As yesterday was forecast to be the last decent and dry day for a week or more, we went to South Weald Country Park for a walk around the lake and lunch in the cafe. Not the longest of walks but it's quite hilly so it got my activity well above the target for the day. Got home, did a little repair on the side passage door, and then realised that being a Thursday I could take up the invitation to visit Thorley Boules Club at Birchanger Social Club (out in the general direction of Stansted Airport).
It seems to be a rather relaxed friendly group of players, not as competitive as Tower Petanque. Lots of spectators sitting over their beers. The man in the yellow shirt was Mark, one of my opponents.
This is Peter, the other member of the opposition pair and a very good pointer:
No photo of my partner John, but we won. Narrowly.
The real attraction is that the piste is sand not the usual gravel, and I want practice of playing on different surfaces. It's also very flat, unlike other places I've been which all have definite slopes one way or the other, as well as smaller humps and bumps that you have to get to know. On the sand the boules roll on well from a low-trajectory throw, but they'll stop dead from a high lob. Unfortunately I couldn't get my high lobs to work well last night - either too high and too short, or coming out of the hand wrong and far too low.
Here's a shot of the sand surface with an end nearly finished:
The place also has a rather ancient black dog, and I could easily have run it over as I drove up to the club. It then took to lying on the sand but obviously understands the game well enough to stay well out of the way of descending boules. It also left a little something that one of my boules landed in, and I didn't realise until I'd picked it up... A good thing that I keep plenty of hand sanitiser gel in the car!
I haven't joined yet but am invited back for a few more times before deciding. I think I will - only 25GBP a year - but happy to leave it for a while.
As for the myeloma, yet again nothing much new except that I am going through a good patch as regards the bowels. The constipation is always there trying to get back and so it needs daily monitoring and adjustment of the Senna, Fybogel, and occasional Laxido according to how things go. And there's always the glycerine suppositories in reserve...
I hardly believe it but another finger split has appeared (right middle finger, on the corner of the fingernail). |Just as the thumb one is healing nicely. Is there no end to these tiny but infuriating things?
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