The morning sky was gorgeous today as I walked to the gym. Okay, shepherds were probably not that keen. As it turned out, there was nothing to be warned about. The day was beautiful. Cold, sure, but beautiful.
The photo above is straight out of my phone. It’s funny how we think that seeing things with the ‘naked eye’ is more accurate. The brain always adds stuff so an artificial image is going to be more accurate. Unless you fiddle with it, of course.
Without the phone, the sky was much pinker and the clouds much closer and clearly defined. Not that it matters. It just looked beautiful. It was also nice and quiet as the birds were just starting to chatter awake. (I’m ignoring the infamous Surrey Hum.)
It wasn’t so quiet at the gym.
Normally when I go, the gym is pretty close to empty. There’s a few isolated people, mostly old or not working, just quietly going about their regime of pain.
For the last few mornings there has been a group of four young men in the free weights area who seem intent on making as much noise as possible. It seems to make it easier to lift heavy things.
They gee each other up to greater and greater feats of super human strength. At least I think that’s the idea. These great feats are almost always accompanied by sub human grunts and loud exhalations of pent up breath.
It goes a little something like this:
ONE: GO ON! YOU CAN DO IT! PUSH YOURSELF!
TWO: YEAH! HEAVE IT! HEAVE IT!
THREE: ERGH! ERGH! ERGH!
FOUR: HIGHER! HIGHER! MORE! MORE! YOU FUCKING WEAKLING!
THREE: ARGH!! ARGH!!
ONE: GO ONE YOU WEAKLING! LIFT THE FUCKER!
TWO: HA! CALL YOURSELF STRONG?
THREE: ERGHHHHHHHHHHHHH! GRUNT, GRUNT, GRUNT. AHHHHHHHHH!
ONE, TWO & FOUR: YAY! WAY TO GO! NOW ADD A FEW KILOS.
[A massive crash as THREE drops the weights to the ground, making the room shudder.]
The thing is, the free weights area is just behind where I ride my bike. I’ll be happily pedalling away, ensconced in some French or Spanish drama and suddenly I hear some alien noise. I quickly glance around only to find a bunch of sweaty boys.
This is not a complaint! I do sometimes think that I spend too much time complaining about everyday things. I do not want to come across as a Victor Meldrew. Rather than complain, I am merely reporting things I see and experience.
Mind you, why they have to make a noise is beyond me. Mirinda reckons it’s because they are breaking through the pain barrier. I don’t know why that has to mean breaking the sound barrier in order to get there.
Now, something I do moan about is when it comes to inconsiderate drivers.
PRICK OF THE WEEK
I don’t drive so I can only assume that two yellow lines along the gutter mean that it’s okay to park like this. The van is unmarked so I can’t comment on the owner or company responsible for it.
