Going 'barebow'

It's been a while since I got on to the blog and updated you of the trivial matters that adds up to my life. Being a church youth worker the build up to Easter has been pretty busy with lessons and assemblies and various other stuff. These Christian festivals create a lot of work. Some of it is quite good, like the archery course I am doing. The first part of it was all about looking after the equipment and getting familiar with your fletches and nocks. I had no idea how much is involved and I learnt a whole new vocabulary of terms:
- 'flethcing jig' is a Heath Robinson device used for putting your fletches on and not a merry dance performed by Cornish Morris dancers
- 'Shooting barebow' is firing without a site, and not number 34 of the Kama Sutra.
-'Kisser button!' Let's just say it touches the archers lips, teeth or even their nose when it is fully drawn
- 'Limb dampeners' reduce vibration on the bow and are not large measures of Scotch
- 'Nocking point' is a point on the string and not the bike sheds in most school yards
- 'Windage' is a device used to gauge wind, not a medical condition

What I hadn't realised about archery is that it uses a different range of muscles on your back, not your arms. As there were only 5 of us on the course we got plenty of shooting in, but I am now suffering for it with a very stiff back and aches and pains in places I never knew existed. I wonder if Robin Hood had this problem?

Belt Up!

I got roped into going on one of the most boring school trips ever last week. A visit to the Scottish Parliament building. I was slightly interested in the building itself, but politics is not my area of interest. The building is a mishmash of 'symbolic' features. Sculptures gifted from Norway, granite floors from Aberdeen, concrete ceilings from Dunbar! Everywhere you look here is something tokenistic about some part of Scotland. At times you feel like you are in the fun house at the fair as I am sure some of the floors were uneven, if not them, the walls. Glenys...our guide explained how there was a Dutch influence running through the architecture, stemming from the many years of trade done in Edinburgh with the Dutch in yesteryear. I have my own interpretation of that one! (see pic). It was getting into the place that caused me problems. As expected in this age of terrorist activity, we had to go through a check point and metal detector. Only I had to do it 3 times because the buzzer kept going off every time I went through. Eventually after removing all bits of metal, minus my fillings, I realised my belt was the problem. So in front of a whole class of kids I had to remove it and hope my trousers would hold up. Back home I nipped into Adsa to buy some strong coffee to wake me up after that dull trip, only to discover my credit card no longer worked. It seems the magnetic force field you go through to enter the fun house had wiped it clean. So if you are up in Edinburgh, I think you have to see it for yourself. Like Marmite, you will love or hate it, but make sure you leave your bling behind.