Tuesday 5 January 2010

Most Of What Follows Is True

It was very windy here last night. And when you live in a house as tall as this one, you can really feel that wind, you know? I lay in the dark, wondering if the basketball hoop would make it through the night, and listening to the sounds of  The Accountant snor sleeping peacefully beside me. And I drifted back to another windy night many years ago; when The Accountant wasn't yet an accountant and I was still a student. We were camping close to Hadrian's Wall, sleeping on an inflatable mattress, under canvas. In a tornado. At least that's what it felt like and, oh, it was bleak. That's what the Roman soldiers loathed about the place, of course. They used to write home for extra socks. I had my extra socks on that night and a jumper too. Maybe even a hat. And as I winced at the sound of the wind toying with the tent pegs, I wondered how the horses felt. For this site was on part of a race course, on a hill.
Did they enjoy running in this wind? It sounded far too much like a school Games lesson on a really bad day. Cross country. On the worst days we were sent on the descriptively named "abbatoir run". I'm pretty sure the horses wouldn't have fancied that one. I shuddered and rolled over  and very soon this morning arrived.

It was still windy. "Maybe," said The Tall One, hopefully, "The pitches will be frozen and rugby will be cancelled."
"Frozen pitches? Frozen pitches? A few brisk circuits round the gym is what you need, lad," said his Dad.
"Ah, but Dad," said The Tall One loftily, "the problem there is - you're not really in touch with what the people want."

There's a scrapbook page in there somewhere, if I can find it.

15 comments:

Tinkertaylor said...

I used to hate PE at school. It was hockey in the winter and athletics in the summer. My friend Pat and I used to run through the high jump on the first attempt so that we could hold the pole for the others to jump. How sneeky is that!

humel said...

lol! You'll find it :-) And I can't wait to see it! x

Maria Ontiveros said...

Great post - out of touch with what the people want indeed! Seems like life with teenagers. You are such a great writer. . . I lover your posts that tell stories.
Rinda

scrappyjacky said...

You tell such great stories,Sian!The joys of having teenagers.... according to them...anyone older than them is out of touch.
Enjoy the photography course...I'm still torn between the photography course....or a digital scrapbooking course.....got to make my mind up quick.

debs14 said...

Love your stories! I, too, hated sports, indoor or outdoor, any excuse to get out of PE! When my son played football I used to enjoy watching the home games, but was never upset if a game was cancelled due to bad weather.
Nowadays I only like bad weather if I am wrapped up snuggly indoors under a duvet somewhere!

JO SOWERBY said...

ooooh cross country running, i louthed it!!! love this story, you can the wind and the soldiers stomping off up hadrian's wall to sycamore gap hoping the picts won't come charging over to kill them. love ur decor by the way :)
Jo xxx

Amanda said...

Cross country - yuk!! I hated it! Great story BTW

Amy said...

Yes, there is for sure!
One thing we have in common, weather wise ... wind - plenty here as well.

Anonymous said...

Well, the journaling is all done for the scrapbook page, and it is wonderful.

Abi said...

your an awesome story teller! It really is screaming out for a scrapbook page! Oh n btw, I HATE P.E but choose to be out on a rainy cold river rowing in january, I think I'm mad! Thanks for sharing xxx

Anna said...

Cross country?
Brings back memories of staggering around Chew Valley in the pouring rain in a pair of navy blue knickers .... Shudder!
Great post! :D

Unknown said...

Fabulous post. I hated PE at school - now my family is sports bonkers! I adore that wallpaper!

Alana said...

Oooh cross-country at school! For some reason I got put in the team for a few seasons. hated it! We had to practise around the streets of our school.....we passed the bus stop (which was near the end, so panted our way past) Not a good look!

Alana said...

Forgot to say - Yeas I like notes on paper blog. As you can see from my layouts I like patterns and colours too!

Unknown said...

Happy New Year Sian, love that story. Not surfed for a while, so I've got a lot of reading to catch up on :)

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