I dread the day when someone in my family suggests we dress in denim and take a photo like this.
Those close to me, and that is many of you, will know that I am not a hugger. I don’t know why I am like that but for some reason I am not a fan of the hello hug, the group hug or even the side hug. Perhaps it stems from having 4 males in my family or perhaps I have a deep seeded phobia for close contact with people. What ever the reason, I was disgusted to read that an American man has set a new world record by giving 7777 hugs in 24 hours.
Jeff Ondash from Ohio, who sought the hugs under the alter ego Teddy McHuggin, broke the record on Saturday night on the Las Vegas Strip. While I think the record is impressive, when you analyse the numbers, I can’t help but think he has found the easiest record in the Guniess Book of Records. Break the final total down into hours and he only did a smidgeon over 324 hugs per hour which equates to 5 hugs per minute. Break this down further and he is a only a 15 second hugger with a 5 second rest preiod. Even someone who hates hugging, like me, could do better than that.
The reason I can boast is that I am the master of the quick hug. This is especially so when we have distant relatives arrive or I am visiting the other side of the family. You know the ackward situations I am talking about. You haven’t seen them in 4 years, you are related by marriage and then they waltz into your life for Sunday lunch. I usually try and position the dining room table as a ‘Gaza Strip’ and lean over for a hand shake. If for some reasonI have been caught in the ‘Demilitarized Zone’, aka the lounge, and no barrier can be formed sometiems a hug is called for. If this is the case go in and out quicker than an Isreali air strike and get the deed done and dusted. For me 3 seconds is an eternity and that level of hugging is reserved only for Mrs Mandias.
Therefore I think, if I really wanted, this could be a record I could accomplish. Even if I averaged a mammoth 4 seconds per hug that would give me around 900 hugs in the hour and over 21,000 for 24 hours, smashing the current World Record. Trouble is I don’t have 7778 friends, let alone 21,000, so I will just have to put this record on hold until something better pops up.
Another wedding in the weekend and the pressure builds for Ozy Mandias to write another blog on the event. At yesterdays traditional ‘post wedding BBQ’ I was fielding calls left, right and center about my [...read more...]
Without doubt one of life’s biggest decisions is whether to have a third child. Currently that is something that my wife and I are thinking about. Having children is an exciting roller coaster ride. There [...read more...]
