Feb 23
Mix of tradition and chaos
seen from Sweden
seen from United States
seen from Sweden
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Malaysia
seen from China
seen from United States
seen from United Kingdom
seen from Yemen
seen from United States
seen from Yemen
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from China
seen from Yemen
seen from Iraq
seen from France
seen from United States
seen from Argentina
Mix of tradition and chaos
Just out here tossin’ the salad!
Been watching Typography Tutorials on YouTube. I am eager to go back to school so why not learn on my own!
24-5 June 2017
Saturday
I was asked by Alex to switch shifts this weekend, in order to play a tennis match for Priory, and as luck would have it, Ozzy was in store on Friday, and he’d also asked me for a shift swap, so I was able to do just that! I worked his 3-9 on the Saturday (with the added bonus of no 5am start on Sunday), before coming home to watch a film with my super-rare Pokémon housemate. We picked Troll Hunter, a Norwegian-made mockumentary, with that irksome style of only having the camera pointing the right way for about 10% of the film. It was meant to be a spoof, but I couldn’t really get into it. Will and I agreed on this, and were quite baffled at the apparent universal praise it received from critics. Mercifully, it went by quite quickly.
Sunday
I woke at a relatively noon-like 8am, and met Carl at Priory, before he drove us up to the David Lloyd centre in Southampton. We met Alex and a new acquaintance to me, Dan. The matches were outdoors on clay, a surface I’d only played on once in France when I was 18! Alex and I formed the ‘dream team’.
The dream team started well - dropping Alex’s serve first game; we trailed until 3-4, where we won the next three games to claim the opening set. We had definitely improved as it went on, and felt settled by the time the set ended. Unfortunately, that went out the window in the next set, losing it 6-4, leading to an avoidable decider. Things were still edgy, with both sides playing patchily (my forehead was particularly ugly, almost non-existent), and the tension ratcheted up even further at 5-4. The weaker of their pair served, but it was very to-and-fro; we saw a match point go, they had game point, and then on our second match point - while I basically stood at the net as a bystander - Alex raced all over the court like a labrador retriever, until our opponents finally went wide in disbelief! I was just hugely relieved, as was Alex, as we finally ended what was close to a two-hour slog.
Upon starting the second match, we were far calmer, based mainly on the fact that Carl & Dan had won their first match, meaning we were 2-0 up. I also had 100% confidence that they would win their second, so in my head, the tie was over. This helped me relax a lot more, and play a lot better, though oddly, my serve was shit not very good. I was broken twice in the match when our opponents only won four games, though my forehand drastically improved, and I hit some nice volleys to boot. And in contrast to the first, this match took no more than one hour! I think our team was definitely stronger, and to be honest we should have won both games in straight sets, but the positive was we got over the line, and got the W - something that was a great lift for the second match.
We then had the customary ‘tea’ afterwards, provided by the hosts, which consisted of pizza, chips, and salad. I had five helpings of one of those, and very little of another. Draw your own conclusions.