I’m struggling to come up with creative ideas here. I’ve been finding
recently that I just don’t want to watch anything. In fact, in general we rarely watch tv, we tend to watch films or old tv series that we
particularly enjoy. We’ve run out of many of these and find ourselves idly flicking through channels. There’s nothing on, so we turn the tv off – but don’t really have a replacement activity.
Sometimes we play board games but that does involve a fair degree of energy and mental acuity, which neither of us has after a long day at work. We can read books, but that’s something we do separately rather than together, and our evenings are most valuable as a moment to connect, snuggled up together under a blanket and sharing thoughts, support and body warmth. (The lack of heating is beginning to make itself felt)
Sometimes we play board games but that does involve a fair degree of energy and mental acuity, which neither of us has after a long day at work. We can read books, but that’s something we do separately rather than together, and our evenings are most valuable as a moment to connect, snuggled up together under a blanket and sharing thoughts, support and body warmth. (The lack of heating is beginning to make itself felt)
I’ve searched online for ideas of things to do to replace tv but haven’t found anything appropriate. It needs to be an activity that we can share, that doesn’t involve going outside (at least at this time of year) and helps us wind down from a busy stressful day ready for sleeping – and preferably with no investment needed. Most suggestions online involve big projects around the house, outdoor activities, or individual activities for one person alone.
What I’d really like is to replace the tv focal point with something like a closed stove, so we can do what we do when we visit my father, sit around the fire and talk, idly picking up a magazine or book or listening to music in between random and meandering conversation. Unfortunately it’s not really a possibility in an inner-city flat on our current budget – maybe something to look into for future years.
Picture from The Telegraph article: Can you really save £300 a year with a wood burning stove?
Somehow, without the background crackling and flickering, it’s hard to replicate that atmosphere of relaxation and openness. I don’t know why but just sitting on the sofa feels like not doing something, rather than intentionally doing nothing.
You could, as discussed, try reading to one another? Or maybe listening to an audiobook / podcast - or just music? Librivox.org has lots of free public domain audiobooks that you ought to be able to play from your laptop.
ReplyDeleteI did think of that but we tend to read very different books (our main overlap is Terry Pratchett). I would need to do a bit of digging to find something suitable but maybe I should give that a go! Thanks.
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