One-off Challenge 14: Go Axe Throwing

This challenge is courtesy of…

Magnus "The Viking" Lyon.

The challenge

Go axe throwing.
A bit like my sword fighting challenge, axe throwing is the sort of thing that I do in my head all the time. (You may very well think that I sometime imagine doing it to troublesome colleagues, I couldn't possibly comment.) As a result, this challenge was a great excuse to go do something silly, frivolous and fun that I wouldn't normally give myself permission to waste money on. Conveniently, Magnus happens to be friends with a man who runs an axe throwing business called Sean.  (The man, that is, not the business. Sean would be a weird name for a business. The business is actually called CPS Activities.) After a couple of false starts, we managed to gather a group of six of us to go and throw pointy things at other things.
We got off to a fine start, somehow managing to co-ordinate six adults to all make it to Beecraigs Country Park on time. (This was something of an epic achievement and was almost worthy of a #40byForty challenge on its own!) We then failed to actually get to the range on time, due to a scenic, but rather long, walking route chosen by Magnus. Fortunately, Sean hadn't been able to get the keys until five minutes after our allotted start time, so we arrived at the perfect time.  We had a quick safety briefing ("don't stand down range, don't stand behind the person throwing either") and were then introduced to our weapons for the day.
Axes and angels (the non-pottery kind)
As the official challenger, I was nominated to go first.
Yeah, I was pretty smug about that start.
We took it in turns to fling axes at some poor, innocent logs.  It was pretty satisfying when it went right. The turn of the axe, the satisfying "thunk" of the hit, the moment of "will it stick?" as the axe bites in.

Of course, sometimes it was... less satisfying.
*whiff-squelch* (In fairness, this is Renae throwing at the double distance target.)
We also tried out throwing angels.  These are funny little things designed to fall neatly into a gap in the law between throwing stars (which are illegal) and throwing knives (which are also illegal) by being neither (and thus not illegal).
Looks like an angel, is most certainly Not A Throwing Star.
Spot the flying angel. (End result? *boink-squelch*)
So, in the end, who was the best axe thrower? Andy "Lethal" Leask? Magnus "The Viking" Lyon? Shra "Princes Adora" Sen? Neil "I Should Not Be Left Unsupervised With Alcohol And Access To Amazon.com" Fitzpatrick? Renae "I Have A Cold" Bell? Or was it your humble author?
Yeah, pretty fucking smug.

Challenge complete!

Will I do it again?

Maybe. It's good fun, but I'm not sure I'd seek it out without a good reason.

Long-term updates

French words "learned" (according to the memrise app):809.
Daily photos taken? Yes.
Swordfighting learnt: This is now officially on hiatus until the New Year, when it shall make a triumphant, bruising return.Honest.
I am currently reading: Daggerspell. Yup.There's not been much reading of late.
"Cheat" days on food since last week: One this week.
"Cheat" days on exercise:Pottery stalls are hard work to shift in an out, so at least I've done something.
Most pull ups in a row: 10!
Challenge completed! In your face, exercise!
My favourite drawing:  did at least do a little doodling this week, with a festive theme.
Judgy angel judges you.  Harshly.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

One-Off Challenge 22: Skinny Dip

Image
One of my rules of my challenges is that they're suspended when I'm on holiday.  Unfortunately, while it's the school holidays and we've got Renae's mum, step-dad and brother staying with us, I'm not on holiday, so the challenges continue unabated! This challenge is courtesy of... Matt Boyce. The challenge Skinny dip.  No specifics, so I'm taking this to be swimming naked somewhere public.  No other restrictions. Challenge accepted. This is probably not how you expect a skinny dipping challenge to start, but yesterday I was at a kid's birthday party... Listen, don't dial that third '9', just put the phone down and hear me out. OK, our nephew Charlie turned 6 yesterday.  As his party, he chose "cake in the woods".  It was pretty much what you might expect.  Cake.  In the woods.  The woods being Roslin Glen Country Park.  There was cake.  There were party games.  There was lots of splashing about in the river. The d
Read more

Challenge 2: Learn To Draw

Image
My pre-course drawings.  The bottom one is a bagel, in case you can't tell. So, what's this challenge all about? When I was at school (many, many years ago now), there were three things that never came naturally to me and to which I did not apply myself.  They were art, music and foreign languages.  (PE never really came naturally either, beyond a certain degree of competence at catching balls, but I enjoyed it enough to at least try.)  Of those three subjects, I've always quietly regretted not putting the effort into French.  I took it to Standard Grade, but no further.  I dropped it because it was hard and I wasn't great at it.  But this entry isn't about French, it's about art.  Did I regret dropping that even before Standard Grade level? Well, no.  Because I knew I was bad at art.  I knew I couldn't draw.  How did I know?  Seven years of primary school art classes on a Wednesday afternoon is how.  Seven years of boredom and disappointment as my
Read more

Challenge 1: Learn French

So, what's this challenge all about? I mentioned last entry that there were three things I wasn't good at in school: art, music and foreign languages. We've covered art in the learn to draw challenge, now it's time for SPEAKING LOUDLY AND SLOWLY TO JOHNNY FOREIGNER. Unlike art, I did do French up to Standard Grade, but, if I'm being honest, that was only because I had to take it that far. French never grabbed me. Whether it was something about the method of teaching, the late start (I was in S1 before I ever darkened the door of a second language) or just teen-aged laziness, French never spoke to me. In return, I only ever grunted monosyllabicly back in an accent best described as "not French". Come the end of S4, I dropped it and never looked back.  Until a year and a half later.  Instead of doing sixth year at my school, I did a year in high school in the states via a cultural exchange programme where I went there and no one came here. (I
Read more