The World’s Worst Archer

Hello lovely reader! I don’t write for a few days and then I end up having loads to tell you. It’s been a busy week and I’ve done all sorts of exciting things and this is the story of those things.

Every year since 2008 the seaside town of Bournemouth has hosted an Air Festival where lots of aircraft come and do displays along the seafront. It’s a great day out where you can sit on the beach and watch an air display. Along the seafront are lots of stands as all sorts of companies try to sell themselves to you. This means freebies! I had a Hobnob flapjack from McVites, which I have at home all the time anyway, a V energy drink sample (which was really tasty for an energy drink) and an apple pastry from Harry Ramsden’s. Free food always makes for a good day.

The air show opened with the Red Arrows, an incredible team of Hawk jets from the RAF. There are usually seven planes but due to two fatal crashes in the last year (one at last year’s show) at this year’s show there were only seven. But they still put on a fantastic show and they are as exciting to watch as when I first saw them years and years ago.

^{The Red Arrows doing some incredible flying. And a few seagulls too.}

Over the weekend I was on a short holiday with the family to Center Parcs. Center Parcs are holiday villages located in woodland with all sorts of great sports facilities, a fantastic swimming pool with slides and loads of great restaurants. As a family we’ve gone many, many times before. It did feel a bit odd this time as it’s a bit weird going away with my family at 20 and I’m even less sporty than I used to be so I didn’t partake in as many activities as I had done in the past.

One thing I did do was archery. I figured that it doesn’t involve that much effort and what with recent films it’s become quite a big thing (The Hunger Games, Brave, Hawkeye in The Avengers etc) so I thought it would be quite cool to have a go. We didn’t have much chance to practice before we were thrust into a competition. I think we had about six sets of three arrows and I got a pathetic score of 22 out of a possible 180. Most of my arrows were imbedded in the ground below the target, despite guidance from the instructor. Clearly archery is not my thing.

However, it became apparent that I do have some sporting skills, though all in sports which don’t actually involve much physical activity. I was more than competent at table tennis, practice in various pubs has made me a pretty decent pool player and I became the family crazy golf champion for 2012, which is a great honour. Our family are something of crazy golf addicts and can inform you of the best courses in the UK. Center Parcs’s King Arthur themed course isn’t bad but is nowhere near the greatness of the top 3, which oddly enough are all pirate themed: 3) Heatherton’s World of Activities, Tenby, Pembrokeshire 2) Sea Front, Weymouth, Dorset, 1) Sea Front, Great Yarmouth, Norfolk.

I had some great food whilst on holiday too. There is the fantastic restaurant called “The Pancake House” which, as you can probably work out, sells pancakes. We went twice and both times I had a Meat Feast followed by an Ultimate Chocolate. God I love their pancakes. It’s probably a good job there are no pancake restaurants anywhere near where I live or I’d be dead by now. At another restaurant, I had the amazingness that was the Foot Long Chilli Dog. Yeah, a foot long hot dog with loads of chilli stuff in it. My brother claimed I would never finish it but it was no trouble at all. Sometimes I think I could easily star in Man Vs. Food.

One morning I had some time to myself so being the ever faithful blogger I went for a walk around the village and found some things to take photos of.

^{A Great Spotted Woodpecker, taken from inside the Bird Hide. Lots of birds on these feeders which was great to watch.}

^{Some of the village’s Giant Redwoods. Giant Redwoods are the world’s largest trees, by volume anyway. You can’t really see how big they are in these photos but I promise they are massive.}

All in all it was an enjoyable weekend and a great way to end the summer. Well I say “end” but I’ve still got a few weeks before I have to return to university. Yesterday I went to a local Orange shop to investigate the possibility of ending my contract on my broken Blackberry Curve and get a new phone. The navigator button had broken on my Blackberry so I couldn’t do a lot with it beyond read and send texts. After an age of Adam from the Orange shop typing on my computer and having to sort it through the Orange phoneline rather than in store, I ended up with a new phone. It’s the very swish Samsung Galaxy Ace 2. It’s on Android and is essentially Samsung’s version of an iPhone (which is why Apple have sued them). It’s a great phone and I shall now be doing all sorts of fun things when I’m out and about. Expect Instagram experiments and the like in the coming weeks.

^{This is my new favourite possession. It looks so pretty and I just like staring at it, let alone actually using it.}

And I shall end this mammoth post with an update on a story I’ve been following here for a few weeks now. Usain Bolt, the fastest man in the world, said he wanted to play for Manchester United. Then he spent the day at the club and chatted with manager Alex Ferguson. The latest news? Ferguson has said he will let Bolt play in a charity match next year against Real Madrid. It’s actually going to happen!

That’s all for today but thank you for reading and I’ll be back very soon with some more great stuff. ‘Bye!