It seems fitting that the bunch of girls I meet up with every now & then to go litter picking on the Common, are mates from my Wimbledon Hockey days. Or The Womblers, as we named our WhatsApp group. I've known Jo, George & Clarkie for – oh god – 33ish years, since I first joined the Club post0uni. (And yes, I did just calculate that as being only 23 years, then realised I had wishfully lost an entire decade..)
One of those great examples where we are all so different job-wise, but nonetheless the catching up, the chat, the p*ss taking and the laughter flow. Jo is a costumier, making outfits for Hollywood films, stage and places like the Globe Theatre. Georgina was a solicitor but has retrained as a massage therapist. Clarkie used to fill vending machines in London at 4am in the morning and has reinvented herself as Clarkie Cars – though still insanely frequently still to be found getting up in the middle of the night to drive people to the airports.
And we had a guest appearance this week from Swighty – who works for a Diving company – currently going through cancer treatment with hopefully better times ahead.
Typically for the hockey girls, a walk and litter pick through the woods also had to be punctuated by impromtu games – this time curling on the giant puddle ice. One stick on the far bit of ice as the puck thing to aim at and 2 shots each to play Slightly scuppered by Jo's dog Django nicking several of the sticks but a winner anyway…
Always good to see the girls – got another bin liner of crud off the Common, too, so everyone's a winner x