Sunday 22 January 2023

🎾Tennis, and other pasttimes

 🎾Tennis has been challenging to watch. It is the Australian Open, and the time difference is huge: 16 hours ahead of us. They have 9 tennis courts with feeds, and it is a major tournament. 

Daisy used to like tennis! I'm not sure if her new owner does, as well. 

 The Aussie Open has their challenges with heat and rain. The camera operators film under umbrellas (below, far left). BTW The kids are going to Australia and New Zealand in the summer. Happy world travelers!

We watch on TSN1, 2, 3, 4, or 5, and we have had several Canadians playing: Denis Shapovalov (ranked 20th), Felix Auger-Aliassime (6th), Bianca Andreescu, Laylah Fernandez, Vasek Pospisil, for example. I think 4 played earlier in the week on the same day. Poor JB is hard pressed to figure out which programs to tape. Then, I have to be careful when I watch my morning news show that they don't give the results away. SPOILER ALERT! 

Raonic set the play a few years ago. Our strong, tall player whose aces just fire across the net. He has been off with an injury for a year. This strategy of heavy hitting takes a toll on muscles and bones. Sadly, both Shapo and Felix tend to bash the ball as hard and fast as possible all the time. We'd like them to know when to hold up, and put on a finesse hit. The strong players can hit serves at >200 km/hr. 

It makes for a long game when the men play best of 5. That's another pet peeve. I sit snuggled under my new blanket, a gift from Caitlin for Christmas. Soft as can be and cozy on these winter days. Cinnamon is afraid of it. Seriously! I'm working on that. 

This is my regular blanket! Silly lad! 

We binge watched the other day. It was quite funny. I think there was 5 hours of tape, and we were really careful to get up and take breaks. I had to vary from my normal 9:30 a.m. workout, which is good for the old brain just to switch things up. If I work out during a break, dollars to donuts they will announce the results. 

Funny story... I'd put off my workout, worried about would be on TV to distract me, and headed off downstairs when we finished Felix's game. It was so sad. No new movies. Then, a press conference by the federal health team, followed by the US security dude's presser. I headed off to the local Toronto news channel and they were covering the Toronto Mayor's press conference. It was snowing, so after 15 minutes I vacuumed downstairs, having fixed the clogged vacuum cleaner. Out I went, shoveling snow, which was a fine workout. Only 5 cm (2"), with a layer of ice underneath from the other storms. Yay, snow tires!

16 comments:

Tom said...

...I put on my snow tires so that I could drive on bare roads this year.

Yamini MacLean said...

Hari Om
Am getting nothing of the tennis over here - because it's on pay tv. So much of sport has been taken over by the big streamers. $$$... YAM xx

Barbara Rogers said...

Not interested, myself, in tennis. Though I'm always impressed when a short is shown of some special shots. I hope I don't have much ice driving to my church where I'm running the sound system this morning.

Elizabeth Edwards said...

i love the cat at the tv. that is 2 funny. i've never had a cat but i have seen friends' cats that do similar silly things. makes me laugh. 2 cute. mixed weather around here. no snow but i sure do wish for some. we always tend to get ice. so, it is a stay-at-home day for us. rather safe than sorry. ( ;

RedPat said...

I've been watching a bit of the tennis too. The time difference is a bit of an issue sometimes.

Anvilcloud said...

We buy monthly subscriptions for Wimbledon, USA and Canadian. Australian hours are too weird, and the French never really appealed. I’m not sure why not.

Christine said...

Hubby has been watching the Australian open.

Cloudia said...

I enjoy seeing your fur friends. Here in Hawaii where we are in our own time zone, we often have very interesting choices about when and what to watch in the sporting world. Avoiding spoilers is a sport of its own! Wishing you all the best.

Elephant's Child said...

I am not interested in sport - but even in Australia you need stamina to watch. Some matches go into the early hours of the morning which must be very hard on the players.

Divers and Sundry said...

I don't follow tennis but see some stories that make the broader news coverage.

2 inches on top of ice would shut everything down here.

William Kendall said...

Cinnamon looks thoroughly relaxed.

Hena Tayeb said...

We have not been watching Australian open. It is football and hockey season here in the US so most of our attention is focused there.

River said...

It's been a while since I've been here. I really do have too many blogs to read, so some get missed for a while.
I can't watch tennis, or any other sport, it just doesn't interest me.

David M. Gascoigne, said...

We left home in Waterloo where there is no snow at all to arrive at my daughter's house in Ottawa where there are mounds of it. Quite a contrast!

Gill - That British Woman said...

not interested in tennis, but my daughter-in-law is a huge fan.

Bleubeard and Elizabeth said...

Sorry to be late visiting. My internet (and phone) have been out due to the storm that ravaged my area. I can't believe I am SO far behind. My foodie friend is a tennis lover. Her husband was a tennis pro, so I can see her interest, too.