What are we doing with our time?

[SpyderTracks]

Hi all

Thought it would be fun to list the things we've been doing to keep ourselves busy.

I've been getting very inspired listening to lots of great music so I've resurrected my mini studio in the dining room as we're not currently entertaining. I haven't had this setup for some time as just haven't had the room so it's been really nice getting back into it.

Plus, Apple, in their infinite wisdom, decided to drop possibly the biggest update to Logic Pro yesterday, so I'm having to update my OS on my Macbook as the latest update is only supported on the last 2 OS's, so hacking around with that at the moment which is fun.

The headphones were an Isolation present to myself, some Hifiman Sundara's which I bought open boxed from a reputable Hifi shop, got an absolute bargain and they're amazing headphones, would highly recommend!

Aside from that, I've been buying far too much vinyl, ranging from 60's and 70's rock and pop to 90's and 00's trance, as well as some new releases.

Music is really my main pastime at the moment outside of work.

 

[danhar827]

That's an impressive record collection! Mine pales in comparison.

Apart from having to work full time still (from home at least), pretty much just counting down the days until my Nova arrives...

 

[Tony1044]

My time is stacked right now and my day tends to consist of working an average 10 hours, combined with being "teacher" for my youngest son. About 6 years ago I had my back garden landscaped and a custom built office erected. He spends all day in there with me. As a side note, I'd recommend anyone who can, has a separate office for home working - it is amazing the mental wellbeing that comes of actually closing the door and "leaving" work for the day has when it has its own dedicated space.

After that I'm going for a run to clear my head - just before lockdown I'd started to train for triathlons again.

And then after that it's cooking a dinner for the three of us (I'm sole carer of my kids right now as my ex-wife is a care worker so we talked about, and agreed, that she shouldn't expose the kids unnecessarily) and chores.

Weekends are laundry and housework days.

 

[Stephen M]

I do not work much these days anyway and for the last few years it has mostly been from home so Lockdown is no problem in that respect.

I have been decorating, putting a lot of reproduction paintings up from this great site: https://www.myartprints.co.uk/ Has cost about 3K but well worth it and the final pictures should be with me by mid-June.

Music has always been my main passion so continuing with the never ending task of sorting my vinyl and CD collection.

Thought I would leave the worst until last. Since April 19 I have been nursing my Father who picked up Covid-19 on the way back from Australia, as did Mum but she was only ill for about five days. Dad was seriously ill for two weeks, his oxygen saturation dropped to the low 80s and had Pneumonia as well, our GP wanted him in hospital but as our local has such an appalling record Dad did not want to go I backed him up to stay. For about four days every time I had to leave him I expected to return to a corpse. Luckily he is a tough old stick and very spirited and is now doing very well. Still weak but eating well (Covid-19 effects the taste and for three weeks everything tasted awful), he is doing physio to build his legs up again, was in bed for three weeks and the quadriceps go quickly - the bigger the muscle the faster it wastes.

Dad is 86 and I am very proud of the fight he showed.

GP is sure I must have had it as well so with luck I may be immune now.

 

[SpyderTracks]

I do not work much these days anyway and for the last few years it has mostly been from home so Lockdown is no problem in that respect.

I have been decorating, putting a lot of reproduction paintings up from this great site: https://www.myartprints.co.uk/ Has cost about 3K but well worth it and the final pictures should be with me by mid-June.

Music has always been my main passion so continuing with the never ending task of sorting my vinyl and CD collection.

Thought I would leave the worst until last. Since April 19 I have been nursing my Father who picked up Covid-19 on the way back from Australia, as did Mum but she was only ill for about five days. Dad was seriously ill for two weeks, his oxygen saturation dropped to the low 80s and had Pneumonia as well, our GP wanted him in hospital but as our local has such an appalling record Dad did not want to go I backed him up to stay. For about four days every time I had to leave him I expected to return to a corpse. Luckily he is a tough old stick and very spirited and is now doing very well. Still weak but eating well (Covid-19 effects the taste and for three weeks everything tasted awful), he is doing physio to build his legs up again, was in bed for three weeks and the quadriceps go quickly - the bigger the muscle the faster it wastes.

Dad is 86 and I am very proud of the fight he showed.

GP is sure I must have had it as well so with luck I may be immune now.

I so pleased for your father, what a strong man!!! And I definitely think keeping him home was a good idea. Well done, both of you!

Thanks for the Art link, will take a look through that. Will be getting a larger place in a few years and want some new artwork for the place.

 

[Tony1044]

@Stephen M so glad your dad recovered!

 

[ubuysa]

Well let's see. A typical day...

Get up. Walk the dog along the seafront. Have some breakfast on our terrace. Check out these fora. Laze on our terrace in the sunshine (it's forecast to be 32C here today). Have some lunch. Check on these fora. Turn on the aircon and cool down inside - and check on these fora. Walk the dog along the seafront. Check on these fora. Have some supper on our terrace. Come back inside into the cool to relax after such a hectic day. Check on these fora. Go to bed.

I know, I really should slow down now I'm retired........ 😎

 

[SpyderTracks]

Well let's see. A typical day...

Get up. Walk the dog along the seafront. Have some breakfast on our terrace. Check out these fora. Laze on our terrace in the sunshine (it's forecast to be 32C here today). Have some lunch. Check on these fora. Turn on the aircon and cool down inside - and check on these fora. Walk the dog along the seafront. Check on these fora. Have some supper on our terrace. Come back inside into the cool to relax after such a hectic day. Check on these fora. Go to bed.

I know, I really should slow down now I'm retired........ 😎

Do you miss the boat?

 

[ubuysa]

Do you miss the boat?

No, not at all. All my friends in the marina here ask that too. We had 12 great years living aboard her and cruising Greece and Turkey. We've started a new chapter now and I love not having to keep checking the weather or fixing stuff that's broken.

Its very peaceful here on Crete too with no tourists. The sea and beaches have only locals on them. It's 32C here today too. The virus does have an up side.....

 

[SpyderTracks]

No, not at all. All my friends in the marina here ask that too. We had 12 great years living aboard her and cruising Greece and Turkey. We've started a new chapter now and I love not having to keep checking the weather or fixing stuff that's broken.

Its very peaceful here on Crete too with no tourists. The sea and beaches have only locals on them. It's 32C here today too. The virus does have an up side.....

I admire your attitude

 

[ubuysa]

I admire your attitude

Retirement is great, but you have to plan for it rather than just let it happen to you. We planned to retire aboard a sailing yacht over 10 years before we retired (which we did in our very early 50s).

We weren't sailors either but we learned to sail with RYA schools in the years before we retired.

It's just like computung; Proper Planning Prevents Poor Performance.

 

[steaky360]

I'm fortunately in the position where I can work from home. So there's been little change from me in terms of my working days, except I'm spending more and more time in one room of my house (its the same room as my gaming PC...).

I am a home brewer, so have been doing a fair bit of that recently when not working. Its quite relaxing and a big bonus of this hobby is that typically, in the worst case scenario, I end up with extremely drinkable beer .

Which is always nice (maybe not so good for the waistline)!

Brewing Beer

Homebar

Beer Mat Wall

We have nearly completed the beer-mat wall - no duplicates, need another 20 or so mats to complete it - looks good so far I reckon

I've also been playing more and more what are typically paper and dice RPG's (particularly: Pathfinder) but the group I used to play with before I moved to Aberdeen have started playing over Roll20 so I've joined in with their weekly sessions. Its been a blast, currently playing through a campaign where we're all playing Pirates in the Shackles area of Golarion.

A different system I've started running (GM'ing) is a campaign of the Alien RPG with the same group of friends. Run as a 'one shot' adventure (disposable characters etc.) set in the Alien universe (as in the movies etc.) - its been a blast so far!

I'd highly recommend anyone looking for a fun way to game with friends to consider traditional RPG's!

 

[SpyderTracks]

I'm fortunately in the position where I can work from home. So there's been little change from me in terms of my working days, except I'm spending more and more time in one room of my house (its the same room as my gaming PC...).

I am a home brewer, so have been doing a fair bit of that recently when not working. Its quite relaxing and a big bonus of this hobby is that typically, in the worst case scenario, I end up with extremely drinkable beer .

Which is always nice (maybe not so good for the waistline)!

View attachment 16087
Brewing Beer

View attachment 16088
Homebar
View attachment 16089
Beer Mat Wall

We have nearly completed the beer-mat wall - no duplicates, need another 20 or so mats to complete it - looks good so far I reckon

I've also been playing more and more what are typically paper and dice RPG's (particularly: Pathfinder) but the group I used to play with before I moved to Aberdeen have started playing over Roll20 so I've joined in with their weekly sessions. Its been a blast, currently playing through a campaign where we're all playing Pirates in the Shackles area of Golarion.

A different system I've started running (GM'ing) is a campaign of the Alien RPG with the same group of friends. Run as a 'one shot' adventure (disposable characters etc.) set in the Alien universe (as in the movies etc.) - its been a blast so far!

I'd highly recommend anyone looking for a fun way to game with friends to consider traditional RPG's!

Wow, that bar is incredible! Really nice job!

 

[steaky360]

Wow, that bar is incredible! Really nice job!

Full disclosure, I did not build the bar - but yeah its quite a nice feeling to be able to pour myself a pint of my own beer (can easy hook it up to purchased kegs/etc. too) - just need to get myself a beer engine now for pulling pints of cask ale!

 

[Scott]

I was pulled back in so currently working daily, which is filling the time.

Prior to that I was spending money and collecting enough cardboard boxes to build an extension on my house.

I'm now filling my time between working, getting "decent" at iRacing and trying to play hide the credit card to stop me from buying tracks and stuff.

New motion rig should be delivered next week, so that should be fun!

I'm also an AVID homebrewer, been doing it for 20 years haha. So funny to see that there's more people on here into it

 

[Scott]

@steaky360, what's that coming off of your counter flow chiller output? Is it a temperature/flow control unit or something? Not seen that before.

 

[ubuysa]

@steaky360, what's that coming off of your counter flow chiller output? Is it a temperature/flow control unit or something? Not seen that before.

It seems that home brewing has complicated terms and techniques that I don't understand. Just like computers really......

I'm seriously impressed with @steaky360's setup. That's serious stuff!

 

[Scott]

It seems that home brewing has complicated terms and techniques that I don't understand. Just like computers really......

I'm seriously impressed with @steaky360's setup. That's serious stuff!

Hahaha... from the pic:

Black thing with the liquid in it - Grainfather (think it's the connect) filled with wort (beer before fermentation (before the yeast eats the sugar)). Used to turn grain and water into wort (see previous).

Black coil looking thing - Counterflow chiller. Cold water goes in the blue pipe, through the whole chiller and out the red pipe (now hot). At the same time, hot beer goes from the Grainfather through a pipe that's externally around the water pipe. This flows in the opposite direction to the water and gets cooled... by the water. Hence the name. Hot wort would kill the yeast, so hot wort into the chiller, 20C wort out and into the bucket.

The wee metal thing just before the bucket looks like either simply a temperature reader... or, it may control the flow based on the temperature. Thus slowing down the flow and allowing more of a heat exchange as required.

It's actually excellent science and a fantastic hobby when you get to all-grain levels. The beer kit to brew is a GREAT intro though. The kits nowadays, some of them at least, are absolutely fantastic.

I've got a Zombie Dust clone in secondary right now. I'm planning a brew day this weekend (Thinking lager/ipa hybrid), I've got 2 ciders in my loft on tap.... Raspberry & lime and Guava (Both on the rocks kits).

I recently finished off a Jackhammer clone and a 5am Saint clone

 

[ubuysa]

I had a crack at a few of the home brew kits many decades ago. All I ever got was a headache!

 

[Scott]

I had a crack at a few of the home brew kits many decades ago. All I ever got was a headache!

It's changed days my friend. They're so refined now you can get a really good beer with very basic kit.

Woodfords Wherry
St Peters Ruby Red Ale

Both of the above are absolutely dynamite drinks. You would be happy if you paid a couple of quid for a bottle off the shelf and it's about £25 for 40 pints

Lagers are tricky in kit form (tricky at the best of times) so best avoided. But a medium/red ale will always come through great.