Sunday, October 02, 2005

Outdoorsy?

Perhaps it's old age, maturity or a sense of self-preservation ( that comes hand-in-hand with the other two ) but I've reluctantly turned my back on a significant part of my life. That thought occurred to me today when in my post-call daze, I noticed some tired Scouts trudging down the road, with their backpacks weighing them down.

Nowadays I certainly wouldn't call myself an outdoorsy, hiking, mountain-climbing, extreme-sports kinda guy. Far from it, in fact, and the only way you'd get me close to mud and dirt is by having Chris Evans wallowing blissfully naked in a mudhole.

Damn, that deserves a moment.

Jungle hunk*ahem*
What was I saying again? Oh yeah, the mud and the dirt. My ultra-clean, fastidiously neat urban persona nowadays is certainly different from my schooldays when I was actually a... Scout. Seriously, no kidding. And no snickers, please. Back when my life was much simpler and far more innocent than it is right now, when boys were still boys ( and I didn't have horrifically pornographic images in my head of what boys did to other boys in the dark :) ), I was a dyed-in-the-wool, bonafide Scout.

Not only a Scout but an innocent one too! At that time, my rampaging hormones hadn't caught up with me yet and though I did have some barely formed sexual thoughts, it never occurred to me to try anything with the hot, virile young boys all camped around me, barely clad in shorts. Wasted chances, I'd have to admit :)

Looking at me now, you wouldn't think that I'd actually crawled through mud covered in leeches with my shorts irreparably soaked through with mud, gunk and God-knows-what-else ( and still have the pictures to prove it ) but I actually went camping, canoeing, abseiling, hiking, mountain-climbing.. really, all of the above... Heck, I even cycled more than half a day cross the state borders just to get a fucking badge!

Not sure what exactly possessed me to do all those insane things. Right now, even the thought of burning off a leech from my thigh gives me the goosebumps! And I doubt I could cycle even to work - judging from my singularly pathetic attempts at the gym.

Nowadays, I tend to stay away even from the sun. Have any of you notived how bloody scorching it can get ( The uv rays!! )? Doubt I'll turn parchment white like a nocturnal vampire though since I tan quite easily but let's face it, my work tends to keep me hidden indoors - crawling in the subterranean depths of the hospital where sunlight is almost a forgotten dream. Not to mention we all know how much a doctor has an inherent fear of germs and tropical parasites. Malaria! Leptospirosis! And that's just tip of the iceberg.

What has happened to me! :)

10 comments:

Legolas said...

A scout who has forgotten the sun and the forests?

Nowadays, I tend to stay indoor as well, the sun is just killing me bit by bit, hell!

Anonymous said...

ooohhh, poor Paul. But being outdorsy doesn't really match with being a city boy. :-) It has to be either or you can be outdoorsy when you are not working. However, I loooove getting muddy. It's filthy and sexy. Oh, am I making a confession here?

By the by, a nice photo!. I like his perfectly shaved underarm among other things.

Will said...

Like all things, honey, we're growing old! LOL!

Plus, those hot pants would look hideous on my gangly legs.

Anonymous said...

At least you've had what can be considered a normal childhood. I, on the other hand, was quite timid and introverted throughout my primary and secondary school years. I never joined anything AT ALL. That's how shy and reserved I was at the time.

Looking back, I think I never had the self-confidence, probably due to the fact that I was chubby. My body image was really screwed up. It kinda hindered me in everything I was trying to do.

Now, ahem, that I've blossomed into a thinner AND cuter(I hope ?! ;-p) self, everything seems easier, you know. Most people tried to change from the inside out, I was the other way around. Funny, huh ?!!!

Anonymous said...

Yes Paul, your time as a Scout sounds depressingly like wasted chances. :o\

I actually went the other way ... I was an indoors bookworm boy while I was growing up, avoided sports and always kept well covered up away from the sun whenever possible! Then from about my mid twenties onward I started going out and about much more, enjoying hiking walks (but not extreme sports!) and getting out into wild countryside. Nowadays while I'm out gardening I'm usually stripped down to the point of being indecent, just a pair of shorts to cover the family jewels. :oD

So you never know, maybe some Chris Evans lookalike will come along and whisk you out into the wilds, and you'll find you can enjoy getting blissfully naked and dirty in that mudhole. :oP

Petie said...

Thinking back I am always a city boy at heart :) Prefering the comfort of warm shower, my own bed, and walls to ward away the drafty wind. Now in the computer age I seems to get even worst in this regard as I became more and more attach to my computer :P

However, the scout thing here is mandatory in primary and secondary school so I was out there eventhough I never care for it.

Nowadays I hardly go out, except when I have a clear objective of where, when and why :p

Joel said...

Hey Paul...I was a Scout too! Imagine!!! I made it to Boy Scouts (after Webelos...I always LOVED that name) but qiut shortly after because I wasn't cut out for the aggressive boy games they played.

AJ said...

I was a boy scout too! And I still have my old uniform (which I can still decently fit into thank you very much)!

Was planning to wear it to one of those Halloween Costume Parties but I think I'll just throw it out instead.

Anonymous said...

The great outdoors...to me, that's walking from the club to my illegally-parked car. Fraught with peril and twisted ankle danger (them gutters are cunningly hidden).

Visited yosemite when i was a kid. Thank god my parents didn't drag me off on an all-night hike. I think that would've been outdoors enough to last a lifetime.

savante said...

well, legolas, my work's mostly indoors so I don't have much of a choice. And right now I wouldn't go out in the sun! too hot! Same goes for you, Ethan! The sun!!

shigeki.. I knew hot Jap guys loved getting muddy, filthy and dirty.

Hot pants, winged man? I need to hear more.

A shy boy, Ahmad? Well, I'm still pretty shy myself but i'm trying my best to break out of my shell :)

ru, if I met a Chris Evans lookalike, I'd throw him in the mudhole and jump in after.

Scouting is mandatory, Pete?! Where? I am shocked.

Ah, a fellow Scout! Hi, Scout Scotty!

And I am starting to have a cute image of you in a Scout uniform, AJ. You sure you can wear those shorts?

Well, sisyphus.. scouts are pretty much everywhere. Didn't it start in the UK? Baden Powell and all that.

James, your idea of the outdoors is the same as mine. Nowadays.

Leeches!! Justin! I hate them :)

Paul