One Sleep to Go

Last night, as I snuggled into bed and closed my eyes, all I could see was a blond ponytail swishing from side to side getting nearer and nearer and then a red cannon ball approaching me at 152 miles per hour. Arrrrgh!

I have had my Angels Cricket team debut!

I LOVED it!

We were playing a fairly rookie side - this was their third year in the league, and they were a really nice bunch of lasses - all ages, and all shapes and sizes. Their pitch was glorious - set high up on a hill in the Tyne Valley with spectacular views. It was a beautiful sunny and still evening, perfect for midgies who must have heard I was in town and were looking for a wig to nest in. Ha! I was wearing my nana-bandana!

The home team went in to bat, and their first shot came shooting along the ground towards me. I thought, 'I'll gather this up easily.' However, I just fell over, got up, and fell over again! It was as if someone had given me a set of jelly legs! It was so embarrassing - nearly as bad as the mothers race in sports day when I tripped with 10 yards to go and dived head first over the line - I even did a forward roll and grazed my elbow and knee. (But I still won.)

And so, with only one ball bowled in the game, my brand new cricket whites were covered in grass stains, and my 9 year old was laughing his head off back at the pavilion.

After the 20 overs, they had scored 140-something. We needed to do some serious slogging to get anywhere near that! However, they had a secret weapon - in the shape of a young lass with a blond ponytail and an exocet missile bowling action. She was seriously scary, but even against this weapon of mass destruction, we managed to put together 70-something runs. We lost, but we'd got our first point because we'd scored over 50 runs! Howay the lasses!

I can't tell you how fabulous it was out there last night. I love sport, I adore playing sport, and I get a huge kick out of being part of a team. My hockey team would have been playing in a league game tonight - I can't quite join them yet - but being in this cricket team has been a new challenge and has given me just as much (if not more) pleasure as the hockey did. The fact that I feel like I've done 18 Great North Runs in a row this morning is irrelevant - it feels GOOD!

Meanwhile, there's one sleep to go til my last chemo, and I have a simple request for all of you. Get yourselves a bottle of sparkly (a bottle of pop will do), hoy it in the fridge, and if all goes well tomorrow with my bloods etc. and I get the chemo as planned, I'd like you all to raise a glass to celebrate the end of this phase of the treatment. I will also raise a glass of pop to thank you all for your help and support throughout these crazy few months....and then we'll have another one after the radiotherapy....and another one after each Angels game...and another one for luck....

PS - The picture above shows just how lovely the setting was. Give it a click to make it bigger.
By the way - girl no. 15 is their weapon of mass destruction!