Early birds and shuttlecocks

In the end of the summer, me and a friend of mine that I got to know through work got a random idea that we should start playing badminton together. We've both played before and wanted to start again, so it really seemed worth considering. My friend soon discovered that we could get a serial ticket to this recently opened badminton hall via Citydeal practically free, so we decided to get all wild and actually buy the card.

My super racket

We knew that there would probably be some restrictions on when we could go play because the card was so cheap, but after a quick check on the website, we both thought that it's just the weekends that the card is not valid on. Boy were we mistaken :D The first time we went to play was late on one evening during the week. We went directly to the reception and showed the card to the staff. A lady behind the desk was looking at us like we were insane and after an awkward silent moment she finally let us know that we're in the wrong hall. Great. She charged us 12 euros for one single hour, the same amount of money that we paid for the whole serial ticket, haha. Also, we noticed that it says on the card that it's only valid between 7am and 3pm during the week. Obviously, the only time that would suit us would be at 7 in the morning - before she has to go to work. For a moment I felt desperate - I'm no morning person, I can't do this! But we decided to give it a shot since we had already bought the card.

Team Frontside Ollie ;)

It's been three weeks now that we've managed to get up early once a week for badminton, and I love it. At first I'm always dead tired and so is she, but it's so much fun to play that it doesn't take long before we're already bouncing around the court filled with energy. Well, at least moving our bums a bit ;) Oh, and there's a nice sauna too! Like I mentioned in the beginning, the sports hall is brand new so its nice to go to a sauna that gets properly heated and is all neat. So after the game, we always go bathing in the sauna and have a nice, relaxed start for the day. Me likey.

My new take-away mug

I guess the whole badminton thing is more about just meeting the friend and catching up with her. It's so nice that we've stayed in touch, even though we're no longer working for the same company. My working contract ended in August and I continued with my studies as the fall semester began, but we still talk and meet up every now and then :)

Last night I was on the phone with her and started complaining how I envy her for her handy take away mug for coffee. She always has an easier start for the badminton mornings - a mug of delicious hot coffee on the way to the sports hall. I've been looking for a mug like that too, but they don't sell proper ones anywhere! So today at 6.30am, as we were sitting on the bus on our way to play badminton, she grabbed a second mug of coffee from her bag and gave it to me! And told me that I can keep the mug! What a luxury :)) I need to figure something nice for her too! :)