Sunday 23 May 2021

23/05/21 More Boules, mainly

Did the Pill Organisation Thing yesterday evening so as to save time later this morning before going to Boules - if the weather permits. Forecast says a bit cold but only low chance of rain.

It might not seem that relevant but I'm going to carry on posting about Boules because I regard this new activity/hobby/whatever as an integral part of my myeloma physical and psychological treatment. As I said before, it does me good in a number of ways.

Drove down to the piste early afternoon and spent an hour practising before getting home in time for cat tea and Tesco delivery. Then, as the back "lawn" was finally starting to dry out after days of rain, did some more practice with one of my new sets of "practice" boules. That's eight of them (or 16 if |I use both) which gives a chance to stay at one end and try to "groove" a throw rather than interrupting the process every few throws to go to the other end. I'm mostly using two plastic 50cm circles - one to stand in and the other to try to drop the boule into. Not bothering with a jack/coche for now, just concentrating on getting the bounce where I want it. The main things I'm working on, now I think I've got my stance sorted out, are the high lob with lots of backspin, sidespin (strangely, I'm finding the rather more difficult and shoulder-twisting (off break - i.e to the right) works better for me than the easier leg-break to the left. But just as in cricket, you can turn the ball but it's no use if you can't reliably drop it in the right place! Let's just say I'm getting better.

Slowly.

The new practice boules are chrome-plated and quite cheap (co0mpared to stainless or carbon steel "competition" boules, which come in sets of three - the largest number needed in competition play). They should last for years on grass provided I keep them dry and well-oiled, but using them on the much harder surface of our gravelly Ongar piste would rip the chrome plating off in no time.; On sand - if I ever meet it, maybe not. But for the moment I'm keeping them for practice (or games, if I can find an opponent) on the grass at home, even if the bounce is highly unpredictable. All part of the fun...

Also working on "shooting" (i.e knocking an opponent's boule away) using the underhand grip to hit the target ball directly without hitting the ground first - this has the advantage of taking any vagaries of the piste out of consideration, and doesn't need any spin put on the boule. The method is demonstrated by this gentleman, although his stance is wrong (right leg should be forward) and his boule is a rather extraordinary colour...
















Otherwise, as for the last couple of weeks, I omitted the usual senna last night in the hope of having a clear morning. There are public WCs just a few minutes walk away from the piste, but I'd rather not interrupt a game. As usual, will compensate with a double dose and maybe a Fybogel this evening.

Need a good long walk - haven't had one for days because of the appalling weather - worst May I can remember. Boules helps me to get up to my target (easily met yesterday) but I don't really feel it does enough. Can't get up to what I now regard as a decent speed for one thing. So will try for the Triangle at least after lunch, if it isn't raining by then.

No reply so far to my question about what my COVID spike antibody result actually is. I know it's above the positive/negative threshold of 0.8, but  not by how far. I'd like to know that, but it is the weekend...

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