Long live September!
September is my favourite month despite the fact that it is “Back To School” time – a phrase I still dread even now. Do you remember when you were enjoying the first carefree days of the hols, only to see the words “Back To School” in every high street store, advertising bargains in gym knickers and hockey sticks? Now, as a parent, I look forward with excitement to the long vacation, because I hanker after making Enid Blyton style family picnics in the country and summer drenched day trips to Legoland. September marks the end of all that, and it is often sad to see the kids go back to the daily grind. But for me, September holds out the added promise of that secret bonus, the Indian Summer – the finest days of all, when the garden is at its over blooming, almost decadent best, the afternoons are a haven of peace and you can snatch some quality adult time before the family come home for tea, starving and laden with stressful homework. Okay, so I know most of us mums and dads are back at work, too, and indulgent afternoons are rare. So much more precious, then, if you can catch one. It’s been a busy summer. We didn’t go away this year. Like many families, we did a “staycation” and concentrated instead on tidying the house (unsuccessfully), planting a hedge (much better), doing work experience (the boys, not me, I already know how to work) and becoming table tennis prodigies (we read “Bounce”, the book by Matthew Syed, the Berkshire-born champion, and it has transformed our lives!) In it, he tells the story of how one street in Reading (Silverdale Road) bred the world’s top ping pong players. For a period in the 1980s that one road and the surrounding area produced more champion players than the rest of the world combined. It’s a fantastic book – a Diamond recommendation. It’s become bible in our house. So, as soon as school finished in July, we dug out of the garage our all-weather table, unearthed a hamper of bats and balls, and decided to try out Syed’s formula for success, which basically boils down to practise-makes-perfect. And he’s right! Of course, his premise is that it takes ten thousand hours of practise, at anything from sport to music, to become champion standard. Well, I reckon we’ve put in about a hundred hours over the summer – so we’ve only got 9,900 hours to go before Team Diamond becomes formidable. Plus I now have two enormous bare patches of earth in the lawn, either side of the table. How long, I wonder, before the grass grows back? Will we let it? Or will we go on playing harder and faster ping pong? Sadly “Back To School” and dark winter evenings will probably dictate. Hold on to summer while you can. Long live September. |
