Well, I just played my first tennis matches on grass courts. Man, is that civilized. I was invited out by the hosts of the place we're staying as they have open sets on weekends, and this last weekend was a 3 day weekend so I went out on Saturday and Monday. Except for a few impromptu matches with Barbara this past summer, I haven't played tennis in about 18 months so I was a little worried, but the people there were extremely nice. Even the guy I hit on the head with my serve didn't hold it against me (he was on my team - not sure if that's better or worse).

After some initial trepidation, all went fairly smoothly. I was wildly inconsistent but I did have one guy tell me after I complimented him on his serve that he'd trade me his serve for my topspin forehand. Just "fowwow tru" came to mind. Advice from the Oakridge Community centre tennis coach.

It was all doubles which adds even more pressure when you're worried about creaming people all the time. I think I was only on the winning side once or twice in about 10 sets. I was beaten twice by Bob who was 81 years old. In my defense, he really only JUST turned 81 so one of those losses might have actually been when he was only 80.

Let's talk about the heat. Oppressive! It's dead still down on the courts. You can't see on my shirt, but it's soaked through. Everything I was wearing was completely soaked and I looked like a sprinkler just standing there. At 3 pm they then break for tea!!! Uh What?!?! I just about died.

By the end of the day Monday I was so stiff and sore I could hardly walk. Great fun, however, and the people were extremely nice (if a little racist) and happily there were always drinks available afterwards. Hopefully I'll get out a bit again, but that was a real thrill.

(Hope I didn't bore you with the video, but that was the only time in 2 days that I got 2 first serves "in" in a row.)