Paintballing

Predictably, I'm covered in a spattering of little pock-marks from being peppered at paintballing.

I first heard of paintballing in school, when a classmate did a presentation on it- more than 20 years later, I gave it a shot. Think Laser Quest but with stinging paint pellets instead of laser guns, and an old converted warehouse as your location. It's exhilarating, slightly painful and fast paced.

I joined a paintballing trip with Young Professionals in Manchester, a meetup group covering a wider range of events than just 'getting pissed in a load of bars.' We dropped into Manchester Paintballing Arena in Nile Mill in Chadderton, a former cotton factory. We were given overalls, and a mask and given an introduction on safe use of the gun. The gun is easily loadable with bottles of pellets: different packages allow for different amounts of pellets which can be slotted into elasticated loops on the overalls. Splitting into 2 teams, we occupied both ends of a factory floor. The aim: to retrieve a flag from the centre of the room. The paintballing company had installed piles of tyres, large boxes, netting, and other paraphernalia to hide behind, crawl through and shoot from as you push forward to the centre. If you're shot, raise your gun and walk back to the 'respawning' point- touch the wall at the far end of the mill, and back once more unto the breach you go.

I got the shit shot out of me, which didn't surprise me, but it's still all fun. We ran through a few different games with different objectives, all of which resulting in me getting annihilated. Oh well!