PGR pastimes during lockdown — a BDC competition

#PGRpastimes during lockdown' | Nintendo Switch controllers; a book, a guitar; wool and knitting needles; jigsaw pieces; a person painting

For our latest competition, we’re asking PGRs a question: what’s the hobby or a creative outlet that’s been helping you to cope with the lockdown?

Whether it’s yoga, knitting or Animal Crossing: New Horizons, we want to hear about the activities and diversions that have been lifting your spirits during the COVID-19 situation. And taking part in our competition isn’t just a chance to win a prize (more on that below) — it’s also an opportunity to share your tips and insights with the whole PGR community.

How to enter the competition

To enter, just take a photo that illustrates a lockdown pastime and share it in one of the following ways:

  • as a comment on one of the Bristol Doctoral College’s #PGRpastimes Facebook posts
  • as a tweet with the #PGRpastimes hashtag
  • as an Instagram post with the #PGRpastimes hashtag
  • in an email to doctoral-college@bristol.ac.uk.

The prizes

We’ll pick three winners at random, and each PGR will receive a £20 Spotify or Netflix gift card. (The winners will be able to choose which gift card they’d like.)

Terms and conditions

  • The competition is open to current research students at the University of Bristol.
  • The closing date for entries is 11.59pm on Sunday 10 May 2020.
  • The winners will be chosen at random. As we’ll choose a winning individual rather than a winning entry, please note that submitting multiple photographs will not increase your chances of being selected.
  • The Bristol Doctoral College may share images from the competition in a future blogpost and on social media. Entrants who don’t want their images to be used are asked to notify the Bristol Doctoral College.
  • This competition is not held in partnership with either Netflix or Spotify.

 

Picture this — a gallery of your PGR pastimes

Last month, as part of our ‘Life Beyond the PhD’ competition, we asked Bristol’s postgraduate researchers to tell us about their hobbies. And, once again, our community didn’t disappoint …

The striking ‘PGR pastimes’ pictures we received showcased the broad range of activities that researchers use to take a break — from crochet to climbing, and from engine reconstruction to embroidery.

Below are a selection of the images that you shared with us, grouped into (slightly rough) categories. We hope you enjoy skimming through them as much as we did.

The Great Outdoors

Taking a break by climbing, exploring — or growing your own veg.🌶️

 

Making and mending

The relaxing effects of stitching, building, puzzling — or fixing a pianola.

My doctoral pastime… #PGRpastime #PGRpastimes

A post shared by carolinagordillo (@carolinagordillo) on

Sewing by Naomi Clarke
‘I am a Social Work PhD candidate and my downtime/interests outside of my PhD is sewing! I get lost in the rhythmic, repetitive motion of hand stitch which provides an almost meditative experience as I fall into a rhythmic pattern which appeals to so many senses (audio, visual, tactile). It enables me to create a tangible beautiful object to show for my time and effort.’ Naomi Clarke

 

A pianola in the middle of restoration
‘[This is a] picture of the 1923 pianola which I am restoring at the moment. This was left to my family by my Great Grandmother around ten years ago, but unfortunately it was in a desperate state … So I decided to refurbish it after the last of my masters exams had finished last year, and turn it into the cherished family heirloom it deserves to be. Still a long way to go on it though 🙂 Much more woodwork and fun to be had.’ Mark Graham

Music and motion

Hobbies that are anything but … hum-drum.


Going for a spin (and flying through the sky)

The power of hitting the road, making waves or taking flight.

Skydiving image by Maneera Aljaber
A spectacular skydiving image by Maneera Aljaber

Seerat Kaur with her bicycle
Seerat Kaur with her cycle
Lingfeng Ge driving a boat
‘I love boat trips. And sometimes I drive the boat myself. This photo was taken when I was driving a leisure boat on River Avon in Bristol.’ Lingfeng Ge

How do you take a break?

With a community of over 3,000 postgraduate researchers, this selection is obviously just scratching the surface.

And, although the competition is over, we’d love to see more of your snaps — so please feel free to share them with us on Twitter and Instagram using #PGRpastimes.