Compound

Over the weekend, I’m intending to go down to Quicks Archery Store in Portsmouth, and sort myself out with a new compound bow, along with all the other gubbins necessary. I’m actually really rather looking forward to it.

I used to do archery about fifteen years ago, and was fairly good at it, even shooting at county competition level. In the intervening time my interest in it waned, the equipment got sold, and I moved on to other stuff.

But then we went off to Center Parcs earlier this year, and one of the activites was – you’ve guessed it – archery. I’d forgotten how much I enjoyed it, and as it turned out I was also still pretty good at it, so since then I’ve been thinking about getting back to being involved in it, finding out about local clubs, all that type of thing.

The limiting factor for it was not driving – a decent compound bow isn’t particularly small, nor easy to walk around with, let alone riding a bike while carrying one. But now that the test’s been passed too, it’s time to sort out everything else – and that’s what I’m doing this weekend. I’ll have more news, and possibly photos, later in the weekend.

Cutting Down

One of my regular sins/addictions is caffeine. I know I drink too much of it (drink? take? whatever), although I do regularly reduce my intake when I know it’s getting way too high. Over the last couple of months – well, all this year, to be honest – it’s been gradually increasing, and so I decided that while we were away last week, I’d reduce my intake again.

My main source for caffeine now is diet Coke®. Yes, I know it’s bad for me, and all the chemicals etc. don’t do me any real favours. However, Coke/Diet Coke® is still one of the very few drinks I actually like drinking, as opposed to the “Oh god, if I have to” feeling that comes (for me) with most drinks. And at least I no longer drink coffee, the strength of which would probably have been dissolving my insides far more than Coke can. In fact, so far as I was concerned, coffee strength was determined by a) whether it dissolved the spoon, and b) whether the coffee could be served in slices. If both conditions were fulfilled, then it was about right.

Anyway, I digress. (Hey, there’s a change to normal. Not.) My caffeine intake has now been dramatically reduced – it’s been better than halved, if I’m honest. I still drink “too much”, but it’s nowhere near the level it was at.

I’m actually quite pleased with myself for reducing the intake in this way. But equally I’m sure it’ll have a bit of a resurgence, and the cycle will begin again. No willpower, you see. *grin*

Badger

Over the last week I’ve been feeling – to put it tactfully – rougher than a badger’s arse in wintertime. It started last Friday on the train, where it was chuffing freezing thanks to an overzealous application of the air-conditioning. Probably going from train to smoky pub didn’t help in the long run, but anyway, by the end of the night my throat was feeling decidedly dodgy. Ah well, it’d been loud and smoky, it’ll wear off I’m sure.

How wrong I was. Saturday it was worse, and by the time I got home on Sunday I was beginning to sound like some kind of 0898 chatline porn bint, I was so husky. Generous dosings of paracetamol and so on have meant it’s eased off a fair bit over the course of the week, but now it’s Friday evening, and I’m back to feeling rough.

Sore throat, plus additional cold stuff (sneezing and snot, primarily) mean it’s likely to be another couple of days feeling blocked up and shitty.

I’m not going to make out it’s flu, or anything “male” like that – it’s just a bummer that I feel like shite. Ah well.

And why is it that these things always kick in on a weekend, rather than during the working week?