It’s always hectic getting ready for an international tennis trip no matter how many times one has done it. Did I pack socks? (Last week the answer was…no. ) Passport, check; Phone😲 wait, where was my phone?!?

Yesterday after an all day rain Sunday, Sunday night and then into Monday morning the courts finally dried. Vesna McKenna and I were hitting when Susan Wright (who was visiting Mary Ginnard) and Mary arrived…we played impromptu doubles, and when Mary had to teach, we switched to some “King of the Court” singles. (Susan said this wad her first ever practice on clay when a clay tournament wasn’t imminent.) We stopped because a junior tournament was taking most of the courts. After lunch I realized my phone was missing….yikes! And of course there was a match on the court. I quickly looked on the tables by our court…no phone. I asked around, no phone turned in..

What to do? I had an old iPhone, so I got a new SIM card (no cost), cell service restored, but the lost phone still bugged me. I went for one more look….and of course the last match of the day was on Court 2, the one we’d hit on hours earlier….And it went the distance, of course. (The loser, a girl of about 10 was sobbing uncontrollably and lying on the court afterwards, and her mom had to make her get up and shake hands…definitely an Aga Radwanska type of handshake.) The good news though, was that my phone was on a chair (it had been lying under a backpack when I looked earlier)…and one of my singles sticks was in the net. The kids played for five hours on that court with one singles stick up!

Today I got a working SIM card installed and all is good. After all I wanted to use my shiny new international unlimited texting plan next week. 😉

Off to see tennis at the O2, play tennis at Wimbledon (on clay, but still) and attend a meeting….and I’ll try to keep track of my phone while so doing.