It’s not all glitz and glamour here – just in case you thought from recent pictures that I always wear a bow tie and tartan trews as my standard couture.
Far from it in fact. Sadly.
Three afternoons a week this term you are far more likely to catch me in a pair of muddy Ulster Rugby (well, you’ve got to support the lads, haven’t you?) tracksuit bottoms and a delightful collection of thermal tops. Yes indeed, as you may have guesseed, once more the beloved lacrosse season is in full swing and just as our acres upon acres of lovely pitches are pretty much in their worst condition of the entire year.
Nothing, I guess, can make any difference to this – except of course if it got massively drier in Edinburgh. That is hardly likely to happen of course - even if those who believe in global warming are correct, it is still going to get wetter.
So, being with the not-so-lowly 3rd XII, (there are only 3 teams at that senior level so you get the precise idea of where I am in the coaching pecking order) means that we have probably the worst pitch which is currently flooded out of all reasonable existence. Today therefore we set off on what is dauntingly called ‘fitness’. Immediately the girls know what is ahead of them and a sense of dread comes over them.
For ‘fitness’ read ‘running for 5kms and more’ and you can imagine how really joyous the troops were. To make things a bit better I ran with them, or rather at some remote distance behind them – so as not to show any of them up, you understand.
I have to say, two hours later and I am only now recovering from the endeavour.
