Inadequacy

All England badminton, March 2026

Last week I was fully immersed in my volunteering for the international badminton in Birmingham, with short breaks for my Buddhist activity, blogging and Muscles the Personal Trainer. Muscles was as disappointed as I was to hear of the results of my follow-up blood test for the pre-diabetes. The lipid and cholesterol results have improved a great deal but the blood sugar result has gone down only to the borderline level between non- and pre-diabetic. This isn't enough for me to become comfortable that I've done what I need to do. It also highlighted the difficulty when volunteering and faced with all manner of treats supplied by the lovely people who run the event. So Muscles, who I think also does some coaching, made a few very helpful suggestions, and even agreed for me to message him at the end of the day to help me stick to a 'no snacks' policy for the day.

It's my third time in the role down in the basement 'Event Control Room' with all the radios, and I'm starting to get the hang of who represents all the various teams on the Field of Play, Logistics, Transport, Athlete Services, Volunteering and more, where the Practice Courts, Final Warm Up Area, Premier Lounge and Sports Presentation are located, and what a 'Show Cube' is (a fancy room high up in the building with a view of the arena). I still can't always understand what's said over the radios though. Next year the Badminton World Federation has decreed that instead of 6 days, all the World Series events (of which this is one) will be extended to 11 days. This will pose all sorts of issues for Badminton England in recruiting volunteers (many of whom take time off work) and also over-stretching contractors, who work 18-hour days during the event. We'll see what happens.

The weekend before that I attended an online retreat together with four other friends in an Airbnb in that holiday haven of Solihull. It obviously needed to be a fairly large property so there were five bedrooms, four of which were only just big enough to accommodate the double beds. Never mind, we didn't need a lot of bedroom space, and four out of five of them were warm. The fifth bedroom was downstairs off the kitchen in what was clearly a garage conversion without sufficient insulation. The bed there only had a thin blanket and the first night was uncomfortably cold for its occupant, so we contacted the host who revealed that the duvet was (unaccountably) in the cupboard under the stairs with the hoover, dustpan and brush etc.

This example conveys the flavour of the weekend. We'd been told that one patio door was broken and had been boarded up, but not that the hot tap in the kitchen had fallen apart and couldn't be used. The listing described the dining room as 'spacious',  the living area as having 'ample seating' and the kitchen as 'fully equipped' which was completely untrue - it was manageable for the five of us, but if the house were full (advertised as 8 people) there wouldn't be enough seating, space or kitchenware.

The kitchen situation was particularly strange. It had the most complicated kettle, induction hob, combi ovens and microwave you could imagine - the kettle had about 8 different settings - but none of the other equipment you would expect. There was just one tea towel, a tin opener and a potato masher, but no peeler, grater, sieve, colander, no measuring jug, mixing bowl or serving dishes and only shallow oven trays - no deep dishes and no oven gloves. The frying pan wasn't compatible with the induction hob and the microwave was almost too complicated to use. There were no mugs, only cups, and not enough of those for all of us.

On the plus side it was mostly warm, mostly clean, with plenty of hot water and blisteringly fast WiFi, which meant that at least we could all independently run Zoom without problems. And we had some proper conversations and quality time together, and that was the main purpose of the weekend.

Another preoccupation I've had is finding someone who will (safely) paint the front of Lola Towers. None of the contacts provided by the estate agents I've contacted have been any good, but at the moment I've got one promising quote, one not so good, and someone visiting this week to have a look. It seems unlikely, however, that the work will be done before May.

Hill Close Gardens, February 2026