Thursday, April 25, 2013

Life and the Peeling of Hazelnuts.....

Skybluepinkish commented on my post yesterday that life was too short to peel hazelnuts. Her comment got me thinking about all the things that I omit doing because they are too fiddly or time consuming to be bothered with. For example:

1. I never seed tomatoes and rarely peel them. When the recipe instructions call for  3 tomatoes, peeled, seeded and chopped, I skip over the "peeled and seeded" and go right to the "chopped." It's roughage right.

2. I don't seed cucumbers either. I guess one could say my Gazpacho is a little "seedy"  :)

3. I rarely make desserts. I don't mind the fuss of making a dessert, but that has to be the event of the day - no other cooking, cleaning etc is done just The Decadent Chocolate Cake from "The Silver Palate" or any one of their other desserts.

4. I don't clean silver, so I guess it's fortunate that I don't have any. I used to work with a woman who took a day off every December to clean her silverware for Christmas.

5. I don't collect "things" because you have to maintain your collections. If it's ceramics, they have to be dusted. I had a friend who collected those beautiful painted Easter Eggs - lovely though they are, the dust still collects on them.

My only collection

I am sure there are more and I have reserved the whole concept of "ironing" for another post. Here is what I do make time for in my life which many would consider a waste of time:

1. I knit. It's not so much about the finished garments, which are often cheaper to buy. It's about the rhythm of the activity, a kind of marathon for the hands.

2. I weed. Where others may put down grass for easy maintenance, I dig it up and put in gardens that require weeding. Again, it's an outdoor marathon for the hands and knees.

3. I write. Sometimes people ask me how often I blog and when I say daily, they look stunned. Now I know most people in this group blog daily. But there are a lot of people who do not write a blog, never tweet and aren't on Facebook. For them, these activities are a huge time suck!!

4. I cook from scratch. Given that I really dislike the taste of processed foods, I make most of my meals from the basics, even though a lot of the basics today are preprepared. I am seriously thinking of cooking with beans from their dried state and maybe freezing tomatoes in the Fall to avoid using the tinned ones.

5. I do crossword puzzles. Time wasters, yes, but they are absorbing and I almost never watch TV.

What do you find that's a waste of time or what do you like wasting your time doing :)

7 comments:

  1. One person's time waster is another's treasure.
    I pay folks to weed. But, I clean and cook myself (because I want it done my way...)
    Oh, and I iron. While I watch TV. (Or, do I iron, and let the time pass as I LISTEN to TV?)

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  2. I could list tons of things like this. Menial tasks that serve little purpose. Making the bed, for example. When I was single, I only ever made it if I was expecting company or when I changed the sheets. I'm just going to climb in there and mess it up again in a matter of hours. I buy my cheese already grated and my salad already mixed too. Thank you for sharing this!

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  3. I bake. I love baking! But I don't iron. Go figure...

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  4. I very rarely iron. I try to get the clothes very shortly after they finish in the dryer so the wrinkles are minimal. I take the dog for long walks and I pay someone to clean every other week. I try to cook from scratch as much as I can, but it doesn't always work that way. I play Words with Friends and Lumosity and would argue that they are not time wasters, but brain boosters! I learned to knit once and loved the rhythm of it. Somehow I lost the art over time.

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  5. I love just looking out the window in my new home - it is a great time waster!

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  6. Oh thank you! I'm with you with the cucumbers and tomatoes. Having said that I do occasionnally peel tomatoes, but I can;t for the life of me understand why anybody would want to peel and pip a cucumber - what on earth would be left to eat?
    I knit and am starting to choose simpler and simpler patterns so that I can knit without thought without having to perpertually count stitches, repetitive patterns suit me down to the ground.
    Weeding is therapy though when it comes to the bind weed I have resorted to ssshhhh glyphosate.
    Cook from scratch because I enjoy it, because I know what is in it and because sometimes there is stuff that needs using up!
    Make the bed and clean the bathroom every day or I get twitchy. I have been known to make the bed just before I get in it if the other half has got out after me and I've got home late....

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  7. What silver I have is black. Haha. I will spend time cooking since I really enjoy it and I am now going to re-evaluate collections. Especially since our goal is to down size the house by 1/2. But timewasters... for certain right now it's Words with Friends. I enjoy it and usually only play while I'm on hold or watching what little TV I watch. Still I find it a little guilty pleasure....

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