Badminton Club

2 weeks ago, I found a badminton club on the Net that was about 10 minutes walk from my house. I went to check it out last Friday and found it to be quite reasonable: nice people, good range of quality and also usually a coach in residence (who is on holiday at the moment), who could probably help me improve my rather strange technique. As motivation is one of the major stumbling blocks for me, I decided to give this place a go rather than traipsing all the way to Canary Wharf. My first session was on Friday and it was not bad as first sessions after a few months' layoff go. As always, I had trouble seeing the shuttlecock as the lights in multipurpose stadiums tend to be strategically placed up above, just in your line of sight for badminton. I played 4 games, all with the same partner, who is left-handed. Those who have played with me before will know that my partnering and communication skills are pretty poor even with right-handed partners, let alone lefties. We crashed several times (no problem, what I lacked in speed I more than made up with in mass so our momentums were generally equal :-) ) and both left things several times. I now know where all the Asians in London are - in badminton clubs! Almost all of the people there were Chinese (from HK, Malaysia or UK-born) or Indonesian. I woke up on Saturday feeling only slightly sore but got progressively tighter until I woke up this morning with very painful muscles.
As Taffy is rather obsessed with politics, we organised postal votes (he was going to go down to Australia House until he found out that 20,000 people went to vote there at the last election) and he woke up early on Saturday to listen to the commentary online. While it is sad to see the end of an era, it seems to be a similar situation to the Gough Whitlam campaign 'It's Time.'
I'm going to have afternoon tea with Kalika (she of the 'Where does pork come from?' fame) today. I found her through the Old Collegians network. Haven't seen her for years.

6 Colds in 6 Months

Came down with my 6th cold in 6 months on Sunday. This was hot on the heels of my 5th cold, which started shortly after my 4th cold. So, since I have been on my current project, I have not had a full week without the sniffles. The UK is just great. The last time I was like this was when I was 5 years old, when I had colds continuously. I finally made my way through all the germs in Melbourne in late high school and have had about 6 colds in the last 12 years. New country, whole new set of germs...
Last weekend was the start of the fireworks season. It starts on the weekend near Guy Fawkes Day (5/11) and stretches all the way to New Year's. One week in and I am over it already. The Brits are pyromaniacs! There are bangs every night both in London and in Yorkshire. I don't even go to the window to look anymore.
It is starting to get dark very early now. Sunset is around 4.30pm. It is also getting cold. It is already colder than winter in Melbourne and it is still Autumn. 4 more months of worse weather to come...

Children's Movies

It's been 2 weeks since I last wrote. Eppie arrived on the Sunday and I woke nice and early to meet her halfway. 5.30! I took the bus out to the tube as the trains don't start till later on Sundays and so didn't find out that the trains weren't running at all that Sunday until we got back to London Bridge. We finally got back home a couple of hours later where Taffy was wondering where we had gotten to. We later met up with their dad for lunch, went shopping and then had dinner with some more of the Yius - Uncle Sam, Bak Leung and David.
I had another French lesson on the train home and found out that the French for weekend was, wait for it..., 'le weekend'! Cracked me up. : ) I found out this week that the French for sandwich was 'le sandwich'.
I had the Morcoms over for dinner last Saturday. Ellen has grown some more. Jon and Ulis are well and have been in regular contact with Auntie Joy. Auntie May is apparently not doing too well, struggling with her eyesight and health problems.
On Monday after work, Vincent and I went to see Stardust, a kids' movie about a young guy who ventures into a fantasy land. Robert de Niro is in it and is hysterical as a cross-dressing pirate who puts up a tough facade but is really a softie. I love children's movies.
Eppie bought us a rice cooker. I made some curry (not as hot as the first time which almost killed us) and used the rice cooker for the first time on Friday. So much easier than cooking rice in a pot.
Taffy and I went to see Ratatouille on Saturday. Fantastic! The short film before it was soooo funny. I think this is the best combination from Pixar yet. The colours and picture quality are unbelievable, the story is great and the jokes are hilarious. I waited for Jane Yen's name to come up in the credits and found her twice. She has moved up to the middle of the credits instead of at the bottom.
This weekend has been the start of the fireworks season (Guy Fawkes is on 5/11). I am told that it will continue into the new year. I'm over it already. Having a prime position for viewing fireworks from our loungeroom means that we have seen some good ones and some really piddly little ones.