Coach SooB

This is taken whilst I was warming up in the sunshine after CarbBoy's basketball tournament, which took place in the gym behind me. Behind the cars is a big old chateau which is the town's Centre de Loisir, a heavily subsidised place for kids to spend their Wednesdays, Saturdays and holidays while their parents work. The grounds are huge, and all the kids seem to love going there. And at 3 to 7 Euro a day the parents love it too.

TallGirl's basketball match was far away, with an early meet at the stadium to get lifts sorted out. Meeting times always have to be ten minutes earlier than strictly necessary to allow for all the kissing. They're a very kissy club - football and riding involve almost no kissing.

Then back to sort CarbBoy's hair out. This morning he announced that I had to cut his hair, so on we went. Having no training at all, haircuts from me are a bit of a hit and miss affair, and tend to involve me following the victim around for days afterwards trimming off the bits that were missed. Given his poor goal scoring in the tournament, I think I might have affected his balance too much.

In these tournaments the home team coaches often end up having to referee, so a parent or two are often roped in to look after a team (we're a big club and have 6 U9 teams). Today I was the one chosen. After a quick prompter from the kids on things their proper coach normally shouts at them (words for 'marking', 'shoot', 'pass' not being something I learned either for A level or in my more recent instruction in builder French), they were off. I just had to make sure substitutions were made in order that everyone had the same length of time on the court, and shout one of the learnt "coach words" every now and then. They seemed to have fun, and they were definitely playing better at the end than the start. Somewhat disappointingly, after our last match (a draw against our club's first team) their coach stalked off and wouldn't shake hands. They make a big thing of always shaking hands at the end of matches round here, so I just ignored her and called her team back to shake hands. The ref thanked me (though I hope that doesn't mean he'll want me to coach again - far too stressful).

Nice chat at the end with a neighbour I don't see too much now as her kids have shifted school. She had just had an operation on her face - though I've no idea why as I didn't understand the words and it seemed wrong to get my iPhone out to open google translate... Anyway I was told off for making her laugh too much. Later she popped round to ask if CarbBoy wanted to come for a sleepover - but he was too tired.

In all that sporting activity there was time for digging too, including unearthing a large and rather surprised looking lizard. I found him a cosy spot in the rapidly growing compost heap of turf, where he can stay until it's warm enough for him to wake up properly. Lovely sunny day today, but a hard frost this morning and more due the next few nights. Those summer bulbs will have to wait a few more days I think.