"Hold the ones you love close"

OK So. Li and I booked a tennis court for an hour at our local sports centre yesterday evening. We almost didn't go because the weather was crappy - it was drizzling, I didn't sleep well last night, was a little work stressed.

But in the end, we did go. I was so excited that there was like no anxiety. Although it helped that we went and saw the place on Sunday and knew it was going to be quiet (yay safety behaviours, or something?) It flared a couple of times when I realised people on treadmills in the gym could see us, and there was a couple of times some kids on the skate park were watching us. I get super paranoid about being a fat person trying to exercise :/

Slight tangent. Anyway. So we borrowed a couple of rackets and balls from the place. We were both completely convinced we were never going to be able to hit the ball, that we were only going to manage like 5, maybe 10 minutes, because we're both very unfit, and I had no idea how my joints were going to behave.

Y'all, we were out there for the entire hour and by the end of it, we were both moving pretty well. I was even almost jogging for balls at one point - I wasn't thinking about how I was moving, I wasn't scared I was going to fall or throw something out, I was just reacting to and reaching for the ball. I hurt like fuck two hours later, doped up nicely on naproxen and cocodamol and cbd and I'm very glad I took my crutches for the walk home.

We were basically doing drop feeds from the service box, initially just trying to connect ball to racket and over the net. Then go retrieve it from the back of the court cos neither of us could return it and there were no ball kids 😂 But as time went on, we were starting to hit returns, I tried out a few backhands. My aim is terrible but I'm starting to figure out power and reach. Li's the other way around - their aim is good but they haven't figured out the power. By the end of the hour, we managed like a 3 or 4 shot rally. Like, the ball was still bouncing two or three times but we were reaching it, hitting it back.

We were maybe 30 minutes in and we were both like 'yeah no i want my own racket' so tomorrow (maybe Sunday depending on my legs) we're going to go to the wee sports shop in town, try out some of their rackets, pick up some low-compression balls. If we don't find anything, we're heading into Exeter next weekend and there's a Sports Direct there. Li also wants some new trainers. I do not need new trainers but I am eyeing a pair of Nike Air Monarch IV.

One thing's for sure. We are absolutely going back to that tennis court next week!