BarMitzvah Diary - Part 2

Today it is exactly 4 months until the Bar Mitzvah Party and it is weird to be working on an autumnal event even though summer seems to have only just appeared!

Last week we went to the party venue for a food tasting of the menu we have chosen.  We were given the whole meal and even tried the wine.  Sitting in the hotel restaurant it felt like an episode of Master Chef except that my other half has more hair than Greg and I don't have John's accent.  All the food was beautifully presented until we hacked into it and it felt a bit weird asking a professional chef for a few amendments if things weren't quite as we liked.  The people at the hotel were really helpful and we left feeling very full, unusually important and as chief wine taster I felt incredibly chilled.

A couple of days later the lady doing the invitations asked if I had completed my guest list.  As we had agreed that this information wasn't needed until the end of August I had of course done nothing.  I find doing this job the most difficult.  There are always people who you want to invite but you don't have the numbers, then there are those who you would rather leave out but you are obligated to invite, and do you invite the children or just the parents?  All the time you are having these dilemmas you know in the back of your mind that whatever you do someone will be offended or have a comment to make.  I have just about finished now, and am waiting on a couple of post codes before I pass the names over and can cross this job off my list.

Visiting the venue and arranging the invitations inspired me into action with other smaller things. I thought it would be nice to have confetti on the tables which matches the theme.  Getting slightly OCD I was trawling through listings on Google until I came across a company in America who had exactly what I wanted.  Checking with them they said they would post to the UK which was great. I went and ordered 7 bags of confetti with each weighing maybe 10g, and expected postage to be more than the standard £2.95 but wasn't expecting $84!  An email to query this price was met with stony silence and so my search continues....

With the sun shining and the boys off school I think the next few weeks will be quiet on the Bar Mitzvah front.  The lessons will continue throughout the summer but otherwise it will quiet until September when the invitations go out and everything needs to be finalised, so for now I will enjoy the calm and not worry too much that I haven't even started looking for my all important dress.

Cox by Kate Lace

There is a new summer blockbuster just about to hit the shelves.  With perfect timing Cox, by Kate Lace is a story of  love and lust centred around rowing and ambitions of being part of the Olympic team.

At the centre of the story there are three main characters. Dan is a dark and handsome man who has come from nothing and works night and day to fulfil his ambitions and reach the pinnacle of his sport by rowing in the Olympics.  His nemesis is the rich and arrogant, but good looking and charming Rollo who's idea of a good time is seducing women and spending his money.  They may hate each other but when out rowing in the boat they work in perfect unison.  In to this heady mix of testosterone comes Amy.  She is the top notch Cox who catches the attention of both men and becomes involved in their battle as they fight to win the race of their lives.

When I started this book I knew nothing about rowing, but the story draws you into the athletes' world with the highs and lows of training, selection, winning races and dedication needed to be top of the sport. You agonise with the athletes when they lose and feel their joy when they win.  The tempo is fast and flowing and with plenty of sex, hunky bodies and lust going on this is one hot book.  It is the perfect holiday read.

The Weirder Side Of Wimbledon

Last week on the only hot day we had I was fortunate enough to go to Wimbledon.  It is a truly British experience from the Pimms and strawberries & cream, to the dress code of the players and officials, and the atmosphere in the grounds was buzzing.

Without any delays for rain I was able to watch four matches, two men's and two women's and whilst sitting there it struck me that some of the players' habits are quite weird!  They seem to have various idiosyncrasies that perhaps are missed when you watch on the television.  I am not mentioning names but you may know the player who feels a need to pull his shorts out of his bottom after every rally.  I am sure he could afford a bigger size!  Or there is the player who wipes the top of his hat with his towel after every shot, why?

The other thing which strikes me as odd is what they do with the tennis balls when they are serving.  After a shot perhaps only one ball has been used so they take a second.  This I understand, but why take a third or even a fourth?  They look at the tennis balls and then give two back.  What do they expect to see?  Are the tennis balls letting the players know which are better or more likely to give them an ace?  Sometimes when the players ask the ball boy for a ball they have none.  If they turn and walk about four paces they can ask the other ball boy to pass the ball, but they don't.  They get this second ball boy to roll the tennis balls to the first one and then take four so they can give two back!

With the weather being so hot (sorry to keep mentioning this), the need for a towel was genuine, but in the matches I watched the lower seeds all left their towels on a chair and only the higher seeds took theirs onto court.  It made me wonder if the higher your ranking the more you sweat!

Whilst the players were busy with their volleys and back hands I sat there and tried to make sure I watched as much tennis as I could, but often spectators leave half way through a match.  If you have bought tickets to (in my opinion) the best Grand Slam tournament of them all, why miss hours of the games?  You could see that most of those who stayed were genuine fans but there were a couple of ladies sitting behind us who didn't stop talking.  By the end of the afternoon their whole family history, holiday plans, leak in the house, ant problem and recent shopping trip were common knowledge to anyone sitting in the rows surrounding them.  I really wanted someone to have tennis rage and get them to be quiet.

However chattering ladies aside, as the sun set and I headed home I was grateful for the weather, happy to have watched some enjoyable matches and really pleased to have had an opportunity to be at Wimbledon,  especially as the strawberries there are definitely better than anywhere else.  Now I can't wait to put my name into the ballot next year and keep my fingers crossed.