I have many hobbies more some of which I enjoy more than others. My hobbies are:
- Cooking
- Exercising
- Learning languages
- Reading
- Writing
- Board games
- Podcasts
- Music
I enjoyed doing all these hobbies for different reasons. In this blog post I will go through the hobbies I have and why in particular I enjoy doing them.
Cooking:
This is one of my longest standing hobbies. I started cooking over 10 years ago and I really like the process and the food that results that are you able to eat because of the cooking process. I really enjoy following recipes, but I struggle to cook intuitively. Therefore, it is a good goal this year to improve my cooking to cook without recipes.
This was pointed out to me last week where the thing I’m lacking in is cooking intuitively, so I will continue to do this to improve this aspect of my cooking. My best cuisine is the Western cuisine because I learnt cooking from cookbooks. I wish to improve my Italian and Chinese cooking skills but it will take time.
Exercising:
I also enjoy this hobby because of the health benefits of give and of the process you can go under to exercise (the process itself). I have a gym membership at the local gym, and I go often at least once or twice a week and have a lifetime subscription to FIIT helping me keep fit at home when I am unable to go to the gym.
During lockdown I kept fit at home so have a selection of dumbbells and other equipment in order to help me exercise. This meant I was able to keep fit during the COVID lockdown.
In the past I still enjoy playing tennis however now I am injured because of playing too much and so I much prefer to go to the gym or do other physical activities instead.
Learning languages:
I would say this is my main passion now and hobby I go to when I am looking for something to do or just a good way to pass the time. It is very enjoyable and my most enjoyed hobby now. I first encountered this hobby during the 2020 lockdown when I discovered Duolingo and hobby list emphasising the importance of trying new things and so I decided to try this new hobby.
Initially I started learning Mandarin Chinese on Duolingo. However, because I have a bit of repetitive strain injury, I found it more difficult to continue; and there is a different program that taught through podcast and video that taught Cantonese and so I decided to continue learning with that program initially through Udemy and then through the website they had it on.
And so, it became a passion as I realised I was able to speak to my family members including my grandma bit better after learning Cantonese. And this passion continued for a few years now until today (started learning languages in mid-2020).
Reading:
This for me is more of a nighttime activity. However, I find it worthwhile activity which usually spans over half an hour to an hour in length each night. I read all sorts with around 5 to 10 books at once spanning different genres including fiction and non-fiction. In the fiction category I enjoy many different sorts of books including fantasy, sci-fi and contemporary / historical fiction. In the non-fiction category I enjoy mainly Christian books.
Like with many other hobbies that I have picked up this hobby during the 2020 lockdown and have really enjoyed it since then. I managed to read around 30 books in 2020, 50 books in 2021, and 67 books in 2023.
I’m a big fan of this website and social media platform for book lovers called Goodreads. This is a fantastic platform to get used to books and the recommendations from different people for amazing new books out there.
Writing:
Writing especially creative writing has been a huge outlet for me in terms of creativity and expression. My first draft of my novel is about 20,000 words and counting which is a huge achievement for me because I didn’t realise, I could write for some new words in one document.
Creative writing has four genres are you can really go deep into your creative writing even so much you can even do master’s degrees that you can take in it.
Overall, the main writing projects I have are to do with creative writing, journalling, and blogging. I shall talk about each three of these in turn:
Creative writing: this is a lot of fun with a lot of different forms of expression. Across the 4 genres you will never get bored. As they say, you’re only limited by your imagination. However so far, I do prefer poetry and fiction over the other two genres as I have no experience with the other 2 genres of creative writing.
Journalling: I find this a very useful activity to reflect upon the day and so on. Because I do this on paper it’s good to practice writing English and to practice writing Chinese. My English writing has been awful for the past decade or so and I really do hope it improve soon.
Blogging: this is one of my favourite writing projects which spans multiple languages across many different blog posts. It is highly enjoyable and can express myself on different topics of interest which I find to be very fun. It’s a great way to maintain and improve my English & Chinese writing over time as well.
Board games:
I first discovered board games before lockdown when I was looking for to do something socially with people. Since then, it’s become one of the hobbies of mine and I very much enjoy playing solo as well as playing with other people. I have a dedicated table space of board games meaning that I’m able to pop in and out of the game whilst doing other things as well.
In the future I hope to buy other board games such as Mage Knight and Gloomhaven which I think I will enjoy playing.
Click here to see what board games I own.
Podcasts:
I enjoy a range of podcasts from Christian podcasts to podcasts based on my interests. I also follow Chinese or Cantonese podcasts which are also enjoy and also find to be useful for practising my Cantonese.
Music:
I enjoy all kinds of music and currently have an Apple music subscription which I use to follow and find out about interesting and popular music that I may enjoy. Also follow a lot of Cantopop artists and artists involving country or alternative music.
Conclusion:
In conclusion I have many different varied hobbies which helps me to relax and to progress myself. What about you guys, what hobbies you guys enjoy doing?
Leave a Reply