Guildford on a wet Saturday, what could make things worse?
Mr. Hill and self noodled off to Surrey. A trade show for the O gauge persuasion. Essentially an exhibition in reverse: lots of dedicated trade stands and a small number of layouts dotted about, all in a lower ground floor of a busy leisure centre. I'll come to that bit in a moment. The only similar event I've been to was last century and in Telford. Bigger, but I can't remember much about it. This was, well, dunno, can't quite put my finger on it. The combined purchases for the day were three whitemetal figures. That may give you the answer you require.
I'm baffled by this sort of establishment. In a break for sustenance, I observed the surroundings: manly families, mainly white middle class (it's Surrey) mainly in various leisurewear attire. How did we get to this point? If you want this sort of thing, it seemed hard to beat, but the café fascinated me. After time running and jumping about, you are offered a selection of 100% ultra-processed ingredient filled snacks and sugar loaded drinks in plastic containers.
We drive our children to school, don't let them play outside, then drive them to exercise under sodium lighting, but not daylight, then feed them the worst possible diet, then drive them home. Am I missing something, or have we got something terribly wrong?
My education got some things right and many things wrong. When it came to PE and sports, it got a lot wrong. It was about being competitive, not improving your health. It taught me to take cooking seriously, or suggested it could be taken seriously.
ReplyDeleteBut it was the youth club where I enjoyed sport, and those kinds of institutions have gone in recent years. My "children," now all in their thirties, go to gyms, but don't take part in any team games.
I should add I'm a trustee of a youth organisation, so I have some strong views, but I think there is something else going on here. something about authenticity. That circles back to model railways. How many people claim to be modellers but never model? Look, I'm never going to scractchbuild a loco, but I like to think there are things I do that are creative and skilful.
I also like to think, though comments on certain FB groups make me wonder if I get it right, that I try and be helpful to others. "Have you thought about" "What the GWR did was" "A good example is"
And to pull the threads together, or at least some of them:
Many people want an exhibition to validate their current level of "fitness" and be able to slurp an Ultra Processed - by someone else - RTR model, believing they have achieved something other than handing over their credit card.
I spent most Friday evenings in the late 1980s in the lower ground floor of Hailsham Leisure Centre.
ReplyDeleteIts entrance was tucked away, it had had heavy doors, rooms with titles like "Scientific Advisors" and a closed loop ventilation system which was fun if you let one go.
It also had quite a good aerial system, which was why we (local amateur radio emergency group) were there, as if things had gone TU we'd have been expected to form part of the emergency comms network and you need to train for this sort of thing.
Exercises were fun; passing lots of messages about airbursts etc....just don't forget to prefix the messages with the word "Exercise"!
Afterwards, we'd head up two floors to the bar and watch overweight blokes playing squash, then a few minutes later sink multiple pints and smoke multiple fags.
Catering at these places tended to be chips with everything, this carried on 'til the late '90s/early Noughties when paninis began to predominate...only problem being that the sort of people who turned up to ExpoNG etc. didn't appreciate the change!
Sport at school consisted of being treated as objects of derision by psycho games masters, unless you were The Anointed who actually enjoyed that stuff.
I went to gym in Ashford for a short while, but found sitting on some machine in a barn smelling other people's sweat terminally dull, especially when it was nice out, so I'd just go for a walk instead.
The couple of times I went to the Telford 0 gauge thing were similarly forgettable, lots of stuff I wouldn't have bought if I had the money to do so. I probably bought some brick embossed styrene sheet. I somehow don't "get" 0 gauge...lovely scale, nice people, but it very rarely excitement.
I used to be a gym regular, but not for pedalling a stationary bike or pushing weights. Swimming, pilates, 'body balance', all helped me to do outdoor sports, mountain biking and kayaking. The leisure centre was a means to an end, as it kept the body in shape for other things, rather than a means in itself. Oddly enough despite being quite 'sporty' later in life I hated PE at school, especially cross country running. Maybe it just wasn't 'fun', maybe I'm not a team player, maybe because I've never been the strongest or fittest, or maybe because the sporty kids were boring obnoxious twats. Now I'd quite happily go for a fell run, if my wonky foot would allow it.
ReplyDeleteThere's an exhibition at a leisure centre in the next town every year. I like to cycle there.
I really enjoyed the Greenwich Clubs ExpoNG exhibitions at the White Oak Leisure Centre. You could view NG layouts in the sports hall, buy from the 009 Society sales stand in one of the squash courts, and afterwards, get a cup of tea while watching people splash around in the pool.
ReplyDeleteGood exhibition, good venue, happy days !
Unfortunately, the club were no longer able to use the White Oak Centre after ExpoNG 2019, as the venue was being redeveloped, resulting in the loss of the large sports hall, also the car park was to be built on, so there'd be little or no space for exhibitors, traders, and visitors' parking. Members had been trying to find a suitable alternative venue for some time, but there simply wasn't anything that would work.
DeleteI feel that most people seemed to have got hold of the wrong end of the stick here. My comment was not about either the general gym usage or whether exhibitions should take place in these venues, but more of a general comment (concern?) that there has been a huge shift in social attitudes to both exercise and diet and how these, from my perspective, appear to be completely in opposition to each other.
ReplyDelete