Here Comes the Fun: A Year of Making Merry

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Food fights, fishing and French cooking – bestselling author Ben Aitken's year of actively pursuing fun Something a little bit different for you today, an extract from Ben Aitken’s new book. Ben was born under Thatcher, grew to 6ft then stopped, and is an Aquarius. (His words.) I found that new adventure, for the record. It involved a series of budget coach holidays with people three times my age. But that’s another love story.

Which left just Yigit and me. Feeling a tiny bit lost all of a sudden, and a long way from home, I looked to my young friend for direction. “Cheeseburger?” he said. “Yeah, why not?” I replied. I don’t fit in the shirt, which is surely a portent. Problem is there’s only a small one spare, and I’ve got too much spare to be small, if you know what I mean. My warmup is off-the-scale self-conscious. I do some things I remember seeing others do years ago: high knees, star jumps, that sort of thing. The gaffer comes over and says that some of my teammates are genuine veterans. “One of these blokes fought in Vietnam. Another in the Falklands. If you don’t put your head in the way of things they’ll be on to you.” In the end, I choose to stay put, content to keep watching the slice of Swedish mellow drama playing out before me. Viz: someone’s forgotten to put the top on their sandwich; another person’s winning at life by drinking a blend of veg while roller-skating topless; and someone else has just had their hotdog snatched by an enterprising fiskmås (gull). I fell for the places first. Over the next year, whenever I wasn’t required to peel spuds or bone cod, I skipped town and hit the road. I went north to Gdańsk and the Polish Riviera, east to Warsaw and the lakes of Masuria, and south to Wrocław, the mountains and Łódź, the Polish Hollywood. He’s also one of my favourite authors at the moment. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed his four previous books (Dear Bill Bryson, A Chip Shop in Poznan, The Gran Tour and The Marmalade Diaries) and I’m currently reading his latest excellent tale, which is basically a year of trying to have more fun. There’s absolutely all sorts of activities in the book, one of which is joining a veterans’ football team. I thought that would make an interesting article for you lot, so with Ben’s permission, here’s a little taster.We might not have found a psychic from Poynton or a dominatrix from Davenport just yet, but we’ve pretty much got you covered for all other products and services you might need across Cheshire and Greater Manchester. Just take a look at this little lot… The bus delivered me to Poznań’s old town. I was instantly taken by the colourful building fronts, the elaborate gables, the engrossing main square. Despite the cold, I stood looking in the windows of shops and bars and wondered at their unsubtle inducements to sample such things as wódka wiśniowa (cherry vodka) and legginsy (leggings). When I emerge from my bunker to have a mooch about the vicinity, it doesn’t take me long to understand why Södermalm has been bombarded with plaudits. (Vogue declared it one of the coolest neighbourhoods in the world.) If you’re into boutique galleries and independent small plates, you can fill your plant-based boots here. If you’re not, then by all means just lounge around on the public furniture and watch others fill theirs. It kills the time, believe me. THE NEW BOOK FROM THE MUCH-LOVED AUTHOR OF THE GRAN TOUR, A CHIP SHOP IN POZNAN AND THE MARMALADE DIARIESFood fights, fishing and French cooking - bestselling author Ben Aitken's year of actively pursuing funBen Aitken wasn't getting enough.

Although the results were mixed, the author's year of making merry left him feeling undoubtedly … better. Which invites the question: if fun is such a reliable mood-swinger, shouldn't we be having more of it? Food fights, fishing and French cooking - bestselling author Ben Aitken's year of actively pursuing funAfter this attempt at encouragement, the gaffer then makes the mistake of confusing age with ability and puts me in the centre of midfield – the most dynamic position. After 47 seconds, I feel my right calf muscle creak. It’s not a snap, or a pull, but it’s something. A howl, maybe. A protest. THE NEW BOOK FROM THE MUCH-LOVED AUTHOR OF THE GRAN TOUR, A CHIP SHOP IN POZNAN AND THE MARMALADE DIARIES Here comes the FUN!ARE YOU GETTING ENOUGH? Ben Aitken wasn't. Increasingly flat and decreasingly zen, he knew that something had to change. So he joined a lawn bowls club. Ben Aitken’s guides to Istanbul, Haktan, far left, and his young cousin Yigit, far right. Photograph: Ben Aitken