Re: Practical Skills.
Usual stuff. Decorating, plastering, wiring (when it was still allowed), bricklaying, landscaping, plumbing, roofing, etc etc.
My old fella was too tight to get tradesmen in and too lazy to do it himself, so I had to learn how to.
Very useful at home, as well as doing the occasional pin-money work for friends. Even had a 6 month job site managing a site on the back of what a builder had seen me do at my parents house (after a house fire, long story), so it can't have been too far off the professional finish mark.