Writing, Golfing and Canoeing
One of the aims for this year was to be more consistent with my writing. I started off strong, but clearly over the last couple of months I've not managed that. In part, that's because I've been caught up in some development work that has been taking up a lot of my spare time; but it's also because I haven't put in place the right routines to ensure that I write regularly. Given that this is NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) it seemed a good time to attempt a reset on this. So, at least for the month of November, I will try to write something every day. That should mean that I have some content for this blog every week again.
Of course, I also need to get on with the items on my #52in52 list, so that I have something to write about. Lorraine has already questioned whether I am slipping significantly behind. Fortunately over the last couple of weeks I've had Oliver on my case to make sure I got some things done.
The first of these was spending some time on a golfing driving range. I've never played golf, beyond the odd pitch and putt or crazy golf game. It's not something I'd even considered much, but Oliver has been a regular at the driving range in the UK with some of his friends and he decided I needed to add it to my list.
It was a good one too. We went to a local driving arrange that's attached to a crazy golf course we've done multiple times before. All very friendly and straightforward - we were able to hire the necessary drivers with our large bucket of balls, and there was plenty of space given that we turned up in the middle of a weekday afternoon. I'm not sure I'll make it as a golfer, but driving a golf ball was strangely therapeutic; and there was the odd swing that made me think I might be able to get a bit better at it. I can see how it becomes mildly addictive to some. I could definitely be persuaded to go back.
Even better though was our impromptu trip to the Grand River for some canoeing. This is something that has been on my list from the start - but I was getting nervous as summer slipped into fall and I still hadn't arranged anything. But finally we had a couple of warm October days and so after finishing work early on the last of them, I persuaded Oliver to come with me to the Canoeing the Grand office to try to get a canoe before they closed for the day. It was about 4pm by the time we got there, but Shelly was wonderfully welcoming and suggested a relatively short stretch of river that would get us back in time.
So we signed up, collected the necessary canoeing equipment and headed off in a pickup to our starting point, with our designated canoe in the back. (Bonus first for Oliver - he'd never been in a pickup truck before - which is probably astonishing to anyone living in any part of North America). Upon arrival, we had to portage our canoe down to the river - and let me tell you I'm glad we both work out - and then, after a quick photo op, we were pushed out into the river.
It was a beautiful afternoon - actually perfect for canoeing. Warm, but not hot; a beautiful light and no bugs. Oliver was in the lead position in the boat, and I was tasked with steering from the back. (Obviously I completely mastered that and any course misdirection was the result of Oliver's over-enthusiastic paddling.) It was incredibly peaceful - just us, the river and the occasional bit of wildlife, including a beaver (which we native UK'ers found very exciting). We even navigated a bit of faster water without capsizing - we felt that we were white water rafting, although others might disagree.
We made it back in just over an hour, and realised we probably could have just let the boat do all of the work and made it in good time. Highly recommended though, as is Canoeing the Grand. I'd definitely go again - although perhaps when the warm weather returns.
