Do You Dongol?

We live our lives following a an infinite number of intuitive rules. We go our full earthly duration never knowing what most of these are. It might relate to how you judge when it is your turn to buy a round in a pub, whether you answer a mobile phone call from a number you do not know or whether you take a short cut across the grass . Every now and then something happens that draws one of these rules to your attention and I have discovered that if I receive an email with the subject "Dongoling" however much I suspect it's spam I have to open it.

It turned out I was being Cc'd into an email from Paul to Hal, "I think that you mentioned that there may be a vacancy on the Dongoling team for this year. Is that still the case? If so, I thought that I would suggest Denzil". Flattered to be thought of as a potential dongoler, and open to pretty much anything this year, I expressed my interest. Hal confirmed there was a place and less than 2 weeks later I found myself in Wargrave preparing to dongol alongside one old friend and four complete strangers. I still didn't know what dongoling was.

Ten days, four training sessions and a lot of wet clothes later I have learnt to do something I had never previously done. There is also a specific point when that new experience is tested - or to put it another way I have a new challenge for the year. It's exciting because it was unexpected, it's exciting because, even though it could all be over in less than 2 minutes I get to spend the day with a group of people who it turns out are far from strange. It's exciting because there will be food, alcohol, crowds and water.

And it's funny because I'm not going to tell you what dongoling is until I report back next week (or maybe the week after, I still have to do the report for the 3 Peaks and a whole load of housekeeping).