evening classes are a great idea! this year I took up Italian which is a good way to meet new people and do something to take my mind off my phd for 2 hours a week! i was always quite useless at languages at school but have found that not being forced into it by teachers and having exams looming at the end of it makes it so much more enjoyable and easier!

Have you got a camera? Try making some short movies; or taking some nice photos. I'm not arty at all either but always fancied the idea of making films or photos.

Learn Swedish. It's great!

I have never tried anything artistic. Have always assumed I will be terrible at it - my sister is the artistic one. Chances are I will be crap, but dammit, I am signing up for an arty course at the local community education centre.

Learning a 2nd language is on the list of things to do when I finish uni. Not sure Swedish is going to be very useful. Was thinking of Farsi maybe. Or I could be really predictable and learn Spanish or French - probably more likely to use either of those in travel.

Now don't laugh at this, but I have always liked the idea of cake-decorating - all those amazing flowers made of icing on wedding cakes - wonder if there are classes for that.

Ta for all the suggestions!

I'd definitely vote for knitting, it's great as you can take it anywhere with you and these days it's actually considered quite cool.

I've also taken up making nice photo albums, not quite as fancy as those american scrapbooking but just putting the photos in some kind of order and writing some bits about them, it's nice looking through old holiday photos and the end result is quite satisfying.

I tried gardening, but everything died

I make jewellery, it's amazing how therapeutic stringing beads and twisting wire can be - and then you get to sell the results so double winner! You don't have to be that artistic either, there are plenty of books and magazines around with designs that you can copy or play around with if you are feeling creative. I would definitely recommend it