Old dogs and new tricks | Vital Football

Old dogs and new tricks

mehmets_curlies

Vital Squad Member
Throughout the lock down period, I have made an effort to do 3 things on my to do list
1. Learn to play guitar - not very well, but I only need 3 chords!!
2. Genealogy research
3. Studying, informally, WW2.

Haa anyone else tried their hand at something different, or rekindled a passion for a past hobby?
 
Throughout the lock down period, I have made an effort to do 3 things on my to do list
1. Learn to play guitar - not very well, but I only need 3 chords!!
2. Genealogy research
3. Studying, informally, WW2.

Haa anyone else tried their hand at something different, or rekindled a passion for a past hobby?

I share a passion with numbers 2 and 3 on your list, but I can't blame the lockdown , as my interests stretch way back further !
The Great War also grabs my attention.
 
Throughout the lock down period, I have made an effort to do 3 things on my to do list
1. Learn to play guitar - not very well, but I only need 3 chords!!
2. Genealogy research
3. Studying, informally, WW2.

Haa anyone else tried their hand at something different, or rekindled a passion for a past hobby?

I've been doing some drawing. Badly!

What aspects of WW2 interest you, mehmets? If you're interested in the social history I could recommend some books. Not so much on the military history.
 
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Throughout the lock down period, I have made an effort to do 3 things on my to do list
1. Learn to play guitar - not very well, but I only need 3 chords!!
2. Genealogy research
3. Studying, informally, WW2.

Haa anyone else tried their hand at something different, or rekindled a passion for a past hobby?

Rekindled my love for running now I don’t have to commute as WFH (sorry Nitram)
Other than that have my hands pretty full anyway.
 
I've been doing some drawing. Badly!

What aspects of WW2 interest you, mehmets? If you're interested in the social history I could recommend some books. Not so much on the military history.
It's a mixture, tbh. At present, it's operational stuff (got to love a map!!), but also enjoy reading up on individuals. Paddy Main (first SAS recruit) and Alan Turing have been 2 of my main fascinations, as was Noel Chavasse from WW1. Recommend away, Buddha.
 
Doing an online course in Sustainable Tourism.

More out of interest than anything. That’ll be an extremely tough industry area for a while, and I’m not after employment anyway. But it’s quite interesting. If I can stick with it that is...
 
It's a mixture, tbh. At present, it's operational stuff (got to love a map!!), but also enjoy reading up on individuals. Paddy Main (first SAS recruit) and Alan Turing have been 2 of my main fascinations, as was Noel Chavasse from WW1. Recommend away, Buddha.

Winston Churchill's, The Second World War is definitely worth reading.

Paul Addison is good. Read his, The Road to 1945.

I also enjoyed An underworld at War, by Donald Thomas and Mike Brown's, A Child's War.

Also some good stuff in, Smith (Ed.), Britain in the Second World War: a social history.
 
Ploughing through Simon Sharma's "A History of Britain" based on his excellent TV series some 20 years ago.
 
I have been fishing, decorating, building fences, collecting fossils, catching butterflies and planting trees. I'm addicted to Animal Crossing.
 
I decided to clear all the rust off my Anglia. Unfortunately it was a bigger job than I expected and all the external metal, what remained of it, fell off in a heap. I am just left with 4 wheels, a chassis, seats, dashboard, medium wave radio and a steering wheel.
 
I've done a six week ancestry course. Got my biological father's family back five generations now. Did Hess's tree too, as wanted to know when his family came over here. Lots of DIY and chores too.
 
Isolated away from my girlfriend I have been doing the following:

1) Giving twice weekly language lessons via WhatsApp to two grandchildren, one studying french the other spanish.

2) Setting a daily quiz for a third (younger) grandson largely based on maths puzzles and questions. Despite my intense efforts he remains a Man U plastic and, believe it or not, supports his local team too, bloody Brackley Town! He's also on their junior books.

3) Drafting a film/TV series "pitch" about the incredible life and mysterious disappearance of Jim Thomson, an american who lived in Bangkok for many years and developed the Thai silk trade.

4) Drinking a little more than normal!

5) Talking regularly to my girlfriend.
 
I share a passion with numbers 2 and 3 on your list, but I can't blame the lockdown , as my interests stretch way back further !
The Great War also grabs my attention.

Just looking at the impact by the 1918 flu pandemic (from the usa) on the result of the war. 53,000 us soldiers died in the war but of those 45,000 died from flu. Most of these caused by the us sending packed reinforcements on troop ships after they had been warned not to. At the time the flu was politically underplayed until finally they were forced to bring in social distancing and stopping mass events.

The germans were so weakened by the flu that they had to halt their final push when they would most likely have pushed to victory

There is a Smithsonian tv channel which is covering this, not sure if you can get it - americas hidden stories S1, episode 3.
 
Just looking at the impact by the 1918 flu pandemic (from the usa) on the result of the war. 53,000 us soldiers died in the war but of those 45,000 died from flu. Most of these caused by the us sending packed reinforcements on troop ships after they had been warned not to. At the time the flu was politically underplayed until finally they were forced to bring in social distancing and stopping mass events.

There is a Smithsonian tv channel which id covering this, not sure if you can get it - americas hidden stories S1, episode 3.

The germans were so weakened by the flu that they had to halt their final push when they would most likely have pushed to victory.

The warring countries blamed the flu on the Spanish , as they feared moral would collapse if the truth were to come out.
Hence we have 'Spanish Flu' that was nothing to do with them !
 
The warring countries blamed the flu on the Spanish , as they feared moral would collapse if the truth were to come out.
Hence we have 'Spanish Flu' that was nothing to do with them !

Its the extent of the deaths and the actual impact on the war that interests me as it gives a completely different angle on the final battles and political decisions.