Hobby Kennedy

Well, I made good on my threat recently to try archery.  On Saturday morning last, I took myself off to London Bridge and spent 1.5 hours learning this noble art.

There's something very pleasing about firing a bow and arrow; it feels very organic and 'right'.  It feels as natural as running.  You also feel rather elegant doing it - well, I did at any rate.  I'll definitely be going back for more.

The action took place in a sports hall just south of the river, in Bermondsey.  There were about two dozen of in total learning the ways of the quiver.  There was a stag group.  They weren't the usual frightening semi-pissed cohort one might expect though.  They were a really nice bunch, their only concession to stag tradition being to insist the groom-to-be wear a Robin Hood hat for the duration.  Everyone was really friendly.  I've noticed this about people who participate in martial arts.  They're as nice a stratum of society as you're likely to meet.  I think the violence inherent in the pastime removes the requirement for passive-aggressive posturing in everyday social intercourse.  Either that of the fact that it costs £20 an hour plus to do keeps the riff-raff out.  It could have been that actually.

Twang.

High pressure international jet-set what-have-you

I'm usually pretty good at keeping regular vides in my appointments diary.  I don't like being on the meter constantly, especially when I'm supposed to be enjoying myself.  Other people appear to love being ordered hither and yon in the name of leisure, but they, madam, are perverts.  I'll have no truck with it.

Having said all that, which I just have (see above), events do conspire from time to time to cause me to spread my considerable talents and charisma a bit thin.  The next week is a case in point.  I'm already up against it at work.  This our busy period.  On Friday I have to leave the office early in order to dash to Heathrow for a flight to Berlin.  We're in Germany until Monday.  Back to work Tuesday.  On Wednesday I witnessing the marriage of a friend.  Back to work Thursday, a day full of back-to-back meetings.  Work again on Friday.  An archery lesson on Saturday and we're collecting some hops as part of a local brewery scheme on Sunday morning.  Still, it's all good fun I suppose.

I might have mentioned before now that I've given up beer for Lent.  I will have to forgo this fast for the duration of our stay in Berlin though.  Germany produces some splendid beers, not the fizzy lager piss with which you're no doubt familiar, but proper beer.  I was particularly taken on our last trip there with a kraut jollop called "winterboch".  It's a dark, flavoursome ale they produce for the cold winter months.  It's super.  I cannot and will not not drink it.  Nein, nein und thrice nein.

Arrows by any other name

I had a rush of bee to the aitch yesterday and booked myself onto an archery taster course.  I've always hankered after trying archery.  It's one of those things that I ear-marked out years ago as potentially fun and therefore something to do later in life (whenever that is), along with yachting, fencing, bodybuilding, mescaline and sake.  As is par for the course with me, having made the commitment to do it was sufficient for my unconscious brain to assume we had in fact done it in reality.  I realised a couple of weeks ago that we hadn't; hence, the decisive action.

I don't know why I vacillate like this.  It's ridiculous really.  I suspect it's to do with my inability to appreciate that time changes one and one's material circs.  I always bank on things staying just the way they have been for the last 20 years or so, i.e. my being realitively wealthy and relatively fit.  That's also why I struggle when I'm injured.  My mind just cannot compute that it's a symptom of aging.  But I am aging.  I'm also probably at the high water mark of my career earnings.  That's a depressing thought.  So, I need to act in this charmed window, and act I have.  I'm not too sure about the mescaline now.  I can't do hangovers any more.