To wonder what random skills you wish you had?

[squashedalmondcroissant]

Not really an AIBU but curious about this and don’t have a large pool to draw from!

What random skills do you wish you had or would like to learn? I’m not talking anything serious or practical in day to day life but just things you think are really cool and would love to be able to do?

For example, I’ve always wanted to be able to make fire using a bow drill (a notoriously difficult thing) and be really good at archery. I also find blacksmithing really interesting and would love to be able to forge my own knife. I am currently good at none of these but would love to learn even though it wouldn’t really benefit me except in very specific circumstances. Anyone else have a skill they’d love to learn?

to be fluent in another European language for sure

I would love to sing in tune. I love singing but restrict it to when I'm on my own, or when no one can hear because I am completely tone deaf🙉🙉 Next time around I am coming back as a West End musicals star😅

DIY, car maintenance, roller skate (I can do the basics quite well but I’d love to be one of those people who can do roller derby and swoosh and dance round the floor), sew my own clothes, be able to find local courses that taught me all these things. There aren’t any where I live. Be naturally tidy.

Singing - I started learning couple of years ago. Really enjoy daily practice and do around 30-1 hour a day. I couldn’t sing in tune when I started and making slow progress and things are starting to fall in place gradually.

I’d love to be able to play piano 🎹 and speak Japanese 🇯🇵

I'd love to be able to sing really well. As it is, I sound like a goose farting in the fog.

Play the guitar. I've learned to play loads of instruments but the guitar defeated me.

Reverse my car out of a space.

Ice skate. Took lessons but could never get over the fear of falling over.

I'd like to be able to draw/cut a straight line by eye

I'd also love to try blacksmithing, it looks amazing!!
I'd love to be able to crochet and knit, just can't get the hang of them and always end up with holes. 😂

Wish I could roller skate, ski and ice skate. I also make truly terrible tea. Could cook you anything under the planet. Tea game and toast game is shite though actual nightmare job would be one where I had to ice skate while serving tea (made by me). Not enough money in the world.

I’m ok with speaking ( and have been told I have a nice speaking voice ) but I can’t sing in tune either , and would love to be able to do that

Art , anything arty , to be able to paint a picture , sketch a face …

I'd love to be able to speak Greek. My mother was Greek Cypriot and her side of the family are fluent but I've never been able to pick it up other than bits and pieces.

Also would love to be able to sing, ballroom dance, especially tango, and play violin.

Practical skills I wish I had are driving on a motorway (too scared to), painting and decorating and carpentry.

PS loving reading the replies.

Art. I am utterly hopeless at anything arty. My auntie and uncle were great amateur artists and my cousin is a professional artist but it completely passed me by.

I did get the musical gene though.

I’d like to be good at gardening. I always appreciate a nice garden when I visit others, but have never had the slightest clue where to start with my own (small) garden so it’s very low maintenance and dull.

Walk into a bar or hotel lobby, sit down at a piano, belt out a song, get up and walk off.

Definitely speak another language.

Weirdly OP, I can do all your 'desired skills' and coach in two of them (bushcraft/firelighting and archery) - because I really wanted to do them about 10 years ago and took courses to learn! However I would absolutely love to know how to do any sort of style or updo with hair, or be able to do basic carpentry.

Start with a few nice shrubs that will get to a height/width that takes up some space, but not your whole garden. And a tree if you have room. Learn to look after them (the RHS website gives you a good starting guide), when to prune them etc. Once you've got that down pat, put some tall things in at the back and learn them. Then add smaller things.
Plant everything in groups of 3 or 5 (except big shrubs/trees if your garden isn't huge), don't spend too much money at first, and trust that you'll learn as you go along. Some things will die and that's OK, you're learning. And remember to water stuff!
Am an RHS qualified professional gardener (sometimes, when my freelance 'office' work gets quiet) and a lot of my customers are younger professionals who try a bit of gardening, get overwhelmed by the sheer amount of advice and stuff they think they need to know, and call in a pro.

In addition to this, I think you need to decide what makes you smile....colour, wildlife, autumn colour, winter flowers, what? What do you like having in your house? what is your style?

I wish I could whistle, I just can't, I think my teeth are wrong or my mouth is the wrong shape or something. Any whistle would do, but preferably that two fingered job, that's really loud and piecing.

I'd love to be able to surf. It looks amazing.
More realistically, like many others I'd like to be able to speak another language properly.

To be able to swim.

I have 4 that I have tried on and off all my life to learn and people have tried to teach me, but I fail every time. I can’t make scones, do cryptic crosswords, juggle or do that climby hand thing you need for the spider in incy wincy spider. Some of these I have been trying to learn for 40 years.

Being competent at reversing the car. Passed test nearly forty years ago and I still struggle. I have had special driving lessons but it just doesn't stick. It must be genetic as my father, driving over sixty years, is the same.

Whistling - the musical kind as opposed to the loud, piercing, attention-getting kind. DD2 can whistle along to music or even without background music. She can add in trills & warbles & it is so beautiful and melodic. I love listening to her!

Draw, paint and sing. Not all at once though 😂