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Going for gold?

Don't worry - this is not about the inane 1990's daytime TV quiz (whatever did happen to Henry Kelly?), but what could happen to me fairly soon.

 aspirations...

I have an outside chance of getting something that has been eluding me for well over a year - a place in the Squash Gold Leagues at my local leisure centre. Getting to this point has been very much an uphill struggle, as I have spent most of the year trying to overcome a back related injury, and of trying to reverse a general loss of form with my game. As there are a lot of really good players out there, the quest to get the required number of points has not been easy - in fact, my fate depends largely on what goes on in other people's matches, so parallels can be drawn with the group stages in football tournaments!

If getting to the Gold leagues has proved hard, trying to stay in will be even tougher, as I found out just over a year ago when I last made it there -  if I can't manage to compete I will crash out of it faster than an MP voting to retain the 'John Lewis List'. It will be back to square one!

However, nothing has been confirmed yet. I should know if I made it within a few days time. There is always hope...

Sowing the seeds of lurve?

Yes you've guessed it - the title is a line from that incredibly cheesy Eighties song ('Tears for Fears' have a lot to answer for)!, and if you are anything like me, now it's been remembered, you probably won't be able to get the irritating tune out of your head for at least a week!

 Seeds...

It does very, very loosely sum up what I am up to this weekend though. My mate and I are off to see the girl who was the harbinger of the red lollipop I blogged about a couple of posts ago. I want to try and work out if she was just in a flirty mood at the time, or was the implied affection genuine. As birds are notoriously difficult to read at the best of times, this will not be as straight forward as it sounds, so the idea is just to play it by ear.

Anyway that's the plan. The most likely result will probably be just another red lolly pop! Wish me luck.

Post Posture-ised!

The signs were not good. One wrong move in a squash game had caused severe pains at the base of my back, which were showing little signs of abating. This was the unwelcome scenario that faced me at the start of this year, and to cut a long storey fairly short, I went to see a chiropractor in my home town of New Malden. She turned out to be pretty good, and the diagnosis was that my problems resulted from compacted discs in the lower spine. The muscles surrounding these vertebrae were tense and not very supple, making them more prone to damage.

So the past few months have been spent trying to correct this and re-balance my back bones, and one of the things I have been advised to do is to change my posture. To this end I have been trying to stand up straighter, whilst keeping my neck lengthened. Simple though it may sound, it is much easier said than done, as it is very easy to lapse back into my bad slumping habits.

One bright spark (not the Chiropractor) told me to place a broom down the back of my shirt, which would effectively force me to stand up straight. Unsurprisingly, this is one peace of advice I will ignore, as it crosses that fine line between sensible, healthy activity and looking like a complete twat!

Lollipop of lurve?

I know it sounds like a bad seventies song title (if it isn't, it probably should be), but the title of this is all about the significance of the following event:

The other day I was the lucky recipient of a red lollipop! I got this via a mate who said he was told to pass it on to me by a girl who we both know, but not know that well. What I want to know is what does this all mean? As the girl is very attractive I know what I would like it to mean, but from past experience, I also know that I'm a very bad interpreter of human behaviour, especially when it comes to the ladies! What her gift symbolises, if it means anything at all, is completely beyond me. Is it just that she has a surplus of red lollipops that she wanted to get rid of, or is there a deeper meaning in there some where?

What do you think?