Project 52 2019 week 13 – spaniel

Week 13 of the year has been frantic. End of the financial year at work, so lots of finishing off work, getting invoices paid, and finalising plans for next year. Hard work but satisfying. And let’s not forget how great the weather has been. Not like March at all.

Sunday N had a matchplay tennis tournament at a nearby club. There were 11 mini red players so they played in 2 round robins. N’s group had the hardest competition – he lost 10-9 against a girl he’s only ever beaten (with the sudden death point loss due to wind), and then lost to another boy from his tennis club and team who he just cannot beat even though N’s league match wins are so far ahead of the other boy’s. He and the boy came joint 2 on points in their group, but the other boy went through because he’d beaten N. If N had got just 1 point more in their game, he’d have beaten him overall on points and gone through. All those who didn’t get through the round played another match for a team challenge and N’s team won it. So he was still happy.

And even happier when finally he’s hit his 20 mini red matches played so his t shirt is on its way. Bizarrely, I count 22 on his list of games, plus he’s got a match missing from his record. So it’s frustrating that it doesn’t seem to tally.

Tuesday and Wednesday were just work and school days with nothing of note.

Thursday, N was sad because the demo tractor went back. He loves New Holland tractors although the OH says he’ll never buy one.

Friday ended the school week with the Easter church service at school. I didn’t make it this time due to work, but N’s class were just doing a group poetry reading. We got through most of his homework, then he had tennis. The session was a lot about moving and working with partners in doubles. With 12 in their group and only 6 in the younger group, even with an assistant coach to help the main coach, it was noticeable how much detailed coaching the younger group were getting while ours did a lot more match play.

Saturday was spent doing a lot of sport. We always go to town before swimming to get various bits and go to the butchers. We were in just after 8am, so had time to go to the free ping pong parlour to have a hit. Then a quick stop at home to put the slow cooker on and out to swimming.

N’s group only had 3 in today and they were doing distance swimming. N’s never swum so far, and not in (pretty much) one go. At least not without putting feet down. He did 400 metres, 16 lengths. He managed 3 crawl and the rest back stroke. I think the teacher let him off breaststroke as he’s been in the class at least a term (maybe 2) less than the other 2 children. Then they had to tread water for 2 minutes. And had a go at diving in (well, more of a drop face first for N’s first attempt at a dive). Now, N knows what sort of thing he’ll be doing when he eventually moves to stage 6 where it’s basically non stop lengths.

After lunch he wanted to play tennis so we went up to the courts, but both were already being used by adults playing doubles. I think 1 was still the ladies’ match over-running. After 30 minutes of hanging around at the park with a bit of frisbee, we gave up waiting. I think as the weather gets better it’ll be harder for us to find the courts free to play on. Instead we did some badminton at home and had a bit of tennis hitting on the patio after tea. Thankfully I did get a bit of a breather when he had his quad bike out to drive around.

Hopefully it’ll help him sleep a bit longer so he’s not too tired when the clocks go forward.

This week’s photo is of the black spaniel. While we were out in the garden the 2 spaniels were out wanting attention so I grabbed some photos at the same time.