Shotgun Range

Last week, Nick went on a shotgun safety course and qualified as a certified shotgun instructor. When Johnny found out about it yesterday, he said, 'We have got to do this today! Get it sorted and we'll take the girls out!' Apparently, Lucy, his date to the ball, was already on her way via train to visit him. Poor girl for little did she know, she was going to go clay shooting; Johnny didn't tell her until after she was already on the train. Horrible! Yeah, I know. She was looking forward to some quiet chill time with him. Ha!

He had burst into the room with a massive grin on his face at late morning and said, 'Good, you're dressed to be outdoors. Johnny's got a great idea and I think we can pull this off.' When I asked him what we were doing, his reply was, 'Let's just say that it's very Officer, very fun and it's free.' Well, ya can't argue with free. I didn't find out what we were doing until Nick came to fetch me after work.

Clay shooting with shotguns - ha! The first time I'd shot a gun was when I was, like, 5 or 6 (I think) and my family was gathered at someone's ranch for some multi-family party shindig. The men were shooting at cans with a rifle; someone helped hold the gun against my shoulder. I most vividly remember the recoil and what a shock it was...and also how I'd missed the can. Drat.

Anyway, Nick came back to the room around 5, got a jacket, his waterproof kit (these boys are always so well-prepared), baseball hats and ear mufflers. I'm, like, 'Ear protectors? Waterproof? Johnny mentioned something about shooting. Just what are we doing??' We met up with Johnny and Lucy and rode out to the shotgun range. We had 2 shotguns, 2 traps full of clays, 250 rounds and about an hour to use it all up.

I don't think I've had as much fun in ages! Nick and Johnny are just big boys with big toys and it was soooo hilarious to see them get all competitive with each other. When Nick gets competitive, like during (American) football, he gets really loud, yelling all over the place, and becomes like a boy on the playground. It's so funny considering his age and how mature he usually is, and Johnny's not far behind him either, only a year younger at 29 (next Thursday).

Nick went over the safety procedures, how to position and aim: the butt sits snugly against your right shoulder, in the little niche between the ball of your shoulder and your collarbone. Putting your weight on your forward foot so you're leaning slightly forward, you aim with your dominant eye, looking down the barrel of the gun at the little bump on the end (I have no idea what the technical term is). You place your cheek firmly against the butt and position it so that you don't actually see the top of the barrel but only the white dot on the bump. As long as the shotgun is snug and firm against your shoulder, it becomes a part of you and your entire body will move with the recoil so you don't feel it as badly.

Lucy wasn't terribly thrilled with the prospect of clay shooting. She's a model - tall, thin and very pretty - and far more a fragile girly-girl. I, on the other hand, was pretty gung-ho about it; I've never done anything like this! I was a tomboy as a child, growing up with a bunch of boys as companions. You can take the girl out of the tomboy but you can't take the tomboy out of the girl. (Did that make any sense? ...Well, you get the idea.) It was a totally new experience and all really exciting.

Johnny and Nick took several shots in turn, then it was our turn. The recoil wasn't bad at all. I was actually quite good and took out several clays! Lucy had one hit and I had 5. Each shotgun has two rounds and I was actually two for two at one point! Woohoo, check me out! The boys were quite impressed - 'She's definitely got an eye for it!' said Johnny.

They let us shoot for a few more rounds then they took over with both guns and had, like, 20 rounds each, competing to see who could hit more clays while Lucy and I worked the traps. The look on Johnny's face was priceless when Nick took out 6 in a row. Boys will be boys. At one point, Johnny screamed, 'I need to shoot something!!' He grabbed an empty cartridge box and blew it to bits. Quality stuff!

Johnny took Lucy out to dinner in Cambridge since she wasn't terribly impressed with the whole shooting thing. Nick and I stayed for dinner in the Mess instead; we figured Johnny would have appreciated some alone time with Lucy anyway.

Food in the Officers' Mess is really good. So far - not counting the ball which was when I first tasted jambalaya - I've had steamed salmon and prawns in cream sauce, gourmet sandwiches, cottage pie, a giant bacon cheeseburger, and fish and chips. Dinner's always accompanied by lots of vegetables (and yes, I have been eating veggies) and dessert (try apple crumble with cream and cherry tarts with vanilla ice cream), not to mention the choices of cereal, toast, yogurt and traditional fry-up for breakfast every morning. Furthermore, I've been having breakfast in bed for the past several days - mm hmm, how nice, non? - since I don't have be up at 6 or 7 am like Nick.

I've been here so many times, I'm like an honorary member of the Mess now! I even know some of the staff by name! Haha!

Update:
This was dinner: chicken drums (minus the bone) stuffed with pâté, wrapped in bacon, and served with potatoes, peas, sweetcorn and zuccini. For dessert, it was wild berry pavlova with homemade meringues - crunchy on the outside and soft and gooey on the inside - topped with whipped cream. Life as an Officer sure is nice!