And so it begins...

It's here, guys. Cricket season, four months of sitting in pavilions, eating egg mayonnaise sandwiches, walking (or being walked by) the dog around the boundary, unsure of whether I can pass the sight screens (you'd think I'd know by now, right? Three years of cricket has clearly taught me nothing). I can't say I truly enjoy it, not the game part. I like the social aspect - the drinking of tea, cradling the mug with both hands in the hope that it can warm every part of your freezing body from your toes to your scalp, because even though it's summer - well, not quite yet - it's not hot, and it's probably about to rain soon. So then we stop, the guys come off and discuss. I sit around (I do lots of that, during cricket season) and hope to God that they get on with it or call the game off. Secretly hoping it will be the latter. I was scorer, two years ago. I focused on every ball, every over, every wicket, every run, for eight long hours, and it was difficult and tiring, all that concentration on a Saturday! But at least I knew what the players were talking about in the clubhouse over beers afterwards. Now I read books, do crosswords, talk to the dog. Steer clear of cricket talk. I never really knew what I was talking about, honestly, and it's probably for the best that I stay quiet in the corner.

This year things are different. Mike has decided to move teams, to Painswick. It's going to be strange, not going back week after week to the familiar Colwall, with its eccentric members and the usual banter, but I'll be glad, really, to make the break, to start again.

It's weird, but the boat we were on last month was called 'New Beginnings', and honestly, since coming home, things really have changed... life feels like it has begun again. We're making changes we've been thinking about for a long time, never really had the confidence to make them. Life really feels like a breath of fresh air at the moment, and I'm embracing it wholeheartedly.