I’m a father living in Japan, so any competent display of childcare is still met with shock and confusion.

I'm a tall burly cisman so people are always surprised that I know how to sew. I mostly hand-mend my clothes but I made my own pants in high school when I had access to a sewing machine.

I can cook a decent meal. I though it was a basic skill bottom of Maslow's hierarchy of needs etc. But almost everyone I know buys take away or makes the most basic of basic food.

Have an intelligent discussion about theology.

I may look like your average idiot who is also atheist; but it's because I have a weird interest in theology and have read so many religious texts and interpretations of most major and some minor religions from around the globe. Some of them have some kick ass stories. Hell, some of them read like straight up sci-fi!

After loosing some of my hearing and not being able to compose electronic music anymore, I basically retired from being a musician. Picked up drumming about 9 months ago and I'm surprisingly good at it.

Pretty much anything DIY. Plumbing, electrical, carpentry, etc. I'm not an expert at any of those things but I can actually do a pretty decent job. I'm not afraid to research a project and take a crack at it myself. I've completed some really nasty projects that turned out well.

Roller skating. I'm super unathletic, but skating (including teaching to others) was listed in the profile of a girl who contacted me on a dating site, so after chatting for a bit I suggested that as our first date. She was super patient with me, I had never put on skates before that day, and was in my 30s.

We're married now, and I now also teach skating where she does on weekends, sometimes to people who have never tried it before.

As I found out recently, drawing.

I took some classes in high school and only recently got back into it, and I’d consider myself..averageish? I know where I need improvements and I see the quirks and wonks, so to speak.

The people in my adult life who have seen my sketchbook make (positive) comments, which surprised me. Still, it’s nice.

I can survive - until now

Driving a manual transmission vehicle.

Lockpicking

predicting the future.

it's not like the movies, it's more like being tied to the train tracks in the direction the train is coming in, and people hate it when you talk about it.

Patch making, and I've no idea why people are surprised about it tbh. It's really easy if you've got access to a printer (or you can trace from a screen) and a pair of scissors.

That said I have a slightly unusual process where I design stencils in fusion 360 and then print them on my 3D printer, they're durable and reusable that way. I'm still working on improving the final print quality, but I've had some really good results like this gigantic Ash Bricky back patch that took me ~20 hours over three days.

I can work on/repair basically anything old. Things from a certain period and back just make sense, plain and simple.

I can shave with a straight razor, operate an oil lamp (and I have several throughout my house,) hell, I’m a musician, and I recorded on tape until 2014, using clunky, old multitrack tape machines, which I can also repair and maintain. (I still dream of getting ahold of an 8-track reel machine, a Tascam 80-8 or especially a 388. They are stupid expensive if you can find a working one at all.)

I can drill 6" into my nose, among other sideshow talents.

Juggle a football only with my weak foot.

Nobody expects me to be a baker. I damn near killed a stand mixer making bagel dough once xD

Juggle. I'm by no means a master, but I know my way around quite a few different juggling things. Balls, sticks, hoops, the two sticks you hold with the longer one you juggle in the middle, diabolos/Chinese yo-yos.

i can perfectly imitate the "adult voice" from Peanuts with just my mouth.

I'm a massive nerd, no one is surprised by my ability to debug a printer or install an operating system.

They're generally surprised by my people skills and carpentry skills though!

Compared to most people, I know a fuck ton of keyboard shortcuts making me look like a computer wizard.

I can put a needle in any body cavity (of someone else). Or a wire or a catheter. Besides the skull and a few more delicate ones I also know how to do that without actually killing the person. Well,at least not "certainly" killing... accidents happen.

I can click my tongue really, really loud. Like a baseball hitting a bat hard. Aside from making people jump, I have yet to find any practical use for this talent.

Somehow, it's a surprise to people that I'm a competent trumpet player. As if every high school in the state doesn't have a band class. Fully half of my graduating class in high school were musicians of some kind between chorus, orchestra and band classes. But somehow nobody expects a random dude in his mid-30's to pick up a trumpet and play a few bars of Ravel's Bolero.

I'm pretty old & geeky so people are often surprised I can do a great cartwheel. One trick pony when it comes to acrobatics, it's just the cartwheel.