Happy Easter

To my dear readers:

Sorry for the lack of activities lately... just been busy with what I shall call my (limited) social life... as well as following the Cricket World Cup late into the night... and frankly I have been lazing my damn arse off... :-)

How was everybody's Easter break? I had a pretty big one: picnic/BBQ to attend on Good Friday, two separate birthday bash on Easter Sunday. But undoubtedly the highlight of the long weekend was the Paintball event on Easter Saturday!

A good buddy of mine organised a paintball outing at "The Paintball Place" at Kulnurra and I was over the moon. You see, I love paintballing. I believe heaven is a place where people runs around shooting at other people with pellets full of paint, that would certainly appeal more to me than streets lined with gold bricks or 72 ravishing virgins, etc. ;-)

Yes, I love paintballing like Goldmember looooves painting balls!

Yesshh! Yesshh! I loooove painting ze ball... Yesshh!

I had huge fun playing in the drenching rain, collected a few bruises and delivered a few in kind. I do have a purple tennis ball sized bruise on my left thigh and a throbbing headache on my right temple (that stills stings today)... But none of that matters because our team won the event 4-2... Go the Black Team... Woooot!

I can visibly see that my game has improved somewhat from previous trips to paintball fields. I don't play as crazy or as reckless anymore, and reading some online articles about tactical training had help with my all round skills.

At the end of the day, I was so fired up, I was screaming instructions to my team mates that were previously merely strangers to me. Pleading for my team to move forward to keep up the pressure on the immobile opposition. I was running amok, barking out orders, collecting and piloting the flags almost every game, strafing the field like a demon, weaving in and around barricades... I feel so alive!

- - -

However, the best moment of the entire day happened at the very beginning, before we had even fired a paintball in anger. We all suited up in our camo fatigue and don the protective mask in the morning, ready to be lectured to about the paintball marker (gun). The guy in charge went through his explanation about the marker in detail and asked for a volunteer to demo the marker's range and firepower.

One of the referee shouted out "Gordon, step forward!..."

I did so with no hesitation, walked about 20m away from the marker and stood there quietly. The guy with the marker shouted: "Are you wearing a box?". I nod my head to indicate "Affirmative."

He then aimed at my nether region, and fired one shot... he missed... I didn't flinch. He fired a second shot... he missed... I didn't flinch. He attempted a third shot... and hit my left pelvic bone, I didn't flinch for two seconds before grunting out a guttural primal scream: "Arrrghhhwwww!!!!"... Then I proceeded to walk back toward my team mates.

The referee pulled me aside, smiled and said to me "You've played before, haven't you?".

I looked at him, "Yep", I replied.

"It gets in your blood, doesn't it?"

I smiled and exclaimed, "Yep!"

He knew just by looking at me, he knew... he knew I am there to play ball.

BRING IT ON!! Wooooooo!