Saturday
Softball practice yesterday morning, in a muddy Finsbury Park - though once again we escaped actually being rained on, and even got some sun. Don't know how long our luck with the weather will hold as Winter draws in, though. Darren (the Mr Miyagi to our Daniel-San) had us practising throwing techniques and batting. Then a practice game.
There were a bunch of guys from a diferent team there, who were really into it, which made the atmosphere less relaxed (for me at least). Interestingly, they weren't always that much better than us - one of them made a great deal of practice swinging, and choosing which bat suited him best, then immediately got struck out by Kate.
Practice was good - my throwing distance is definitely improving. One of the drills had us kneeling to throw to our partners, so we had to twist from the hips, and with all the recent rain, the ground is pretty boggy. Dutifully, we all squelched down in the ooze. Except Ben. Ben, who Richard called "Super Ben", the ice-hockey player and serious athlete, ran off and came back with a plastic bag to kneel on. Maybe mud's his kryptonite.
I certainly blooded (or muddied) my new glove. Last week, I bought one of the only two softball gloves in JJB Sports in Croydon. It's nice to have your own kit. Getting a bat is going to be a harder proposition - they don't sell official softball regulation bats over here, and I'd like a slightly heavier one than the ones we have borrowed from the BSUK "development kit". The other purchase from JJB, a cheap pair of football shinguards, paid for itself at least twice over yesterday. It's good to know you can rush in to stop a ground ball without cracking your shinbone severely...
I didn't get to do much in the field during the game, sadly - balls just weren't generally coming in my direction (Right Field, then First Base, for a change from Second). Still, it was good to be out and doing something of a Saturday morning.
After the game, we went for a beer at the Finsbury. We decided that the reason it's so cheap is because it's so dodgy. Some geezer selling knock-off lighters (though last time was odder, with an old bloke trying to flog horrible china dolls), iffy clientele, and a sign on the door saying anyone bringing drugs in would get barred. Maybe next time, we'll go somewhere else...
I changed out of my muddies into clean clothes, and someone noticed the "Book CLub" T shirt. Despite all being librarians, I turned out to be the only Unshelved reader there.
I went on from there to the Stamford, for a BC meet-up. WD's seven-year old was much taken by the softball glove ("but why is it called softball, when the ball's so hard?"), and I played a little catch with him. I also demolished a burger, as I was famished, and had some more Guinness. Afterwards a bunch of us went to the Millennium Bridge to watch the fireworks. There was a street theatre play on - "The Fifteen Minute Gunpowder Plot" - which was quite amusing. They used a dummy to represent Guy Fawkes, which I thought was clever, and picked a child from the audience for the "small yet vital role" of itinerant gunpowder seller. When they took their bow, they had the kid come and join them again to take their applause, which was a nice touch.
Fireworks themselves were brilliant, and the setting was great - the Bridge, and St Paul's, and the London skyline.
There were a bunch of guys from a diferent team there, who were really into it, which made the atmosphere less relaxed (for me at least). Interestingly, they weren't always that much better than us - one of them made a great deal of practice swinging, and choosing which bat suited him best, then immediately got struck out by Kate.
Practice was good - my throwing distance is definitely improving. One of the drills had us kneeling to throw to our partners, so we had to twist from the hips, and with all the recent rain, the ground is pretty boggy. Dutifully, we all squelched down in the ooze. Except Ben. Ben, who Richard called "Super Ben", the ice-hockey player and serious athlete, ran off and came back with a plastic bag to kneel on. Maybe mud's his kryptonite.
I certainly blooded (or muddied) my new glove. Last week, I bought one of the only two softball gloves in JJB Sports in Croydon. It's nice to have your own kit. Getting a bat is going to be a harder proposition - they don't sell official softball regulation bats over here, and I'd like a slightly heavier one than the ones we have borrowed from the BSUK "development kit". The other purchase from JJB, a cheap pair of football shinguards, paid for itself at least twice over yesterday. It's good to know you can rush in to stop a ground ball without cracking your shinbone severely...
I didn't get to do much in the field during the game, sadly - balls just weren't generally coming in my direction (Right Field, then First Base, for a change from Second). Still, it was good to be out and doing something of a Saturday morning.
After the game, we went for a beer at the Finsbury. We decided that the reason it's so cheap is because it's so dodgy. Some geezer selling knock-off lighters (though last time was odder, with an old bloke trying to flog horrible china dolls), iffy clientele, and a sign on the door saying anyone bringing drugs in would get barred. Maybe next time, we'll go somewhere else...
I changed out of my muddies into clean clothes, and someone noticed the "Book CLub" T shirt. Despite all being librarians, I turned out to be the only Unshelved reader there.
I went on from there to the Stamford, for a BC meet-up. WD's seven-year old was much taken by the softball glove ("but why is it called softball, when the ball's so hard?"), and I played a little catch with him. I also demolished a burger, as I was famished, and had some more Guinness. Afterwards a bunch of us went to the Millennium Bridge to watch the fireworks. There was a street theatre play on - "The Fifteen Minute Gunpowder Plot" - which was quite amusing. They used a dummy to represent Guy Fawkes, which I thought was clever, and picked a child from the audience for the "small yet vital role" of itinerant gunpowder seller. When they took their bow, they had the kid come and join them again to take their applause, which was a nice touch.
Fireworks themselves were brilliant, and the setting was great - the Bridge, and St Paul's, and the London skyline.