For many, 2020 was a year of hobbies and 2021 looks set to be much the same. While facing long periods of lockdown, quarantine or self-isolation, it has felt, at times, as though Netflix, gaming consoles and books just weren't going to cut it, leading to people around the word seeking out new diversions as they did the sensible thing and stayed home.
Last year, I dabbled with a sourdough starter, tried my hand at calligraphy, challenged myself with a 2,000-piece puzzle and started learning Arabic once again. Some of my new pursuits were more successful than others ... the puzzle remains incomplete and hidden under a rug.
Celebrities, it seems, have also caught the pastime bug. Here, we round up stars who have taken to social media to share insights into their new passions:
Seth Rogen's pottery
Seth Rogen, 38, is best known for being a regular cast member in Judd Apatow's bro comedies. But it seem he is also a positively crafty man.
The actor regularly takes to Twitter and Instagram to show off his pottery skills, with special focus on the glaze and painted finishes. He mainly makes vases, but has also made drinking sets and ashtrays.
"There's inherently something meditative about it. I do like tactile things; I like to produce tangible work. With movies, we spend years on them and then they're very intangible. They don't have weight, they don't occupy a physical space," Rogen told The Cut.
"I don’t like to keep my own movie posters around because those are just advertising for the product, not the product itself. I do really like being able to create an artistic expression that is a thing that I can pick up, hold, show to people. It is just so different from what I normally do which has no mass to it."
Tom Daley's knitting
British Olympic diver Tom Daley, 26, took up knitting and crocheting during the first UK lockdown last year, and loves it so much he's made a separate Instagram page for his new hobby, @madewithlovebytomdaley.
"I started knitting at the beginning of lockdown and have been obsessed ever since," he wrote in September. "I have started to crochet now also!"
The athlete has made scarves, tea cosies, hats, baby boots, jumpers, Christmas tree decorations, stuffed toys, plant pot covers and even swimming trunks.
Busy Philipps's celebrity birthday cakes
Busy Philipps, 41, lives her life on Instagram, which means fans have seen the highs and lows of her lockdown. The actress is open about not being able to cook, but has started making birthday cakes for her daughters' favourite celebrities' birthdays – not to eat with the stars or to send to them, just to honour them on their big days.
With her two daughters, Birdie, 12, and Cricket, 7, Philipps has made cakes in celebration of Timothee Chalamet and Florence Pugh.
East 17's Tony Mortimer started reading
At 50 years old, East 17 singer Tony Mortimer picked up reading last spring. Since then, he has read more than 70 books and has decided to try and write one of his own.
"Books are just pure escapism aren't they?" the 1990s British boy band member told The Guardian. "The plot twists, the descriptions, the metaphors. It engages your imagination like no other medium! It makes your worries disappear!"
"Finally coming to the end of reading my first ever novel," Mortimer wrote on Twitter on May 2, marking the beginning of his literary journey. "Such a small yet huge achievement I’ve already chosen the next nine books. I hope you’re all staying safe."
By June 30, he was on his 28th book. "Just finished reading my 28th book of lockdown," he wrote. "I hope everyone is keeping well and safe out there."
At the time, he said he was aiming for a round 100 reads in 2020.
When a fan asked him what he was reading, he replied: "I'm reading literally anything and everything but mostly classics. Just finished Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None for a bit of murder mystery. Very clever plot from her."
Now writing his own novel, he has given himself the target of 500 words a day.
"I've got tens of thousands of words, but they're all over the place at the moment, so I'm trying to get them into some order," he told The Guardian. "I'm making it all up as I'm going along."
Lauren Conrad's vegetable garden
Just taking one look at The Hills alumna's Instagram, it is clear that a grown-up Lauren Conrad, 34, is the picture of curated domesticity. So, it may come as no surprise that she has a vegetable patch at home, where she has been growing broccoli, onions, peas and more since early last year with her son Liam, 3.
"We planted a vegetable garden on the side of our house a couple months ago. Liam has been visiting it everyday to eat snap peas off the vine and watch everything grow. Today we cut our first stalk of broccoli," she wrote on Instagram last year.
Since, she has shared photos of pumpkins, green beans and mushrooms they have grown.
David Beckham's beekeeping
The former professional footballer has truly embraced country life and regularly posts photos of himself in the fields near his Cotswolds home.
However, over the summer it was bees specifically that got his attention, as he started keeping them and is even said to be thinking about marketing his own brand of honey.
"Beekeeping started as a fun hobby early in lockdown. But now David has become a bit obsessed. He has all the gear, and even built a hive," a source told UK tabloid The Sun. "He finds it a total antidote to his mad London and Miami life."
In June, he posted a video of himself building a hive with the caption, "New project ... watch this space," with the honeypot emoji and tagging wife, Victoria Beckham, who filmed the video.
Beckham has also posted a photo of himself foraging for flowers and plants to make an autumnal wreath with daughter, Harper, 9.
"Never thought I’d enjoy foraging as much as this, but don’t worry I wasn’t alone I was with my pretty lady, Harper Seven," he wrote.
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- Riders must be 14-years-old or over
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Engine: naturally aspirated 6.5-liter V12
Power: 819hp
Torque: 678Nm at 7,250rpm
Price: From Dh1,700,000
Available: Now
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1) Download your ballot https://www.fvap.gov/
2) Take it to the US Embassy
3) Deadline is October 15
4) The embassy will ensure all ballots reach the US in time for the November 3 poll
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COMPANY PROFILE
Initial investment: Undisclosed
Investment stage: Series A
Investors: Core42
Current number of staff: 47
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Starring: Janhvi Kapoor, Ishaan Khattar, Ashutosh Rana
Stars: 3
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We Weren’t Supposed to Survive But We Did
We weren’t supposed to survive but we did.
We weren’t supposed to remember but we did.
We weren’t supposed to write but we did.
We weren’t supposed to fight but we did.
We weren’t supposed to organise but we did.
We weren’t supposed to rap but we did.
We weren’t supposed to find allies but we did.
We weren’t supposed to grow communities but we did.
We weren’t supposed to return but WE ARE.
Amira Sakalla
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
UAE squad
Humaira Tasneem (c), Chamani Senevirathne (vc), Subha Srinivasan, NIsha Ali, Udeni Kuruppuarachchi, Chaya Mughal, Roopa Nagraj, Esha Oza, Ishani Senevirathne, Heena Hotchandani, Keveesha Kumari, Judith Cleetus, Chavi Bhatt, Namita D’Souza.
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Getting there
The flights
Emirates and Etihad fly to Johannesburg or Cape Town daily. Flights cost from about Dh3,325, with a flying time of 8hours and 15 minutes. From there, fly South African Airlines or Air Namibia to Namibia’s Windhoek Hosea Kutako International Airport, for about Dh850. Flying time is 2 hours.
The stay
Wilderness Little Kulala offers stays from £460 (Dh2,135) per person, per night. It is one of seven Wilderness Safari lodges in Namibia; www.wilderness-safaris.com.
Skeleton Coast Safaris’ four-day adventure involves joining a very small group in a private plane, flying to some of the remotest areas in the world, with each night spent at a different camp. It costs from US$8,335.30 (Dh30,611); www.skeletoncoastsafaris.com
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Rohan Mustafa, Ashfaq Ahmed, Chirag Suri, Rameez Shahzad, Shaiman Anwar, Adnan Mufti, Mohammed Usman, Ghulam Shabbir, Ahmed Raza, Qadeer Ahmed, Amir Hayat, Mohammed Naveed and Imran Haider.
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Results
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Fixtures
Sunday, 10am, ICC Academy, Dubai - UAE v Scotland
Admission is free
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The specs
Engine: 4.0-litre, twin-turbocharged V8
Transmission: nine-speed automatic
Power: 630bhp
Torque: 900Nm
Price: Dh810,000
Company name: Farmin
Date started: March 2019
Founder: Dr Ali Al Hammadi
Based: Abu Dhabi
Sector: AgriTech
Initial investment: None to date
Partners/Incubators: UAE Space Agency/Krypto Labs
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Results
4pm: Maiden; Dh165,000 (Dirt); 1,400m
Winner: Solar Shower; William Lee (jockey); Helal Al Alawi (trainer)
4.35pm: Handicap; Dh165,000 (D); 2,000m
Winner: Thaaqib; Antonio Fresu; Erwan Charpy.
5.10pm: Maiden; Dh165,000 (Turf); 1,800m
Winner: Bila Shak; Adrie de Vries; Fawzi Nass
5.45pm: Handicap; Dh175,000 (D); 1,200m
Winner: Beachcomber Bay; Richard Mullen; Satish Seemar
6.20pm: Handicap; Dh205,000 (T); 1,800m
Winner: Muzdawaj; Jim Crowley; Musabah Al Muhairi
6.55pm: Handicap; Dh185,000 (D); 1,600m
Winner: Mazeed; Tadhg O’Shea; Satish Seemar
7.30pm: Handicap; Dh205,000 (T); 1,200m
Winner: Riflescope; Tadhg O’Shea; Satish Seemar.
Building boom turning to bust as Turkey's economy slows
Deep in a provincial region of northwestern Turkey, it looks like a mirage - hundreds of luxury houses built in neat rows, their pointed towers somewhere between French chateau and Disney castle.
Meant to provide luxurious accommodations for foreign buyers, the houses are however standing empty in what is anything but a fairytale for their investors.
The ambitious development has been hit by regional turmoil as well as the slump in the Turkish construction industry - a key sector - as the country's economy heads towards what could be a hard landing in an intensifying downturn.
After a long period of solid growth, Turkey's economy contracted 1.1 per cent in the third quarter, and many economists expect it will enter into recession this year.
The country has been hit by high inflation and a currency crisis in August. The lira lost 28 per cent of its value against the dollar in 2018 and markets are still unconvinced by the readiness of the government under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to tackle underlying economic issues.
The villas close to the town centre of Mudurnu in the Bolu region are intended to resemble European architecture and are part of the Sarot Group's Burj Al Babas project.
But the development of 732 villas and a shopping centre - which began in 2014 - is now in limbo as Sarot Group has sought bankruptcy protection.
It is one of hundreds of Turkish companies that have done so as they seek cover from creditors and to restructure their debts.
RESULTS
5pm: Maiden (PA) Dh80,000 2,200m
Winner: Arjan, Fabrice Veron (jockey), Eric Lemartinel (trainer).
5.30pm: Maiden (PA) Dh80,000 1,400m
Winner: Jap Nazaa, Royston Ffrench, Irfan Ellahi.
6pm: Al Ruwais Group 3 (PA) Dh300,000 1,200m
Winner: RB Lam Tara, Fabrice Veron, Eric Lemartinal.
6.30pm: Shadwell Gold Cup Prestige Dh125,000 1,600m
Winner: AF Sanad, Bernardo Pinheiro, Khalifa Al Neyadi.
7pm: Shadwell Farm Stallions Handicap (PA) Dh70,000 1,600m
Winner: Jawal Al Reef, Patrick Cosgrave, Abdallah Al Hammadi.
7.30pm: Maiden (TB) Dh80,000 1,600m
Winner: Dubai Canal, Harry Bentley, Satish Seemar.
Living in...
This article is part of a guide on where to live in the UAE. Our reporters will profile some of the country’s most desirable districts, provide an estimate of rental prices and introduce you to some of the residents who call each area home.
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Schedule:
Pakistan v Sri Lanka:
28 Sep-2 Oct, 1st Test, Abu Dhabi
6-10 Oct, 2nd Test (day-night), Dubai
13 Oct, 1st ODI, Dubai
16 Oct, 2nd ODI, Abu Dhabi
18 Oct, 3rd ODI, Abu Dhabi
20 Oct, 4th ODI, Sharjah
23 Oct, 5th ODI, Sharjah
26 Oct, 1st T20I, Abu Dhabi
27 Oct, 2nd T20I, Abu Dhabi
29 Oct, 3rd T20I, Lahore
Second ODI
England 322-7 (50 ovs)
India 236 (50 ovs)
England win by 86 runs
Next match: Tuesday, July 17, Headingley
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
