I'm a guru!

And to prove it, I've got my very own protége!

Last night I played badminton with Sweatband. We've been meaning to play for ages, but she kept wimping out with excuses like "oh, I've go too much work," or "oh, I've not played in years, I'll be all spackerish." After endlessly harrassment, however, she finally caved in and I booked up a court.

Truth be told though, work's been a bit mental this week, and we both admitted that if I hadn't booked it a week ago, we could've done with the time to carry on with our respective day jobs. Still, it was a nice, and probably much-needed diversion from our computer screens, so, er, hurrah!

Sweatband was still complaining as we wandered onto the court. "It's been five years since I last played, blah blah blah," so to shut her up I made a concerted effort to whack her with the shuttlecock. I think I got her left thigh and this seemed to have the desired effect of forcing her to make more of an effort and stop complaining. Sweatband is the last person I expect to show a lack of enthusiasm for sport, y'see; earlier this year she ran the London Marathon, and she kept reminding me of this as we knocked the shuttle around, almost as if I'd suddenly say "shit - you're hardcore," and concede the match. At one point in her badminton-fuelled delirium she actually shouted out "I won the London Marathon," which was pushing it a little bit too far.

Anyway, aside from reintroducing Sweatband to the joys of badminton, it also gave me the opportunity to put my long-dormant teaching skills to use - can you believe I actually qualified as a badminton instructor about 12 years ago? I shit you not, kids. Never used it aside from helping mates improve their skills, but it looks good on the CV. So yeah, there I was telling Sweatband what to do, and she was actually doing it. How cool is that? She was like my little jedi padawan, the Saavik to my Spock! She called me her badminton guru!!

And bless her, she did the most hilarious little dance when she scored her first point. If I'd had my phone on me, I promise you now that thing would've been straight up on youtube.