Panda Pops and Cartwheels circa 1992

Do you remember primary school?  Morning breaks and lunch times spent running round the playground playing ‘add’ or ‘bulldog’ and not realising that you were exercising and working off those purple Club bars and Panda Pops you’d devoured for tuck.  Those were the days…

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Summer lunch times were the best.  I always had a school dinner so I’d queue up, munch that then head out to play.  There was this crab apple tree I loved that had this super cute little wall running next to it and we used to play on the steps there.  But in summer, if it was dry, we got to go on the field.  It was a huge space running parallel above the playground, with trees lining one side providing shade and just loads of grass everywhere.  Pretty much the definition of a school field really.  The boys would play football and the girls would make daisy chains, or play that conkers game with that grass that has a sort of head (tell me someone knows what I mean from that amazing description…) Once, some friends and I sat in a circle with an older girl and sang the theme tune for Home and Away for the whole of lunch time.  Ah, I’ve never once been one of the cool kids, but at least now I’m kind of proud of that.

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And we used to do handstands.  And cartwheels.  You see kids doing these now and it’s just normal – kids do handstands.  They do cartwheels.  But think about it.  They actually throw their bodies over and stand up using their hands.  Or they throw their bodies over and land on one hand, then the other, then one leg and then the other.  What. The. Actual. F&ck.  How?!  The thought of even trying it now fills me with fear – I’m not meant to be that way round and how on earth can my wrists support my weight and not crush and crumble beneath me?  How do I not fall, crack my head open and bleed to death on my living room floor?

But I just watched a 66 year old woman on Britain’s Got Talent perform a DJ set from a spaceship.  For real.  So apparently, in 2017, anything is possible.  And based on this I’ve decided to make myself relearn how to do a handstand.  Be prepared for progress posts and pictures that may or may not be accompanied by expletives… as always, any tips or fellow Wannabe Handstand Queens more than welcome!

Nic X

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