Tennis on Capital Hill

This morning, at the insanely early time of 7am, I had my first hit of tennis in about 18 months. I got out of bed at 5:45am, jumped on my bike about half an hour later, and headed to the courts at Parliament House, to meet my new friend and tennis partner, Mike. I met Mike through another relatively recent friend (who unfortunately, has since moved back to Melbourne), Ben.

Needless to say, with no practice leading up to the match, and my recent introduction to the world of squash (you might think squash and tennis compliment each other, but I can tell you they most certainly do not), I was soundly beaten. Despite being grossly out of form, and losing the first set 6-1, I put on a far more spirited second set, losing 6-3 (most games went to deuce). I should say, "Mike the merciless" is a solid player, and so I felt no great shame in losing to him .... this week.

Whatever the result, the highlight of this match was its venue. The Parliament House tennis courts are fantastic! The courts are surfaced with artificial grass, and are located amongst Eucalyptus trees on the House of Reps side of capital hill. We were the only people there, although shortly after arriving, we were paid a visit by some Federal police, who were on their morning cycle patrol, and obviously on heightened security alert. After verifying we weren't suicide bombers, they then proceeded to make sure we had a booking for the court. We actually didn't, but Mike knows someone who works at Parliament House, and one phone call later, we were in.

Mike and I are now planning to keep playing once a week, which is great. I had forgotten how much I love tennis, particularly when your playing in the warm morning sun on a crisp morning, in a beautiful, albeit slightly pompous location.

Of course having gotten up so early, and having done so much already today, I feel like its about 3pm, rather than 10:20am. And just to make sure I sleep well tonight, I have a netball game at 6pm, which I am riding to because Aff has the car :) .. its all good for me .. apparently.