No Competition for Me

Unfortunately I couldn't enter Saturday's competition, because there was no category of 'women doubles'. I don't really understand why, because until now there always had been.
I'm a bit disappointed because I was waiting for it very much. Nevertheless, I went to the courts to watch Dalma's matches since she played mixed doubles with her father. They played well and won, and I'm very glad about that.
Probably next time there will be women doubles too, but if not, I'm thinking about playing singles, I might have chance there as well. It's only the beginning of the outdoor season so I will have many opportunities, I'm sure.

The First Competition of the Year

It's the second half of April and we're playing tennis outdoors again. I'm very happy about this because it means that we can spend more time on the court and that competitions begin. The first amateur competition will be held tomorrow where I'm going to play doubles with Dalma.

Now, I'd like to play a little game with myself. I'll write down what results I expect to have and we'll see if I was right.

The things I should take into account are:

• It's going to be only our 3rd competition we enter, so we don't have much experience, whereas the other pairs, most of whom are older than us, do have routine
• I'm always very nervous at all kinds of competitions which influences my game in a bad way and if we have a little audience, I get more anxious even

But

• We played many matches in the last few months and I think we're getting used to it, and we improved somewhat tecnically as well
• Not only we're getting used to playing matches, but to playing together with Dalma, so we know each other's game well and can help each other on the court
• Among the other pairs there are mid-aged women who are not as fast as we are, and some of them didn't learn tennis from an official trainer, which means their technique is not so good

Considering all this, I'd say that we'll win a match or two but have little chance to win the whole competition. I don't know how many pairs will participate yet, but

• if about 5, we'll be around the 3rd
• if about 10, we'll be around the 5th or 6th placing

Somewher in the middle that is.

So that's my guess.
We'll see the results soon.

The Unlucky Story of My Tennis Dress

At the end of 2008, Dalma and I decided to order a tennis dress via internet.
I think some background information is needed here:
Dalma is a member of our tennis group since 2006. We are the tennis-maniacs of the group, and we usually play double together.
Last spring she bought a black tennis skirt, which I liked very much, so I decided to buy one, too. We realized that it would be a good idea to play in the same tennis clothes, so we started to look for a top that both of us liked. We found one and played in that until one day we went to a competition to Budapest (as spectators), and as we had some time, we went to some sport shops and bought 2 new adidas tops. The problem was that now we had 3 tops but only one skirt, so we wanted to go to Budapest again and find a new skirt, because here in Pécs there aren't many tennis clothes available. Dalma's father usually goes to Pest because of his job, so we could travel by car. We did find a skirt - a beautiful white adidas skirt- and another top as well. Now we had 4 tops and 2 skirts which proved to be enough for a while. We went to 2 competitions (now as players) , and everybody liked our clothes, our trainer was also happy because the same clothes showed how much we liked playing together.
In December though, our tennis clothes became a bit boring and we wanted to have something new. The idea came: 'Why don't we buy a tennis dress?' The answer was: 'Because there are none in Hungary - neither in Pécs nor in Budapest.' Just out of curiosity (!) we searched for dresses on the net, and we found several websites from which you can order beautiful dresses wherever you live. We knew perfectly well that buying any kind of clothes without trying them on is a silly idea (especially if they are not very cheap), but we were very enthusiastic and couldn't get rid of the thought, so we decided to take the risk. The dress we liked the best was the one in which Ana Ivanovic plays this year. We found it on 2 sites, but only one of them had it in size L (that we expected to be our size), so we ordered from them. It was a U. S. tennis store's website, but the shipping wasn't so expensive, so there was no problem. They sent the dresses immediately, and we received them after a week. I was very happy until I tried it on. It was HUGE. Much bigger than I thought it could be. I was very disappointed, and I called Dalma right then to come and try it on. You should know that she is taller than me, but we ordered the same size because our skirts' size is the same. So she came, and although it seemed a little bit large, she said it was okay for her. I, however, had to send it back and ask for another dress - in size M- in exchange. I had a little problem at first because I didn't know how to do it, but I found it out soon. I went to the post office, posted it, and here came the next surprise - it was much more expensive than I expected. I still wasn't so upset until my brother asked: 'Wouldn't have it been cheaper to simply order a new one?' Then I did get upset because he was right, or at least it would have been about the same prize. And then I could have sold the big one to someone. But the mistake was done, so I hoped that at least they would get it and send the new dress. I waited and waited and waited. 3 weeks passed and nothing happened. I knew that it meant that they hadn't received it because they hadn't sent me an sms about my money taken off from my bank account. I was very nervous and thougt that my package had been lost. So I sent them an e-mail asking if they had received my dress. They wrote me back a few days later that they had received it and were going to send the new one. I calmed down a bit and became excited instead of nervous. The new dress arrived soon, and - surprise, surprise! - it was big, too. I couldn't believe it. I called Dalma to come and try it on, maybe it would be good for her. And it was. Now we thought 'that's something', but I still didn't have a dress. She bought the new dress from me and told me to order yet another one. I was very afraid to do that, but I can be easily convinced... We ordered an S-size dress, now from the other website - a British one- because the shipping was cheaper. Actually, Dalma ordered it because I didn't dare to tell it to my parents - my mother would have killed me, I was sure. The 'S-dress' arrived, I went to try it on, and - believe it or not - it was good. Not perfect, but good. Still a bit big (what an unbelievable sizing) but okay.
The story ends here (thank God), so both of us bought one dress for the prize of two ( that means about 160-180 USD), but we are the only ones in Hungary who have such a dress.
And we are happy... :)


If you are interested in the websites: www.midwestsports.com
www.prodirecttennis.com

Starting my blog

Mania.
It will be the key-word of my blog. I always have a mania, something - a sport, books, TV series - that I like very much, probably more than I should. I say this because these manias can mean throwing a lot of money out of the window (you'll see), or much attention and time taken away from more important things. I like having hobbies, though, and they can be useful as well.
I'm planning to write about them one by one, which is going to be the main part of my blog, but I'd also like to write about my life during the semester, a few interesting things that will happen to me. And about friends.
So that' s how my blog will look like. Next time I'll begin with the unlucky story of my tennis dress.