Finding Inspiration in Piss-Soaked Places.

Enter stage left.

I wouldn't consider myself one to get carried away too easily. Indeed, I am more likely to be generally underwhelmed with the state of things, rather than overwhelmed. But every now and again something comes along that makes you take stock of your life, re-think what it is that binds you to the yoke of your existence, and vow to be a better person.

I witnessed an occasion like this today.

Having a quiet beer with some friends at a local cricket club, I was astounded to watch a man weighing in at a hefty 130 kilograms, and well into his forties, consume an entire jug of beer whilst standing on his head, and I'm damn pleased that I did. If a neck can withstand the sort of pressures generated by a 130kg man standing on his head, then surely there is hope for us all.

I don't mean to compare headstands with real pressures - I am not a trivial man. But sometimes a serendipitous display of drunken bravado by a middle-aged man with a carefully cultivated handle-bar moustache is enough to make one stand up and think "Ye gods, many things in life are indeed a possibility." Perhaps today I had one of these moments. Only time will tell.

Many times I have been forced to belittle other people's achievements, if only to ensure their tenuous hook on reality - their flimsily grasped notion of their own fallibility - is maintained. No one enjoys an ego maniac who is not a proper manic. This time, however, I shall gladly and graciously fall on my own sword. What I saw today deserves the kudos it received from those people lucky enough to witness it, but also from this never-to-be-read shred of literary inconsequence. Belittling, without meaning to? Ho ho, perhaps irony has cast the final aspersion.

Raise your hand if you still follow me.

Exit stage right.