Hyped-up activities that are actually shite.

[DarkestBerty]

Loads of my friends do yoga. It's really relaxing, they say. It's really mindful, they say. It's a good workout without realising you're working out, they say. It's a really nice community of people, they say.

So on Saturday morning I tried it.

It was bloody awful. Everything about it was bloody terrible. It wasn't remotely relaxing or mindful. I wasn't a very good workout and the people were cult-loke lunatics.

And I've felt a bit lightheaded, dizzy, and just not quite myself ever since.

Tell me about activities that everyone seems to have a wide-on for, but which you hated.

Bowling (trying to look interested in other people's go when I found my own go boring).

Yoga. Just got very competitive which I suspect its missing the point.

CentreParcs. Yawn. Watching older middle aged people using hiking poles in flat tarmac.

99% of children's end of term plays. (In 20 years of parenting saw one good one).

Sudoku. I left maths behind me at GCSE. I can assure you I'm not going to do it as a leisure activity.

Cards. Ditto. Too much like maths.

Any kind of exercise class. Especially if it involves loud shit music.
Any kind of team sport, I refused at school
and will forever more.
Camping, it is a miserable way to spend your precious free time. 🌧️ 🐜
Beach or pool holidays, just boring.
Massages, get your greasy hands off me!
Mindfulness, just boring.
Anything "spiritual", it is just cringeworthy 😣

I laughed at Sudoku. My DH is baffled that I do it.

Yes! I did book one earlier this year because it was convenient as part of longer holiday travels. Surprisingly had a brilliant time and booked again for this last week of this summer holidays at a different site, but it’s TERRIBLE. Crappy, dirty accommodation, same mediocre food offering but made worse because we don’t want to stay in the ‘cottage’ to cook. Cross at letting myself get sucked back in…..

Organised fun. It’s not actually fun, is it?

Camping, done it twice, tried really hard, hate it.

Theme parks, just no.

Horse racing. I just don't see the point of it.

Agree with most on here!

Bottomless brunches - especially when they start at 2-3pm - that's not brunch FFS!!!
Afternoon tea - a few tiny sandwiches and cakes for £30pp?!
Christmas markets - the thought of it is always far better than the reality of traipsing round stalls full of shit before queueing for half an hour for a luke warm cup of mulled wine costing about a tenner!
Pumpkin picking - Complete waste of time unless you're an Instagram influencer.
Yoga - again, like the idea of it but boring as fuck in reality.
Hen dos - endless activities, cocktail making classes, "Mr and Mrs" games, fancy dress outfits... Why can't we just have a night out with a meal and a few drinks?! Why does it have to be multiple days of organised "fun"?!?!

Argh I feel better now 😂

I love yoga but I absolutely hate clubbing. I also hate live music in bars and restaurants. I go to those places to socialise not to be deafened.

Afternoon teas. Overpriced for a cake stand of sandwiches I don't like. Can't stand cucumber, hate egg, don't eat smoked salmon. I normally end up picking out the cheese or ham sandwiches and then eating the cakes.

I'd much rather just have a cream tea!

And I agree also on chocolate cake. Too often doesn't taste of chocolate. Just a dry cocoa powder cake. I have a decent recipe somewhere!

Christmas Markets

As I once said to my mate when he offered to bring his guitar to our BBQ, 'No thanks, we have plenty of things to burn"

I really struggle with spas /spa days. It's just not my thing. Same for massages (unless it's a sport massage where my legs are being properly hammered into submission).

I love Christmas markets but only in Germany.

😨

Did you have to strip to your pants and pull them up to your waist?

Edited: Sorry, was thinking of Sumo!!!!! 😀 No idea how a Samurai is supposed to walk... maybe with a sword, lopping off the heads of those around?

I love a bit of yoga. I’m maybe got lucky with the classes I’ve been to though.

Running - I do it because I need to some kind of cardio and I’d rather be out than in a gym but I hate it. It always looks so fun when other people do it too ):

Resort holidays - I enjoy the first day and then I’m bored.

Just about any trendy cafe/ coffeeshop/ bakery/ etc - all fur coat and no knickers. Tend to feel like just a giant marketing exercise and sure the food looks great but who cares what it looks like when it tastes rank and costs a small fortune. I will happily splash out on actually good food though.

😆

Spa Days. I just don't get them. What's the point in paying money to sit around in a robe all day whilst taking the occasional dip in a swimming pool or jacuzzi then sitting around again in a wet costume?
Afternoon teas. Far too many sugary cakes.

Yoga
Pilates
Gym -especially that stair master thing
Weight lifting
Scrapbooking
Camping

Complicated holidays. I’m that terrible thing in terms of the modern world…someone who can take or leave travel. It’s absolute heresy to the middle classes, isn’t it? The number of times I’ve been interrogated, preached at and almost bullied by friends because I never go on fancy, original, ground-breaking holidays! I like to go to quiet, familiar places where it’s all dead easy and trundle through all the things I enjoy. I come back happy, relaxed and recharged.

I’m not knocking others’ choices but I think you should be allowed to do what you like for your holidays and not have to participate in the usual dinner party competition. My one experience of mass tourism in Venice was traumatic!

Great thread, OP ! So cathartic to hear healthy scepticism about the ‘must do’ activities and attitudes of 2025.🤣

I went to a funeral recently where the lady that died had written quotes she'd heard and liked in a notebook. Some of those quotes were recreated in her order of service and included:

"The definition of a gentleman: one who owns a banjo, yet doesn't play it"

(Also "Behind every successful man stands a surprised woman" was one of my favourites)

I’m feeling so happy someone else gets it! The smug middle class clad in Lycra, heaving luggage about to the sheds, I mean lodges, nearly getting run over by bikes and the pool which must be over 60 per cent urine and I’m sure it’s not just the kids who are guilty…I don’t know what I was expecting but it wasn’t a load of overpriced restaurants and shops in a sweaty humid dome, I expected magic and fairy lights the way others had described it, they don’t even put tea and coffee in the rooms! I’d honestly prefer to stay in a premier inn for 3 nights. Unless you meal prep for every day you have to use the overpriced supermarket or eat at the shitty restaurants. I went with my parents family and hated nearly every second, unsurprisingly I wasn’t invited back the next time they went 😂😂

Sorry - I do have to slightly defend sudoku here. There is no maths required at all - you could do sudoku with shapes or patterns - here's a kid version with butterflies and flowers instead - https://sudoku-puzzles.net/kids-sudoku-6x6-hard/

I think those that like maths are drawn to it, but you don't have to like or be good at maths to do it.

*partner not parents

Or my favourite - a management consultant is someone who knows 101 different ways of making love but doesn't know any women (or men!)

Not the question you asked but I love yoga but wouldn't expect anybody to love their first class unless it was specifically for beginners with a very good teacher creating that 'first' experience, and even then probably not. It's like me going to play tennis for the first time and expecting a fun match!

To find yoga relaxing you need to know what you're doing to some extent, and to find it interesting you need to be progressing or tuning into your own body in a way that takes a lot of practice. It's not an instant gratification thing.

Sex.
Love yoga though.