Replacement knee surgery reduces me to writing about football.
I do not like football.
Football is admittedly a good spectator sport, but the people involved at professional level, both players and administrators repel me, and in any case I prefer to be doing rather than watching.
Continuing my persona as Grumpy Camel my moan concerns the familiar manager interview about a multi million pound transfer, whilst in the background his team are seen on the pitch “training”.
I have never seen anything that resembles hard work taking place in these scenes - they are all prancing about in some sort of slow motion, vaguely raising legs, or side stepping, mincingly, like a bunch of pansies.
Compare that with a similar interview with a boxing manager where his protagonist is seen bouncing medicine balls off his midriff, or stressing out press-ups at at sixty to the minute, or murdering a punch bag with zebra like blows, with the rapidity of a sub machine gun, and sweat pouring out everywhere.
I reckon footballers are like rare vintage racing cars, too expensive and vulnerable to be driven fast round a circuit, and lavished with far too much admiration.
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ReplyDeletePardon my faux pas.
ReplyDeleteI suspect that a 'Y' junction is coming up
ReplyDeleteright ahead for walkers and
the other (following on from this post - left field, perhaps), for talkers - what happened to the putative Conrad Talks web-log?
Gimmer -CONRAD WALKS has always been peppered with non walking posts. Walking reports have mostly had something interesting to say about people met, things seen, or thoughts raised. At the moment I am only doing short local walks which tend to produce little in the way of a story, but if there is something to say I will post - see example,
ReplyDeleteSUNDAY, 22 APRIL 2012
A bucolic encounter
If that doesn't work as a link in this comment it can be found by trawling through "older posts", or putting in a search on the blog.
I have no desire to write purely mechanical reports of routes taken which most people who read the stuff have probably done themselves anyway - I mean this sort of thing:
”...I parked the car, and set off walking at 9:15 and followed the footpath sign across a field to a stile, turned right, then left, etc,...”
Nor do I want to try writing purple passages unless there is a good reason, and I am satisfied that I have had a rare success with the run of my words - I always liked this bit from the Welsh boundary walk:
"Interesting walking today with the petro-chemical import industry slapped onto an area of outstanding beauty, within the huge natural harbour of Milford Haven. I crossed, on strange metal bridges, series of huge pipes running in elegant lines leading from tankers moored at jetties. The pipes lead to huge cylindrical storage tanks. As a failed plumber, I have respect for anybody who can make pipes go where they want, and there is a symmetry to all this which I appreciate, but others may not".
I enjoy trying to write good English, and exchanging interests and ideas with like-minded people and those are my motivations for blogging. I am sure that my readers with outdoor interests do not confine themselves to that interest alone, and that they will be entertained or maybe occasionally stimulated by my non outdoor efforts.
You and I are both frustrated at the moment by being restricted from fully partaking in what we have enjoyed to the full all our lives, and I know that you have gained pleasure from vicarious participation in my outdoor activities prior to the knee op and I hope that it will not be long before more normal service can be resumed for both of us.
i tried to make a comment on your '4' but connection refused error:80 came up twice and now the essay is in free-floating cyberspace - is there a limit on how long comments can be - it was a masterpiece, of course, and un-recallable now!
ReplyDeleteGimmer - I have replied, at length again, via email.
ReplyDelete