And I digress... Volleyball

Have been roped into taking some sessions at the drama club of a college in town by a friend who likes running workshops in schools and colleges. The idea was sessions twice a week - Monday and Wednesday afternoons. So far, in 10 days we've only actually run one proper session. It's not for want of trying. Rather I find I'm caught up in an age-old debate that runs across schools and other esteemed institutions worldwide - that of drama versus sport.

Drama club is at the same time as weekly games (bad time-tabling). Last week Boyce took me to the college - code name: the purple place, as everything seems to be a bold shade of the colour. We were told all our students were away for sports. So we left. Then after one successful session we came back to be told that there was a clash again and that they were off doing trials for sports day. But please would we come back on Wednesday and they're so sorry for the inconvenience.

So today we arrived and joined the students on a bus to the playing field as agreed. The only reason I thought it a good idea to run a drama workshop on the edge of the sports field was that the room we'd used last time was v cramped & echoey.

From the minute we arrived at the playing field it was obvious that drama club wasn't really going to happen. Disorganised chaos

reigned, with one group playing basketball, one netball, one volleyball and another tug-o-war.

I didn't care too much, it's so long since I was at school that it felt quite nostalgic and fun. Plus although it's been ages since I last played volleyball, I somehow fancied I wasn't bad at it. Before long, we were asked if we wanted to join anything and I said volleyball. And so it began.

Not only did it become clear very quickly that no particular rules were being used and there were some unusual ideas about how volleyball is played, but for all my enthusiasm, I was appallingly bad whenever I touched the ball. Embarrassingly so.

I soon clocked that there was a fairly well-built girl on my team, who was unimpressed by my performance. Noticing this, I asked her name and was told she was Tracey. I think volleyball may be her place to shine, she definitely ruled the roost and pummelled the squashy ball...and I was obviously cramping her style!

There followed half an hour of me trying, failing and then with each blunder apologising to Tracey for the mistake! Nevertheless, I stuck it out for about 90mins and I think I improved over time. Near the end a male teacher decided to join and the purpose of the game became to make him look good. No matter where the ball was on the court, he went flying after it, yelling at the students to get out of the way of his next moment of glory! I found it hilarious. A totally chaotic afternoon all round.

Sports day is this Friday and they seemed crestfallen that I won't be making it.

The whole afternoon was surreal!