Bowling-over the weekend

Hi guys, I hope your weekend is playing out (or played out if it's over) nicely no matter where you are in the world. Yes, I know a lot of you are experiencing cold and snowy conditions however that doesn't mean you can't also have a killer weekend right? Get after it guys!

Here in Australia, and where I am located more specifically, it's been pretty nice. Saturday was 38 degrees (Celcius) and Sunday was 35; Both days were also sunny with blue skies so pretty-much awesome. My weekend ended up going pretty well although, as I write this, it's Monday morning which isn't very nice at all. Seriously, could we just start a petition to cancel Monday's altogether? Hmm...

On the weekend I had the chance to do something I had never done before, or ever thought about doing for that matter. I was skeptical but it turned out to be a lot of fun!

We had a 40th birthday party to go to which was taking place at a lawn bowls facility not too far from my home. As I said, lawn bowls hasn't ever been on my bucket list of things to do and to be honest I've never really paid it any mind; It is traditionally a game that many older people play and not what I'd call exciting. The history of the sport goes back to the 13th century apparently although it's quite a popular sport these days too, despite being quite sedate.

The idea is that one needs to roll a ball down the bowling green which is generally a very flat grassed area. You can see it in my images above. The ball is supposed to stop as close to the jack, the white ball, as possible. There are other rules of course but I don't know them.

We arrived at the party and socialised, ate and drank then hit the bowling green, under lights as it was dark, with another couple. We proceeded to really suck at playing lawn bowls but we had an absolute blast! You'd not think rolling a ball down a grassed field with the intention to stop as near to a white one would be that hard right? Well, it is. You see, the black ball one bowls is actually weighted on one side so when it rolls it doesn't roll straight. Essentially, one need to curve the ball down the field at a reasonably pronounced angle. The bowling green is also hard, despite being grass, and so the ball tends to roll-on a lot which means some finesse is required to get the ball anywhere near the white one; It is nothing at all like 10 pin bowling and despite every effort to be good...We sucked. But we had fun.

The night was a lot of fun, hanging out with some great people and meeting new ones, bowling badly, shooting pool and of course eating and drinking. I'm really pleased my friend decided on something a little different for her 40th and to have given lawn bowls a go myself. I think it's great to try new things without prior judgement and to make the most of the experiences life places before us. I don't think I'll be taking the sport up as a hobby any time soon, (or ever) but given the chance I'd have another crack at it because it was a lot of fun.

Well, that's about it I guess, the weekend is over and Monday is in full-swing; I'd better get moving and do some work. I still think a petition to eliminate Monday altogether has merit though, I mean, how much better would life be if Monday was simply non-existent!? That's rhetorical...We all know life would be awesome without Monday!