Mahinda’s Little World

No, not the guitar-ridden tattoo-strewn speaker-overloading music genre.

Lead, and plenty of it.

On Sunday, we had a working party at the rifle club. These are arranged when some work needs doing, and they’re usually timed to coincide with me being away. This time, however, I could actually make it to one.

An "after" picture - unfortunately, I’ve not got a
"before" one, but it really was pretty full of lead

See the angle? ‘Twas like mining a seam!

Almost a foot long, and several kilos in weight

Clare likes burning stuff

Gwillum (or however it’s spelt), the shaggiest
blackest dog in the world!

I was a bit lazy, to be honest, and only got there at something like 12.30pm, to find Clare doing her best "Victorian child labourer" impression. The target board had been removed from the end of the range, leaving the butt open. Behind the board is a sloping metal plate, which ends up joining the floor at a tight angle a couple of feet behind the board.

Now, the butt was absolutely full of lead (or at least, it was when they started), that had to be dug out. When I got there, Clare was kneeling down, half inside the butt, whacking bits of lead with a crowbar!

We reckon that it might have been over 20 years’ worth of bullets back there - in short, a shedload (buttload?!) of lead. I reckon it can’t have been too far off 150kg worth, to be honest, some of which was pretty solid.

Probably not one to write to health and safety about, to be honest, but we did have dust masks. Lead does sort of leave your skin all greasy, though. Well, it did mine.

I went on lead mining duty while Clare went outside to burn things. And take a sledgehammer to our old pigeonholes. She seems such a nice fluffy peaceful girl…until you put a hammer and/or matches in her hand! She was assisted by Gwillum (no idea how it’s really spelt), Dennis and Sheila’s huge black shaggy dog. Definitely a canine of character, and able to play ‘fetch’ with considerably more than your average twig. He’s been known to try it with bits of telegraph pole, apparently.

While we were doing all that, Adrian, Dennis and Mike were fixing a bit of floor that had collapsed. Having jumped around on it last night, I can confirm that it’s all well and truly sorted

Once we’d dug out as much lead as was feasible, Sheila and I replaced the thick rubber sheeting that lies behind the firing points, and generally swept/vacuumed the range. I then headed off at something like 5.30pm.

Barbecue

When I got home, I marinated some chicken - it’s quite simple really - take some chicken breasts, butterfly them, and just add a tsp or three of hot chilli sauce. I usually use Encona West Indian Hot Pepper Sauce, as it’s really tasty stuff, with just the right kick for effective barbecuing. Also, it’s vinegar based, so serves to tenderise the chicken nicely.

Unfortunately, I was out of Encona so used some of my mother’s home-made stuff - tastier, but too spicy to use much of - and added a handful of chopped rosemary plus a generous squeeze of lemon.

Leaving the chicken to marinate, I jumped* into the shower to get rid of all the dirt and lead. Fun.

* Not literally.

Off to Pete’s place, and I was running late. No matter. The barbecue was good - dual barbecue action in the newly-cleared back garden.

Highlights include:

• No rain
• Many many sausages
• My chicken getting a general thumbs-up
• The World Cup Final (first half on the radio, then we all watched the second) between France and Italy
• Ribery (a French player) blatantly diving to get an early penalty
• Luc (part French) tripping over one of the barbecues…dive!
• Luc tripping over something else, but not knocking it over this time
• Italy equalising
• Extra time
• Motson and Lawrenson being just too annoying, necessitating a switch to ITV
• Penalties
• ITALY WINNING! TAKE THAT, FRENCHIES!