Things that I *should* like, but have never really got into.

David Attenborough. National Treasure my arse

It’s his birthday today, I believe.

One I forgot, that judging by regular comments on here puts me in a tiny minority of STWers

Recreational drugs. I never have and have never felt the inclination. Not judging those that do, it’s just not something I’ve ever fancied trying. And being in a job from 16 to 40 where random drug tests were a thing, kind of helped reinforce that!

Coffee – it’d be much easier to like it but I try and it just doesn’t taste nice, I’m a tea person and always will be.

Whisky – I really want to like it, I’ve tried really nice ones from various locations and I just can’t get on with it.

Gigs- I like music, and spent a lot of time in my youth absorbed in various genres of music. However, every gig I went to left me wondering what the fuss was about, small venue to stadium, just felt a bit awkward and out of place. I think I’d like ‘sitting down’ more passive gigs like the old mtv unplugged stuff, but can’t relax or feel comfortable in the standing throng, feeling out of place and not really ‘getting it’.

Kilometres.

Metric makes mores sense, it is correct, that’s why it is used by science and everybody apart from the backwards USA. But every ride, run, walk I do I track in miles because “I know how far a mile is” (I don’t).

I know it’s partly a British thing being in limbo between metric and imperial. Reminds of a time my brother was measuring something and said it’s 45mm by 5 inches.

Reminds of a time my brother was measuring something and said it’s 45mm by 5 inches.

Does he work for NASA?

Tomato ketchup

I love tomatoes- fresh, sun dried, soup, roasted, fried, in other sauces, casseroles etc. etc

can’t stomach ketchup

Football. Grew up in Sunderland, went to school in Newcastle. By rights should like football, but its appeal to others is utterly baffling.

Pegging.

Recreational drugs. I never have and have never felt the inclination. Not judging those that do, it’s just not something I’ve ever fancied trying. And being in a job from 16 to 40 where random drug tests were a thing, kind of helped reinforce that!

Same, but I had a cool AF job so didn’t need a high from substances. 😂

Road cycling.

Most of my mtb mates now do big road rides on dropbar bikes wearing Lycra. I’d rather ride my mtb alone.

Being “into” Music in general. I find it nice to listen to. I don’t have a favourite band or song. I don’t know who the lead guitar is, or the singer, or anything of any band. Every month or so on here there will be a thread about someone I’ve never heard of popping their clogs and it will turn out to be some musician from the eighties about whom people will be gushing praise and love as if it was their lifelong best friend.

Tea. Disgusting. And as there is rarely a situation where tea will be offered but (instant) coffee is not available, don’t see why anyone would take the former over the latter.

judged mtb competition. I’ve tried. I have really tried. It’s so dull. Give me timed or head to head racing any day.

In a similar vein, any sort of bike trick which has no practical benefit to the riding of the trail feature. if you can do a big jump I’m impressed, even more so if it’s a technically challenging jump. Do the same jump while taking your hands off the bars? Stupid.

Anything that’s posh. (Other than bikes)

I actively dislike fancy hotels, cars, restaurants etc. I feel like an imposter, and feel like I am being taken for a ride and consuming  conspicuously.

Even if on paper it’s ‘good’ I never, ever enjoy it.

For example I would way, way rather get a takeaway from a good but cheap establishment and sit on a bench in the park to eat it, than go to one of those fine dining places.

The level of commitment some people give to football is, quite frankly, frightening. I work with a few folk that take it deadly seriously and their behaviour reminds me of footage I’ve seen showing how cults function. Genuinely similar to how zealots of all stripes act and a tad disturbing. Grown adults getting upset because someone else lost at a game. Then they have the cheek to think you’re weird for not getting it.

Craft beer – either too happy or too citric. It’s getting more difficult to find a decent pint of bitter in most pubs and bars.

Science fiction, horror and fantasy books and films. Never liked Dr Who as a kid and every time I try to see what the hype is I always end up disappointed.

Documentaries excluding history. Mrs.10 constantly watches Netflix documentaries, but I can’t stand them, even for things I like, such as TdF, F1, etc. I love historical documentaries. Ancient Egypt, the Middle Ages, and the Civil War are fascinating.

It’s the same for reality TV. I don’t care about the people and don’t want to watch them for weeks.

Grown adults getting upset because someone else lost at a game. Then they have the cheek to think you’re weird for not getting it.

Football is an odd one. I loved it as a kid and through teenage years. Played a reasonably high level and used to enjoy watching it too…until I found other things in my life.

However I always felt that I got more enjoyment from a good game lost than a bad game won. I’ve never seen that anywhere else but in mtb culture – DH racing and slopestyle in particular, just look at how much joy the other riders have for the success of other riders. It’s great.

Tomato ketchup

Have you tried fish ketchup?

Beans

Mash

Jam or other fruity crap in jars

Cake of most kinds

Bananas

Watching most Sports

Craft beer – either too happy or too citric. It’s getting more difficult to find a decent pint of bitter in most pubs and bars.

Science fiction, horror and fantasy books and films. Never liked Dr Who as a kid and every time I try to see what the hype is I always end up disappointed.

I think you’ll find the obsession with hoppy, citrus beers ran its course a year or so back. Everyone, their dog, cat, uncles and distant relatives got in on the fad, and predictably it died a death. Beer brewing is a craft, it’s the industrial brewing industry that isn’t – so by definition any other brewer is a craft brewer. And there’s lots of smoother pale ales around, and IPA’s as well; they were very strong beers 6% and above, brewed to send out to the British colonies, so had to be strong to survive a couple of months in the hold of a sailing ship.

There’s some really good dark ales and stouts around as well – my preference is for darker malty beers, and there’s lots around if you do a bit of searching. The Raven in Bath have a good range, and outstanding pies to go with them, The Three Daggers in Eddington near Westbury have their own brewery, with a superb brewmaster, their Ethandun 878* is my favourite, the complete opposite to what you’re describing.

*That’s the date of the battle of that name, when King Alfred beat the Viking army, and created the first unified kingdom in this country, the pub is on the site of the battle.

Dr Who really isn’t representative of Science Fiction, or horror of fantasy. All different, and covering a vast array of different topics.

Road cycling.

I used to be with you, but I have to say the route finding on my Garmin, and being able to monitor my stats is starting to call me to the dark side.

In-ear headphones

Swimming.  I can swim but boy, give it one length of a pool and i am bored.  Mind you, give me a snorkel and flippers in warm sea and something to look at and i am entertained for hours

Video Games. I’ve tried, really tried, all sorts, bought consoles, played on pc’s, sims, shoot em ups, etc etc but they do nothing for me.

Except for pinball, perhaps. But that’s a pale copy of the real thing

Nearly 40. Male. Work in a professional environment.

There seems to be some sort of assumption that I am playing golf by now. Also that I will take part in work-related Golf days.

I’d rather vomit into my own hands.

Another vote for running. All I can think is “I’d rather be on my bike” then I have that thought nearly all the time.

I can see the point of golf but it just looks too structured, I can’t be arsed with that.

Recreational drugs. I never have and have never felt the inclination.

Same. I tried weed a few times, didn’t really see the point. I suppose it helped that I was never really exposed to drugs, I know vanishingly few people who are/were into that sort of thing. Plus I grew up in the era where Zammo chased the dragon and got a smack on the nose. I don’t think I’ve ever even seen a Class A aside from on television.

Science fiction, horror and fantasy books and films. Never liked Dr Who as a kid and every time I try to see what the hype is I always end up disappointed.

To be fair, Doctor Who isn’t really sci-fi, it’s a primetime family drama. It just uses “we can go anywhere at any time” as a MacGuffin to spin whatever tale they’ve come up with this week.

Reminds of a time my brother was measuring something and said it’s 45mm by 5 inches.

I do this also. I’m of a goldilocks age where I was taught Metric in school but my parents etc all used Imperial. I’ll pick whichever scale gives me the roundest number.

It baffles me when people say things like “I don’t know what a metre is.” Do you know what a yard is? For approximation purposes it’s the same thing. A litre is two pints, a kilogram is two pounds, this is not difficult. We’ve had half a century to learn this stuff, you’re just being wilfully ignorant at this juncture.

I wrote about this over on that Twitter a little while ago. https://twitter.com/UKCougar/status/1563524116975874049

Recreational drugs. I never have and have never felt the inclination.

Same. I never fancied trying weed as stoned people are just really irritating, and most I people I knew who were trying weed were doing so in a fit of slightly pathetic teenage rebellion, and I didn’t want any of that either. And I never tried anything harder because I’d seen Grange Hill.

“I do this also. I’m of a goldilocks age where I was taught Metric in school but my parents etc all used Imperial. I’ll pick whichever scale gives me the roundest number.”
For me Metric for measuring, imperial for estimating.

Although working with American kit often means using both anyway.

I never fancied trying weed as stoned people are just really irritating,

Unless you’re stoned too, in which case people who aren’t stoned are really irritating.

Oooh, martinis! Just don’t get em – would much rather have a margarita.

I used to hate olives, and in the classic way, every time I went to a restaurant that had them on the table (normally while you wait for bigger food to come out), I’d have one and remember I hate them… then 3 minutes later have another, and so on. But I’m OK with them now

 I never fancied trying weed as stoned people are just really irritating,

They’re really tedious.  I know a couple of friends who are really into their weed and they make football fans sound multidimentional.

Any hobby that eclipses everything else in your life is a problem.  Cf. kids and “screen time.”

Ooh yeah…

Twitter. I created an account because it was the only way to complain to BA back in 2015, never used it/tweeted since.

Crowds, be it sports or music or a show or an event or an airport etc…… Crowds bring the worst out of people IMO.

Why would you pay a shed load of money to spend hours in an unorganised quque with people you’d never choose to be in close proximity with, only to be fleeced at every opportunity. No thanks.

Also Twitter, as well as Facebook (unless I need to use to track my son’s cycle racing which seems to be mostly on Facebook, and I wasn’t on Facebook, I would have missed several late changes to race times).

Road cycling with a cycle club. I do enjoy the speed and the feeling of working as a team in order to maximize the speed you can keep up over a course. But I can’t be bothered with other road traffic, crappy uk roads and sharing the road with some crappy and dangerous driving, or the politics, or the rules or the macho bullshit.

Fish. Just why? 🤮

“But fresh fish doesn’t smell!” How come I could smell it before I came through the door then?

Also carp fishing in a pond. If I was going to spend hundreds or even thousands of pounds on fishing gear then sit there for hours, even I would eat the bastard fish I’d caught. But no, you have to let them go. 🤷‍♂️

I’m pretty sure if you broke down every sport and pastime, then they’d all seem a bit silly and a waste of time.

Try explaining why you spent 3 times the amount on a tyre for your bike over the basic tyre, despite it being the same make, model and size. But just happens to have a fancier side wall, rubber compound and had a fancy bead.