Second weekend in Somerset

by Geraden

Last weekend was my second weekend in Somerset: similar event – a two day netball tournament for my wife's club. Different experience, though. First off, my wife made it plain that she would appreciate it if I did not wear tights. The girls at this tournament are three or four years younger than the ones last weekend, and many were with their mums or dads.

There were also some problems over the accommodation. Last weekend my wife and I, together with our almost teenage daughter (13 this week) and her school friend had a chalet to ourselves.

This week we were taking a much bigger party with more grown up helpers, and it did not seem to make sense to have a four-room chalet just for the three of us (no school friends this time). There was much discussion in advance about the sleeping arrangements, and one of the options I was not too keen on was for me to share a chalet with the male coaches and umpires. I made my views known!

However just before we left home, my wife led me to understand that the accommodation problems had been sorted out satisfactorily and that we two would share a chalet with two netball players and the mother of one of them. My daughter would share with other girls in her own age team. I particularly asked whether we should pack separate bags for ourselves, but my wife said one bag would be fine. 

When we got there, the players' mother raised objections to sharing a chalet with me. The chalet consists of a kitchen-diner with a double bedroom, two single bedrooms and a bathroom off. As a devout Roman Catholic this woman considered it wrong for herself and her daughter to share accommodation with a man. She told me to "sling yer 'ook". To say I was displeased would be putting it mildly, as I thought objections of this kind had been sorted out in advance.

I am of course much too polite to have said to the woman concerned what I felt, but this is my blog, and I can rant here if I want to.

WARNING - RANT!

All of this begs the question: if a man is a risk to women and children, is he more likely to be a risk if he is sleeping with his wife, or is he more likely to be a risk if he is on the loose with 500+ females from age 10 upwards around the place? If this is a child protection issue, this mother has got it very wrong!

On the other hand if it is a religious issue, she needs to learn what the Church really teaches:  that married couples have both a right and a duty to sleep together.  If it is wrong to split a married couple – and I believe that, except in extreme circumstances, it is wrong to do so – using bad theology as a justification is doubly offensive. 

END OF RANT

Needless to say, I did sleep in a different chalet, with our male coach, the father of one of the girls (whose wife did not come) and a married couple who were both coaches/umpires.  But sleeping bare-legged on a 3 foot wide top bunk was somehow lacking in attraction compared with cuddling up in tights with my wife. But in the end one has to make allowances for tender consciences.

So all in all I did not get the opportunity to wear tights openly last weekend, and it was too warm to wear them secretly under trousers. As a result, I ended up with a bad case of cramps in my left calf muscle, which have still not gone away completely. That is despite me opening my new pair of M&S firm support tights to sleep in when we got home. The compression on my aching legs was wonderfully soothing, but I shall need to wear them for another couple of nights before my legs get back to normal.

links: technorati