MARCH MADNESS
Years ago I belonged to a club called The Dangerous Lunch Club. At the time, there was quite a famous club of the same name in the UK, where a group of people would go out in their lunch break and do something very exciting and dangerous, like abseil off The Shard, or trapeze off Tower Bridge. Our Dangerous Lunch Club was nothing like that: we had only two members and it involved no strenuous activity at all – it was all about eating a proper plated meal, with chairs, a table, tablecloth, napkins and chilled wine in an odd place, with a straight face.
We set up on little rocky outcrops down the side of Chapman’s Peak Drive, or next to the reservoir, or on a beach – and once on a traffic island in the middle of a busy road (which was probably shortly before we disbanded).
I have finally accepted that I like clubs, and I specially like clubs that are very specific. At varsity I belonged to a poker club called The Five and Dime (five regulars and one invited guest). We’d play once a week, and there was really only one rule: you were never allowed to cheat (obv) – unless it was against the invited guest, in which case you could do whatever you liked as long as you didn’t get caught. Rude, but a lot of fun. And I have more or less always been part of an investment club, which involves investing a small amount of money each month (never more than we would pay to buy books for a book club). But you have to swot up on the share you’re pitching to the others, and over the years that’s made me much more confident about talking about money, which has helped in life in general. My book club has now been together for nearly 20 years and I love it more than ever, even though we barely read the books we theoretically meet to talk about because we’re all interested in such different things. But my fellow club-ees are all sisters and mensches and I would happily go into battle with any of them at my side.
Maybe there’s something about the bond you form with people you share such a defined interest with that makes it go beyond friendship, or maybe it’s just that you have structured times when you meet, so you put more work into those relationships. But there is definitely an alchemy that happens, and I like it. That’s why I love Marli and Liza’s story on page 20. It’s the idea of a group of people meeting to focus slightly obsessively on one thing that I find quite batty and appealing. But I don’t think I’m alone in that, and I’d really love to hear about any odd clubs you might belong to... (specially if you’re looking for a new member). Hope you have a pleasantly mad March!