and there's more

Continuing on from my last blog.... when I got home, cucumber on the eyes, avocado face mask, panpipes and I was restored to normal stress settings! Not quite true (what are you talking about Pete, none of the aforementioned is true!), I have spent the last two days with the vision of this Black Golf 1.6 careering around the corner, imprinted on my brain. Lunacy. Reckless. Selfish. In hindsight what I should have done was not worry about becoming a youtube middle aged angry man lycra sensation and popped him one on the nose then and there. Jab to the nose followed by a knee to the nuts. Jab to the nose, knee to nuts. Jab nose, knee nuts. Nose, nuts. Nose, nuts. Develop a bit of a rhythm. Nose, nuts. Jab, knee. Did I just say that out loud? Turns out he went to College the next day and bragged about it. Ho,hum. The yoof of today - no respect innit! I blame Cher and all that Swagger Jagger.

In my fragile state I've treated myself to some new shoes. I had a meeting to attend down in Falmouth and I observed on the drive down a pong emanating from the foot well. My Snuk’s had got wet and there's nothing more smelly than a damp Snuk! I rushed to the shops to invest in some ‘Hey Dudes’ - similar to Snuk’s but with a rather chunky sole. In my hurry I had missed this fact, and so I know possess a pair of slip-ons similar in style to what my Dad might wear! I call them my 'special shoes'! They smell lovely. (ps I've been asked to leave Tesco's before now for shopping in bare feet! On the basis that I wash my feet daily and my shoes, never - why's that?!)

Yesterday was strange. After the boy's training at HMS Raleigh, we quite often head along to Mount Edgecumbe to give Libby a quick walk and swim. It’s a place that’s very good for the soul, sitting on the bank with an ice cream, watching the boats sail past. Last week I noticed a sign advertising a Photographic Course in the grounds of the historic house which I thought might be beneficial. So I booked on. £25 for a full day, seemed like great value.

On arrival at the designated meeting point it was immediately clear that this was a social group that I would not normally have been part of. We’d been brought together by a love of creativity. However, it was clear that within the structure of the assembled, the severity of any affliction, most notably limps, gave you higher social standing than the quality of your digital SLR. There were more walking sticks than at a fell walkers convention. Simply getting from A to B proved far more challenging and time-consuming than any efforts to compose shots, set f-stops and select shutter speeds. The morning was spent listening to an informative talk, then venturing into the private garden to take snaps of the flowers and bugs. Not a particular love of mine, but a worthwhile mission trying something different.

Come lunch time we were ready to refuel. One lady, who had clearly spent a lot of time stationed at the 'eat all you can' buffet revealed, to raised eye brows, that she indeed was the one who was the sole vegetarian in the group. A wonder of science. My mind imagined a field of wandering heffers and how they too grew to quite a size eating just grass. I concluded that this lady must comfortably be satisfying her five a day quota and therefore would be internally extremely healthy and quite probably, regular. I caught her sneaking a piece of chocolate cake into her bag, “for my friend.” That’ll be the imaginary friend then. To her credit, she was walking ‘sans stick’. Not a speedy walker on the flat. On downhill stretches she was able to build up a good head of speed which would see her pass us on the next uphill stretch, annnd on the way back down again, as she rolled past uncontrollably having just come up short of the brow. Back and forth she went in the gullies. Anyone watching us, could have been mistaken for thinking we were watching Nadal and Federer knocking up.

The afternoon resumed with a lengthy (in time, but short in distance) walk to the pond where the ducks became the focus of our lenses. With the promise of a Photoshop workshop back at the Mansion House, I made my excuses and walked back to the car, would you believe it, with a limp! My new ‘special shoes’ being the cause of the niggle. I chuckled to myself about the day’s events and the onset of my sympathy limp. My Symp Limp. My Slimp. But I was now free to resume my life and living.

My sister is back from Hong Kong and staying down here five weeks. The cousins all picked up from where they last left off as if they’d been away for an afternoon. No chat about what each had been up to. The conversation went "Hi" "Hi' "Alright?" "Yep" That was the sum total of their catch up. Then straight outside to the garden for a Nurf gun battle.

Above are a few photos taken on my 'Course' - it's art but not as we know it!