Life is an incredible thing. Do it right and you find yourself surrounded by some amazing people, working amazing jobs, and even sliding in the odd adventure.
Oh god, Tony’s happy and we’re realising that’s more annoying than him being depressed.
Fridays are usually when the week slows down and you get ready to relax for the weekend. Not for this guy though. Working regular weekends means Friday is when I start getting psyched for work.
This Friday was extra special because I had managed to keep it fairly busy.
The day started at my local climbing centre where myself and a few friends had the not at all scary task of spending three hours teaching about 60 kids how to climb. Now we’re all professional and know exactly what we’re doing but I dare anyone to see a double decker coach full of young children arrive outside and not feel a little scared.
The best part about teaching kids, especially younger ones, is that you just get to act like a giant child yourself and it just makes you slightly better at your job. It’s not often as an adult that it works out like that. I had a meeting with a bank manager once and I have to tell you he had a very poor sense of humour when it came to armpit farts.
With one hefty success under my belt I drove to Chichester to meet a young man who wanted to interview me to ask why I’m an outdoor coach.
It was a pretty cool experience, mostly because I’ve been coaching or teaching so long it’s been a while since I’ve sat down and thought about why. It was another little win that when I sat down and thought about it, it turned out I was doing my main job for a lot of good reasons, and I still have the passion for outdoor education that I found when I discovered the lifestyle about nine years ago. Thanks to Isaac for that.
What better way to top off a Friday than a gig I knew nothing about with good friends.
We jumped in the car and headed for Southampton. After spending a reasonable amount of time complaining about how much rain we’d have to endure between the car and the entrance to the venue we arrived at the gig.
Turns out this gig was attended by a lot of fairly young people being chaperoned by their parents. Top Tip, if you ever want to feel really old, take yourself to a gig that younger people have to take their parents to.
In Gavin’s defence the band he had taken us to see, Patent Pending, where pretty amazing. anyone who rips of jurassic park for their T-shirts and pauses a show to talk about mental health awareness is top notch in my book.
About the only thing better than seeing my best mate so happy was the way we slow danced together in the middle of a mosh pit.
Me and Gav rapidly realised how much of a school disco we had turned up to when the bouncer told me off for being on Gav’s shoulders. That bouncer needed to appreciate two things, that Gav is a sturdy man who has been propping me up since before he was born, and that a lead singer talking just to me while I’m on my best mates shoulders to point out we’re at the same eye height was probably one of the best moments of this year so far.
The next hour was filled with Gav and Rob trying to chuck me on top of people to get me to crowd surf. Now as desperate as I was to crowd surf, I didn’t want to know what was in store for me crowd surfing when the lead singer of the band was getting told off for it.
None of that behaviour at the disco kids, and make sure your parents are here to pick you up at seven.
One of the best moments of the night arrived on the drive home, when Rob piped up out of the blue to apologise for trying to fight Gavin. Confusion rained down in the front of the car as neither me nor Gav understood what Rob was apologising for. Confusion turned to uncontrollable laughter as Rob pointed out that such behaviour ‘just wasn’t him’.
I won’t try to come up with a dramatic life lesson today. I’ll just say that today was a beautiful day.
And I tell you something, they seem to be becoming more regular.
Fuck Yeah.
Tony
volaticus 