Tennis!!! Yay

 Dear Marmite

For many of my friends and myself of course, Monday was a significant day in my calendar. Big Bad Boris foretold of that day as being THE DAY that we could at last swing a racquet here in the UK. It came at last and I have to say how lovely it was to be back on court chasing fluffy, yellow balls once more. Two sessions so far this week and another planned for Friday, Yay!!

For the past few months I have been scanning FB with envy as WITS has been well under way in Singapore and my old tennis friends posted pictures of the British Club teams enjoying themselves playing matches. This was something I found particularly frustrating. Up til now, I have had so much time on my hands and NO TENNIS. Now my world is opening up,  I can't wait to get back to my early morning swimming as well... 

All this is dependent, of course, on the R rate of infections and the whim of Boris. The vaccine might be helping bring this down but I have come to having so little faith in both the government and the general public that I fear that come the summer we will be in Lockdown 4 judging by the way some people behave over here - particularly when we have a bit of sunshine.

My garden has responded well to the warmer days, longer days! For starters, my purple broccoli sprouted a day or so ago and that is currently being digested in my tummy. I have a "before" picture but the finished, roasted dish tasted far better than it looked - so no photo! I cooked it with chilli flakes, garlic and olive oil in the oven for 15 minutes and topped it with lemon juice and feta before serving. There really is nothing better than eating something you have grown yourself... perhaps I should get a sheep or a few hens when I move - now there's a thought!

Meanwhile, I fill my days emptying cupboards of the things I had jammed into them back in February 2020, when my container arrived. I have stuff that hasn't seen the light of day for over a year despite me thinking it was important enough to bring back home when I planned my return to the UK. 

I am hopeful that the house purchase will go through and there will be a place for everything I am sorting through so I am spring cleaning and packing at the same time. I remember packing my whole world into the back of a mini-traveller ( a small car with a wooden backside) when I left Liverpool. How did I acquire so much?

One really positive bit of news is that I saw a physio last week. Apparently I have sciatica and apart from being a pain in the backside, I could go on at length about all the other bits it hurts as well. The NHS texted the appointment with the name of the place for the appointment. I looked it up and it referred to the surgery address. I felt sure this wasn't right so I cycled to the appointment extra early - over here you can't phone anyone up at all and it wasn't a 111 sort of conversation - the only way to speak to someone in the NHS. So almost knowing I was heading to the wrong place I set off with 30 minutes to spare. 

I was right. I was in the wrong place. I left the surgery, put the revised address into google and cycled off at speed. Google wanted to take me over a field which may in due course become a road but it certainly didn't have any of the road attributes at the time of writing that one has come to expect in the UK. I had to do two sides of a triangle and put up with a very angry google assistant telling me to do a U-turn to get to the PCN (Primary Care Network Hub) - all these abbreviations are just like Singapore. 

I arrived rather sweaty and just a little late for a very brief - socially distanced, appointment where I touched my toes and had a chat. I now have "rolling around the bedroom floor" exercises to help me get better. Although not what I have come to expect a physio appointment to be, it was a big step up from the online physio the NHS put me in contact with last year. That physio was probably Pre-Int in English with severe L1 interference with basic pron - all made more difficult when conversing over the phone.

All I can say is that I am sure that your English, Marms is far more advanced. Your pronunciation of "hello" is perfect. I loved to see your swimming video, you lucky old dog, you!

Love

XXX