Today marks the birthday of a legendary* drummer (*May not be legendary in all corners of the globe. Hey wait, do globes even have corners...?). To celebrate such a momentous occasion, a rather unusual activity had been chosen: Paintballing...because nothing says happy birthday like being shot in the ass with paint.
You really couldn't have picked a better day in the midst of autumn for running around in the woods, armed to the teeth with rifles and smoke grenades, as the sun was beaming merrily down upon us, and the chill in the air was barely noticeable with the adrenaline pumping through my veins. 500 tiny spheres of pain were handed out, along with some very fetching jump suits that looked like they had been washed a few too many times to qualify as camouflage.
2 teams, us vs "them"... the other team was composed mainly of kids, one was even on crutches, but this didn't lessen the satisfaction of tearing through their ranks to destroy them. I was willing to show some mercy at the beginning, and offer a painless surrender to any close-up encounters, but after one of the little rodents shot me multiple times in the butt after I had already been eliminated, my compassion evaporated as quickly as a cluster of stinging bruises appeared.
Paintball came to end and only a few injuries had been sustained. I'd been shot in the neck, directly between my mask, and clothing, which was quite unfortunate, being the only bit of exposed skin, but what hurt more were my feelings when I saw that the origin of the shot had come from a rogue teammate.
After freshening up a bit, we went to see the bonfire and fireworks, which was a nice surprise - I'd almost forgotten about celebrating people trying to blow up the parliament buildings.
Next up on the agenda was Sabai Sabai, a Thai restaurant where I had some very tasty Thai Green Curry, with rice, but not before a pint in Voodoo. After coming to terms with the impressive half a grand bill, we headed straight for somewhere slightly easier on the wallets. Satchwells was as cheap and cheerful as ever, more so because of the beer festival, where I got an interesting pint of vanilla flavoured beer.
Finally, we ended up in a random house party, hosted by Jim, Motorcade's front man, where we met people from all over globe, including drunk French people, Spanish people, crazy swedes (actually he was with us...!). I ended up watching Motorcade play into the early hours of the morning, which rounded off the evening very nicely.
If only every day was as fun as this one! Happy birthday tor :)
