World Series badminton

Event Control Room, Birmingham Utilita Arena, March 2025

The other fun event that took place last week was my volunteering at the 'All England' badminton tournament, for the second time. Apparently the new anonymised application process put some of the seasoned volunteers off so they were very short of people. Last year in the Event Control Room there was the boss plus three volunteers; this time the team was down to one person for some of our shifts.

I skipped the volunteer orientation meeting which took place on Monday evening, since last year it was only just worth it, I know the ropes, and I had board games, a study group and Monday badminton that afternoon and evening. Tuesday started very early with the 6.25 a.m. train into Birmingham for the start to my shift at 7.30 a.m. I was welcomed very warmly and recognised quite a few people from last year. The ECR setup was much the same, passing messages between teams and the venue and logging any issues to make sure they were dealt with. I had a similarly early start on Wednesday and Thursday, then I was on the late shift on Friday and Saturday, finishing after 10pm. Sunday was Finals day so only five matches played, but they were long matches, and then I helped with packing up the ECR screens, radios and the rest.

There were no free tickets for volunteers this year, because apparently last year some were being sold on. But UJ messaged me to say that her boyfriend had two tickets that he wasn't going to use, and I found two of my badminton friends who were happy to take them. I went up to the arena to watch a few matches between shifts, and sometimes during shifts as well when it was quiet. Most of the time it was quiet, with issues like banners falling down, checking that it was OK to open the doors to the public, and IT glitches. There were a couple of exciting incidents involving members of the public behaving badly, a volunteer falling down stairs who needed crutches, and another volunteer who made some inappropriate comments to members of the management team in the evening at the hotel, probably fuelled by drink, and then didn't have the sense to apologise next day. He was ejected from the venue and accreditation withdrawn.

We had six screens going most of the time, showing our logging spreadsheet, the list of radios and who was carrying them, the seven-court practice area, the two-court warm up area, the live play on court and the broadcast feed. On Saturday another screen appeared showing the rugby (there were three matches that day) and on Sunday there was some sort of football cup final. I preferred the badminton.

The key to their success from my point of view is that the people in charge - the Event Director and his team - are universally and individually lovely. They really seem to care that volunteers enjoy themselves. We were also thanked personally by Badminton England's President and some other official personages. I would definitely do it again next year if they'll have me (I think they will). 

A day out in Warwick

Lord Leycester Hospital and West Gate, March 2025

My goodness I've been having fun, hence lack of substantive blogging. Recently there have been a couple of significant bloggable things for a change, so here goes with the first episode.

Chatting to one of the new people that I've met through the U3A walking group I happened to mention that I'd never been to Warwick as a tourist. Warwick is very close to Leamington - I sometimes walk along the river to a Warwick park and back. I've been to Warwick Castle long ago with my nephew, but that's more a theme park than part of Warwick itself, and very expensive to visit. The Warwick Folk Festival is within the grounds of the Castle and extends various musical offerings to the town, so I've had a look at some of that. I even got married in Warwick, but after the ceremony we went straight to Stratford for a meal. The U3A walker suggested a few places to visit, I did my homework, and bought a day return for only £1.55 on the train (with my Senior Railcard).

I decided that there were four places I wanted to visit - the Lord Leycester, the Market Hall Museum, St Mary's Church and Hill Close Gardens. A tour of the Lord Leycester was advertised at 11am and supposed to last for 45 minutes to an hour, so I thought I could do that first and something else in the afternoon. Luckily it was a beautiful sunny day, which made the whole experience much more pleasant.

The Lord Leycester is an unbelievably old medieval building dating back to the 12th century, which has offered housing to ex-members of the armed forces since the 16th century, and to the local Guilds before that. Twelve servicemen and their families still live there now and are known as Brethren, led by the Master (who is currently a woman). Brother Ken led the tour I was on, and it became clear that it wasn't going to be finished in an hour, let alone 45 minutes. He was a very chatty Irishman who had served in the Irish Guards, and he certainly gave us value for money. So it was definitely lunchtime by the time the tour ended.

After lunch I didn't fancy going back to the Lord Leycester even though there was more I'd have liked to see. The ticket is valid for a year and also covers Hill Close Gardens, so I'll have to find another spare day for that. Instead I chose to go to the Market Hall Museum, which has a lot of local geology and dinosaur fossils and social history and silver hoards and a stuffed bear and an ancient Irish Deer skeleton and a working beehive with Perspex sides so you can see inside. 

Market Hall Museum

One of the most impressive exhibits was a white model of Warwick town with iPads attached. You turn the iPad on, point its camera at the model and it displays a photographic overlay of the town which moves as you move, and you can click for more information. It actually gave information about the great fire that wiped out loads of Warwick in 1694 (thatched houses were not allowed in the town afterwards), but I was bowled over just by the technology.

The best exhibit, and the real reason why I chose to go to the museum, is the Sheldon tapestry of Warwickshire dating from around 1590. There are four tapestries still around, and Lola II and I saw the Oxfordshire one in the Weston Library in Oxford in 2022. Well, the Warwickshire one is complete rather than fragmentary, and is absolutely wonderful - well worth a visit.

After that I headed home, with two sites unvisited and more to see at the Lord Leycester, and if I'm in the area anyway I'd probably go back for another peek at the tapestry as well.

Lord Leycester Chapel - no electricity to this day

What I've been reading

Mother London
by Michael Moorcock

"The book follows three mental-hospital outpatients and their friends, in an episodic, non-linear history of the capital from the Blitz to present day. The main character is London itself - the towpaths, pubs, bombed churches and neglected marble angels."

Quite an interesting book, and another from the Classics list - I've now come to expect these Classic books to have very little story or plot. Someone who knows London well would probably enjoy walking along with the characters through familiar streets. I can't quite put my finger on why I enjoyed reading it, but I did.

Julia
by Sandra Newman

"London, chief city of Airstrip One, the third most populous province of Oceania. It's 1984 and Julia Worthing works as a mechanic fixing the novel-writing machines in the Fiction Department at the Ministry of Truth."

This is the companion piece to Nineteen Eighty-Four, written from the perspective of Winston Smith's partner in sexcrime. The descriptions of torture are just as harrowing as in the original, and the ending is interesting but with a similarly depressing attitude. Today I was listening to an analysis that divided politics into Trump, Putin, and Xi and I thought "Oceania, Eurasia, Eastasia." Lies have become truth.

The Maltese Falcon
by Dashiel Hammett

narrated by B. J. Harrison

"Sam Spade is hired by the fragrant Miss Wonderley to track down her sister, who has eloped with a louse called Floyd Thursby. But when Spade’s partner Miles Archer is shot while on Thursby’s trail, Spade finds himself both hunter and hunted: can he track down the jewel-encrusted bird, a treasure worth killing for, before the Fat Man finds him?"

I managed to keep track of the story by dint of not leaving huge gaps between chapters. Lots of story threads to keep track of, and it is worth the effort.

Sharpe's Eagle
by Bernard Cornwell

narrated by Rupert Farley

"Richard Sharpe finds himself clashing with incompetent officers and an inexperienced company, making himself dangerous enemies, even on his own side. Sharpe knows he must redeem the regiment by capturing the golden Imperial Eagle, a standard touched by Napoleon himself."

Not something I would have chosen but for its appearance on the Classics list, and for some reason that list only features the eighth book in the series. Evocative of the period, much description of battle and incompetence and heroism and foolhardiness and clashing male egos. The only woman with a name who features is a camp follower, but I wouldn't have expected much consideration of the female viewpoint in a book about 18th century soldiers in Spain. Unusually for one of these Classics, there was a semblance of a plot.

To Say Nothing of the Dog
by Connie Willis

"Verity Kindle, a time traveler from the 21st century, inadvertently brings back something from the past. Now Ned Henry must jump back to the Victorian era to help Verity put things right - not only to save the project but to prevent altering history itself."

This is one of the books that I keep and re-read regularly. The reason I picked it up this time is because I bought another copy to give as a present, and wanted to remind myself of the story. It's been a while since I last read it (blog says 2012) and it felt as fresh as ever - meaning that I had forgotten lots of the details. Reading this (and one other of hers) I can forgive the author for the terrible books that she's written since.

A very ordinary week

Dovecote, Kyre Hall Park, October 2024

There's been nothing special to report for the whole week, in which I did all the things that I regularly do, and a few optional extras, and it was all fine.

• the weekly shop
• the U3A board games group
• a candlelit vigil in town to commemorate three years of the war in Ukraine
• Monday evening badminton
• a GRUHI trip to the tip and to Action 21 with all the electrical junk
• watched a film at home
• Tuesday evening Buddhists
• visit to mum
• a session with Muscles (my personal trainer)
• a bonus massage (because I'm worth it)
• Thursday evening badminton
• the U3A ramble
• a Buddhist team meeting via Zoom
• the Repair Café LETS trading table to try and get rid of more stuff (nobody wanted anything)
• my music group (I have been given a big solo this term)
• watched another film at home
• did nearly all the necessary routine admin
• a film at the cinema to end the week.

I do try to find interesting content for this blog, but there really isn't any this week. I'm looking forward to warmer weather - I find February the cruellest month. Daffodils are appearing in the garden and the paving is invisible under its blanket of weeds. So, much the same as every year.