September 2007 Archives

Whoosh, thunk. That's the sound a throwing knife makes as it flies through the air and lands perfectly in the target. Whoosh, clang is the sound it makes when it's not thrown quite so well, hits the target sideways on, and falls to the floor.

Yes folks, today I have mainly been picking knives up off the floor after they missed their targets. I heard about this day out on a forum somewhere on the internet (no, I'm not going to tell you where!) and thought "hey, that sounds like fun!" I've always been a bit of a have-a-go person, having done fire eating, circus skills etc in the past. Knife throwing seemed to fit in with all that, so why not give it a go!

The directions to the place were excellent, it was about 55 miles away from home so I gave myself plenty of time to get there. I wasn't sure I was in the right place though, as there had seemed to be a lot of interest in the day out on the forum, but there were no cars in the car park. However the directions or my navigational skills didn't let me down and within 10 minutes I was lobbing sharp pointy things at bits of tree trunk on the wall.

My initial throws were very much like a dart player, I had the same stance as a dart player - right foot forward so I could get the throwing arm nearer the target - and I was also trying to aim the knife. John, the instructor, put me right straight away, showing me that if I put my left foot forward, and started with my right arm higher, the knife would fly straighter and stronger.

After just 20 minutes or so I was getting more knives in the target than I was getting on the floor, which is always a good sign. John had several types of knives to throw, different sizes and weights, and also a tomahawk, which I threw at the end of the day (mainly because I'd forgotten all about it and wanted to have a go with it before I left!) In total about 5 or 6 people turned up, so we weren't fighting over which targets to throw at, and I was there from about 11am to 4pm, so made a full day of it.

I'll definitely be going back and doing this again - it was great fun!

Today I helped my cousin move into her new flat. It's only a mile up the road from her old place, and by recruiting the help of my brother (and his trailer), my nephew, myself (and my car), and a friend of hers to help her unpack, we managed to get everything moved in about 5 or 6 hours.

But during the day I heard a few things you don't really want to hear while moving house:

"Have you seen the box? You know, the one with the thing in it?"
"Get that washing machine off my hand!" (not only did I not want to hear that one, I didn't really enjoy saying it either!)
"Here's a cup of tea, sorry I couldn't find the sweeteners."
"Er.... I thought you had the keys...."

I've not had a chance to post here for a little while because I've been a busy boy. Here's a summary of the last two weeks in two paragraphs. Maybe a bit more than two paragraphs, but you get the idea.

My friend M and I keep having our ups and downs. She still turns to me for relationship advice, but if I try to give advice based on 20% of the available information, and jump to the wrong conclusions, she gets very upset. We had a falling out last weekend, and although we've sorta made up since, she suggested that we didn't get too involved in each other's private lives in the future. This will certainly cut down on the number of arguments and fallings out we have, but whether or not it will lead to a slow deterioration of the friendship remains to be seen.

M and C both have their own opinions of each other, which are (in both cases) a bit superficial and stereotyped. Muggins here is stuck in the middle! C tried to call off our relationship last weekend as she hadn't been entirely honest with me about her age, and she thought that when we met up I would take one look at her and walk out of the door. She knew that the next stage would be to meet, we'd chatted online for four weeks, been texting for three, and on the phone to each other for a week. There was absolutely no reason for us not to meet, apart from this little white lie about her age (and if I'm being honest, her weight as well, but weight can always be worked on).

I persuaded C not to call the whole thing off, let's go for a drink anyway, see if there's anything there, and see where it takes us. We went for a drink last Monday, and I'm going round to hers this evening. It's still very much early days, of course, but I wasn't going to accept being dumped just like that!

So M thinks C is an online player and has me under her thumb. C thinks M is selfish and just talks to me when she wants me for something. Fortunately, since they live so far apart, ne'er the twain shall meet. Personally, I like them both, and I want to be close to them both as well. One as a friend, one as a lover. Why should it be so bloody difficult?

On another matter, my cousin S has sorted herself out a new flat to rent and moves in on Sunday. Looks like she will be getting a divorce, but at least her husband is talking to her on reasonable terms at the moment and not biting her head off down the phone all the time.

Anyone got a rock I can crawl back under?

War is not about who's right. It's about who's left.

What goes around, comes around. Karma, and all that. I'm feeling upbeat and positive at the moment, good about myself and good about who I am. Which is certainly an improvement on how I was feeling when I started this blog!

My friend M turns to me for help and advice on her relationships. I'm not going to go into a lot of detail here, but when she has problems getting her thoughts orgranised she asks me to help out. We did this a few weeks ago, and this weekend we did it again. She tells me what's been happening with her, I take the information on board, write out how I think she's feeling and what I think she needs to say, and send it back to her. After I did this she came back to me saying it was beautiful, described exactly how she felt, and that she was almost in tears after she had read it. Of course, she didn't send the email word for word as I had written it, she added bits and rephrased bits.. but it's good to know that I was able to help out somewhat.

My cousin S is also having a hard time of it at the moment. Looks like she'll be getting a divorce after 17 years of marriage, and I've been providing her with a safe haven over the last week or so, somewhere she can go when she's got nowhere else to go. She can plug in to my broadband, get things sorted out, have a coffee, have a cigarette, have a chat. I know it's not much, but just being there for someone is more than enough.

Things are going very well between myself and my new friend C. When we met online we both knew that we were looking for a relationship, but she's been stung before and doesn't want to get stung again, so she wanted to dip her toes back in to online chat, thinking that it would fizzle out after a few days. However she bumped into me on her first night in the chat room and we've been chatting at every conceivable opportunity since. We've also been texting each other, and over the last couple of days, phoning as well. So we're moving forward, but I'm not pushing things any faster than she wants to be pushed. C was persuaded to get back online by her friend J, and I met J for the first time at the weekend (it's a convoluted story). I hope she gave C glowing reports about me!

So, yeah. I'm not so wrapped up in my own feelings any more that I can't care how other people are doing. I keep my nose out unless I'm invited in to help (I'm not a busybody!), but it's good to know that when I do help, I'm doing the right thing at the right time, and it is appreciated.

Let's face it, getting a text message saying "You're a good man" certainly put a smile on my face :-)

A bullet may have your name on it, but shrapnel is addressed "to whom it may concern".

It's only been a week since I last posted here, a fact that surprised me when I realised it, I thought it had been a lot longer. There's not a lot to report this week, just keeping on keeping on, you know. I've been busy chatting with my online friend every night, and that passes the time very nicely.

Although we both have the same long-term goals in terms of what we want a relationship to be and how we want it to work, she's been burned before and wants to take things very slowly for now. And that means sticking to online chat before committing to phoning or meeting in person. I'm fine with that, I know where she's coming from and I respect her choice. I've told her that if we're still in the same situation six months down the line I'll be a bit pissed off though! After all, the point of a relationship is to get off the damn internet. Having said all that, we don't seem to be running out of things to say to each other just yet :-)