Brighton Part III

Forgive me for the chunk sized pieces of the weekend's events. Its just the sheer scale of it all and excesses.

First up on a cold and hungover morning was a greet the rest of the chaps. Some of whom had already consumed a number of beverages of the alchoholic kind. A little nervous and apprehensive. I don't know why. And I think the only one apart from the best man not to have known the masons fraternity. We arrived at our destination quite some distance from Brighton to the sound of the pop and crack of shotguns being fired. I think at this point everyone shared a smile with each other at the prospect of some shooting and doing men like things.

I was asked if I had ever fired a gun to which I replied that I once belonged to a rifle club. Only for a year which I excluded from the conversation of course. The best man had also fired a handgun. Worrying as he once used to live in a notorious part of Manchester. Either that or he mean't a Nintendo handgun. Even more worrying. An finally one more chap who looked like he'd spent most of his life shooting things. He had belonged to a gun club and I suspected for much longer than I.

To the first discipline we walked. The first blow of the day was that the instructor had mentioned the gun had been setup for right handed shooters. As you can tell I am not. As might turn for the clay pigeon shooting came up I realised that this was either going to work or not for me. And true to form I missed all five of the discipline. Suffice to say the other discipline's faired better and at one point I managed four out of five.

Quad biking was more my thing I supposed as there was a lack of left/right handed bias. I was ready to go and true to form adopted all the style of Prost/Senna/Mansell etc as I approach the lines until a mann dropped out and the order in which we drove had to change. I should've mentioned that we weren't allowed to overtake. While the instructor told me to stay stationary my other two friends zoomed ahead. They were reprimanded for it but like I said the order had now changed so that I was effectively the rear gunner. No matter. I found that a better challenge as now I could really pretend race against my mates. Super at how I took the inside line powering out early to almost overtake and then easing off. Great fun.

Evening was also a fun affair of many pints of beer being drunk and some womanising on my part. But I will say that it was a more James Bond type affair rather than a drunken yobbish attempt at chatting up some woman. Indeed some of new found friends will tell you that I was rather smooth. I managed to keep the lady entertained for at least two hours before she left...but not before a polite smooch.

Sunday. Hangover. Breakfast. Beer. Sunday afternoon, more beer. Sunday evening even more beer. Sunday night, home and bed. Monday morning, got to work on time. Monday mid-late afternoon, had to go home.

Thank you Big Nut and all the other chaps for a most excellent weekend.