We arrived home on Tuesday afternoon after a fantastic two week holiday in Altea on the Costa Banca at the Hotel Cap Negret. The hotel is around half a mile from the resort and a little further to Altea old town. Even more convenient is the tram station ten minutes walk away that gives cheap access to a range of towns from Alicante to Denia. Altea is just down the coast from Calpe where we spent a very enjoyable week in March. It’s a great area for both Elaina’s cycling and my table tennis! As well as catching up with friends from the Calpe U3A Table Tennis group I also contacted Altea Table Tennis Club who train three times a week on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays between 8pm and 10pm. I managed five very hard but enjoyable sessions with them as well as going along to watch their A and B teams play one Sunday lunchtime.
Altea Old Town
Calpe U3A Table Tennis Group
Altea Table Tennis Club
Returning to Ayrshire has been a bit of a shock with persistent rain since we got back compared to 14 days of constant sunshine with temperatures ranging from 26 to 31 degrees Celsius! So much so that we have decided to return for a week in December just after my birthday! Usually we would book a cottage in either Yorkshire or the Highlands for a long weekend but to be honest a week away in the sun isn’t that much more expensive especially when Jet2 give you a discount code for £100!
But before then we have the small matter of the ITTF Parkinson’s World Championship in Crete in the first week of November. As final preparation I am playing in the Edinburgh Banded Tournament on Sunday 22 October at Bathgate Academy. As with the recent Veteran’s tournament I have no great expectation of winning many games but it will be a good chance to get some real match practice and test my serving. While playing in Altea I have been really trying to serve normally with some degree of success – only occasionally have I had to resort to using the bat instead of my right hand to throw the ball up.
I am unsure what to expect in Crete. As those in the Parkinson’s table tennis world know there has been tension between the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) and PingPongParkinson (PPP) resulting in two World Championships this year. By all accounts the PPP event in Austria was well attended (albeit with a large German/Austrian contingent) and I have doubts that the Crete championships will have the same number of participants especially as it isn’t as accessible as mainland Europe. On the other hand the ITTF tournament is offering a fully inclusive accommodation/transportation package which should make it easier to socialise in the evenings as most players will be staying in the same hotel. Whatever happens it will be good to play in a World Championship with other Parkinson’s players and hopefully enjoy some more sunshine!
Ayrshire Tiger 