Do any of the people here have any sort of talent? My talent is art. I have already posted a couple of pictures I drew in the form of puzzles. Those pictures are not exactly the best kind of art I do, I can draw better than that. I shall post some at some point. But do any of you guys have a hidden talent or hobby? Maybe you are pretty musical or you might like to do a spot of gardening.
Talents: Do any of the people here have any sort of... - Headway
Talents
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Matt2584
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I play the piano and violin *smug*
Sorry to hear that, I bet you miss it.
I have a black belt in kickboxing and a green in jiu jitsu no more contact sports for me though I gave up when I had surgery for 3 ruptured ligaments in my ankle and I've also got a lot of metal in my shoulder as you might have seen from yesterday's pic
I thought you were threatening me in the first line haha. I should not get involved in any contact sports now either because of my shunt. Great achievements though, well done to you :).
Hahahahaha 
I'm also pretty strong I like to weight train and two days before my accident I hit a PB on the leg press 200kg for 6 repetitions I weigh 60kg!
Now I feel even more threatened haha, joke :).
So you should
in reply to Broken_Doll
WOW! WHAT A FANTASTIC ACHIEVEMENT. I'M SO IMPRESSED!
what pictures i never get any on my site
Hi gymrat
I had to have an open reduction internal fixation on my right shoulder 2 years ago!
So it's a picture of one of my xrays the metalwork of 2 plates and seven screws 
MY TALENT IS SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGES. MY FRENCH IS PRACTICALLY FLUENT, I NEED PRACTICE TO GET BACK WHAT I'VE LOST THO.
I SPEAK GOOD GERMAN & MY SPANICH IS OK. I LEARNT TO READ RUSSIAN BUT THE GRAMMAR IS A BIT TOUGH FOR ME NOW.
HAD A GO AT JAPANESE BUT THE CULTRAL DIFFERENCES BETWEEN JAPAN & EUROPE MEAN THE LANGUAGE HAS A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT STRUCTUR, LEARNING THE KANJI& HIRAGANA USES TOO MUCH MEMORY THAT IHAVEN'T GOT ANY MORE,TOO COMPLICATED!
I FIND SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGES HELPS WITH THE APHASIA AS YOU LISTEN HARDER & PROCESS SLOWER. I HAVE VERY LITTLE PROBLEM WITH THE LANGUAGES I SPEAK WELL BUT I'M CRAP AT ENGLISH, IT FEELS MORE FOREIGN THAN THE FOREIGN ONES
ANYWAY ENOUGH OF BLOWING MY OWN TRUMPET.I LOVE HEARING ABOUT WHAT A TALENTED BUNCH OF PEOPLE WE ARE.
iforget in reply to
I lost my pre BI bilingual ability and am now only fluent in gibberish and profanity
Did you learn languages post BI or was it a skill you had before and found you still had after? I did not know that speaking a foreign language helps with aphasia...interesting point and actually makes sense when you explain it. Thanks. Learned something today already
in reply to iforget
I DID LANGUAGES AT UNI & AT WORK, JUST DID NEW ONES AT EVENING CLASSES SO HAD THEM YEARS PRE BI. GLAD IT'S ONE THING I HAVEN'T LOST.
Matt2584 in reply to
Foreign languages eh, cool. I can only speak a few phrases in French and Spanish and a little Italian. I can speak English with a French sounding accent :). Like the show 'Allo Allo'.
It's great to hear that we all have talents or had talents. I know people who would think that brain injured people wouldn't be able to show any form of talent, how wrong they are.
Broken_Doll in reply to
Zeblet
Wow you are amazing I'm terrible at all languages and with my aphasia I can suck at English too x
in reply to Broken_Doll
I'M WAY TO SCARED TO DO ANYTHING THAT INVOLVES PAIN! (PRE OR POST BI!
Impressive lot of varied talents within this group ...
Pre BI I was a writer...post BI I have become a mixed media artist.
Is it a talent? Not sure...but it certainly keeps me at what passes for sane around here
Mixed media iforget, writing still among other things or something else? I can see that you have a sense of humour though :). That is something I think most People with BI seem to have, a sense of humour which is good to see.
Matt if I had lost my ability to laugh at the absurdity of it all then I doubt I would have survived... perhaps that is my main talent
You are totally rught iforget it definately pays to have a sense of humour
All the weird stuff I've gargled eaten or put places I burst into tears but now I see the funny side
A friend once told me that they believe good things come from bad things. I can agree with that. I have a terrible thing that happened to me and because of that bad thing I am a member of some disabled charities and I have met some very nice people along the way and through one of these charities my art has improved also I am now linked to Health Unlocked and am talking to you delightful people :).
Realised I did not really answer/clarify your question Matt... I saw a tangent and chased it LOL
My mixed media work is new and I love it. I never had an artistic bone in my body but I needed a creative outlet and I began with paper and went from there. I am never happier than when I am in my little studio in creative mode, covered in ink and gloop ...it is messy heaven
The writing is what used to be...although I had a couple of pieces published since my BI, I know I do not function at the necessary level and as a result my writing confidence took a dive.Writing used to be something I was driven to do (could never imagine not writing) and loved doing, to being something I struggled with and was never quite happy with the result. For me there needs to be joy in the process or the writing falls short.
That's definately a talent iforget x
Like iforget I'm a writer haven't had anything published yet but I got called gifted when I was 10 with my writing from an author which I'm pretty proud of to say that I had only wrote one piece of work at that time during an after school club called writer's club, but I have had writer's block since I had my accident. I'm starting to get back in to writing though.
Apart from that, I have a hobby of exercising and have since become qualified as a gym instructor and want to save up for a personal trainer course but need to work on my fitness and get my legs and head properly sorted out first.
I have other hobbies like knitting, crocheting and now french knitting which my aunty taught me last year picked up pretty quickly, just my nan never managed to teach me how to start off with my knitting before she passed away I regret that I never sat down when my nan offered to teach me to start off the knitting, one day I will go to my aunties and ask her to teach me, which I know she will.
Well Amateurwriter, it sounds like you have a few talents on the go there. A former writer and now starting to get back into it. I have been drawing ever since I was little but as I was going through my treatments I didn't draw so much and from 2001-2007 or 08, I didn't really do any drawing at all. I called it 'artists block' because I didn't know what else to call it. 2007 was when I joined Headway and my motivation came back and so I started drawing again and with a little help, my art has got so much better :). Enough about that though. Congratulations on becoming a gym instructor. Knitting, crocheting and French knitting too :).
I must admit I did go through a few stages of refusing to pick up a pen, but that was after my nan and my littlest sister passed away (different years), so didn't feel up to doing anything other than eating and sleeping and I only went to school because I had to, I then had to write a story for a piece of coursework in english when I was in my last year of high school and that flared up my passion for writing again.
It's good that you have got back into your drawing again, it's always good to have something to help you relax or to concentrate I found that out when I finally picked up a pen about a year after my nan passing away, but i don't seem to be that good at following my own advice.
I've been knitting since I was about 7/8 years old maybe even a little bit younger I just remember sitting there and my nan showing me really slowly how to move the wool around the needle and what to do, then once I'd learnt that, she taught me how to do crocheting and also sewing so I can mend most pieces of clothing that gets a rip in.
I agree, it is good to have something to help you relax and concentrate on, it seems most of us can relate to that. And it is not only good for your brain but also if you know that you are good at this particular thing, you feel more confidant too.
I think most people would associate older people to be knitting but I guess really you could start at any age really, as long as it makes one happy :).
It makes me feel proud to have been taught a ton of things off my nan, I only had 12 and a half years with my nan which is more than my younger siblings had, but we packed in so much during that time, she even managed to come across the road from her house to watch me play rounders and she had osteoarthritis and osteoporosis so could barely walk a few steps without stopping.
I've thought about joining a knitting group for when I go up to visit my cousins in liverpool or maybe move there in a few years, I saw a poster saying both young and old are welcome, you go there and show people what you are knitting and what you have learnt etc.
When ever I sit and knit, it takes me back to when I would sit next to my nan and we would look like twins both knitting at pretty much the same speed even when I was only little and the needles was only a bit smaller than me lol.
Your Nan sounded like a brilliant person, she obviously didn't let pain stop her from doing what she wanted to. Keep up the knitting, I think your Nan would be proud :).
She was, she taught me all the different swimming strokes because I could only do back stroke, but then I forgot how to swim twice earlier this year once in jan/feb and then again about a month or 2 ago, which really upset me, but I've managed to relearn how to swim again twice and am now swimming around 1km in one go.
I have seen some of your pictures you are a really good at drawing, best I can do is stick drawings.
Thank you Amateur.
I like to swim, I dont s I'm as much as I did now though. I was taking swimming lessons when I was 10 or 11, I didn't exactly enjoy it, but the next thing I know I fell ill and had an operation on my brain. When I came out of hospital and got much better again, I went swimming with friends and I found I could actually swim! So either the lessons were paying off and my body brain remembered what I had learnt or I ended up teaching myself to swim in the end, not too sure. I mostly do a front crawl and breast stroke and backstroke. Though with breast trike and back stroke I don't exactly do them properly but at least I can do them haha. And I don't think I could swim 1km in one go, that might puff me out :).
I'm sort of similar my legs and arms aren't in sync when I do breast stroke but it's the getting in the pool and giving it a try is what that counts, and to find out that you could still swim is even better.
I mainly stick to breast stroke but I do doggy paddle for a bit of fun and back stroke when my arms get to tired of doing breast stroke.
I'm building myself up because I want to do something on the lines of a 5km swim for charity, for headway I either want to do a swim or a bike ride but I would need a bike first lol, got all the accessories for the non-existant bike just need the bike now.
Siobhan
My arms can do the breast stroke but my legs do the front crawl haha. As for the backstroke, I can float on my back with ease and kick my legs but I use my arms differently, I call it the squid stroke haha. Those inflatable bed loungers that people use, I don't really need one, I float on my back. Sometimes when in the squid stroke position, Kick my legs while my hands are behind my head as if I were relaxing :). Finding out I could still swim is definitely great. As I said before, I didn't exactly enjoy my swimming lessons and I sometimes found excuses not to go. My Dad would get annoyed cos he would end up paying for nothing. I was almost done with my lessons and starting to get the hang of it and then this thing called a 'brain injury' came along :). good luck to you on the 5km swim if you get to do it. I have never been able to ride a bike. I would go out with my Dad and he would teach me but I always fell off. My docs said after my first op that the tumour I had was the reason I could not ride a bike because it affected my balance.
I tend to sink if i don't move my arms and legs for a few seconds as I've got quite big muscles at the back of my legs, think that's part of the reason as to my muscle imbalance I have which have resulted in more problems. 
I can see why he would get annoyed, my cousin goes to gymnastics lessons and she seems to find an excuse to not go, so my cousin her grandma is paying around £100 for about 1/2 months worth of lessons and she doesn't go half the time. I prefer the adult lessons that I go to which is a pay as you go type payment. The only reason I started going gymnastics was to help with my balance and co-ordination, but now am actually enjoying them maybe that is why you tried to avoid the lessons because you didn't enjoy them because you couldn't swim to start with but once you manage to do something you start to enjoy it.
Thank you, I've been told I'm not allowed to drive a car but I got the ok in january to buy a bike and once I've had lessons to ride on the road I should be alright as long as I wear protective gear e.g. definitely a helmet and a hi-vis jacket etc.
I hope you keep drawing because you are a really good artist if it's something you enjoy doing.
That is a lot of money your cousin's Grandma is spending. The swimming lessons I kept cancelling would cost my Dad about £7 a week, which is not a lot of money but then again in the 90s, £7 is quite expensive I guess. I agree, when you can do something you start to enjoy it more. Thing is though, after my first or second I did not continue my lessons, I pulled the plug on that one. It was only when I went swimming with my friends that I found I could randomly swim haha. I don't think I would Ben ble to drive a car. Well, I don't know if it is the fact that I might not be able to or if it is the fact that I have never been interested in driving. I guess one of the reasons why I couldn't is because my shunt could block up at any moment. Thanks :). I do enjoy drawing and even more so now that I have a friend who is an artist herself, a way better artist than me, and she is helping me with some techniques. My art used to take me 30-40 minutes to finish, now it takes me hours and it is draining to. I cannot work start to finish on one piece, I do them in portions but I'm glad you like my work :). I actually just finished a piece, I will post it on here at some point. It was originally a xmas card for my friends son and her son is into cycling as well so I have drawn Santa on a bike :). It was a pretty quick drawing, I didn't spend too long on it because I have other pieces to finish.
in reply to amateurwriter
Sounds like some very precious, happy memories there Siobhan
Matt2584 in reply to
I think that is good for people to talk about there talents and bring back memories. Just think, when I started up this post by asking people there talents, I didn't expect to have many comments, how wrong I was :).
My hobby is cubs. I like to draw and paint but I'm not good at it.
I love reading but find it a lot more challenging these days.
I used to play piano in the olden days as well as clarinet and trombone. Now I'm learning ukulele but I find it very difficult to do the strumming patterns. I'm good at burning food, leaving things half done, arriving for appointments on wrong day/time/hospital etc!
I am not too good at painting either, at least I don't think I am. I stick to pencil work, graphite pencil, colour pencil and maybe even watercolour pencil sometime. So you were quite a musical person too, Danslatete. The Ukulele is hard to play. I think I could relate at burning food haha, that is why I let my Mum do the cooking :).
my accident was in 1997 but just over 2 yeaars ago i was persuaded totry to paint a picture of aboriginal art and after that i enjoyed it so much i sdtill paint but i also scribe onto slate . apparently a brain injury survivor is usually good at some sort of art form. i dont know how to post a photo or picture on here to show you , if you could let me know how i will download or whatever and you can let me see you drawings and paintings
Persuasion can lead to good things, gymrat. I mainly use my iPad for browsing the Internet and using Health Unlocked, the only way I can post a picture is by going to the news feed and select 'write a post' and post a picture that way but you can only post one pic at a time, which is a bummer. I did browse Health Unlocked using my computer once and found that when you edit your profile there was an option to upload a picture. It would be good if you could upload lots of pictures to a folder like you can on Facebook but I don't know if you can do that here. I would like very much to see your pictures though if you are able to upload them at all :).
Can juggle three balls! Post accident didn't even try for about 8 months. Had to re-learn how to do it! Was a challenge, and at first was pretty poor! Perceived and can now do it again, no where near as long as I used to before TBI unfortunately! But I CAN DO IT AGAIN!
Have also got a qualification in Massage, and after being retired on Ill Health from the Fireservice, was toying with the idea of going self employed as a therapeutic masseur!!! 'o'er Mrs' In the end the thought of being called up by dodgy individuals, expecting 'extra's', proved to be resistible, and I have reverted to supporting adults with a learning disability. Something I did on and off 30 -20 years ago.
It's good that you were able to juggle after your accident, you may have had to relearn but you still did it :). I can't juggle to save my life haha. I have poor hand to eye coordination since 1996 after my first op. Pre op wasn't too bad at catching things but now is quite a test. And a qualification in massage as well, get you :).
gymrat you can only post a picture in the firs post of a new thread which is a bit restrictive but then again I guess it is a health related board and they did not perhaps anticipate we would be as sociable and sharing as we are in this group...
If you have a website or blog with pics of your artwork you could also post the details/url in here and those who wish can pop over and take a look?
I could imagine the people who created this website thinking "Oh no, some people are talking more than just health and want to share pictures! What to do?" :). To be honest though, I know this is a health related website but I think it would be a bit boring talking about one thing all the time. This website should be a bit more like Facebook in some ways but be more of a social network for us :).
Matt I think that if our common bond was an itchy rash or chronic diarrhoea we would discuss cures for the itch or poops and there would (hopefully) be very few pictures
But with brain injury the whole person, body, mind and spirit is affected and sites like this are among the few places we can safely come together to share our experiences, our tragedies and our triumphs...to not feel so alone as so many of us can do when faced with life after BI.
I know that for me linking up with Headway was when I realised I was not crazy, not alone and that there were others who had been on the path I found myself travelling.
Yes I have a Brain injury and yes it turned my life upside down...but it does not define me and I refuse to allow that to happen...
Hearing about other people's successes no matter how big or how small is always encouraging... but it is still a health site and there will be new folk coming along looking for information and reassurance and hope...and a facebook type site filled with stuff and nonsense might not be quite the thing...
I guess as in all things, balance is the key.
Oh I did not mean this website, HU, should be exactly like Facebook because as you say, there is a lot of nonsense. But it would be handy if you could post a bunch of pictures and store them in a folder like you can on Facebook. Some people might want to show pictures of themselves after BI.
I have always envied anyone who can knit... My mother was a talented knitter...she could knit cable, chat, drink tea, keep an eye on us kids and watch Coronation Street (in black and white) all without ever missing or dropping a stitch... and as hard as she tried over many years she was never able to pass her talent down to me her only daughter.
My Grandmother could crochet up a storm but I couldn't do that either and as for sewing...I once sewed a button on my husbands coat and sewed the pocket shut in the process LOL
My Mother was a gifted pianist and my Grandmother played the organ, my father played drums and guitar...but musical talent skipped a beat when it reached me and as for singing...I couldn't carry a tune in a bucket!
But I just realised one other talent I do possess...I can cook. I can't make chips (not the kind you would want to eat anyway) but I can cook anything else from scratch...I can taste a dish and pretty much replicate it...but I can't follow a recipe to save my life. I cook by instinct and it works so I consider that a talent too
Maybe your mother didn't want you to have the knitting talent, maybe she knew you would be too good for that :). You can cook which I suppose is why you don't/can't knit. If you cook by instinct, that certainly is a talent.
As I mentioned before in another post, I can play the keyboard but only play a couple of tunes. I bought a cheap Ukulele at Lidl once but that is hard to play. And I think the only singing I really enjoy is the singing in my head haha. I prefer to 'Doo, doo Doo' tunes haha. I guess I am not too confident singing in front of an audience, I shall leave that for me and my head haha.
When I joined the Fire Service at 37, and a qualified Masseur, my Wife's female friends were very envious! But she knew the truth, and knew loads of firemen, so wasn't impressed, and put her mates right!
Lots of people besides my mother have tried (and failed) to teach me to knit...I think I have a total blind spot when it comes to anything that involves any kind of knitting needle. sewing needle or crochet hook and my fingers and thumbs become sulky and refuse to work as they ought to complete the task.
I have resigned myself to the fact that even if I live to be 102 I will never master the art of any kind of needle craft... just as I will never sing in tune... but at the end of the day, that is okay
Hi iforget
You sort of sound like my mum and your mum sounds like my nan (not in a bad way far from it), my nan tried to teach my mum how to knit but she could never pick it up, but my nan taught me how to knit when I was about 7/8 maybe a little bit younger and I picked up, not the best knitter but I can knit a plain scarf
She also taught me how to crochet and sew, and thanks to my aunty I can do french knitting which I picked up about a year ago, my aunty thought it'd take me ages to pick it up due to my accident but she was quite surprised I picked it up so quickly, only took me about 10mins and I was french knitting.
I think it's just something that comes natural to some but not to others, it comes natural to me but not to you or my mum, but wow you sound like a fantastic cook, my nan taught me how to cook some dishes but I'm not that good and I panic about giving people food poisoning, I envy you with the being able to cook a dish with just a taste, it's took me about 20 attempts to be able to do an ok fried egg and it still comes out looking scrambled sometimes lol.
I think everyone is unique and it would be a really dull place to live if everyone was able to do what everyone else could do to the same standard.
Siobhan x
That's right, everyone is unique, especially me :)... I kid :).
When I first heard the word that I was disabled, I wanted to forget about that and live my life as I did before. Obviously I couldn't. That is how I used to think in the early days, when I had to get used to my second life. Now, I tell myself that everybody on the planet is disabled because we are not all able to do the same things. Hey, it makes me feel slightly better :).
Yeah, I have some. I mainly use them for tearing meat off the bone and feeding my face in a hungry manner.
What?
Sorry, I thought you said talons
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