{"id":1383,"date":"2014-05-15T07:40:22","date_gmt":"2014-05-15T00:40:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/?p=1383"},"modified":"2014-05-15T07:40:22","modified_gmt":"2014-05-15T00:40:22","slug":"table-tennis-with-the-locals-51314","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/?p=1383","title":{"rendered":"Table Tennis with the locals, 5\/13\/14"},"content":{"rendered":"

Now that I have some table tennis (TT) gear, I need to figure out where to play.\u00a0 <\/span>Checking around on the internet, I find mention of several large clubs, but none are near me (as least that I can find.)\u00a0 <\/span>I decide there\u2019s no sense traveling and then getting my brains beat out in a club.\u00a0 <\/span>I\u2019m gonna find a local park and let some of the locals wear me out.<\/p>\n

I walk across the street, into the neighborhood, to a badminton gym.\u00a0 <\/span>I thought they might have a few tables and players.\u00a0 <\/span>There was a table, but no players. \u00a0<\/span>A few months back, someone mentioned seeing some tables in a park just outside a UHN gate on the other side of the complex.\u00a0 <\/span>I walk there next, and sure enough, there are three tables, and people playing on all the tables.<\/p>\n

I walk over and sit on a nearby bench to watch.\u00a0 <\/span>Within moments, one of the players gestured to me, inviting me to play.\u00a0 <\/span>I pulled out my racket and gave it a try.\u00a0 <\/span>It took me some time to adjust to my new racket (it\u2019s really good, but different.)\u00a0 <\/span>I held up pretty well.\u00a0 <\/span>No scoring, just hitting.\u00a0 <\/span>I played with seven or eight different players.\u00a0 <\/span>They were all curious.\u00a0 <\/span>One guy played with a paddle in both hands.\u00a0 <\/span>The table was concrete, but the players bring their own net.\u00a0 <\/span>There was also a tarp hung up between trees used as a windbreak.\u00a0 <\/span>When they finished playing after 45 minutes, they took their net down, untied the tarp, folded it, and hung it up on a nearby hook, ready to be used by the next players.\u00a0 <\/span>This group of players seemed to be the regular \u201cmorning group.\u201d\u00a0 <\/span>They all had their tea, and took turns playing, women and men.\u00a0 <\/span>As they were leaving, they were asking my age (I think that\u2019s what they were asking.)<\/p>\n

When they finished, I put my stuff up, but a group at another table motioned me over.\u00a0 <\/span>This group was younger and played a faster game.\u00a0 <\/span>It took some time for me to adjust, but I definitely got faster (I had to.)\u00a0 <\/span>They kept giving me the \u201cthumbs up.\u201d\u00a0 <\/span>I doubt I could beat any of them in a game, but I could hit with them.\u00a0 <\/span>One of the women called a friend on the phone, and they started to try to ask questions, through the phone.\u00a0 <\/span>I eventually was handed the phone when they were trying to find out how long I had played.\u00a0 <\/span>That\u2019s a tough question to answer since I\u2019ve played since Jr. High, but never really seriously (unless I was playing my son or my brother.)\u00a0 <\/span>I ended up spending almost 3 hours playing intermittently with the different groups.<\/p>\n

\n

Back home, I had to clean up and get ready to join Judy and a group of BISS teachers at a Sanlitun restaurant.\u00a0 <\/span>They were completing the evaluation and review of the Grade 5\u00a0Exhibition two weeks ago.\u00a0 <\/span>Lots of pizza, chicken wings, and french fries.\u00a0 <\/span>Its always fun to sit in a group of teachers from such diverse backgrounds (Canada, Sri Lanka, Australia, Korea, etc.)\u00a0 <\/span>So many different viewpoints make for interesting exchanges.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Now that I have some table tennis (TT) gear, I need to figure out where to play.\u00a0 Checking around on the internet, I find mention of several large clubs, but none are near me (as least that I can find.)\u00a0 … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1383"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1383"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1383\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1384,"href":"http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1383\/revisions\/1384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}