Dear Friends,

As Penny has told you she is having a well-earned break from sending you her weekly letter. We hope we can all live up to her high standards in the following weeks.

Like Penny I have been following a lot of the Olympics; I am full of admiration for the dedication the sportsmen and women put into the training for their sports. We sit in our comfy chairs cheering them on, hopefully to victory; do we think about the hard work going into achieving this ? Pushing themselves into going out on cold ,dark mornings day after day. A lot of them do this on top of holding down jobs to help finance their sport with no funding in place. How much sweeter are victories when you have gone through pain and hardships to attain them.

What I find amazing is the achievements of our sports people in our small island compared to the might and size of other countries. We are a very resilient nation as was proved during both World Wars. How much stronger are we when we have faith and God supporting us. I see a lot of the sports people kneeling to thank God after they have performed. Something else has happened recently in many sports and entertainments. A lot of youngsters have pulled out of competitions because of the mental pressures they are under. Whether it is due to media attention or abusive social communications, the strain of keeping up standards in their particular area of achievement has proved too much. Another pressure comes from the huge amounts of money that are paid to many of them. In our younger days when a lot of sports were played by amateurs, or for small financial rewards, it was for the fun of it. They didn't all have agents pushing for more money, and stayed loyal to their clubs.

I remember my sporting days at an all-girls school and we were fortunate to have our own sports field, netball courts and nearby tennis courts. We played hockey and I was put in goal, despite being

short and skinny in those days. I took one look at the ball coming towards me and just leapt in the air. I much preferred playing netball and tennis, much less intimidating than hockey sticks flying past you. Now in later years I have played bowls and been fortunate enough to have won Club competitions and seen my name on the winners board in the Clubhouse. I was always happier when playing with others rather than by myself. In life I think most of us are happier when being with others rather than alone. Like our Prime Time group over time you feel a sense of family and support in good and bad times.

Now a majority of the population has been doubly jabbed and life is slowly resuming, perhaps not to how life was before the pandemic, we can look forward to meeting face to face again. I hope the Quizzes and chats we had during lockdown helped some of you feel less isolated and raised your moods with some laughs, and perhaps you learnt something new.

I hope you can all enjoy the rest of the summer and look forward to meeting again in small groups to start with. How time flies these days it will soon be autumn again. My daughter Amy will be 40 next week and that makes me feel older, where have the years gone?

Looking forward to seeing you all soon.

Love and virtual hugs to you all.

Di

Di Drudge

Primetime Team Member