Waiting and Contemplating

I had a trip down memory lane this morning as I recced a venue for a school friends’ reunion next Wednesday. Although I spent many a summer afternoon as a school girl at the Inverleith playing field when I should have been playing tennis hiding from the games mistress and watching the boys from our brother school arriving for cricket, I can’t say I ever noticed their pavilion which is where we have to meet next week.

I spent many a winter games day and a Saturday playing hockey nearby. Unlike tennis, I enjoyed hockey. I was a left back because I was good at hitting the ball a fair distance but only if my stick made contact and didn’t miss- that was never a given. Had we been playing with today’s hockey sticks which seem to have only about 50% of hitting surface, I would have missed the ball even more.
I have never been back in all those years that have somehow slipped past since then, so it made for an interesting experience.

Summer came back today, a tantalising return, enabling me to sit outside in short sleeves and feel hot. And it was not only summer that returned , but the students too have returned in numbers , leaving no breather in this part of the city from Festival crowds and hordes of eager young things