I think I've spent too many years of my life being cautious and saying no to opportunities for fear of how I might end up appearing. Consequently I have wasted a lot of time staying in watching telly on my own. It is quite a hard thing to force myself out of the reticence and sometime shyness that has shadowed me all this time. When I was asked to be in the other boat race I was immediately reluctant. Did I want to acknowledge my Oxford roots on national TV? Did I want to be in a fly on the wall kinda pseudo-celebrity TV show which I had not control over the content of? Hadn't I always avoided sportsmen at college because of the stereotypical vision I had of such people (which those people didn't seem to be too concerned about dispelling)? Hadn't I always avoided sports, really mainly because I knew I was no good at them? Would I be able to get on with a group of strangers, some of whom might be people I didn't like or who had views that I disagreed with?
There were loads of reasons not to do it and most of them were about protecting myself from looking stupid or uncool if I am honest about it.
The fact I was doing the Marathon was a bit of an incentive, as was the promise that we would be trained by and get to meet people like Sir Steve and Matthew and Martin. I would essentially be being paid to get personal training from some of our top atheletes. I was also aware that I say no to so many things and thus end up missing out on things. I think in the end I figured that if I was made to look like an idiot it wouldn't really matter, as I have very little to lose.
I am already glad I have done this (and I don't actually really care about how the TV coverage makes me look. I'm 36 now. It shouldn't matter what other people think and increasingly it really doesn't), not only because I've quite enjoyed the challenge of the rowing, but also because of the people I've met, but because of the unlikely scenarios that have occurred.
If this time last year you had told me that I would have been invited to the book launch of Jonathan Aitken's "Psalms Under Pressure" and furthermore that I would have decided to go, I would have assumed I was in the middle of a slightly strange and uninteresting dream. One would think that I would have both political and religious reservations.
But this evening I went to a church in central London to attend exactly this event. And though nothing would have been gained by not going, (except maybe a wasted evening as I had yesterday, watching a DVD of American Pie 3 - which literally pissed, puked, shat and spunked over the rather endearing first movie, to become a crappy gross-out/gratuitous tit-flashing teen movie like all the others - Nice. No not really nice. Rubbish.) I at the very least got to experience the unusual sensation of being at such a happening and actually being invited to be there.
Aitken has had an eventful life and this was illustrated by all the different groups of people who suddenly came together through knowing him: priests and politicians, comedians and ex-cons. The bloke selling the books (who is also Aitken's driver) used to be in the cell next to Jonathan in Belmarsh. He has clearly been into some fairly serious crime. When asked what he had been in prison for he said, "What last time? Money laundering." It is both interesting that Jonathan should give him a job and that he should want to work for Jonathan. They clearly get on very well despite their very different backgrounds. Perhaps they are united through faith, I'm not sure, but it is nonetheless a fascinating friendship. Aitken is also married to Richard Harris's widow which is another intriguing relationship. I don't know what this man has got going on, and I sort of doubt that I will ever find out, but it was both amusing and intriguing to be amongst this gathering. You didn't know if the bloke next to you was an MP or an armed robber or an Archbishop. I've never been to a party where all of these choices were possible.
I bought a book and got Aitken to sign it. I don't think there is any danger of it converting me to religion, or to the power of prayer. But at least now he will be forced to buy my book, which is £9.99 whilst his is only £7.99 so I'm two quid up on the deal.
And though nothing especially exciting happened, it was better than staying in and watching American Pie 3 again.
Even the bit with the hookers running around with their tops off.
