Cardboard boxes and an out of control plant reaching to the other side of the narrow alley pleasantly spice up the postcardish view. The "Torre" itself is in the background.
Vacation without tennis, is it already getting to me? The cheap "speed tennis" kit and the wall of the beautiful house in the hills of Adriatic Italy end up as collateral damage. Shadow swings, literally, at the end.
Maybe I have a new apprentice. My 1.5 year old nephew likes the racquet and the ball. Still needs to learn how to hit the latter with the former. I'll be about 70 when he wins Wimbledon.
I use Alu Power 1.25 at 27kg on my Clash 100L. For the record: zero arm issues. Alternating between 3 identical racquets it's tough to tell how many hours the string lasts. Usually I don't break it, maybe 10 to 20 per cent break. My shots are relatively flat and I'm not a big breaker of strings, also don't need and don't like super spinny strings.
After 9 months of almost exclusive use I still don't understand Alu Power. It feels great at the start, rigid and with good control. That's what I need in this soft frame. Sometimes it has a tension drop-off after a couple of hours but then stabilizes and lasts very well. Sometimes it doesn't drop off. Sometimes it drops off and then doesn't stabilize. I can only guess it's connected to the stringer pre-stretching it or not. The extreme heat this summer could have affected it too, the tension loss seemed bigger or happened faster. I'm going to try Polystar Classic, my string from the early 90s into the late 2000s. I probably played more than half of my tennis with it and was pleasantly surprised it's still available. But I haven't played it in over 15 years, the last time with my beloved Kuebler Inertial Light. So no idea if it even works on modern racquets.
Can anybody relate to my Alu Power confusion and maybe enlighten me, and does anybody play Polystar Classic? I would really like to settle down and stop trying out strings. The feel of Alu Power when new is really it, but the unpredictable tension loss is starting to get on my nerves.
I've been fasting to lose weight in the last 3 months. It was only slightly more than intermittent fasting, just skipping single days and fasting from one dinner to dinner the day after the next. The resul is very good, I lost 20kg and reached my target weight. Keeping my weight with just one fasting day per week seems to be working, too, so I'm quite happy. My question is this: I used to trim my hair and beard with a hair trimmer once per week. At that point it usually felt a bit longer than I like. What I like is close to bald, basically. Recently I noticed that my weekly trim results in less hair shed. Also my hair and beard don't feel "too long" after 1 week and I'm often tempted to delay the trim for a few days. Can fasting reduce the pace at which my beard and hair grow? I have seen the doctor for a checkup just this week and she was full of praise, bloodwork was "spectatcularly good" too.
Mixed in some serve & volley and even chip & charge today. Just like in olden times. I guess nobody does this anymore? Still feels cool - if it works out. Chip & charge led to some improvisation at the net, as it often does. The drop volley was intended, honestly. The last point shows some defensive effort with my lighter body while my brother throws away his well-earned point.
Longer video: https://youtu.be/c4856S3IRjM
Die Mütze ist schon voller Haare vom langen Warten auf die Saison
Recently I saw a video posted here about beautiful drives in Iceland, so here is a compilation of mine from July 2025. I added screenshots from Google maps with the location before each part of the video. In the first one I was driving from Laugarvatn to the south coast. I don't remember where exactly this scenery was, so maybe someone knows. Next there's the approach to Sólheimajökull glacier. Then the drive towards Ólafsvík and back across the mountain range of Snæfellsnes. Finally Þingvellir, I drove towards the lakes.
As a German who is used to driving somewhat fast, I had an amazing time driving quite slowly in Iceland and soaking in the views. I was afraid of getting fined billions of Krona for speeding and having to work it off in a lava cave mining basalt for the rest of my life. So I always went very slowly, which didn't prevent a near crash (not on camera) with two sheep. That was on the gravel road to Viðgelmir, which is a lava cave. Hopefully I didn't slow down traffic too much.
I hit with my brother and my cousin today and the difference in timing and the bounce of the ball was tricky at times. Do you prefer hitting with the same player all or most of the time or do you prefer variety?
Naina is very excited to see a fellow orange right outside the window. Her tail here is at its fluffiest yet. Disclaimer / empty promise: I will clean the windows when she has calmed down.
Not surprisingly it takes a little while to internalize that my body can move more after losing some 15kg by now. I'm also 51 now, so no rush please. Surprisingly it was the serve that felt most improved today. I managed to keep the left foot in place. It used to slide forward and for years I've had to set up 10cm behind the baseline to avoid a foot fault. Today my left foot stayed planted and it made for a more accurate serve. We managed some fun shots.
Naina enjoying her soft carpet. She gets scared momentarily by her tabby nemesis jumping off something in the background.
Not referring to softer strings, the 13kg were shed from my body through disciplined meal-skipping during the last 2 months or so. For the first time I could really feel the weight loss on the court. The resulting tennis wasn't really that different, but movement required less effort. After a long rally there was no worried look at the wristband, no need to play stationary tennis to recover. It's not a Wilson Defiler by the way, only my red Clash. And I like that one BH chip return I made against a really good serve by my brother. Who is coming off running the marathon in a triathlon relay last weekend, so hats off to him.
Glowing in the sun or showing her patented one-paw-out loaf, Naina always looks a bit sceptical
Nature has reclaimed this canal over time: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludwig_Canal
It could be a very stressful French Open final for both players, who each might have the opportunity of a lifetime. So we took to the court before for some stress-free hitting and were rewarded. The Yannik Noah-esque elevation for the smash is my highlight. I also hit a couple of backhands very late but still somehow made them. Plus there's a very pretty volley and a very mean sideways slice.