I’m just back from a weekend in the Center Parcs village in Sherwood Forest where myself, Fliss, Kieran, and Elle enjoyed a weekend away from it all.
While not as action packed as it could have been, we did manage a couple of frantic sessions of badminton and visits to the swimming pool too. Fliss and I also ventured to the driving range in order to slice golf balls wildly across the horizon with a three iron, but with the exceptionally windy weather we had to forego tennis and the other outdoor activities available.
The villa we stayed in was pretty neat, with an army of ducks, swans and other birds constantly visiting the patio area seeking the odd tasty morsel. In fact, the facilities in general were very good, with the sports center being of a very high standard and the healthy vibe meaning that all of the bars were pretty smoke free. The swimming pool was good fun, with an outdoors section featuring spa areas, a freezing plunge-pool, and a “rapids” flume-a-like thing that swept you down a succession of ramps until your elbows and knees were nicely skinned!
I braved the plunge pool in a temporary moment of insanity on our first night and man it was frickin’ freezing. How I didn’t catch Fliss‘ cold I don’t know, as she had to suffer through the whole weekend sniffing and snorting with a blocked up nose. To her credit she still tackled every activity, which is a good effort considering going anywhere meant jumping on our bikes and cycling there.
The novelty of cycling around the village actually wore off quite swiftly for me, it was fun and all that, but by the second day I had a sore ass due to lack of time spent on the bike beforehand, and after that I just had to grin and bear each jorney to and from the villa.
If anything the weekend has highlighted how drastically out of shape I am, though. The first game of badminton left me with several pulled muscles and after our second session on Sunday my legs and back were really seizing up. Fortunately our bedroom in the villa had a spa-tub in the bathroom, and a hot dip in that helped ease the aches and pains.
Even when I was aching all over on Sunday evening, though, it was a good kind of ache. The kind of ache that told me I’d gotten some exercise, and now that I’ve kick started my fitness I’ll need to keep at it. So as soon as it’s not painful to move I’ll get myself down to the weight bench and keep up the good work. :o)
