Well, what a year it's been to date!! All our big MMC plans for 2020 have been on hold whilst Covid took over our lives. Thankfully things are slowly returning to some sort of normality and we're trusted to use our own common sense.
MMC is a social group and a social group without socialising is no fun at all. Two months ago we restarted our monthly pub meets and it has been great to catch-up with folks and just do something different. Shutdown has affected people in different ways and the psychological affects cannot be ignored. We're just not used to being cooped-up so long espicially with the job uncertainty, family pressures and such like building-up.
Here at MMC we're all in the same boat. We're just blokes going through life, taking the rough with the smooth, enjoying the highs and enduring the lows. No two of us blokes are the same but many of us have shared experiences which is why socialising, chatting and sometimes just laying the cards on the table can be so refreshing.
I was driving back from Beckenham yesterday listening to Freddie Flintoffs audio book when he started talking about his battle over many years with depression. Who would have thought it!! But that's just it isn't it? Nobody ever thinks it. The way he now talks very openly about it, how he describes his 'symptoms' (if that even the right word) and how being diagnosed was such a turning point to learning more about himself and realising he was far from abnormal. To me, listening to people like Freddie is a real eye opener, even more so when you start to join some dots and can actually relate to some, if not all, of what he's saying. He's just a bloke like us, job, family, etc. etc. trying to get through life the best way he can. Life isn't always supposed to be easy even if it looks it from the outside.
It's less than one week until the next MMC pub meet on Thursday 10th Sept. This month we're heading back to our spiritual home of The Carpenters Arms from 8pm. We'll see what the numbers are like and wing it from there. Who knows, we may even taste those spicy chicken wings before the night is out. Be great to see some new faces so if you've been thinking of popping-up you are most welcome.
All the best
Ross
Comments