#oneaday Day 673: Journey, not destination

The advice "it's about the journey, not the destination" is valid in a lot of contexts, but I find that there's a very literal reading of it that I find particularly worthwhile. And that is when it comes to taking some exercise, particularly if you are not someone who is generally inclined towards such things.

Since the weather has turned nice, I've gone out for a couple of walks. I had a short walk on the common the other day, and this morning after breakfast, I decided to just leave my house, set off in whatever direction I felt like, and just keep walking. I ended up having a very lovely walk of approximately 5 kilometres, burning a nice number of calories due having to haul my disgusting fat carcass around with me wherever I go, and coming home feeling rather satisfied with myself.

What I discovered along the way is that on the outward journey, when I didn't have a particular destination in mind, I felt like I could pretty much go forever. I kept walking and walking and walking until I had got quite a distance away from my house. And I was enjoying it; I found some nice little scenic areas, even, which you will see photographs of punctuating this blog post. It's always nice when you find pleasant green areas within a reasonably sized and generally quite busy city.

The moment I felt like I was "on the way back", though, things became several orders of magnitude more difficult. It's weird! It was like a switch flipped in my mind, a big countdown appeared (figuratively speaking), and I was aware of quite how far I still had left to go before I could call proceedings to a halt. I had to take several breaks on this "return leg" of the journey, because I kept getting to points where I felt like I wanted to get home, but also where I wasn't sure I had the energy to make it all the way back without stopping.

Okay, it doesn't help that we live on top of a hill, and thus whichever direction I set out from when I go for a walk, I always have to end my journey by climbing a hill that might not look that steep, but which is always absolutely exhausting to walk up. Well, it is if you're a fat shit like me, anyway.

Still, I feel like if I had just kept walking "outwards", I could have probably made it even further afield. Could I have made it into the town centre? I don't know — maybe. I wasn't far off making it to one of the local shopping areas. And if I had made it there, I could have always stopped for a coffee and then even got the bus back home if I had really wanted to.

Perhaps that's the answer. Just walk and walk and walk outwards, then for the return journey catch the bus. Is that cheating? I don't think it is, is it? Not if you are able to make the outward journey significantly longer as a result of knowing that you're not going to have to walk back again.

Maybe I'll try that next time out. I just need to familiarise myself with the bus routes around the area, I guess!

Want to read my thoughts on various video games, visual novels and other popular culture things? Stop by MoeGamer.net, my site for all things fun where I am generally a lot more cheerful. And if you fancy watching some vids on classic games, drop by my YouTube channel.

If you want this nonsense in your inbox every day, please feel free to subscribe via email. Your email address won't be used for anything else.

#oneaday Day 352: Having a garden is Pretty All Right

A garden is something that it's easy to take for granted. No, more accurately, a garden is something it's easy to forget about, allow to get into a terrible situation and then not be bothered with wanting to fix it up. I vividly recall the garden at my third-year student house being along these lines, with what can only be described as a "small, wild meadow" on the front lawn by the time we vacated the premises.

But I also have fond memories of gardens. As a kid, I used to like spending time in the garden at our house. I particularly enjoyed any time I was allowed to get out "the wigwam" (yes, I know it was almost certainly a tepee), plop an old cushion in it and pretend to be camping out in the back garden. I used to read out there. Hell, I used to study out there; I have oddly vivid memories of sitting out there in said little tent reading the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music's Rudiments and Theory of Music in preparation for my Grade 5 theory exam.

I also have extremely fond memories of going to visit my "Aunty" Sue and "Uncle" Peter's house, and them having outdoor garden parties. (The "Aunty" and "Uncle" are in inverted commas due to them not actually being relatives; they were the "friends of my parents" kind of "Aunty" and "Uncle".) They were rather well off, and had a huge house with a massive garden. It was probably more accurate to say that they had "grounds". As a kid, it was nice to have a safe, outdoor space that I felt like it was possible to actually explore, rather than be able to see the entire area from wherever you sit or stood in it.

Then there were my parents' other friends Pat and Keith (oddly, they were never an "Aunty" and "Uncle" scenario) who had a cool multi-level back garden with a rockery that I always enjoyed futzing around in. I remember one time we went to the Robin Hood Centre in Nottingham (they lived relatively close to Nottingham) and I came back with a kid's bow and arrow set, and I spent a good few hours just shooting the bow around the garden. My parents and their friends joked that I was going "cat hunting", because their cats Merry and Suki liked to hang out in the back garden, too, but I would never do a thing to harm them; they were very good cats indeed.

Just recently… well, for quite a while, actually, Andie has been working hard to make our back garden nice. It's been just sort of… there for quite a while, and it's been a gradual process of her sorting it out. The main thing she wanted to do was replace our horrible old shed with a brand new summer house-style one, which she did, but in doing so she was clearly bitten by the landscaping bug, because over time she's been doing up the rest of the space, sorting out the flower beds around the side and making a nice little "nook" down at the bottom of the garden with some comfy furniture to just be able to go and sit.

I went out there for a sit this afternoon. Not to go and sit and do anything, just to go and have a nice sit outside. I don't think I've done that for a very long time, and it was very pleasant to just sit outdoors, enjoy the nice breeze and the sunshine, and not have to think or worry about anything.

If I was in somewhat better physical condition, I might even be tempted to try and do some stuff in the garden myself, though I have absolutely no idea where one might start with such things, and Andie has kind of already taken care of most of the major things that need doing. I still might try and get involved a bit more, though. Just doing so will probably be a decent bit of gentle exercise, and that's something I could really do with on a slightly more regular basis.

Regardless of circumstances and purpose, I think I will probably be spending a bit more time out in the garden this summer; it's nice to get out of the house now and then, even if it's literally just into your own back yard.

Is this what it means to be in your mid-40s? I guess so. It's not so bad.

If you want this nonsense in your inbox every day, please feel free to subscribe via email. Your email address won't be used for anything else.

#oneaday Day 330: Portsmouth Comic Con

[EDIT: The first paragraph of this post inexplicably disappeared since publishing it. It said something about how my wife and two of our mutual friends went to Portsmouth Comic Con today. In fact, it probably said exactly that. I now return you to the original post, armed with Context.]

You may recall a while back that this same group went to another, smaller convention that I described as "kind of shit, but in a charming way". I think we actually, on the whole, enjoyed ourselves more at that smaller event.

Not all of this was the fault of Portsmouth Comic Con. It was a much bigger event in a considerably larger venue, and if you were into certain specific fandoms — most notably Star Wars, Doctor Who and, to a slightly lesser extent, Star Trek — there was plenty to see and do. But there were a lot of people there — way more than at the Anime and Gaming Con — and it was a very hot, humid day.

The combination of those factors, plus the fact that all of us are getting on a bit and in varying degrees of disrepair, unfitness, anxiety and obesity, meant that the overall experience was, at times, quite uncomfortable. Not enough to want to run away screaming or anything, but enough to make us, on several occasions, quit what we were doing and go back to it a bit later when there were fewer people. Also my back hurts because apparently I'm an old man now.

But as I say, none of us came away from the event feeling like we'd had a bad time. We all found some nice things to buy — I bought a few stickers to put in my sticker book, Andie bought a great picture of a Kraken that we're going to hang in our toilet — and we all got a kick out of seeing some really great cosplay from the other attendees. It's just… we were done by about 3pm, and didn't feel like we were likely to go again next year.

It was nice to go and check it out and see what it was all about. But I think for future possible events, we're going to try and focus a bit more on attending events that are a little more directly relevant to our shared interests — video games — rather than events like this, which are more adjacent to those interests rather than directly catering to them. (I did find one stall selling Mega Drive games, at least.)

Anyway, now we are home and I am sitting down. It is nice. I am going to enjoy doing that for a few hours and then really enjoy going to bed. And then with it being a long weekend for the May Day (sorry, "Early May") bank holiday we still have two days off from work to enjoy! Hurrah.

If you want this nonsense in your inbox every day, please feel free to subscribe via email. Your email address won't be used for anything else.