From the editor: Adventure time

On the radio I heard that one way to keep your brain active, to stop it getting into a rut and veering towards anxiety or depression, is to try new things. I like to think of this as ‘adventuring’.

We all live busy lives, and to be honest I thought I was already adventuring quite a bit. I regularly go out to dose myself up with the best medicine – laughter, natch – and have been keeping my hands busy, first to avoid smoking and then to avoid being surgically attached to my smartphone, for years. Also Charlie Brooker told me on a documentary once that knitting was used as an anti-depressant for the veterans of the First World War coming back with shellshock. It’s the repetitive movement y’see. Although Brooker’s argument then transposed that on to console games, but I digress. The fact is, I do stuff.

It was only when I was being hit in the face by a jet of water as a reward for my good marksmanship on the pier, that I realised I don’t actually do new stuff all that frequently.

My cousin had come down for a small family lunch gathering at The Chilli Pickle, and as the rest of our party drifted off back to work, we drifted off to the seafront and the pier’s arcades. It was he who suggested we have a go at the redneck shooting gallery. Here’s a tip: pay heed to those signs warning about the water features, they’re not just for effect.

Doing something new hits a restart button, and it doesn’t have to cost the Earth (although anyone who wants to introduce me to hot air ballooning is hotly encouraged). It’s worth having a few adventuring ideas on the backburner, and possibly a towel too. Just in case.