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.

It's a state of mind. It took me weeks to get into it and now im annoying everyone

Anything to do with ABBA.

Walking netball. I was persuaded to do it by a friend and it took me right back to the nightmare schooldays of PE lessons at school where I was always last to be picked for netball teams and was shouted at by the PE teacher for having no hand-eye co-ordination. 😂

Just thought of another one. Sound baths! I was bored silly lying there for an hour while the lovely lady who ran it banged various drums and tinkled various bells. The other women all reported feeling energised or emotional during the session but I couldn't wait for it to end.

Fooooking escape rooms!!! Most pathetic thing ever

Going out for an Italian meal. It is just starch with some tomato sauce and very little meat or veg. It has become the default cusine because it is inoffensive to people with sensitive palates who don't like anything too spicy or 'foreign' but it is just so bloody boring and overpriced.

Pumpkin picking and anything to do with pumpkins!!

Also, football.

I am from a city with a very high profile football team.

The first thing I get asked is which team I support? What did I think of winning the league/FA cup/Euros. Then 5 mins of this player, that player.

I f*cking hate football with a passion. I really couldn’t give a shit who won the league.

Sudoku is utter genius. I remember the front of the Times years ago with just one sudoku on an empty white page and at the bottom it said “It’s coming!”

They are logical puzzles, not number puzzles. As pp says, you could substitute images/symbols but that would be awkward to have to draw them.

Nothing to do with numbers and absolutely the perfect puzzle.

I bloody hate yoga too. I like Pilates, but yoga is boring, too hard, and the people who go to it at the local leisure centre treat it like some kind of weird cult.

I will add to the list:

Christmas markets - awful! Packed so that you can’t move, loud, overpriced, no atmosphere, drinking overpriced mulled wine in an allegedly festive cattle market.

Afternoon tea - it’s ok but the cakes are never very nice and I’m always stuffed afterwards in a horrible, uncomfortable way and it’s so expensive.

Pumpkin picking - I assumed you actually went and picked a pumpkin that was growing in a pumpkin patch, but it appears that you just choose one that’s probably from Tesco with the label removed from a pretend pumpkin patch and you take photos, presumably for social media. Pointless.

Wow, didn't expect this thread to take off as much as it has.

Your responses are hilarious.

I agree so hard with so many of these.

Oh, and camping. That includes glamping, caravans, motorhomes, any form of shepherds hut, yurts, ANY OF THAT SHIT. It is truly miserable.

Camping in tents and caravans. I mean just why if you have a perfectly comfortable house. I want more comfort and luxury on holiday not less.

You are not making it sound like less of a cult 😂

Centreparks - 1000%. We went once and just didn't get the appeal.
Silent discos.
Gin-tasting evenings - I mean I don't dislike gin, but I don't want to be force-fed gins I wouldn't otherwise choose and expected to discuss them!

Nativity plays. I'm short and unless I manage to get a seat near the front, I can't see a thing due to the seating not being tiered. Which is a shame, as the infants look adorable in their costumes.

I can't hear much either as I'm slightly deaf and most of the children are cheerfully unintelligible, even with a microphone. The school only seems to have one microphone, which leads to tedious delays as it's passed from one child to another after every line.

There were two exceptions last year, both girls, who had decided to shout their lines instead of mumbling like the others. Their volume and enthusiasm was impressive.

Oh, and glamping! I actually love camping, but I cannot bare paying a fortune to do pretty much the same, just because someone has pre-pitched the accommodation and shoved some bouji decor round it!

Anything sport-related, anything about any TV program, anything music related

All just dreadful shite for me

I love that description!

I was interested in doing it because I had heard a guy I used to work with had had a nervous breakdown when his wife left him and Tai Chi really helped him with his recovery. So much so that he eventually ended up running Tai Chi classes. Definitely not my cup of tea though.

I'm having the best time at the moment touring France in our Converted Crafter Camper. I will never stay in a large hotel abroad again after my experience this year in Alcudia.

It would be boring if we were all the same though.

Has anyone mentioned book clubs yet?

I'm in a book club and I fucking hate it. I have no idea how to leave.

I love reading and the idea of meeting up fairly regularly with similar-aged women to have an in-depth discussion about a book we've read that I might not otherwise have picked should be wonderful.

But its not.

Other people's book choices are invariably terrible. People don't finish the books. Then we end up spending wasting time discussing nonsense like engagement rings and weddings rather than books. I find this both boring and incredibly disappointing.

How the fuck do you leave a book club?

😆

Large music gigs. Enjoyable enough, but very expensive for what they are. I went to one a few years ago because it was a band I liked and it was only a mile away from me.

I'm glad I went, but it wouldn't have been worth travelling a hundred miles to a big city and paying for a hotel, as some of my colleagues often do.

This made me belly laugh - pleeeaaaase bring back the emoji!

No idea, but I will ask my friend.

She is a very young 81 year old and goes to the monthly book club at our local library. She sometimes comes straight round to me for lunch after one of her meetings, and some of the books she reads definitely don't appeal to me at all! Apparently, they are chosen by the library. They are certainly very varied!