IF we all ignore the rainy bank holiday Monday, then this week was hopefully a prelude to what will be a scorching summer full of activity.
I adore the sun. I could live in 30 degrees all day, every day, no problem.
Having a birthday slap bang in the middle of summer – July 11th – probably contributes to that, but regardless, the sun will be my forever love.
It certainly made this week more enlightening, despite two assessment deadlines hovering over me like a dark cloud.
On Friday, I was trying to be one of them ‘work at home people’ who you see post on social media that they are ‘hard at work’ with their laptop open in the sun, skin exposed the UV and an ice-cold drink beside them.
Well, if they say they get any work done, then it is utter bollocks, because I tried it and failed, it’s impossible.
The laptop becomes unusable, the metallic frame soaks up every ray of heat and soon becomes a furnace, you don’t dare to rest your wrist by the control pad as your skin will be singed.
The screen becomes illiterate from the sun glaring down on it, reflecting nothing but your sweaty face and your eyes squinting at the many fingerprints that have been exposed after weeks of neglect.
The ice-cold drink that you have beside your laptop is now diluted after the sun has melted the ice cubes, leading to the condensation around the glass dripping onto your keep board, worrying yourself that the little amount of work you’ve done could vanish if the laptop was to get water damaged.
So, when you see someone post ‘working from home’, don’t get jealous, be happy you are in an air-conditioned environment and actually getting work done.
Come Friday afternoon I had handed my final second year assessment in, which was a deep feeling, literary journalism piece about growing up with my older sister.
It was an idea that came to my mind late, but it was a topic that I knew I could write well about, and near the end I actually started crying as I wrote the final few sentences.
I was proud of my work, so were the elder generation of my friends on Facebook, who liked and commented lovely words about it, I even got a tear out of my dad, which is rarer than seeing a unicorn.
Submitting my final assessment was a strange feeling, as it signalled the end to the academic year, one that I had thrived in and was sad to see it end… very bittersweet.
I celebrated in the comfort of my garden, with my parents and neighbours for a BBQ, a well-deserved reward for my studies.
Later that evening, or actually in the early hours of Saturday morning, I was seeing Instagram story after Instagram story of some very pretty skylines… the Northern Lights.
Luckily, our home is away from a lot of light pollution, so I hopped out of bed, put on my sliders with my pyjamas on, and crept outside into the middle of the garden.
The sky was black, but once my eyes had adjusted, I could see the faintest streaks of astrology stretching across the seemingly blank canvas, that was until I took a photo on my phone.
That same blank canvas to the naked eye became a colourful piece of artwork once my phone camera absorbed all its exposure through it’s lens.
Earth’s artist decided to use a colour pallet with shades of pastel fuchsia, light orchid, opera mauve, mountbatten pink, pastel lavender, or just pink and purple if you want to keep it simple.
It was in fact the second time I had seen the Northern Lights, the first being at our home in Canada a couple years ago, when the colour pallet was a vibrant green, a bucket list task ticked off twice.
Between the months of May to September, cricket is my weekend and the weekend is for cricket, understood?
My first league game of the season, for Redlynch & Hale was against Lymington, who are usually a tough competitor, but we managed to put a good team performance in and get a win.
I was slightly worried about my leg, from which I’ve had problems with for years, but recently I think I’ve torn my bicep femoris – the anterior muscle connecting the hamstring to the knee – so I put more kinaesthetic tape on it then I do Sellotape for wrapping presents, to help the pain.
I actually had an MRI scan for it early that week, which was a weird experience, it was my first time being put under one of the tunnels, I didn’t know they were so loud !
I had to wear ear plugs and earmuffs, and stay completely still for about 25 minutes, I genuinely almost fell asleep, I was so tired and it was quite cosy being led there, strange I know.
I could feel the magnetic waves filtering through the fibres in my leg, causing an occasional twitch, sort of a numb and fuzzy feeling occurred.
I was told I’ll get my results back within two weeks, which is great, but kind of irrelevant because I don’t want to miss any cricket and will continue to play on it until I can no longer run.
On Sunday I was at Marlborough College commentating and filming for Wiltshire CCC, a beauty of a day, I was really in my element.
Marlborough is one of the most picturesque grounds in the South, and my ‘office’ for the day was sat on the balcony of the vintage pavilion speaking about the cricket I see in front of me.
Rewatch the livestream here…
The livestream production works through a small team, literally like two of us, and it started last season, and it’s been improving game on game, so much so that the organisation of the minor county set-up has asked us to livestream their final days this year.
None of it feel like work because I love it so much, something that I’ll continue to strive for.
Read my previous blog here…
