Dockenfield H3

I had the wonder and privilege of running with the newly formed Dockenfield Hash House Harriers on Saturday. This is stunning; Dockenfield has a population of 420 - to have its own hash shows that Hashing has truly filtered down to everyone. I remember starting the Guildford Hash House Harriers some 20 years ago and wondering if there would be enough people interested and that city has a population of 129,000.

Dockenfield now has a pub, the Blue Bell Inn which reopened in December after being closed for 10 years, and a Hash - wonderful!

We had a good turn out of 11 adults, one boy who ran like a demon, 2 dogs and the hare. The run didn't last long, around 35 minutes, but it made good use of local footpaths, Alice Holt forest and the plentiful mud. An excellent run.

The Dockenfield Hash House Harriers run the last Saturday of the month, currently meeting at the Blue Bell Inn at 3pm.

Landmark Forum

Apparently I've fallen into the hands of an evil cult who have sucked out my brain and inducted into the their evil empire - or to hear what some of my friends have to say on the subject that's what you could easily believe. I know that these friends mean well, but I can assure them and the rest of you this is not the case.

In fact I attended a course a few weekends ago (19th to 21st January) in London at the Landmark Education centre near Euston station having an amazing, if emotional, time. I attended the Landmark Forum course along with 160 other people of all ages and backgrounds. We had a huge range of nationalities on the course including Germans, Swedes, Spaniards, Russians, Aussies, South Africans, Argentinians and Dutch. Our 'coaches' Scott (an American) and Poorani (a Singaporean) were incredible and we did a lot of laughing, crying arguing and loving in a process that I found incredibly invigorating. I discovered a lot about myself. Amongst other things I found that I have been almost permanently fearful or worried about something or other for most of my life but that I am fundamentally a nice person who inspires other people (mind you I can think of at least one person who doesn't think I am at all nice at the moment, but that is another story).

As with all things the Landmark Forum had its bad bits as well as its good bits - they did a lot of shouting and did try to dominate us and rule us with an iron rod during the 3 intensive 13 hour days. Mind you, if you have ever been to Public School it was a walk in the park. The Landmark organisation are on a mission to get everyone thinking the same way as they do - being open, honest and kind to everyone and living an honest 'authentic' life - the problem is that mission can appear to be a very 'hard sell'.

I believe that these people have made a significant change to my life and basically have their hearts in the right place.

And yes, before you ask, I have visited http://www.rickross.com/groups/landmark.html and read and taken on board all the horror stories (as well as the good stuff).

Do I recommend the Landmark Forum for everyone? Well as a Landmark Forum graduate I should say "Yes", but I would rather say "Watch this space and see the difference in me and make up your own mind."

Trust Us 07-01 Venice trip with the Gonads

Higgins, a leading light in the international Hash House Harriers community and stalwart of the Brussels Manneke Hash House Harriers and Gonads (GOing Nowhere Always Drunk) said "Trust Us" and we did! The idea was that for Euro150 he would organise a trip abroad with flights and 2 nights in a hotel, a hash in the foreign city and a lot of fun - except our destination would be a secret. It sounded like something that was bound to go wrong, so I signed up for it immediately along with 14 other idiots.

The rumour mill soon started grinding out all sorts of possible destinations, but very soon we fixed on the idea that it had to be Venice - and there would have been a lot of unhappy hashers if it turned out otherwise. Fortunately for Higgins and everyone else the rumour mill got it right. Despite the destination not being quite the surprise it could have been there were a couple of surprises along the way. First of all we were told at Charlroi airport that two of our party, Half Monty and Dr PP couldn't make it. When we got to Venice railway station there they were along with 2 Aussies (Rubber Chook and Funny Chick Magnet) who we had said goodbye to 2 months previously waiting for us with a banner welcoming the BMPH3 Bible Study Group to Venice!

We all had an excellent time. Memorable highlights included wandering through an empty Venice in the dead of night with a couple of friends and having Piazza San Marco almost completely to ourselves as midnight was chimed out across the city - a real goose-bump occasion and one I am sure I will never forget. On Saturday we ran right across Venice from the railways station to St Marks Square through the lanes and over 26 bridges on a hash. We had a prosecco beer stop on the way and even took in a bit of culture as well - a great time was had by one and all.

See Forrest Gulps photos on http://public.fotki.com/BMPH3/2007/1/venice/