by I can breathe again. And for now, through both nostrils.
My tennis on Saturday was an event that the guy I met at the language school all those months ago got me involved in. It was run by the local branch of the Lions Club. I just wanted to hit a few tennis balls and maybe have a drink afterwards; I had no idea what I was getting myself into with this event and I was extremely nervous. It was in Dumbrăvița, not that far from where I teach that kid, but still far enough for me to be fairly clueless about the location. The language school guy and I caught the same bus, but when we got off, it was apparent that he didn’t know how to get to the courts from the bus stop any more than I did. He called some friends and we got there eventually after walking through paddocks with seemingly unowned dogs yapping away. He lent me a racket that he wanted to sell to me for 180 lei. I assumed he’d be my partner in what was a doubles competition between five teams, but for some reason I had a different partner, someone who was six-three, built like a rugby player, and (as it turned out) rather good at tennis. I hated every minute of it. I was double-faulting all over the place and could hardly keep the ball in play, while my partner walloped unreturnable serves and swatted away volleys. He was really tactile, high-fiving and who knows what else after practically every point, and man I hate that stuff. The combination of banter and competitiveness made me uncomfortable, and my dreadful play wasn’t helping. I really didn’t want to be there. Part of the problem is that unlike in Wellington, you have to be quite wealthy to play tennis here, and being wealthy in Romania seems to require a certain level of aggression which is certainly beyond mine.
The five teams played one-set matches against each other in a round-robin format. My partner was good enough to cover for my terrible play, and the first set was close throughout. Our opponents served for the set at 6-5 and had two set points; on the second of them they hit a ball from my partner on the full that would certainly have cleared the baseline. After that reprieve we reached a tie-break which we won 7-5. My play didn’t improve in the second set, but thanks to my partner we still won it, 6-3. At that point my partner decided to bugger off, and I just hung around, albeit on a beautiful sunny day, while the others played all the remaining matches that didn’t involve him (or me). He was gone for 80 minutes and I found it extraordinary that nobody had a problem with that. When he returned we won our third match 6-3. My language school friend then pointed out that the competition winners each received a racket, and suddenly the result of our fourth and final match mattered. I played a little better in that match which we won 6-0. We had some mici and schnitzel and castraveți and bread and beer, and then they presented the prizes. I found myself in possession of a brand new Babolat Power Drive racket. I hope I’ve got that name right. My partner’s wife was there; she also plays tennis and quite fancied having an identical racket to her husband. She offered to buy the racket off me. We looked online and saw it sold for around US$200. Crikey. I had absolutely no need for a racket that good. We agreed a price of 800 lei. She fished four 200-lei notes out of her car (is it normal here for people to carry that kind of money in their cars?) and handed them to me. Are these genuine? They seemed to be. I then gave my friend 180 lei for his racket. The event cost me 75 lei, so I profited to the tune of a second-hand racket and 545 lei. It was like I’d won Lotto. I plan to buy a bike with my unexpected windfall. Regardless of that outcome it was quite a nice day really and hope that if I’m still here for next year’s event I’ll be a lot more relaxed.
I’ve been putting flyers in people’s letterboxes all over the city. About a thousand so far. It’s quite a tiring job, but it looks like I do have one more student.
Yesterday would have been my grandmother’s (Dad’s mum’s) 95th birthday.
