January Jollies

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

Yes he sounds very familiar. Mine was a sadist who force-fed Shakespeare and Dickens on an unruly, lower class group of boys in a shabby government school in the heart of the industrial wastelands. It was not a recipe for literary success I can tell you. But, he was an enigma for me. I'd often heard strange mythical stories of boys seeing this monster out running the roads, miles from anywhere, and didn't believe a word of it until I saw it for myself. There he was, running strongly a good 15km from home on a miserably wet day, still heading down the highway away from home. You didn't see many road runners back then, and to see a late-middle-aged English master doing something that seemed so alien made quite an impact on me as a young lad. It was kind of appropriate in a strange way, as he was forever telling us that "irony is the highest form of wit", and then caning anyone who couldn't remember what the lowest form was (which of course is the pun - the only form we seemed to appreciate back then).

I tried to persuade my Dad (who was driving at the time) to run him over, but he wouldn't take me seriously.

Which was a pity really, as my "Great Expectations" book review was well overdue.

I still hate that book to this day.

I do like running though. And I still like puns.