Talking about the Fun Federation

I occasionally wish that children’s playgrounds were available in adult sizes. Swings, slides, pirate’s rigging, trampolines-I love them all. More adults would be involved in that everyday sport that they promote so earnestly if we had opportunities for readily accessible, free, good-hearted fun that was also healthy for us.

I’m particularly prone to these idle thoughts when travelling home on the train, and I’m surrounded by 20-somethings who are unstinting in sharing the after-effects of their most recent binge drinking episode. Recently, one couple discussed a colleague who had needed to call in sick after his third night that month when he had gone to the bathroom, blacked out, and come to to find himself bedded down in the bath. It’s like a variation of that craze for DIY trepanning twenty years ago that still resurfaces from time to time. Bingeing probably kills as many brain cells and is considerably more expensive. But then again, it’s not likely to give you a severe infection or other post-operative trauma (unless you count punch-ups after letting-out time). But then, the more I think about it...I saw a plastic surgeon on some BBC item who was lamenting that he now regularly sees the extensive sort of facial injuries that he thought were relegated to history along with the multiple-vehicle motorway pile-ups that used to cause them. He says these injuries are the result of savage post-binge beatings in which the out-of-control participants stamp on the faces of those who are unfortunate enough to fall to the ground.

So, I was fascinated when I heard about the Fun Federation. Hannah Merriman describes the Fun Federation as follows: “It was set up over the Summer this year with the aim of offering a space for adults in London to get together, meet new people, relax and destress and have a whoop without having to organise any of it themselves. It was born of the desire of one person to have more fun in their lives, and the realisation that there aren’t many places that currently offer that without booze, pulling or some form of competition involved.”

So, given my taste in such matters, I was pleased to be invited along to a Fun Federation get-together on Monday.A group play session that afforded an opportunity to discover the delights of Grandmother’s Steps and other childhood games that I had never actually played during my childhood (few of the men had-it was obviously a cultural no-no when we were young). A few of us were obviously self-conscious at the start but it is difficult to maintain that when you are surrounded by other adults who are throwing themselves into the proceedings and having an infectiously good time. It gave me a lot of great ideas for my own sessions and I’m definitely going along to the next ones!

If you want to know more about the Fun Federation, contact Hannah at hmerriman@funfederation.com

Copyright 2005, Tony Plant Happystance Project