I hated PE
For most of my school years I hated PE, I was shorter than most of the kids and not a very fast runner. I also had no interest whatsoever in any kind of ball-games, so while most of my peers would be out playing footy in their spare time, me and my mates would be out exploring the countryside, climbing trees and the like.

Just occasionally tho, if our fat cnut of a PE teacher was in a good mood, he wouldn't force us out into the elements to get covered in shit, he'd let us set up every piece of equipment around the gym and play "pirates". Now this game was simply "tag off ground" but with rope-swings, climbing frames, bridges made from benches and crashmats scattered all around the floor. There would be 3 "pirates" and if one of them tagged you or if you touched the floor, then you were out.

As you can imagine, just about every one of us 30 boys thought this was bloody marvellous fun and for once I personally didnt feel like one of the most inept sportsmen in the class, all the hours I'd spent jumping brooks and climbing trees was paying off, the ahtletic superstar pirates were having trouble catching me. Much to their visible frustration and my growing glee I dodged and climbed like some kind of monkey-boy until I seemed to be cornered at the top of a 20 foot high vertical wooden climbing frame.

"Focksucks" thought I, as the pirate ascended towards me, about to end my moment of glory, but wait.... my temporary monkey-brain kicks into action and I realise that there are 2 of those big thick crashmats at the bottom of the climbing frame and I may just have time to jump over the pirate below me, land on the mat and scamper away again.

A good idea in theory, but in order to avoid kicking the pirate in the head I over compensated my jump and yep, I completely missed the mats...ouch! Within seconds my right ankle and foot had ballooned in size and my left foot looked fine but hurt worse. I was scooped up (screaming in pain at first) by the teacher and driven to hospital. It turned out I was very fortunate in that all I suffered was 2 very badly sprained ankles, it could have been much worse considering I was a little 14 yr old and the height I'd jumped (about 20ft /6.5 metres).

Pirates was banned after that - cos of me :(
so we were back out in the rain gettin covered in shit again.

PE in my final year at school was a different story though, I may post that one later.
( Twizla ...a shrew living on the edge of a bog, extinct on, Wed 5 Apr 2006, 13:57, Reply)