sweaty

I've spent a good portion of the last few days sweating.

On Saturday, Jesse invited me out for 9 holes of golf at St Lucia with some work buddies of Alison's. It was the hottest day of the year - the mercury went over 40 around 2pm - but it didn't feel as hot as the numbers said. I went around in 42 (6 over), which is probably the best I've hit for 9 holes at St Lucia. I had a nice birdie on the second after a tee-shot within about a couple of metres of the flag, and generally I hit the ball well all day. Jesse shot 55 and showed good signs, and the other chaps battled away a bit shooting scores that don't bear mentioning. Fun day.

On Monday night, Matt and I resumed our tennis adventure. We've been playing fairly regularly this year, and although he's been beating me pretty regularly when we play sets, we have both been making great strides in the quality of our ball-striking and in our fitness. We played at on artificial grass at UQ this time around, as the Griffith courts were wet. I'm not a big fan of the surface, but for some reason I was volleying better, and my forehand continues to get more consistent, particularly when I remember to move my feet and hit through the ball. We hit for 2 hours, which is pretty demanding by any standards.

Last night was the continuation of volleyball. We were 4, as Sandy was feeling poorly, but the other team had 5 guys without any girls, so technically had to forfeit. We played anyway, of course, and although we lost on the scoresheet (I think), we played well - I think everyone is improving, which is what you hope to see.

I'm continuing to ride to work when I can. The floating walkway was out of commission yesterday and Monday, but I'm up above 50% for days ridden to work for the year now, and well ahead of schedule for getting to 1000km for the year (I expect to be at about 270km or so at the end of February).

more tennis

Had a game of tennis with Matt last night down at Griffith. We're getting noticably better (read: more consistent), and last night was the cleanest I've hit my groundstrokes in recent memory. Unfortunately, my concentration held me back from translating it into a set, and I generally played abysmally. When I actually concentrated, I hit the ball well off the ground, but I kept making silly errors at bad times, and my first serve was uncharacteristically absent and unable to save me. I recovered a little bit at the end of each set, and I was a brief show at the end of the second, but wound up losing 6-2, 6-4.

I was very frustrated during the match, but at the same time, my game and, even moreso, my fitness, are clearly improving, so that's nice.

doing more stuff

Tuesday night, Andy, Mick and I did the ten-pin bowling thing at Strike Bowling in the city. Expensive, and the music was kind of crap, and I bowled terribly, but it was pretty fun.

Last night was culcha, with a concert at the Powerhouse by Gretchen Parlato, an American singer, with Mike Moreno on guitar and the Steve Newcombe trio on backup. Paul, Julz, Kylie and Jan were also there, and it was a pretty good concert. She's certainly the best comp-ing vocalist I've heard, and a lot (if not all) of the songs were pretty cool, particularly Butterfly and On The Other Side.

My neck is super sore, and seems to be getting worse rather than better.

mine, beach

I played beach volleyball again last night out at Enoggera. I was again the only one calling balls, which was a little annoying. We got well and truly walloped, against the same team as last week. Later in the game I found myself calling other people's names a lot (which can be uncool) and accidentally stealing other people's balls (also uncool). Nonetheless, it was fun.