There was an attempt to….explain why.

“So, what do you like to do for fun, do you have any hobbies?”

“Erm….”

This is a question I’ve been looking for answers to for most of my forty-something years on this planet.  When finding myself at a loose end over the years, I’ve tried out many different hobbies and pastimes, but nothing ever really stuck as my thing.  A combination of getting bored easily, coupled with a lack of any discernible talents, resulted in the unshakable conclusion that putting in any further time and effort would never make my latest diversion enjoyable.  Finding ways to spend my free time was a chore.

Then COVID happened. Lockdowns and the order to Stay At Home meant everyone (including myself) found themselves with a little more free time on their hands. Stories emerged of people finding creative ways to pass the time; learning new arts and crafts, gardening, and baking their own bread (in the Lockdown Era, you were either Team Sourdough or Team Banana). Some people even embraced the opportunity to exercise more regularly and develop healthy habits – but clearly these people are smug bastards and we shall speak no more of them.

For me, it was business as usual in that I was able to try (and fail) at a whole new bunch of ways of filling the void. Most of the time I continued with my twin pursuits of doomscrolling and kalsarikänni (Finland you absolute beauty for coming up with this word, which literally means “drinking at home, alone, in your underwear”). Occasionally though, I would get up off the sofa, put on some trousers, mutter “fuck it” and plunge into another attempt to find a leisure activity that would become The One.

Most of these pursuits were picked at random, some were an attempt to entertain the kids, and a lot of candidates were due to a cheap kit being available on Amazon that would tempt me into trying something out.

The one thing I didn’t try was writing a blog. I’ve had a few aborted attempts at the ol’ blog writing before (more on this later…) but running out of ideas and momentum meant that these efforts were short-lived. Recently, however, it struck me that documenting my attempts at keeping myself entertained was a relatively rich stream of material, and maybe, just maybe I would be able to get beyond an intro post. So after the inevitable dithering on picking a blogging platform and a title, here we are.

All I hope is that by sharing these little stories they may raise a chuckle, or maybe even provide a few novel ideas for you to try out.  Join me as I Fail at Leisure…