Today I practiced for the first time in Finland at the Talin Center. The courts aren’t bad, though being indoors it is pretty fast and low bouncing and not super light, partly because the ceilings are dark wood. However the courts are individual ones with enough room to run. The ceilings are pretty low.

It’s a maze of courts and lots was going on today; the kids were having lessons and playing and the team players were practicing; men were coming through with hammers and staple guns to put up banners on the court where we were playing; audio tests were being conducted (and the sound does carry indoors).

I hit with Shelly Works and Fran Chandler from the 50s team for a while then Judy Newman showed up 5 minutes before their hour hit was up and Tina came over and Tina and I played a set of doubles against a combo of Judy and Fran and Judy and Shelly which was fun. Tina and I played points for a while then our time was up. I met up with several friends I hadn’t seen for a while, Jenny Cerff and Karin Boshoff from So Africa; Ellen Neumann from Germany (below) and some Finnish players, Jane and Ann from GBR and others, and also most of the USA men’s teams, all of which are playing at our venue. I took lots of photos but my computer’s card reader failed tonight so I have to wait till tomorrow to load images…and since there will be an opening ceremony and lots of photos it may be a few days before they are processed. Technical difficulties!

Shelly, Fran and I took the bus from the tennis center to the main bus station (though actually we overshot our stop but only by one stop). It was a good trip other than we didnt’ know exactly where to get off. We do know now where to get off.

Vesna McKenna arrived tonight too and settled in. Susan, Vesna and I went to the grocery store and I cooked a quick dinner for all but Vesna who has some special dietary constraints. Spaghetti didn’t fit in but we all liked it and Susan had her chopped salad.

That’s it for today…opening ceremonies tonight and hopefully I’ll find an SD reader tomorrow as I do know where the shop is for such things here already.