Most of you know that I am a pastime gardener in my backyard and I am only doing veggies. Not long ago, hmm ... OH! wow!!! more than a decade had passed, I down size and move to a smaller home. A smaller home with a much smaller garden. Just for size comparison, I need at least 2 days to mow my lawn (hand push powered mower) and now it takes me just about an hour with the same machine. Of late I find I have plenty extra hours on my hands not really knowing what to do with it. Usually I play computer games and having played the same game over again and again makes it very boring at times. Sometimes I do cooking and I tried posting on you tube. I have stop posting on you tube because of some personal reason and I have run out of recipes that I like. Maybe later on I might do it again if I can solve my personal issue about you tube. Now sometimes or rather most of the time to kill time, I'll be getting rid of unwanted weeds like love grass in the lawn. It is a boring unnecessary task with no sense of achievement. Today I can pull out about 50 of them and by tomorrow another 100 or more will grow! Yucks!!! So what do you do if you had extra time to pass?
I read a lot more than I used to. I like history, but sometimes I read mysteries. I find that growing flowers, in addition to the fruits and vegetables, makes it more interesting. A lot of mine are in containers. They take time with puttering. Until this summer I volunteered at a free clinic, and delivering meals to old people. That was very rewarding. I can't do that now but I wish I could. Crossword puzzles also help pass the time and keep my mind working.
Spare Time? Alan Whicker the TV presenter of Whicker's World, made a programme decades ago about a gated retirement estate in Florida, called Sun City Centre, where the residents managed effected all the services themselves. He said; "It's a place where people get up in the morning with nothing to do and go to bed at night with only half of it done." I looked it up. https://www.suncitycenter.org/ My life has been like that since I took early retirement twenty-five years ago.
Right now I don't really have extra time. Between work and a 14 year old, it's hard. But I plan on retiring in 13 months (but who's counting) 11-1/2 if you don't count summers when I have off. Oh wait, there's my free time! But then I'm busy with my garden!
Thank you all for input. I am not a reader Daniel and I do have a few plants in pots, mainly herbs. Thanks for your suggestions. Riley I had a early retirement too, about twenty years ago. No I am not ready for a retirement home yet and moreover there is no such nice facility in this part of the world. I wake up with things to do but they are done in in just a quick while. For example I water my plants with a watering can and I half fill it instead of a full can. Pancrowest ??? Willowisp0801 when I was working I use to wish that a day had more than 24hours but now I think that is just too much! I was thinking maybe I should ... thinking of something to do do take up time
What is extra time?? Between work, my household, my kids, my daughters skating and all my volunteer work with the club, the only extra time I have is spent sleeping haha Maybe you could join some kind of club, or use your extra time to volunteer somewhere. I'm sure there are many organizations in your area that need volunteers, if it is walking dogs at the shelter, or helping at a food bank or soup kitchen. Some towns have Horticulture groups that help with making gardens or planters for public display, or some have people that walk around and pick up trash. Use your free time to help others!
Thank you for you suggestion Netty. I guess extra time is subjective. I felt exactly the same when I was working or travelling but now it is just the opposite. Sorry there are no organization near by because I am in a remote area.
Well KK, a couple of things that I do and have done is getting into migratory bird conservation, working with the local Food Bank and volunteering for tasks at my allotment. Bird watching is interesting to me. Doing work that can help less fortunate people is always a rewarding two-way street. Then there are hobbies. I like collecting stamps, but painting, sculpting, pottery are some examples. Archaeological excavation or restoration, or perhaps volunteering in a butterfly house. Perhaps you could begin a tour guide service for Malacca. You know, you could take visitors on a walk and you could explain the historical significance of building or places. I wish we had had one when we were in your city. Perhaps you could perhaps work in a garden centre or in a tree planting scheme or maybe on a rubber plantation. ..just leting my mind wander here. I wonder if any of these things would be helpful or interesting to you.
Thanks Sjoerd, there are no organization near by because I am in a remote area moreover the community here is different. Gardening is actually a hobby for me and so is computer games. Being a volunteer tour guide even without charging a fee is illegal here unless you have a license. No I am not looking for work, I was just looking for things which I have an interest in to keep me occupied. I love to rear chickens but my neighbours is very much against it. I did quietly tried rearing a pair but when one of them found out, I have to keep them in cages. Anyway I finally decided to send them to a friend's farm because I do not want them to be in a cage. Ah welll..... I guess I'll just let my mind wander too .....
I'm off for 11 days right now. I'm going through my fabric because I've decided to make each of my grandkids a quilt by next Christmas. They will all be some kind of strip quilt, so it will go quick and easy. I have now inherited 2 more grands because my oldest son is with a lady who has children of her own. So that will be 5 quilts. To me that's interesting and I know David likes it as well. I also like to bake so I can't wait to retire and have the time and energy to actually do it. We have Senior Centers around here. I did yoga there last summer. One of them (not sure which one) has a long arm quilting machine, a couple have stained glass and wood working, something with metal I think it's called lapadery (sp?). My neighbor goes to all of them for different things. Maybe you don't have those kinds of places, though. I think we have 3. One close to me, one on the South side near my work and I think the third is also on the South side.
When i get the chance usually in the morning i like to sing, i play the music that i can sing to, usually it's the Carpenters but 2 of the Moody blues and 2 of George Michael. I know some of the Momas and Pappa's. In the winter i like to do a bit of dress making, crochet blankets, i have knitted some cardigans. I have made greetings cards, grown flowers to dry and made the arrangements myself. A lot of my time is walking the boys doing 4 walks a day, if we didn't have them we would hardly know anyone around here.
Sorry for my late reply was a little busy with the Christmas prep mainly cooking and a little baking. Thank you Willowisp0801, err sorry I do not sew or quilt . You are right there we don't have those kind of places that you mentioned. Where I come from we do not have facilities to keep senior busy even though the population is a aging population. Anyway I am trying to work something out at the moment. Thank you Logan, I can't sing and had been told I am tone deaf . My other half is into crafting of greeting cards, I tried but lost interest very fast Anyway I am analysing how I generally spent my time each and I think I have a solution. Yes I am working out something to fill the void. Merry Christmas to all of you!
No golf today as the course is closed, due to heavy rain yesterday So I decided to sort out my spare records for the jukeboxes. All these records are very old though in playable condition. However, the paper sleeves of most were pretty tatty. With many, if you picked it up by the sleeve, it was as likely to fall out the bottom as not. They are sitting on the pull down flap of the big wall unit in our front room. Behind it is an, "illuminated cocktail cabinet." We don't do cocktails, my wife uses it to store some of her card making stuff. I save the title cards in the record sleeves, saves printing a new one if a record becomes, "in favour again." No problem, I ordered some new ones! The rack is back on the bottom shelf of the cupboard above the cabinet. Job done (I had the rack in front of me on my piano stool whilst I was watching the tennis on the TV). When I got into jukeboxes, over fifteen years ago I decided I needed a record rack, so looked for one on eBay, there were hardly any, as this was before "the vinyl revival." But I found this little firm on the internet that did "retro stuff." So this is of a classic sixties design. It wasn't that expensive, either.
