A Day in the Life (or maybe more)

A very good, dear friend of mine suggested I try this, (you know who you are), and I said I'd give it a go. So you have only yourself to blame.

Tomorrow 3 friends and I are going to meet up for the first time in months. We try to meet up about 3 or 4 or sometimes even 5 times a year and have a good day or good night out. Tomorrow we head back to one of our favourite places, Cluny Clays in Fife.

Cluny Clays is a “sporty” place. It caters for all kinds of people. You can go golfing, practice on the golf range, do archery, air rifle target practice, and, in our case clay pigeon shooting.

We’ve known each other for years, before and during our clay pigeon carnage we go hiking, hill walking, and play a bit of squash, it has to be said though that as real life starts to prey on our time we find the clays easier. We first started this about 4 years ago. We're not particularly good at it but we don’t care... we have fun. There is no real competition going on... just bragging rights.

Some people don't get the appeal. But then again, I don’t get the appeal of throwing myself out of a perfectly functioning aircraft, wearing a big nylon hankie that will float me to the ground. But lots of people do, and good luck to them. Also there is something quite good about being able to say "you're not as good as I am" to a mate, but in a friendly, meaningless way. Hey, let’s face it, it’s better than killing real things, and that we just don’t do. Cluny Clays give us the chance to attack small defenceless round objects with high velocity Beretta Silver Pigeon "S" 28" 12 bore Shotguns. It’s also a chance to unwind and have a bit of friendly banter... and the odd bit of friendly abuse. It’s always been good weather when we're there, never too hot never too cold, but then again, it is Scotland, so it'll never get too hot.

Raymond is probably the best shot out of the four of us, but I wouldn't let him know that, it would only give him an over inflated opinion of his own ability, and we can't have that, can we. The day starts about 12pm with tea or coffee and sticky buns... then we prepare ourselves, safety glasses, ear protection, and jackets with plenty of pockets and shoulder padding. Not exactly the "huntin' and shootin'" brigade, but pretty smart none the less.

After that we decide which one of the "shoots" we start with first. Each one has its own charm, some are easier than others, but we try and challenge ourselves and each other every time. It’s also a chance to get out in the fresh air and enjoy the countryside, all be it with loud bangs disturbing the peace, but hey, we can't have everything, and let’s face it, we're making the noise ourselves, so we can't really complain about it.

Well, I have started this blog. There will be more to add and I’ll take any constructive comments. I'll add some pictures as well to give you an idea (maybe this isn’t such a good idea now I think about it) of what kind of people we are. Let me know what you think.