play then you ruin the session for everybody else.

Playing in a group like that is something else. The best session I had was at the Grove, just playing with my teacher and some of his mates. I think there was a guitar, a melodeon, a bodhran, and a couple of fiddles.  Everything just clicked. Sessions are like Ouija boards: nobody knows who is driving the music but something, the group, is definitely driving it along. Our modest audience was going wild and we just got faster and faster - playing on pure muscle memory. Yeeeeeeeeoooo!

At some point I'll pick up fiddle and play again, but it takes time to get decent at it.

Also singing of course. Though I expect I'm as good as those people they feed to the judges on X Factor.

[jwi]

The vocal cords are also muscles. With practice anyone can learn to sing simple songs in tune. I could go on a long rant on how ridiculous demands on ‘perfect’ singing is harmful to music. Not everyone have a singing voice that is pleasant to listen to even if it is in tune, but then again not everyone has a speaking voice that is pleasant to listen to (in fact, very few do) and no one are asking those people to shut up forever.

[Wellsy]

Weight training! I only just got into it, like literally within the last month, but I'm really enjoying the bench and squats, and I'm going to do some deadlifting too. I'm not particularly strong in those areas (I can bench a max of about 75kgs, so my bodyweight, but not more) but I do enjoy it and I'd like to do more

[mr chaz]

Drumming! Have played guitar and in bands since I was 10, but only picked up the sticks a couple of years ago when my colleague (guitarist) wanted to jam. Flippin' love it, have enough musicality and coordination to work out and play simple beats. More recently I started adding vocals and he's added bass (via an octave pedal and bass amp) and together we've spent countless hours trying to play songs by the likes of Royal Blood and The Blue Stones.

[TobyD]

1) Climbing
2) road cycling
3) running
4) windsurfing

I could probably go on....

[Anti]

I've really found myself getting into chess recently. I enjoy the depth of the game. I tend to go deep into things when I get into them and chess has endless content to consume and learn.

[monkoffunk]

Yoga, although I don’t think the point is to be good and I’m kinda glad to have something I do where I don’t worry about performance. Meditation, although the same but much more so.

Running, which I restarted in lockdown.  It is nice to see some improvement there, only compare myself to myself, just didn’t want to be so aerobically unfit anymore.  Sea swimming, which I definitely only do for fun when it’s warm.

Chess, which I playing a fair amount of, particularly correspondence on chess.com. Maybe one day I’ll have some time to improve at this! If anyone wants a game....

[SA Chris]

My interest in chess has been revitalised after my son has taken an interest, it's now the Sunday morning after breakfast ritual. I said at the start I would never let him win, he would need to beat me fairly.

I think it took about 15 games before he got the better of me, now it's about 50/50, the devious little bastard.

[scragrock]

Spearfishing, i am proper pants at it but love it nonetheless.
Ever since i was a boy growing up next to the sea in the East Neuk of Fife, i spent every summer and some winter days flinging myself of the pier, messing about in rock pools and swimming through and under waves.
The feeling of just floating at the mercy of the oceans immense power is for me, Deeply relaxing.

[colin8ll]

Piano. I've only been playing for around a year and the progress I have made has been very hard won but I've had some really magical moments when I'm on the cusp of learning a tune and my fingers remember what to do by themselves and I can have a sort of out of body experience observing myself play.

[Oldmanmatt]

Spearfishing, i am proper pants at it but love it nonetheless.
Ever since i was a boy growing up next to the sea in the East Neuk of Fife, i spent every summer and some winter days flinging myself of the pier, messing about in rock pools and swimming through and under waves.
The feeling of just floating at the mercy of the oceans immense power is for me, Deeply relaxing.

Amen.

Though I prefer catching Lobster. My first, I saw in about 5mtrs of water, on a crystal clear day, just into the open water as I snorkelled out of Port Quin. No gloves, but I’d handled them on the boats, so not too much pain. I let it go. I was, maybe, 13. Used to cycle out there from St Tudy when it was too flat to surf. Or blag a ride with one of the fishermen that lived in the village, throwing my bike in the trailer with the pots and then cycling home, racing the sunset and a bollocking for being out after dark...

Edit:

Actually, if you enjoy that feeling, it’s well worth trying out deep mixed gas diving. It is the diving equivalent of Freefall parachuting (and, like that, not cheap or easy). Perhaps the most incredible experience possible, is drift diving between islands, preferably somewhere tropical.
The Philippines was a favourite when I lived in Dubai. Dropping down, in blue water, to 100mtrs or so depth, allowing the racing currents to bowl you along a few meters above the bottom, like a balloon on a stiff breeze; then the slow crawl up, to your first deco stop 60/65 mtrs or so, to begin a couple of hours drifting in the blue. Often punctuated by a shoal of Blue or Yellow fin Tuna, or Eagle Ray flying past. If you are lucky, Whale Shark or Dolphin or an over amorous Remora. Put your SMB up at 21mtrs and hope the boat can find you, since you are probably several km from where you started and a few islands away...

[galpinos]

Surfing.

The pinnacle of my achievements is standing up. I am still baffled why spending hours in the water, in the cold, in a wetsuit, fighting to get out (it takes me an age), getting dumped on by waves etc only to get "out the back", to miss everything, s**t myself because the wave has a one foot high "face", then finally catch one and fall off instantly is so much fun.

[andy popp]

Climbing, for some of us, for sure.

I mean I’m not terrible  but I’m far from a natural despite having the ideal build.

Any ability at climbing I developed was entirely because of the enjoyment - rather than enjoying it because it was something I was good at, the enjoyment came first. I was a clumsy, poorly coordinated child and physiologically I've never seemed to respond well to training. I was also never that kid doing the dares and taking risks. And at 14, when I discovered climbing, I was even a bit tubby. There was very little to suggest climbing would be a good sport for me.