Close and oppose...

Saturday was M's cousin's stag day/night. And very good it was too. Physical exertion in the form of Go Ape at Dalby Forest followed by Mexican-themed fun in the city of Leeds - food, sombreros, Zapata mostachos, a penata carried by the stag and, naturally, copious amounts of alcohol. Once the latter wore off, rather late on Sunday, well, the aches and pains resulting from swinging through the trees became all too apparent. The odd thing about Go Ape is that I pretty much hated everything other than heading down zip lines but, although I'm aware that this will sound contradictory, also loved the experience. Lessons were learned - I am far from fit; despite spending my first decade in the world of work balancing precariously on ladders, walking across ridge tiles and up several lifts of scaffolding, I don't appear to get on with heights anymore; the advice 'don't look down' is impossible to follow when you're trying to place your foot on a piece of rope; 'close and oppose' is essential information; I hate cargo nets and; once the small wooden swing that you're standing on starts to sway violently from side-to-side it takes an inordinate amount of time to stop that motion because a) you're aware how stupid you look to the people waiting to follow you and b) you don't want to look even more stupid by falling off the thing. I am still removing bark from various crevices and, last night, found a lovely spell lodged in the back of my leg.

We stayed overnight in a Yorkshire cricket lover's paradise - Headingley Lodge, which is, to all intents and purposes, a collection of hospitality boxes containing beds, all of which overlook the hallowed playing surface at, you guessed it, Headingley. But I am no cricket lover and the view was pretty much lost on me. On Sunday, whilst in the recovery position and gulping down tea, we watched, from the room, as the covers were removed and a young chap jet washed one of the wickets. My roommate found serious flaws in the young chap's technique. We would have shouted instructions but, sadly, the door leading to the seating area and the outside world is secure on non-match days. Which is just as well otherwise there's a distinct possibility that we'd have been tearing up the grass when we got back to the hotel after our Mexican fun ended. Good use of a facility that would otherwise be standing empty though.