Top Ten Tuesday #288

Hi all! I hope you’ve all had a good week since I last did one of these: I’ve had a bit of a whirlwind the last few days! I met up with my friend Hannah on Saturday which was lovely, we had a really good catchup, which obviously involved a lot of talking about books! 

However the news of the national lockdown in England has meant a very swift change of plans, and I’m heading back up to Stirling tomorrow for the next month or so in the hopes that having more space will help my mental health in what is sure to be a challenging winter.

Anyway, enough of the downer that is the pandemic, as it’s Tuesday, I have another Top Ten Tuesday for you all courtesy of Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl. This week we’re talking about our Non-Bookish Hobbies. I deliberately didn’t include writing on this list, as though it’s not reading, a lot of the writing I do is still book related (whether it be writing books or talking about books here), plus, I do also intend for it to be my job so including it as a hobby didn’t really feel right! 

1. Horse riding

I’ve mentioned this plenty of times on the blog before, but since it is one of my biggest hobbies outside of books, it was worth mentioning again. I’ve been riding for over sixteen years now and it’s a massive part of my life, I’ve always loved horses, and particularly this year, being able to get out in the fresh air for a ride (since the first lockdown was eased) has been a real lifesaver. I’m going to miss it a lot over the next month! Being part of the Equestrian Club at University was also a great way to meet people and I loved my lessons and helping out with competitions whilst I was there. 

2. Trampolining

Another hobby I’ve had since childhood, I started trampolining at about 11, I think after there were some summer sessions at my future secondary school, I was immediately hooked and continued for the next twelve years. I was part of the Trampolining Club at my Uni as well, which was also a fantastic way of meeting people at Uni. I haven’t really been able to do any since I left as it’s a harder hobby to keep up once you’re an adult than riding is, but I definitely want to look into places I can do it again once things are a little more settled with the pandemic!

3. Running

I swear these first three hobbies are going to make me sound like I’m a lot more into sports than I actually am! Running is a great stress reliever for me, I first took it up during my A-Levels as a way to get out during revision, and this year in particular it has been really important for me to get my weekly run in as over lockdown it was the only exercise I could really do!

4. Watching movies/TV

I’ll admit, I’ve been doing more of this than I even I like to over the course of this year, but I do enjoy bingeing a few boxsets on Netflix or watching a cheesy romantic comedy. Usually I prefer it to be a relaxation after a long day of actually doing something rather than the only thing I’m able to do! Having said that, TV and films have been a great comfort as well over this period, especially things like Bake-Off and now Strictly which are providing real joy in an otherwise dark time.

5. Listening to music/podcasts

This is kind of a cheat as I tend to do both of these things whilst reading, but I’m including it since it is technically a separate hobby, I just like to combine them into one! I’ve always loved listening to music, but I only really found podcasts in the last couple of years and they’ve quickly become one of my favourite things as they’re a great way to explore my interests and learn new things (my current cycle of podcasts is a pretty good indicator of my interests: they include feminism (The Guilty Feminist), musicals (The Hamilcast), History (Stuff You Missed In History Class) and mythology and folklore (Myths and Legends).

6. Ice Skating

This isn’t a particularly frequent hobby, I tend to only do it around Christmas, but I wanted to include it anyway as it’s one of my favourite activities around the holidays. I love wrapping up all warm and cosy and going skating with family or friends.

7. Shopping

Granted I’ve not been doing much of this this year, at least not in person and online isn’t quite the same! Book shopping is obviously my favourite kind of shopping, but I do enjoy clothes shopping as well, I’ve had some great times with my friends picking out ugly outifts for each other to try on!

8. Hanging out with friends

I wouldn’t necessarily count this as a hobby, but hanging out with my friends and just talking is honestly one of my favourite things to do. We can talk for hours and hours and it feels like no time at all has passed. This is the thing that definitely hit me hardest about the first lockdown, as videochatting, no matter how many people try to extol the virtues of it is just not the same. Is it better than nothing? Sure. But the amount of difference I felt in my general mood once I was allowed to see my friends again over the summer? It made so much difference and I’m going to miss being able to see them so much over the next month.

9. Travelling

I love travelling so much and it definitely really hurts that I’m not going to be able to for the forseeable future, though of course it’s understandable. I have serious wanderlust, being able to go to different places and see different things is something I love to do, especially when I go with my friends because we always have so much fun.

So there we go, one less than usual this week, but I didn’t want to force it. What hobbies do you enjoy outside of reading? Do we share any? Let me know in the comments!

I’ll be back with another Top Ten Tuesday next week, this time we’re going to be talking about Book Titles Which Would Make Great Song Titles, but I actually think it would be more fun to do it the other way round and talk about Song Titles I Think Would Make Great Book Titles so that’s what I’m going to do!