Hobbies, pastimes etc.

[Futtocks]

This link just turned up on Bluesky and I thought a thread about fun things to do in our leisure time.

A database of instructions to build lots of different paper planes.: https://www.foldnfly.com/index.html#/1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-2-1

Edited February 7 by Futtocks

[Maximus Decimus]

I have a number of on/off hobbies.

Currently, I'm doing a lot of Killer Sudoku which I've played in periods for 20 years. Funnily enough, I was never into normal sudoku. I like the mathematical aspect of Killer.

I usually get a book with increasing levels of hardness. The one I did last night was one that should take 1 hour and 45 mins. I did it in under an hour I reckon. 

That was however after 12 failures in a row...

[hindle xiii]

1 hour ago, Maximus Decimus said:

I have a number of on/off hobbies.

Currently, I'm doing a lot of Killer Sudoku which I've played in periods for 20 years. Funnily enough, I was never into normal sudoku. I like the mathematical aspect of Killer.

I usually get a book with increasing levels of hardness. The one I did last night was one that should take 1 hour and 45 mins. I did it in under an hour I reckon. 

That was however after 12 failures in a row...

I bought a normal sudoku book years ago, never started it cos I'd play online, but an office email about phone usage means I'm taking the sudoku book in the office. Also occasionally do a word search or 2. 

One hobby I'd only recently heard of after a colleague received this for Christmas is a "nukbook", or apparently "book nook", where the user builds a small scene (like a library) and it fits on a bookshelf, looks very impressive.

[Futtocks]

2 hours ago, hindle xiii said:

I bought a normal sudoku book years ago, never started it cos I'd play online, but an office email about phone usage means I'm taking the sudoku book in the office. Also occasionally do a word search or 2. 

One hobby I'd only recently heard of after a colleague received this for Christmas is a "nukbook", or apparently "book nook", where the user builds a small scene (like a library) and it fits on a bookshelf, looks very impressive.

I've seen some "Book Nook" kits on Amazon and they can be pretty intricate and beautiful. I've been tempted, but haven't bought one yet.

[N2022]

4 hours ago, Maximus Decimus said:

I have a number of on/off hobbies.

Currently, I'm doing a lot of Killer Sudoku which I've played in periods for 20 years. Funnily enough, I was never into normal sudoku. I like the mathematical aspect of Killer.

I usually get a book with increasing levels of hardness. The one I did last night was one that should take 1 hour and 45 mins. I did it in under an hour I reckon. 

That was however after 12 failures in a row...

Is killer the one where you are given section totals? 

Find the sudoku quite challenging myself.

The puzzle I prefer that you don't see often enough is the one where the series of numbers on the axes indicate the length of shaded blocks to form a picture.

I also like crosswords. Have recently taken to livening up some easier ones by guessing at a word before even looking at the clue. I then write in the correct answer but score myself a point for each letter my guess would have had in the right place. Probably a bit odd to others but gives me a pb to beat.

[Futtocks]

I have done general knowledge crosswords in the past, but it was joining the company I currently work for that got me into the cryptic ones. There was an existing crossword club at the company and they gradually drew me into their ranks.

[Eddie]

I’ve never been particularly interested in languages but gave Duolingo a go a couple of years ago and am completely addicted, I do 20-30 minutes a day. 

[N2022]

On 08/02/2026 at 18:31, Futtocks said:

I have done general knowledge crosswords in the past, but it was joining the company I currently work for that got me into the cryptic ones. There was an existing crossword club at the company and they gradually drew me into their ranks.

I like a cryptic crossword and have long been able to get at least somewhere close to completing the more doable ones. Some of them, however, are just so obscure I can't get near them.

[N2022]

22 hours ago, Eddie said:

I’ve never been particularly interested in languages but gave Duolingo a go a couple of years ago and am completely addicted, I do 20-30 minutes a day. 

Is it one language you've stuck with or do you try out different ones? I like the fact they insist on lots of repetition, but sometimes it can seem like overkill, where you could move on from 'Hello, bread please!' much more quickly.

[Eddie]

20 minutes ago, N2022 said:

Is it one language you've stuck with or do you try out different ones? I like the fact they insist on lots of repetition, but sometimes it can seem like overkill, where you could move on from 'Hello, bread please!' much more quickly.

I started with French for a year or so as I have a plan to retire to the Limoux area, and have now branched out into Polish too. The repetition is much less once you get past the first couple of stages in a language, I think it helps hugely with reading but I still find listening in real situations difficult as it’s so fast.  How about you?

Edited February 9 by Eddie

[Futtocks]

28 minutes ago, N2022 said:

I like a cryptic crossword and have long been able to get at least somewhere close to completing the more doable ones. Some of them, however, are just so obscure I can't get near them.

The one we all did together at work was the Metro cryptic, which is available online every day from Monday to Saturday without subscription and/or login. It's not too difficult, but not too simple either.

https://metro.co.uk/puzzles/cryptic-crossword/ 

The more you do them, the more you learn the rules, the terms and the way clues are worded.

Edited February 9 by Futtocks

[N2022]

6 minutes ago, Eddie said:

I started with French for a year or so as I have a plan to retire to the Limoux area, and have now branched out into Polish too. The repetition is much less once you get past the first couple of stages in a language, I think it helps hugely with reading but I still find listening in real situations difficult as it’s so fast.  How about you?

My degree is two European languages that I started aged 11 and 12 - advantage of that being various stints living / staying abroad as being immersed makes a huge difference. I am a teacher and teach one of these languages plus another that I picked up more recently when a sports injury unexpectedly gave me quite a bit more social time on my hands. When we go on holiday anywhere else I try to teach myself enough to do the basics in a restaurant and understand key signs and information around public transport. It's my thing, in the same way other people might be musical or technically/practically capable where I'm not, and I can progress quite quickly without that much repetition. You are right about listening being the tough bit, certainly for French where you could get a similar sound from various spellings and words get blended together. Generally tech makes learning a language so much more accessible than it used to be, but I also feel ease of translating with tech and and global dominance of English in signage etc will reduce the perceived value of learning a foreign language, where actually it's a valuable skill and hugely rewarding. Good luck with your learning, your plan to move to France - don't know the Limoux area but I'm sure you'll love it.

[Eddie]

32 minutes ago, N2022 said:

My degree is two European languages that I started aged 11 and 12 - advantage of that being various stints living / staying abroad as being immersed makes a huge difference. I am a teacher and teach one of these languages plus another that I picked up more recently when a sports injury unexpectedly gave me quite a bit more social time on my hands. When we go on holiday anywhere else I try to teach myself enough to do the basics in a restaurant and understand key signs and information around public transport. It's my thing, in the same way other people might be musical or technically/practically capable where I'm not, and I can progress quite quickly without that much repetition. You are right about listening being the tough bit, certainly for French where you could get a similar sound from various spellings and words get blended together. Generally tech makes learning a language so much more accessible than it used to be, but I also feel ease of translating with tech and and global dominance of English in signage etc will reduce the perceived value of learning a foreign language, where actually it's a valuable skill and hugely rewarding. Good luck with your learning, your plan to move to France - don't know the Limoux area but I'm sure you'll love it.

It’s a good point about the value of learning a foreign language, my kids are at the age when they’ll soon be picking which one(s) to do for GCSE and while it’s up to them what they choose to do, I don’t know which of the three taught at their school would be best. French is obviously the classic but is just spoken there, parts of Belgium Canada and Switzerland and their former colonies, same with German with just Germany, Austria and parts of Switzerland, all there English is widely known anyway, and Spanish is obviously important in Spain, South America and even parts of the USA so more widespread but maybe more for holidays than work/business. 

[N2022]

3 minutes ago, Eddie said:

It’s a good point about the value of learning a foreign language, my kids are at the age when they’ll soon be picking which one(s) to do for GCSE and while it’s up to them what they choose to do, I don’t know which of the three taught at their school would be best. French is obviously the classic but is just spoken there, parts of Belgium Canada and Switzerland and their former colonies, same with German with just Germany, Austria and parts of Switzerland, all there English is widely known anyway, and Spanish is obviously important in Spain, South America and even parts of the USA so more widespread but maybe more for holidays than work/business. 

Pros and cons. They each have their practical advantages and quirks / complexities. Maybe just let them go with whichever they enjoy most and make most progress in. Getting niche and teachery now, but are they currently doing all 3?

[The Hallucinating Goose]

I also do duolingo. I've been teaching myself German for a few years now. Love it!

Another hobby is geoguessr. If you don't know what it is, it's an online game where you are placed in a random place in the world on Google street view and have to find the exact location on a world map. I'm addicted.

[Eddie]

40 minutes ago, The Hallucinating Goose said:

I also do duolingo. I've been teaching myself German for a few years now. Love it!

Another hobby is geoguessr. If you don't know what it is, it's an online game where you are placed in a random place in the world on Google street view and have to find the exact location on a world map. I'm addicted.

Never heard of that, it sounds great will give it a go. 

[Eddie]

1 hour ago, N2022 said:

Pros and cons. They each have their practical advantages and quirks / complexities. Maybe just let them go with whichever they enjoy most and make most progress in. Getting niche and teachery now, but are they currently doing all 3?

No a mix of the three between them, but they can choose any of them weirdly. As you say I think it’s which they most enjoy, I think learning a language is massively important, wish I had when I was younger though I’ve always made an effort to learn a bit wherever I’ve been, but as for which one I don’t really mind! 

[The Hallucinating Goose]

10 hours ago, Eddie said:

Never heard of that, it sounds great will give it a go. 

You can get it as an app. That's how I play it, on my tablet. 

As I say, it plonks you down in some of the most random places in the world and then using your detective work, ie reading road signs and shop signs and recognising famous landmarks, even just working out what country you're in by recognising the language on the front of a bus or something then scanning all that country's biggest cities for a road with the right shape as the one you're on and then working out your location from the shape of a nearby building or something (you get the picture), you've gotta pinpoint your exact location on a map. 

The closest I've got so far is 1 metre away which was outside the Wellington City Museum (pretty easy one that given it just said those words on the building), and the furthest away was something like 1,700km which was a fail of course, and that was some random street on some random island in Indonesia that I'd never heard of.

It's brilliant! Also, watch a guy on YouTube called, 'geowizard'. He plays it and also finds the locations of old family photos for people. He will give you an idea what it's all about! Enjoy!

Edited February 10 by The Hallucinating Goose

[Eddie]

59 minutes ago, The Hallucinating Goose said:

You can get it as an app. That's how I play it, on my tablet. 

As I say, it plonks you down in some of the most random places in the world and then using your detective work, ie reading road signs and shop signs and recognising famous landmarks, even just working out what country you're in by recognising the language on the front of a bus or something then scanning all that country's biggest cities for a road with the right shape as the one you're on and then working out your location from the shape of a nearby building or something (you get the picture), you've gotta pinpoint your exact location on a map. 

The closest I've got so far is 1 metre away which was outside the Wellington City Museum (pretty easy one that given it just said those words on the building), and the furthest away was something like 1,700km which was a fail of course, and that was some random street on some random island in Indonesia that I'd never heard of.

It's brilliant! Also, watch a guy on YouTube called, 'geowizard'. He plays it and also finds the locations of old family photos for people. He will give you an idea what it's all about! Enjoy!

Thanks, sounds right up my street. I’ve downloaded the app, just need some time to give it a go.  

[The Hallucinating Goose]

46 minutes ago, Eddie said:

Thanks, sounds right up my street. I’ve downloaded the app, just need some time to give it a go.  

I doubt it will give you a level literally up your street!

[JonM]

55 minutes ago, Eddie said:

Thanks, sounds right up my street. I’ve downloaded the app, just need some time to give it a go.  

Friend's son is into this - takes part in championships and stuff. He can look at a photo and say stuff like "Only USA, Canada and Finland have those kind of road markings, but the roadside barriers aren't North American so it must be Finland. Those trees don't grow in the North of Finland, so it must be in the south." Plus he can recognise about 200 different types of electricity pylon. Dangerous thing to get into...

[JonM]

15 hours ago, N2022 said:

I like a cryptic crossword and have long been able to get at least somewhere close to completing the more doable ones. Some of them, however, are just so obscure I can't get near them.

I've mostly stopped doing them, but I'm the opposite, only do the likes of Azed and Mephisto as they're pretty obscure and challenging. The Private Eye crossword is the only one I do regularly. Viz crossword is surprisingly tough too, unless you have a great memory for stuff out of their Profanisaurus.

[Eddie]

18 minutes ago, JonM said:

Viz crossword is surprisingly tough too, unless you have a great memory for stuff out of their Profanisaurus.

I could do their crossword in no time then! 

[The Hallucinating Goose]

47 minutes ago, JonM said:

Friend's son is into this - takes part in championships and stuff. He can look at a photo and say stuff like "Only USA, Canada and Finland have those kind of road markings, but the roadside barriers aren't North American so it must be Finland. Those trees don't grow in the North of Finland, so it must be in the south." Plus he can recognise about 200 different types of electricity pylon. Dangerous thing to get into...

So I aren't the only one then...

[N2022]

9 hours ago, The Hallucinating Goose said:

You can get it as an app. That's how I play it, on my tablet. 

As I say, it plonks you down in some of the most random places in the world and then using your detective work, ie reading road signs and shop signs and recognising famous landmarks, even just working out what country you're in by recognising the language on the front of a bus or something then scanning all that country's biggest cities for a road with the right shape as the one you're on and then working out your location from the shape of a nearby building or something (you get the picture), you've gotta pinpoint your exact location on a map. 

The closest I've got so far is 1 metre away which was outside the Wellington City Museum (pretty easy one that given it just said those words on the building), and the furthest away was something like 1,700km which was a fail of course, and that was some random street on some random island in Indonesia that I'd never heard of.

It's brilliant! Also, watch a guy on YouTube called, 'geowizard'. He plays it and also finds the locations of old family photos for people. He will give you an idea what it's all about! Enjoy!

In a similar vein, my son recommends Z18gzag the geoguesser on youtube. Would be fun to replicate some of this with an RL theme. Plonk somebody on streetview within a mile of an obscure RL ground and see how quickly they could work out where it was and which one ...