Mahinda’s Little World

The weekend-before-last was my absolute favourite weekend of the year so far. It was just ace!

I’m very much a sun-loving person, so the fact that it was entirely bathed in glorious sunshine was a major factor…but the company and activities were also toptastic.

So, what did I get up to..?

Friday

This was the quiet one — drinks at the Cornerhouse to celebrate Steve and Miranda’s engagement. Yes, another one. Steve and Miranda are very much fringe friends of mine — part of the big group of CAOSy types that I know through Alsion and Dr. Liz.

Actually, Steve has a double-connection with me. Right at the start of uni, Steve was on the same course as Paul and Mike, and staying in Allen Hall (close to Paul and Mike’s Owen’s Park, and my Oak House). The four of us hung out a lot together, as you do at uni until, just before Christmas, Paul and Steve had a bit of an argument. So, fast forward just over a decade, and Steve turns up as part of a group of people I was meeting at the pub. I was suitably freaked out.

So, engagement. People were there, the conversation flowed, and I eventually cycled back home.

Go Ape!

The undoubted highlight of the weekend. Go Ape! is basically a sort of adventure course centred on going from tree to tree using ropes. Be these rope bridges, swings or cargo nets.

BTW, you’re going to have to make do with random Go Ape! pictures I’ve culled from t’interweb — having almost lost my specs a few times, I think not taking my (camera)phone with me was definitely the correct decision.

So, it was far too early a start — Piccadilly station for some scandalously early (10am?) train. Eventually got to Delamere (lovely little forest near Chester), picking up Andy, Ange (his girlfriend) and some MADwalker types (Gavin, Therese, Becky and Tristan) along the way, and found the centre.

First up, we got fitted with harnesses and given the safety briefing. "Long line loves the tree" was the mantra of the day. Long line did indeed luuuuuurve the tree, in full-on Barry White style.

Next up was a sort of kiddy course, just to get you used to hooking yourself on safely, complete with a little baby zip wire. After that, there were to be four more stations, each ending with a (progressively larger) zip line taking you on to towards the next station. For those of you that don’t know, a zip line is sort of like the thing at the end of the Krypton Factor assault course…a long wire that you slide down at speed. They’re ace!

After the first real station, the instructor left us to our own devices — in real grown-up fashion, it was all up to us. This was at the same time both refreshingly un-nanny-ish, and scary. Especially for someone like me who’s scared of heights.

Not wanting to start you off too easily, the second station featured a few black-graded routes — there were typically 6 or so trees per station, with routes graded from green (easy) to black (scary). I came really really close to completely losing my bottle — I’d had such a strong "must hold on for dear life" reflex that I lost almost all feeling below my elbows. I had to wait for ages, just concentrating on my breathing, before I could continue down the absolute monster of a zip line.

Then, JUST as I gathered the courage to leap off the platform and tensed my knees accordingly, Ange, behind me, calls out "WAIT!" I almost soiled myself, thinking that I’d hooked myself up wrong, and managed to keep myself on the platform. It turns out that she just wanted to check me…panic over. For a fraction of a second, I genuinely thought that I was about to plummet 30ft to my doom. That’s like falling off the guttering of a house.

The rest went smoothly, but still scarily, sometimes directly above the heads of people on the trails below. You got higher and higher — towards the end, there was a cargo net (you leap off a platform and swing into a vertical net some distance away) where you literally dropped 2m almost straight down before the rope went taut…all at over 40ft up (think the top of an average house’s roof).

The final zip line was utterly brilliant, and huge…and then it was all over. The course had taken just about 3 hours, and I could no longer move my fingers. BRILLIANT!

Stomping Around

After the 3 hours of pure adrenalin-fuelled terror, we joined the rest of the MADwalkers for the second half of that day’s hike, through to Mouldsworth (the next station on the line). It was actually the breaking of my MADwalker virginity — I’d been to plenty of parties, and gotten to know loads of the regulars, but am not actually a member and hadn’t been along to any walks.

So, it was nice to finally get a bit of stomping in — I spent most of the walk chatting away merrily with a girl called Susan, who’d been to UMIST a couple of years before I turned up there. Hopefully I’ll meet her again.

Back home, and I had just enough time to have a loooong shower (much needed, to try and release my stiffening joints) before grabbing some wine and heading to…

Party Time

…Helen’s place for her housewarming party, right in the heart of Didsbury village. It was good, and I made some new friends — including getting the number of Danielle, a girl living on Everett Road in a pretty similar houseshare to what we have at Tenby Towers. We promised to invite each other over to house barbecues and stuff. She and her housemates seemed a good bunch.

There’s a moderately long story involving Housemates Paul and Andrew (who were out drinking in Didsbury), me and Ali (one of the girls at the party), but I won’t bore you all with it.

Midnight came, and I had to tear myself away from the remnants of the party, so I could head over to Adrian and Emma’s housewarming party. Unfortunately, that party was dying. Housemates Gillian, Paul and Andrew were meant to go with me, but decided against it when I gave them the bad news. So I hopped on my bike and meandered over.

Got there at 12.30am…to find just Adrian, Emma, Nick, Ann and Rosy left. I’d just missed Pete and Sarah, who I spotted kissing in the street just before I got to the party. Disgraceful behaviour, but it’s allowed

We stayed up a while chatting and drinking Moniack mead. Always a good combination!

Sunday

So, after a Saturday like that, I could be forgiven for spending most of Sunday in bed feeling sorry for myself.

Oh no. That’s just never going to happen.

Instead, I woke up at a scandalously early 9am and dragged my aching bones over to Sale Hockey Club for our annual grass mixed tournament. Much fun, in good spirit (apart from the Didsbury team — BOO! HISS!)…unfortunately, I was playing for Legless (the full-strength semi-serious Sale side) rather than The Dream Team (3rd team and mates, there for the boozing).

A couple of years ago, I ended up as one of two ringers playing for The Rugger Buggers (a team put together by our rugby club)…it was full of mud, we lost almost every match, but it was immense fun

Last year, we got rain, sun, wind and hail…sometimes in the same match! This year, we had yet more glorious sunshine. It was GREAT. Even better, we won the whole damn thing, defeating Leyland in the final.

By that point, I really was aching all over.

Back home, to yet another looooooong shower, and then over to Pete and Rosy’s place for a barbecue and a bit more beer. This time on my bike. Tasty meat, tasty salad, tasty beer.

Life is good.