In the last ten days I’ve done a whole lot of things I probably wouldn’t ever had thought I’d probably be doing at this stage in my life. But I guess I can now tick them off the to be done list.

The wife and I took a few days away at Hopton on sea on the east coast just a couple of miles from Great Yarmouth, it was a Christmas present to each other as to be quite honest there was nothing we needed so we thought we’d just treat ourselves.

My wife is a few years my senior (I won’t tell her age as she’ll probably kill me 😂) and I’m just into my sixtieth year, so I’m not particularly old, however I do have asthma and arthritic issues and a long running issue with my kidneys that are under constant scrutiny, that said, I tend to ignore being told what I should be doing, and will give anything a go if I feel up to it. Here’s what occurred this week.

• Archery – I’ve tried this in the past and whilst I was on holiday I happened to be teamed up with someone who was a professional, made me look pathetic. However using his guidance I managed to get some good scores and clocked up a medal for a high score so I was happy with that.

• Rifle shooting- Again I was originally teamed with a young lady who had her own gun and was an Olympic competitor, I didn’t stand a chance, again with some coaching I was able to bag another medal with a pretty good score. This was on a Ten metre range.

• Climbing wall – Have always enjoyed watching this in the olympics when the athletes get up these walls in about 4 seconds flat, like Spiders on speed! My attempts were a little more serene and I managed the green route in about 45 seconds. My second and third attempts resulted in me falling and hitting my back on one of the hand grips right in the position of one of my bad kidneys creating quite a nice bruise. Wife wasn’t happy but I was, as I’d actually achieved something I didn’t think my body would let me do…but I proved it wrong.

• Segway – never tried one of these before. Just two wheels and a balancing act to get it moving, however once moving I became a master of it and can’t wait to try it again, the wife wasn’t as happy and gave up after a few minutes as she thought she was about to fall off. But she tried.

• Bowling – Where we were staying is where they hold the World bowls championships every year, so we had to give that a go. My Brother in law and his wife are regular players and they were my coaches on this day. Absolutely enjoyed it but I don’t think it’s something I’d take up as a full time hobby, just as in all sports you have to participate regularly to improve, and with my work commitments I can’t commit to such involvement. However I’d like to try a game every now and then.

• Silent Disco – one night after all the entertainment had ended there was a session of silent disco. Basically you wear headphones that have four different genres of music and that’s it, you just strut your stuff as you would do in a normal disco environment except no one else can hear you….until you start singing. Absolutely loved it.

• Dancing on tables – Total surprise this. Our Neighbour Celebrated his 60th birthday. We were invited to a brilliant venue in Leicester that serves great food, and when everyone is finished it just becomes a big party where they actively encourage you to dance on the tables! So strange but such fun and a brilliant night was had by all. We will definitely be back. And I managed to not fall off. Result.

So in all it’s been a great 10 days. It was only as I was talking with the wife in the bathroom earlier today that I said we’d done so much in the last week or two, I just didn’t realise all those things we’d done together for the first time.

I guess the moral of this post is that you are never too old to try something new and that you definitely can teach old dogs new tricks.

Stay young, stay happy. Just enjoy yourself, don’t worry about making a fool of yourself as you probably won’t bump in to those who witness you doing so ever again.