The weekend just gone has been one of most significance to me in the last 2-3 years.
For about 3 weeks I had been looking forward to this weekend because my old school had organised a Rugby 7s tournament. Not only was I going to play my favourite sport, I was going to see some familiar old faces.
The weekend started as pretty much every weekend does, with me getting up early on a Saturday morning to go to the gym followed by the ritual of washing my car. I was all prepared for a trip up to London to have dinner with some friends, one of which has just come back from Japan… But I got a text from my cousin in law who invited me round for a BBQ at his new house. My initial thought was grab a burger and then head off to London for dinner. When I got there I was welcomed with a couple of items of news… my cousin had set a date for his wedding AND my other cousin was pregnant! :O
There was a bit of a gathering with my cousin in law’s sister’s family there and his best friend and his family. It was just a nice summer’s day with good food. The children there were most energetic and we ended up wandering round to an open field where we threw a Frisbee around before the women wandered off to the shops leaving behind 4 grown men and a 6 year old girl. How did we keep ourselves entertained? We played ‘bulldog’! It was a funny sight!
Anyway, I had to make my way to London and as we left I got a text to say people were dropping out. So I stayed and we went back to the house for more BBQ food and the second half of the England match against Israel which ended convincingly for England. As we sat in the garden cooking and drinking and chatting it was one of the most pleasant says I have had in years. As the night drew near, we started to play silly drinking games which was very funny… when we got bored of that we decided to play even sillier games like spinning around a pole 10 times and then walking to the other side of the garden. Well that was the plan! What actually happened was that people were falling sideways and collapsing everywhere. But me, I had to try to demolish the shed by running into it… luckily I was dragged to the ground before any damage was done! It was hilarious!
But it was getting late and we all had early starts, mine being a rugby 7s tournament. We called it a night at 1am and I headed off home to pack my rugby gear.
Sunday… the day had finally arrived. I got up, got changed and left the house. I drove to school. I arrived and drove around the grounds reminding myself of the past I once had there. I parked up and wandered over to the field where a lot of the old boys were. There were many familiar faces but not many names. The strange thing was how these faces had aged… so much more than I expected. AND the fact that most of them were in the years below me!
Lots of catching up needed to be done and some faces I never expected to see again were appearing randomly. However, I was looking forward to playing some rugby. At kick off we managed to get through some phases of play and passed the ball fluently from player to player. We even managed to score a try! Then from kick off I ran and jumped for the ball. I got a touch but landed awkwardly with an opposition player on top of my right leg, spraining my ankle and twisting my knee. That was the end of me. I was hobbling for the rest of the day. I stayed on to chat some more to some old friends, swapped numbers before finally heading off home feeling rather annoyed at the injury I incurred.
I was in a lot of pain and I was getting worried that the injury was going to mean another knee op… Something I don’t want to go through again. Once home I strapped up my knee in the knee brace I had when I was going through the original operation. It took the weight off my knee and I hobbled a bit better!
The rest of the day I spent resting before venturing out to get food and petrol. For the rest of the night I planned to watch TV, but I got a call from my cousin and I went round for a game of Articulate! It was there that I got some more news… my cousin asked me to be his best man for his wedding. I felt very touched…
It was a weekend of highs and lows… of past memories and news of the next generation…
Unfortunately up till writing this blog my knee has recovered but my ankle hasn’t and I am still hobbling like an old man!
Though it has been one of the nicest weekends of my life, I feel disappointed I don’t have anyone to share this with…
For about 3 weeks I had been looking forward to this weekend because my old school had organised a Rugby 7s tournament. Not only was I going to play my favourite sport, I was going to see some familiar old faces.
The weekend started as pretty much every weekend does, with me getting up early on a Saturday morning to go to the gym followed by the ritual of washing my car. I was all prepared for a trip up to London to have dinner with some friends, one of which has just come back from Japan… But I got a text from my cousin in law who invited me round for a BBQ at his new house. My initial thought was grab a burger and then head off to London for dinner. When I got there I was welcomed with a couple of items of news… my cousin had set a date for his wedding AND my other cousin was pregnant! :O
There was a bit of a gathering with my cousin in law’s sister’s family there and his best friend and his family. It was just a nice summer’s day with good food. The children there were most energetic and we ended up wandering round to an open field where we threw a Frisbee around before the women wandered off to the shops leaving behind 4 grown men and a 6 year old girl. How did we keep ourselves entertained? We played ‘bulldog’! It was a funny sight!
Anyway, I had to make my way to London and as we left I got a text to say people were dropping out. So I stayed and we went back to the house for more BBQ food and the second half of the England match against Israel which ended convincingly for England. As we sat in the garden cooking and drinking and chatting it was one of the most pleasant says I have had in years. As the night drew near, we started to play silly drinking games which was very funny… when we got bored of that we decided to play even sillier games like spinning around a pole 10 times and then walking to the other side of the garden. Well that was the plan! What actually happened was that people were falling sideways and collapsing everywhere. But me, I had to try to demolish the shed by running into it… luckily I was dragged to the ground before any damage was done! It was hilarious!
But it was getting late and we all had early starts, mine being a rugby 7s tournament. We called it a night at 1am and I headed off home to pack my rugby gear.
Sunday… the day had finally arrived. I got up, got changed and left the house. I drove to school. I arrived and drove around the grounds reminding myself of the past I once had there. I parked up and wandered over to the field where a lot of the old boys were. There were many familiar faces but not many names. The strange thing was how these faces had aged… so much more than I expected. AND the fact that most of them were in the years below me!
Lots of catching up needed to be done and some faces I never expected to see again were appearing randomly. However, I was looking forward to playing some rugby. At kick off we managed to get through some phases of play and passed the ball fluently from player to player. We even managed to score a try! Then from kick off I ran and jumped for the ball. I got a touch but landed awkwardly with an opposition player on top of my right leg, spraining my ankle and twisting my knee. That was the end of me. I was hobbling for the rest of the day. I stayed on to chat some more to some old friends, swapped numbers before finally heading off home feeling rather annoyed at the injury I incurred.
I was in a lot of pain and I was getting worried that the injury was going to mean another knee op… Something I don’t want to go through again. Once home I strapped up my knee in the knee brace I had when I was going through the original operation. It took the weight off my knee and I hobbled a bit better!
The rest of the day I spent resting before venturing out to get food and petrol. For the rest of the night I planned to watch TV, but I got a call from my cousin and I went round for a game of Articulate! It was there that I got some more news… my cousin asked me to be his best man for his wedding. I felt very touched…
It was a weekend of highs and lows… of past memories and news of the next generation…
Unfortunately up till writing this blog my knee has recovered but my ankle hasn’t and I am still hobbling like an old man!
Though it has been one of the nicest weekends of my life, I feel disappointed I don’t have anyone to share this with…
No comments:
Post a Comment