Unplugging: How to get away from tech for a few hours

Sometimes we all need to take a break from the glowing boxes that dictate most of our waking hours. It’s all too easy to find yourself sucked into Instagram or scrolling through Facebook, especially if you’re feeling at a bit of a loose end.

Here are some of my suggestions for alternative activities to soothe those moments of boredom in a non-digital manner.

Play a game IRL.

Think cards, board games or something like dominoes. You could even have a go at making up your own game if you’re really feeling the need for a creative outlet (go all in and make your own card deck and playing board).

I must caution that you should avoid Monopoly if you’re super competitive and don’t want the aggravation of an explosive family argument.

Call a friend for a catch up

This is kind of cheating as you do need to use a phone to make the call, however once you’ve dialled the number and pressed go, you can sit back and relax into a good old chat/gossip/whatever floats your boat. If you can meet up in-person, even better.

Bonus points are available if you call up/meet someone you haven’t spoken to in a very, very long time.

Attempt to make something from a new recipe

There’s a running joke in my house that I have more cookbooks that I will ever need in one lifetime (I think my collection now is about 50… I can’t help myself!). Despite having a lot of material to choose from, I always find myself going back to a few tried and tested recipes, mainly because I’m lazy and like routine.

Instead of reverting to something easy and known, challenge yourself to try and make something new. Not only will it add some variety to your food routine, you might also pick up a new culinary skill.

Go for an aimless wander

So much of our daily lives is spent moving “in pursuit” of things - whether that’s to get to work on time, pick up something from the shops or go and meet someone. Moving without purpose might seem a bit nonsensical in our results driven society, but it is quite relaxing and liberating.

Slip on your shoes, head out the door and see where your feet take you!

Curiously mine always seem to take me to the local corner shop for a bar of chocolate…

Organise and deal with the pile of documents on *that* shelf that you keep on meaning to do, but always lack the motivation to tackle.

Just do it. You’ll feel a million times better, I promise you.

Go to the open mic night at your local

Support local talent and drink beer - win = win.

Yes, most of the acts will be pretty poor. But in my experience every once in a while there is someone amazing that will make sitting through all the crap totally worth it.

Write a letter to yourself to be opened in 1, 5 or 10 years time (or whatever timescale suits you).

What do you hope for? What do you want older you to remember? What do you want to remind them about?

Ages 25 I wrote a letter to 30 year old me. I can’t wait to find out what she had to say.

This is very much cheating when it comes to the no tech thing, but you can use FutureMe to write a letter that will be delivered via email on your date of choosing.

This is my ninth post in my attempt to write something on this blog everyday in October. Find my previous post from the 8th here.

1st October

I realised this morning that I came to live in York exactly 8 years ago this week as a fresh faced student, ready to start her first term as a fully fledged “adult” away from home.

I don’t know where the time has gone. I still feel like the girl who sobbed inconsolably alone in her room, with every fibre of her being, as her parents drove away. Leaving her in a scary new place, surrounded by new people and new possibilities.

I swear I'm still 19, even now, it’s the body that doesn’t fit the mind.

Time is so slippery and the older I get, the more I feel the pressure to cling on to every moment that falls through the cracks.

I want to take every second up to my mouth and taste it, consume it, wrap it up as a securely bonded part of myself.

I suppose that's why I started writing all those years ago, because I wanted to solidify my life through capturing it.

Writing allows you to revisit yourself, you get to tumble experiences through your mind again as you extract memory and meaning.

I don't write as much as I used to. I'm too busy out there collecting experiences, or too lazy/scared to revisit past ones. It's hard to tell which.

So I've set myself a bit of a challenge - to write a new post on this blog every day in October. They can be about anything and of any length - the content doesn't really matter.

I just want to make a space again to revisit my life before it flies past without a second thought.

It’s too easy to be too preoccupied with the business of living.

All the things I have been doing instead of writing this blog

I seem to experience life as a series of distinct phases - identifiable blocks of time which enclose a certain set of emotions, places or events.

Some of these phases are easy to pick out, marked by a distinct boundary such as the time spent living in another country, or perhaps bordered by the limits of a relationship. Others are murkier - with lines blurred between multiple events or a slightly messy emotional landscape. I am currently in a period resembling the latter - opaque around the edges and unsure of its direction or locality.

I have been remarkably absent from this blog since May. Not for a lack of trying, but every time I sit down to write, I encounter the creeping sense that I have nothing important/interesting to say about anything, even myself - which is after all the subject I know best! It's also hard to describe what's going on with your life or how you perceive the world when you yourself are unsure. 

So yeah, welcome to Bethan in her the late twenties crisis. Two years on from finally getting her shit together from the early/mid twenties wtf period, she's back asking the big questions: Who am I? What am I doing? Why am I here? What the hell does this all mean?

Outside of sitting down and staring at an empty screen as if I were in an existentialist melodrama, my life has actually been reasonably full of interesting things. 

Two weeks in the oven that is Paris

The view from the top of Notre Dame

Back in June I spent two weeks in Paris, working for the first seven days, then generally being a tourist for the remainder. Paris, like the UK, was absurdly hot for the most part, peaking at 35 degrees for a good few days. (I genuinely forgot what not being sweaty 24/7 felt like).

I'm quite lucky in that my work only really requires access to a computer and a reasonably good internet connection, however I am admittedly a people person and do very much enjoy being in the office. It was a bit of a shock to be flying solo for a week, relying on chat and video calls, even if that week was spent in Parisian cafes and co-working spaces. 

Alongside work, I tried to fit in as much sightseeing as possible - including Versailles, The Louvre, the Musée d'Orsay, Café de Flore, the Centre Pompidou, Notre Dame and many, many boulangeries/patisseries. Unfortunately I didn't make it to Disneyland Paris in the end, so that's my excuse sorted to head back in the very near future.

Not that you really need an excuse to visit Paris - a city that remains so gorgeously in a state of decay and yet also defiantly youthful. 

Trying to buy a house

The second feature of my last few months has been the decision to get on the property ladder here in York. Let's just say Rightmove and I have become pretty good friends every evening...

Because I'm fussy and *very* protective over my ability to walk home after a night out, I'm ideally looking for something in a pretty limited geographical area. York is also quite expensive... but I'm hoping I'll end up in a nice two up, two down terrace near enough the city centre. 

It's going to be a bit of shock flying solo for a while after 27 years of living at home or in various house sharing situations. I'm am super excited to decorate though and do a massive IKEA/Reclamation yard haul (I've already picked out about 90% of my furniture.) 

Upping my speaking game

After getting a diversity scholarship to speak at UpFront 2017, I made a promise to myself to try and pursue further speaking opportunities. 

I really do think one of the best things you can do to build resilience is to try and do things that scare the shit out of you, ideally as often as possible. Whilst I'm not a wholly unconfident person, I do suffer from pretty bad stage fright (sweaty palms, palpitations etc.) 

A couple of months ago I responded to the call for speakers for Dot York, York's digital conference. I actually submitted to speak as part of the "Survival" category - with the aim of sharing something meaningful about how we can ensure the survival of the planet through ensuring we have a positive impact - basically taking everything I've learnt from Bright Ethics and packaging that into a compelling argument for action.

I'm happy to say that my submission was chosen and I will be speaking at the conference in October, which should give me plenty of time to work on my talk and delivery style.

Peach

As we have our first gig in over a year on the 24th July (a fundraiser at York Fringe for the Lord Mayor's charities - tickets available here *cough* *cough*), I've been working on some more material for Peach!

Check out the demo below for our latest track:

Sunday Summation 22: The 🔥 May Bank Holiday Edition

I'm admittedly writing this on Bank Holiday Monday, but it's still technically the weekend so I'm gonna roll with it and give you a breakdown of our weekend so far.

As you *may* have noticed, it's unusually warm at the moment here in the UK, I like to think this is payback for the fact that winter lasted for 6 months (give or take). 

Provenance aside, I'm making the most of this weather. Because before you know it, we'll be back to grey skies and drizzle...

1. Spark York Opening

On Friday night we headed to the opening of Spark York - a brand new and extremely exciting addition to the city! 

The project, focused around a box park development of shipping containers, includes a community of small independent businesses including street food, bars, retail, co-working and entertainment.

The general public's reception to the project has been somewhat mixed, with some objecting to the aesthetic of the shipping containers etc. etc. general nay-sayery. 

The buzzing atmosphere on Friday was undoubtedly a testament to how badly this city has needed something new and innovative. I'm super excited to make Spark a permanent fixture in my weekend plans, as I *need* to work my way through all the bars and street food stands...

2. Supporting other new local businesses

After an evening of drinks at the Spark York opening on Friday, we spent Saturday pottering about York.

I was very keen to visit two new businesses that I had come across on social media - Botanic and Pinder and Scott.

Taking over the Shamble's much loved bakery, Via Vecchia, Pinder and Scott has revamped the old premises and added even more baked good and sundries to the range! We came away with a beautiful olive focaccia - my staple Via Vecchia purchase since my student days. 

After loading up on bread, we then wandered down Fossgate/Walmgate to Botanic, a beautiful plant themed shop on Walmgate in the former paper shop. I ended up coming away with three gorgeous plants/succulents which I'm now doing my best not to murder...

Hot and sweaty train faces

3. Cycling the Solar System

Having lived in York for almost 8 years, I have never actually done the famous solar system cycle, which takes you from Fulford down to Riccall along a disused railway line

A scale model of the Solar System is spread out along the 6.4 miles, which includes models of all the planets and models of the Cassini and Voyager spacecraft.

We decided to extend the route and head all the way down to Selby, where we grabbed some lunch and took a quick turn round Selby Abbey to escape the heat. 

As we had done about 16 miles from York -> Selby, we decided to hop on the train back to York, with the promise that next time we would do the full round trip.

4. Letting Winnie Free

Winnie joined the house back in January from York RSPCA, where she had been bought as a stray. As an older lady, we weren't initially sure whether she would want to go outside, perhaps preferring a more sedate life as a house cat.

Due to her advancing years (13) we were also expecting her to be pretty lazy... rather on the contrary she has been full of beans from day one - literally waking us up in the middle of every night to play. 

After a couple of months of appalling weather, we decided that now was the time to give her free reign of the garden and beyond. So far she hasn't ventured more than a couple of gardens away, so I'm hoping that means she likes us and wants to stay at least a little bit!

Sunday Summation 21: Coastal adventures, London and Stargazing

It seems that all of my good intentions have not manifested into a steady stream of blog posts. 

I must admit that my creative energy has been focused elsewhere recently - The Guild, Bright Ethics, my Google Squared Course, another business project and work on a longer form piece of writing. I'm not sure if this will take the form of a short story or if there's material enough for a novella, all I know is that I'm 4000 words deep into a project that *feels* deeply satisfying.

As a child with a bedroom next to my father's study, I used to hear him tapping away at his computer late into the night. I used to wonder why he spent so long at work, didn't he want to play computer games, read or go to bed? As an adult it has become clear that I have inherited the same sense of compulsion when it comes to work - a bored Bethan is a sad Bethan. 

1. Roadtrips to the coast

Last weekend I picked up a new car, replacing the old hunk of metal which has been my travelling partner since I was 19. 

After a serious period of deliberation over whether I should indeed get another car, as opposed to simply relying on pedal power, I made the somewhat non-eco friendly choice to invest in another set of wheels. As someone with a long term chronic pain condition, a vehicle gives me freedom on the days where I simply cannot use human powered transportation. Needless to say, I have gone for the most eco-friendly option in my price range (an electric car will be the next step in a few years.)

Having lived with a less than reliable car for over a year now, Des and I took the first opportunity to test our new set of wheels as part of a longer range journey. The drive over to Whitby certainly put the new motor to the test, especially on the steep ascents which transport you onto the North Yorkshire Moors plateau. 

Once safely in Whitby we took a short stroll along the pier, arm in arm, headfirst into the cold breeze. This was followed by an obligatory visit to The Magpie Cafe for fish and chips which we then ate back on the pier, vigilantly watching out for seagull raids.

With a couple of hours of winter sunlight left we ascended the steps up towards Whitby Abbey, a place I visited first on a school trip when I was around 7 or 8 years old. 

Whilst up on the clifftop I had a moment of "oh shit, I'm so much older but this place has barely changed and will be here probably for hundreds of years after I'm dead." The only reasonable action after this revelation was to seek warmth and a hot drink in the nearby Youth Hostel (conversely the place I stayed during said school trip). 

2. Sister Reunion in London

Apologies for the slightly grainy photo on this one - I had limited choices!

A couple of weeks ago I was lucky enough to be in London for work and managed to meet up with my extremely talented sister, Catrin (she's in a band and is way cooler than me). 

We had a great catch up over pizza and even managed to get into an argument with four men over Donald Trump (not the best pick up chat...).

3. Staring at the stars

When he was younger, one of Des' hobbies outside of music was amateur astronomy. 

He still has most of the gear hidden away in our garage and come a clear night, is known to get everything out for a spot of star gazing. 

Despite being bitterly cold, the recent crisp winter evenings have provided the perfect setting for looking at the heavens. Using our very loved Cannon D2300, Des managed to rig up a pretty decent photography setup, which we used to capture an image of the Orion Nebula above.

The light pollution where we live is pretty heavy, so the images aren't as detailed as they could be.

4. Friday routine

Des is currently working from York City Centre on Fridays' - which has become the perfect excuse to head into the city and meet in the early evening for an end of week celebration.

Our current unwinding routine starts at Parings Wine Bar, where we held our engagement party last year. This can involve both wine and food - both of which are excellent. Last Friday we indulged in the Deli Platter pictured above.

5. First class hacks

My colleague tipped me off about Seatfrog whilst we were in London and both facing a mid-evening train back to York after a long day. 

The app essentially allows users to bid on selected first class seats before departure, starting from £5. Whilst the auction process is not completely transparent, I did manage to bag a first class upgrade from Kings Cross to York for £14, which was well worth it for the lounge access and wifi on the train. 

Currently it seems that the service is only running on Virgin East Coast, however the website does indicate that they have plans to expand in the near future!

6. Great Medium articles

My love for blogging platform Medium is ongoing. Here are a few of the excellent articles I have read over the past few weeks:

50 Things You Probably Forgot To Design

Find a way to do more for others than anyone else is doing: A 9-min Guide to Winning at Customer Retention

63 Best Digital Marketing Tools You Should Know About in 2018

7. Song of the week

Just because. 

That's all folks! Speak this coming week (I promise)