Keeping your brain alive in retirement - what do you do?

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squeaker
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Re: Keeping your brain alive in retirement - what do you do?

Post by squeaker »

661-Pete wrote:I'll bet you're being kept busy too...

Oh Yes :lol: But pleased to be part of a Green fringe - now to get the majority to realise what's happening around us and to play their part in minimising the damage, as well a seizing the opportunities for green businesses.
"42"
Cyril Haearn
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Re: Keeping your brain alive in retirement - what do you do?

Post by Cyril Haearn »

Just realised who I want to nominate to get us out of This Mess
Mrs Pete & Squeaker :wink:
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Graham
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Re: Keeping your brain alive in retirement - what do you do?

Post by Graham »

How about using Duolingo.com to learn a new language ?
They have recently introduced a sort of league table for the users, such that a competitive element is brought into the picture.

Some users of this forum, might enjoy learning a european language, now that they have some free-time available. :wink:

Thanks to people here who mentioned Duolingo, here, some time ago. My french-speaking abilities had slid away since my year house-sitting in Picardie.
Things are rapidly improving.
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al_yrpal
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Re: Keeping your brain alive in retirement - what do you do?

Post by al_yrpal »

+1 for Duolingo. Excellent way of tuning up your language and pronunciation skills, and its free! Great for keeping the noddle tuned up too...

Al
Reuse, recycle, thus do your bit to save the planet.... Get stuff at auctions, Dump, Charity Shops, Facebook Marketplace, Ebay, Car Boots. Choose an Old House, and a Banger ..... And cycle as often as you can......
Cyril Haearn
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Re: Keeping your brain alive in retirement - what do you do?

Post by Cyril Haearn »

Not sure if my brain is starting to go, went into a ladies toilet by mistake today, back home I put water on the stove to cook lentil soup*, put the vegetables in, then realised I should have put the lentils in first :?
Think I shall reread this thread again

*should I downgrade to tinned soup to save thinking?
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Re: Keeping your brain alive in retirement - what do you do?

Post by Cyril Haearn »

To make space for new stuff, one must forget old stuff, explained an expert
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ferrit worrier
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Re: Keeping your brain alive in retirement - what do you do?

Post by ferrit worrier »

for many years I've been working on a model railway project in the loft, certainly for the last 15 years. Following retirement from full time employment in 2016 I've managed to spend more time on it. and the last few months have seen quite a change.
The usable space in the loft is 18 feet by 11 feet and the layout is an End to End (nothing to do with LE JoG) :lol:
just a couple of pics.
PV station 19_08_19.JPG

The first picture is a quarter of the whole layout and is the station end of one side, the total length of this section is 18 feet the bit behind the camera is the loco depot and carriage sidings. in the picture is a footbridge over the station tracks, I've just added some detail to it and I'm quite pleased with the result pictured below.
PV foot bridge 19_08_19.JPG

the line runs out towards the loft wall then turns right where there is a small passing loop then it turns right again into the station on the other side of the loft. line length from end to end is about 45 feet.
The project is based on a fictitious preserved railway so I can basically run what I want. There is quite an assortment of rolling stock 35 loco's both steam and diesel, 2 x two car DMU's 30 plus coaches, 40 brake vans of various types and about 40 goods vehicles.
Control is via two analogue control panels which is where the passing loop comes in so that I can run trains from one end to the other or have two operators working together.
All the baseboards are removable and can be taken out of the loft.
if anyone is interested I have more picture and will post them if there is interest.
Cheers
Malc
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Cyril Haearn
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Re: Keeping your brain alive in retirement - what do you do?

Post by Cyril Haearn »

Please to post more pictures, what is the gauge, in what period is it set? Do you have trouble with temperature fluctuations in the loft?

Maybe I may take the liberty of explaining that an End to End just goes from A to B and back, not round and round in a circle like a kiddies layout? :wink:
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De Sisti
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Re: Keeping your brain alive in retirement - what do you do?

Post by De Sisti »

I'm learning to play a double bass. I'm currently a member of a small local orchestra. At the moment
I have extra pressure on me, as I'm the only bassist and most of the members are of a higher standard
than me; thus, I have to practice extremely hard to keep up with them.

Regularly learning new pieces of music keeps the brain cells active. I'll be doing all of this in my forthcoming retirement (2021), as well as taking French lessons in order to take my O-level again
(I want an A, to better the C that I previously achieved). Oh, I'll be doing a lot my cycling (and weekly
circuit training)
too.
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Re: Keeping your brain alive in retirement - what do you do?

Post by Cyril Haearn »

Plus One for learning music, but new languages are lost at the end, when one goes into decline the language one learnt first is left
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Re: Keeping your brain alive in retirement - what do you do?

Post by Cyril Haearn »

I learnt to ride a bi-cycle as a child, learnt to drive later
Does that mean I shall forget the latter first?

Feeling quite smug, gave up my motor nearly two months ago :wink:
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Audax67
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Re: Keeping your brain alive in retirement - what do you do?

Post by Audax67 »

Mental arithmetic. One of my favourite games is to take 4 random digits (e.g. the time from a digital clock) and try to derive the numbers from 1 to 100: each digit may appear only once, but you can use all the usual mathematical operators including exponentiation and factorials.

I do most of it lying in bed at night when I can't sleep, usually after bladder o'clock. Trouble is then that I forget the results and have to work them out again next day so as to record them.

It was one of my maths masters got me on to this one end of term around 60 years ago, getting the whole class to try it using four 4s. That was fun.
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Cyril Haearn
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Re: Keeping your brain alive in retirement - what do you do?

Post by Cyril Haearn »

Care to post some sums with numbers?
Decimalisation might have been good for mental arithmetic, likewise the introduction of the €uro, nearly 18 years ago. Aldi in Germany dropped all prices by converting with factor 2 instead of 1.95583 :wink:
..
I had a dream, I was in the food store, I wanted to pay
'But you have already paid!', bleated the cashier
Obviously I had forgotten what I had done a moment before
Just a dream. Yet
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Audax67
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Re: Keeping your brain alive in retirement - what do you do?

Post by Audax67 »

I could give you the full hundred. ;)

Here's a sample, though, starting with the "seed" 2318.

1 = 8^(3-2-1)
2 = 8-3-2-1
3 = (8-3-2)*1
4 = 8/(3+1-2)
5 = (3+2)*1^8
6 = 3! * 1^28
7 = 3! + 1^28
8 = 8 * 1^32
9 = 3^2 * 1^8
10 = 3^2 + 1^8
...
...
53 = 8! / 3!! -2 -1
54 = 8! / 3!! -2*1
55 = 8! / 3!! -1^2
56 = 8! / 3!! *1^2
...
...
90 = 81 + 3^2
91 = 3!! / 8 + 1^2
92 = 3!! / 8 + 2 * 1
93 = 3!! / 8 + 2 + 1
94 = (3! * 8 - 1) * 2
95 = 3! * 8 * 2 - 1
96 = 3! * 8 * 2 * 1
97 = 3! * 8 * 2 + 1
98 = (3! * 8 + 1) * 2
99 = 12 * 8 + 3
100 = (8+2) ^ (3-1)

You might find a few mistakes. I found one sequence where I'd used 2 more than once, and had to scrap most of the 70s because I used 1 more than once.

Nice thing with putting them in here is that you can mark a formula and have Google check it.
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Re: Keeping your brain alive in retirement - what do you do?

Post by Cyril Haearn »

What do !,!!, ^ mean? * =x, multiply?
It might keep your brain busy, but I am not sure what utility or use such skills have :wink:
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