Time out to climb some mountains...

The last month or so has been 'slightly' busy to say the least, as I'm essentially working 2 jobs until I manage to handover the business/administration part of Craiglockhart to someone else! Actually the thing that takes an incredible amount of time is just parents :) phone calls, e-mails, questions, etc etc... anyway, I've been working in Stirling twice a week, have had 3 training camps at the new National Tennis Centre (and LTA base) in Roehampton, London... up to Aberdeen once, and the rest of the time at CTC. No complaints, everyone knows I like a challenge ;)




Managed to take a chilled out weekend in Braemar with Mark and Sylvia at the end of September. By chilled out I mean we only climbed a handful of munroes on Saturday, after biking in ~10 miles, a bit beyond the White Bridge (past Linn of Dee). Beinn Brotain, Monadh Mor and Cairn Toul were the main peaks we climbed. Heading back to the bikes, we touched the base of the Devil's Penis, but decided against climbing it because we were short on time...bit of an anticlimax.

The weather was mild and calm, although visibility was a bit low, but we still really enjoyed it. Got back just in time to watch Scotland beat Italy in the rugby, so a great day overall :) On Sunday we cruised into Ballater and had a nice walk round the golf course plus picnic lunch! Of course we had a mandatory visit to the Sweetie Shop and a tourist stop in the Old Station as well.

I've also found out I'm going to South Africa at the beginning of December for two weeks with a British squad to some junior world ranking tournaments. woohoo!!!!

See more pics!

Winning ScottishTeam!... and Racketlon

ok, i'm way behind on the blog updates but i'll do a few now to make up for it! Mid-September I went to Belfast as U/12 captain for the 4 nations international, but ended up both captaining and playing for the Senior Team! It was great fun, but unfortunately wet artifical grass courts with heavy tennis balls doesn't exactly suit my gamestyle...or my shoulder. So I struggled a bit in singles, but held my own in doubles...and over all the age groups (12s, 14s, 18s and Senior), Scotland WON the trophy!! Always a great feeling to win internationals, but victory is even sweeter when we beat England to clinch victory :)

The following weekend I played in a Racketlon tournament at Next Gen in Edinburgh. It's a mixture of the 4 racket sports - table tennis, badminton, squash and tennis. You play an opponent at all 4 sports (in the order I just wrote) - 1st to 21 points in each, and the total score determines the overall winner. The first match I got beaten by a Polish girl who was a bit of a badminton guru. We had close games in table tennis and squash (21/17 and 21/18), but I got destroyed 21/4 in badminton and she didn't want to play tennis because she'd already won (I'd have needed more than 21 points to win by that stage). It's a little unfair in that respect because I would have liked to get my own back on the tennis court but never mind.. :) I won all my other matches so ended up winning the 'B' event. Squash is probably the sport I'd like to start playing the most, but I really enjoyed the tournament and would definitely play again!

See more pics!