"What have you been up to?" is the killer question. You might not have seen this person for a couple of months. It might have been a little longer. Who knows? One year runs into another, doesn't it? Suddenly you're asked to sum up your life over a pint of lager and a packet of cheese and onion. The only problem is that the packet of crisps will probably last longer than your life summary.
Depressing doesn't quite give give this scenario justice.
So, it turns out (surprise, surprise) I was asked this tonight. My answer troubled me. It was half way through the answer that I gave that I realised I didn't have such a lot to say. I'd not been to Mozambique. I'd not met the love of my life. I'd not reorganised my worklplace to make it more efficient. What scared me was I couldn't pick up on a single thing that was worth talking about. And it was about five months since I'd seen this person.
I'm not sure what it was that worried me about revealing what's most been intersting me to the chap I was talking too. Maybe it was because I looked up to him in some way. Maybe it was that it was he that had was in a big way the inspiration to the only thing that I had to say. Maybe I was just aware that the only real thing that had had happened in my life of any importance to me really wasn't that interesting.
But there I was, talking about cycling to work as if noone has ever done it before. It's an odd thing trying to tell someone about something that's of real importance to you, but really isn't that interesting in itself. For me, cycling is a big thing. I wouldn't have imagined me cycling over a 100 miles a week even a year ago. But I'm doing it and what's more I'm loving it.
But I worry that noone wants to hear about it. I'm worried that I'm turning into a new hobby bore. Perhaps I am. Perhaps I've talked too much about it. Perhaps this entry in my blog is just a symptom of that.
Perhaps I shouldn't worry about it though. I'd much prefer to have something to say rather than nothing at all. I sometimes get the impression that when someone asks you what you've been up to they want to know the answers to the following questions ( in no particular order) :
Who have you been shagging?
Have you been on holiday?
Have you got a new job?
Other than that there's not a load of interest. So how do I answer the question?
"I keep falling off my bike"
is the best I can muster. I'm suddenly struck that this isn't much more to say than a 14 year old might say when asked the same question. This worries me a little, but is it really something to worry about? I think the question to answer would be "Are you happy?".