Day 249 - Flying Machines

black ops?

I was rudely awoken this morning to the sound of a large helicopter throbbing away somewhere in the locality...but it wasn't this one!

As I drifted through that strange world between asleep and awake, so the sound of the helicopter grew, then faded, then grew again.  After this had gone on for some 20 minutes, curiosity dragged me out of bed, and I looked out of the window only to find...nothing at all!

I could still hear the pulsing sound, but there was no sign of any obvious source.

Taking the camera, I went out into the garden to see if I could spy it off in the distance somewhere, and maybe grab a photo of the day...but after a few minutes scouring the skies, and peering through various foliage off in the direction of the test track up on the ridge behind us, I eventually got a brief glance of a large, pale chopper right up on the horizon, perhaps over the test track.

It was only a fleeting glimpse though, before it went behind a tree and I lost sight of it, never to see it again...I could still hear it though, so kept trying a variety of vantage points hoping for a photo opp, but none came.

Then, just as I was about to give up, by odd coincidence there came from the south the sound of another, smaller helicopter...turning round I saw this sleek black Agusta A109 Power Elite (you can easily find these things out on the internet just using the serial number - who knew?!) approaching.

Trying to focus on a single small object in the sky is no mean feat, especially when it's travelling at speed.  It took a few moments to find it in the viewfinder before I could finally focus and rattle off a few shots as it passed overhead.

I have no idea why the activity of course, but here's another odd coincidence...we were talking cars at work today, and I was enthusing about the MkIV Supra 3.0tt that I owned for a few years from 1998...I had it for 5 years and did 100,000 miles in it, and it was the best car I've ever owned, by about a bazillion miles.

It looked pretty much like this, only with stock wheels rather than the upgrades this one is wearing:

beauty of the beast

For me, it's just about the most aesthetically pleasing car ever made...I just love it. 

3.0l straight 6 with twin turbo's, pulling 326bhp - the thing was an absolute beast.  It was limited to 165mph, although it was geared to do over 200mph. 

Sure enough, on the one occasion I tested this (on an empty motorway in the middle of the night, I hasten to add), it accelerated all the way to the rev limiter, and sat there comfortably at 165mph for as long as I dared keep my foot down. 

Utterly gorgeous machine, my dream car, and I have no regrets, despite the enormous amount of money it consumed, both to buy and to keep on the road...it was totally reliable in true Toyota style, but the rear tyres cost a few hundred pounds each and only did about 12,000 miles...and I only got around 300 miles from a full tank of fuel - I seemed to be filling it up every few days for those five years.

So just now, I wondered if there was something on up at the Heritage Motor Museum (next door to the test track) which could explain this morning's events...

There's no sign of anything that might involve a helicopter...but the next event on there is this Sunday...

It's the MkIV Supra Owners Club meet!

I wonder if, to round this little story off, I might get a glimpse of my old friend, that beautiful black Supra?

Apparently I'm still very fond of my old beast!

I guess the chances of it being there, and then of me seeing it passing by (I won't be attending) are slim to nothing...but as I said last night - I can dream!

B-)

Day 248 - Origins

the man, the machine

Today I was reminded of a promise I made way back near the beginning of this blog (week one in fact), to explain who Jonny Hendrix is (and why!)...

To those brave souls who venture past this second paragraph to the murkier depths below, I did also point out that it's not that interesting...you have been warned!

So way back in the day (probably around 2002), a couple of friends and I started dabbling in a PC-based F1 Racing Simulator, Grand Prix Legends.

Within the GPL programme, you have to give yourself a Driver Name, and this was the name you raced under.   We decided to try to come up with names appropriate to 1967 playboy Formula One drivers...

And so the dashing Wiggy Harris, the uppity Quentin Fortescue and the legendary Jonny Hendrix were born!

GPL is known to be one of the most realistic driving sims available, and on top of that, Grand Prix cars of 1967 were very hard to drive...they had big, powerful engines, and hard, non-sticky tyres...and it was the last year before aerodynamics started to be used.  

The result was a car that was insanely fast in a straight line...but could neither brake nor turn very easily at all. 

It's perhaps not surprising that half of the drivers who competed in 1967 were killed in motorsports accidents. 

Here's a video that gives a bit of an impression of what it was like (ignore the music!)...

Anyway after much practise, Wiggy and I decided to join an online league, and so we joined the GBGPL scene and started racing competitively on the internet. 

As my character in the game was called Jonny Hendrix, and all my car setups, lap times and whatnot were logged against this name, I had to continue to use it in races...but it quickly became clear that the other drivers were confused by me using one name in race, and another in forums and chatrooms. 

So I created an email address for Jonny, and started using it as my online persona. 

I met some of the other drivers in RealLife(TM), and it struck me that there was a whole social group that only knew me as Jonny. 

I did quite well in the league, winning the championship for two consecutive seasons, before taking the slowest car available for the following season, and coming second overall. 

I think I still hold one or two world records (for particular cars at particular tracks - very obscure tracks, obviously...).

Anyway, after two or three years of regular competition, I retired gracefully...and without competition I quickly lost motivation and gave up driving almost entirely. 

But the Jonny Hendrix alter ego persists to this day, and being inclined to privacy online, I use it as my main online identity.  

In fact, if you looked up the RealMe(TM) you'd struggle to find anything at all, except for an Engineered By credit on a single track on an equally obscure Cozy Powell tribute album...

Good luck finding that!

I consider it one of my biggest achievements - to have spent 20 years heavily using the internet, since the very early days of the World Wide Web, and to have virtually no online presence...

The great Jonny Hendrix is alive and well though, and these days can usually be found on a rock somewhere, or otherwise pretending that he really is a young playboy...

Hey, I can dream!

:-p

PS no I didn't really use the helmet when sim-racing online!

Day 247 - Relaxed Ruminants

roe doe or doe roe?

Our evening walks have tailed off lately, so even though the evening was a little windy and rain threatened, we made the effort to take a stroll down the lane to see what's happening out there.

We needed to get going anyway, as we're both still feeling a little tired, worn and generally under the weather, and we were in danger of flaking out for the evening. 

It's Week 3, Day 1 of our Pull Up Challenge too, so we need to muster some energy to stick with that particular (or puh-chick-ullah, as the Tai Chi guru pronounces it) programme. 

So we wandered down the lane listening to the oddly persistent shrieks of a buzzard across the field, and trying to spot where it was and what was up with it. 

We never did spot the buzzard, but this lovely doe roe was bimbling around the edge of the field, and seemed curiously unperturbed by our presence (albeit we were partially obscured by the hedgerow). 

I took about a bazillion photo's, which weren't great in the main, as the light was poor.  But I quite liked these two, which I tried to frame a little differently to the usual target in the middle of the shot framing.

big ears

I couldn't decide which of these two I preferred, so I'll leave that up to you, if it even matters.

We also met this strangely brazen sheep...it had an unusual and slightly unsettling bravado, compared with the usual run away if anyone looks at you attitude of our local lambs.

one shoop

I wasn't even zoomed in for this shot, she was only about 3m away from me...weird!

A propos of nothing much, if the singular of geese is goose, then shouldn't the singular of sheep be shoop?   Several sheep, one shoop...makes sense to me....

Anyway we arrived home and immediately got stuck in to the pull up thing...it was hard tonight, as we are still sore from climbing on Saturday...but we completed our sets, painful as it was.  

For some reason my schedule totalled 3 more pull ups than I've done in a 10 minute session before, which seemed quite a steep increase in difficulty. 

But I just about managed it, so with hindsight I'm treating it as significant progress!

Tired and hungry now though...

:-)

Day 246 - Taking Chances

high speed rainbow

We've had mixed fortunes today, but the most important things are all positive...so this rainbow sums things up nicely, with its uncanny ability to conjure incredible beauty out of the grayest of days.

Most significantly, my nephew Chris is now back in the UK, so we had an opportunity to go and see him.   

The Specialist Burns Unit he's in is an hour and half north of here, and my mum wanted to go to see Chris too, so we picked her and Mike up in Coventry on the way.

I hadn't managed to get hold of anyone to confirm exactly where Chris was, but I guessed that he'd be in the Children's Burns Unit at the Queens Medical Centre in Nottingham.

When even the hospital ward didn't answer their phone, we decided to take a chance and just head on up there to see what was what. 

Parking at the hospital in Nottingham on a Sunday afternoon was as nightmarish (and expensive!) as you'd expect...but we found a spot, and went off hunting the Children's Burns Unit...eventually we located it, down a dim and dingy corridor...only to find WARD CLOSED in big bold letters all over the door...that's probably why they weren't answering!  

Enquiring on a nearby ward, they had no idea where Chris was, but helpfully suggested that he might be in the Adult's Burns Unit, and said they'd try to find him for us.

"Sure enough," they said, "he's in the Adult Burns Unit...".

"Great," says I, "so where's that then?"

"Oh, that's at an entirely different hospital on the other side of the city...".

So off we trekked to the other hospital, where the parking was much more accessible, if no less expensive. 

Chris wasn't in the Adult Burns Unit either, but we were assured that he was due momentarily.  Within 15 minutes or so he was wheeled back up to the ward, and we got to see him at last.

Apparently he'd been taken straight into Critical Care yesterday, then into Theatre for five hours today to have his dressings changed, wounds inspected and cleaned, then back to Critical Care to recover from the anaesthetic.

To cut a long story a little less long, we saw Chris and he's making the most remarkable recovery.  Medical staff expressed a level of amazement at the amount he's recovered in the last week since the accident.

He was morphined up and suitably mellow, but he was polite and chatty, and generally the lovely young lad that he always is (though I've heard his parents express a different sentiment!)...he didn't seem (to us) to be particularly traumatised by his experience, and overall he seemed fairly accepting of the situation. 

Of course he has significant challenges ahead, but he's a strong young man with a strong and supportive family around him...I'm confident he'll come through this ok.  

Hang in there, BirdZombie!

Otherwise, all day the weather was changeable and threatening.

We managed to mostly miss the rain, until the way home, when skies were dark and foreboding off to the East, and simultaneously bright and sunny off to the West...producing this remarkable rainbow...this photo really doesn't do it justice - it was spectacular.

Also, Anna took the photo through the car window whilst we were doing 90mph (erm, I mean 70mph, of course) homewards on the M1. 

And then there's this, which will mean nothing to any of you...

oh yeah baby

This is my Galaxy S3, which is currently unusable in that I can't connect to a mobile network with it.  Otherwise, it functions perfectly...although recently it's been a bit sluggish and I've had one or two annoying issues.

So for a long time, I've been wanting to install a decent custom ROM on my phone...that is, to completely replace the software on it, to remove its Samsung-ness, and its Orange-ness, and treat it simply as a small computer. 

It's a relatively complicated process, involving a bit of hackery to break all the little locks that the manufacturers and mobile suppliers put on the phone to stop you treating it as though it's your own property, to do with as you will (the cheek!)...

There are several stages, and each is risky in the sense that it can potentially break your phone if it goes wrong. 

It's also a sensitive process that relies on perfect communications and agreements between the exact combination of software on your PC and the exact make and model (and sub-model, and region it was made for).

For the longest time I've been trying to prepare my phone for this process, but little niggles have always got in the way...I've never felt comfortable enough to kick the phone hard enough to get past the problems, knowing that I might break my phone, which could then cause a new series of tedious and frustrating problems I'd have to deal with... 

Anyway, this morning I realised that whilst I've got the use of an alternative, and I'm no longer in contract, it's a good time to give it that beating that it needs.

So I forced the issue, took some chances, and this morning I finally got this fully customised ROM onto my phone!

Initial impressions are that it looks great, the phone feels fast and smooth, and I'm looking forward to tweaking it to make it look and behave how I want.

Also, I slept for 12 hours last night, compared to my usual 6 or so, and today I've mostly felt tired and run down.

And I've got to be in work early tomorrow - we're expecting a hectic day...

Yay...

:-/

Day 245 - Predator and Prey

spider eat spider

Our house is full of spiders at this time of year, but this is one way their numbers are whittled down.

We have no issue with having spiders around...the alternative is to have an abundance of flying insects, which is infinitely more annoying.  At least the spiders just get on with their own business and don't get up in your face all the time!

There are two main species or genus in our house - the house spider (Tegenaria) and the cellar spider (sometimes known as the daddy long legs spider, although personally we reserve that name for the Crane fly)...

This photo shows a cellar spider predating on a house spider, as is their wont...the house spider is thicker in the leg and a little hairy looking, and looks squat and strong, compared to the long, skinny, feeble looking legs and body of the cellar spider...and yet cellar spiders regularly prey on house spiders, and not the other way around!

It's as though Jason Statham is easily taken out by Stephen Merchant, through the careful application of lanky limbs (and possibly a sharp wit).

This cellar spider is fairly large, with a leg span of about 2 inches, and it was hiding on the side of the toilet cistern this morning.  

It's notable that the cellar spider proliferates at certain times, when it has a lot of young, and for a while our bathroom will be teeming with them...but then their numbers gradually diminish (coincidentally?!), just as two or three of them get really big in the body...and of course their growth rate is directly correlated with the amount of prey they consume...

I'll leave you to work out what's going on there!

In other news, one of the more disturbing elements of both living in the country, and cat ownership, is the extensive killing that you have to witness...

deadvol3 II (or is it III?)

This morning, Loz had only been out for two minutes when she unceremoniously dumped the large, very pregnant female vole, twitching and choking, on the floor in the doorway.

Momentarily, the poor little mite gave up and passed over, but just to add a final flourish of horror to the situation, for a few seconds I could see the young writhing in her belly...

Not the most pleasant way to start the day...

Finally, brighter news - the BirdZombie has today been flown back to England, and by now he should be in Nottingham Burns Unit...we'll be taking a trip up there tomorrow to see how he is...

So far, our worst fears have not been realised - here's hoping things continue in that vein...

:-)

Day 244 - Game of Phones

call me (probably won't answer)

I've been having a bit of a game with my phone lately, and whilst trying to find one that might work, I came across this little lot.

After suffering years of abuse and mistreatment by Orange (18 years and 8 months, to be precise), my patience eventually ran out and I decided to jump ship. 

There are no phones available that are even remotely good enough to tempt me to spend £500 on them, so I'm going SIM-only for a while and sticking with my faithful Galaxy S3.

That means I can go to any other network and just pay a small monthly charge for data and calls, right?

Wrong!

The first place I went, Virgin Mobile, refused me credit!!  This forced me to go the credit agency, where I had to sign my life away in order to be told that my credit record is perfect.

WTF Virgin Mobile?!

It was for a £10 per month deal, and I'd given them my card details to pay the £10 - and they refuse me based on a perfect credit record?!

Well, that's them out of the picture for good.

Fortunately, 3 agreed to do me the great honour of allowing me to pay them to use their network, so I got my PAC code and asked to transfer my number.  

Turns out my phone is locked to Orange, so I hunted around for a free unlocking hack...but it turns out that because I upgraded to Android 4.3, the hacks no longer work...which means I now have to pay Orange £20 for the luxury of using the phone (which I own!) on another network...  

...and it'll take them 10 days to get the number to me...

...and now my number has swapped to 3...

...so I can't use my phone on Orange because they've now cancelled my account...

...and I can't use it on 3 because the phone is locked to Orange...

...and I can't use any of these other phones that were knocking about, because the new SIM is a different format...

Brilliant!

To be fair, though, these aren't all my phones...one is the house phone, two are Anna's, one is my work phone, one is another work phone I borrowed to temporarily resolve the problem.

So, erm, yeah, there are three Samsung Galaxy S3's there, and all are (sort of) mine...

But, you know, I do sometimes make as many as two or three calls per month, so I need extensive telephony solutions...obviously!

Moving on...in other (great) news, things are improving for my nephew Chris (or Bird as he's sometimes known)...

behind you!

Either that, or the Zombie Apocalypse has begun, and my bro' is in serious trouble! 

I'm not sure why everyone calls him Birdie...I'm not even sure why I've changed that over the last couple of years to BirdDog...

But I know there's only one name he's going to go by from now on...

BirdZombie!

;-)

Day 243 - Gardening Buddy

tiny ball of cute

This is a really terrible photo, but it has proven quite difficult to get a shot of this little chap, so I'm claiming it! 

He's one of our local wrens, and I just happened to notice him in the hedgerow this morning (I say him, I've no idea of gender, in truth...).  

After admiring his cuteness for a couple of minutes, I suddenly realised I was missing  a golden opportunity to make another addition to my Different Species collection.

I dashed back with the camera, as bleary eyed as you'd expect before 8 in the morning, and rattled off a couple of grainy, badly focussed shots. 

Honestly, I've no idea what I was doing with the camera...

On the first shot the aperture stayed open for ages, so my mind went into spasm trying to debug that little problem.  The only thing I could think was errrrrm, f-stop?

So I wheeled the f-stop to the opposite end from where it started, and this seemed to help.

Unfortunately it didn't help with my framing or my ability to see clearly.  

The net result of all of which is this reasonably poor shot of a really lovely little bird.

Wrens are tiny birds - I think only goldcrest are smaller in the UK.  They are remarkably noisy, and can sometimes be seen sitting on a gatepost giving off loud, strident peeps, and doing an amusing little dip with each call.  I guess this is a territorial thing...at other times they sing beautifully with a clear, high tone.

Anyway we regularly have them around our garden, and they often nest in the ivy outside our bathroom window. 

I'm very fond of them...they seem, along with the robin, like my little gardening buddies, that hang around chirping encouragement (on the odd occasion that I'm out there working without noisy machinery). 

But they flit about a lot, and I never seem to see them at an appropriate moment.

So even though the photo is sub par, I'm pleased to have finally got a snap of one.

In other news, TFI(nearly)F...I'm tired and hoping to catch up on sleep sometime soon...

B-zzzzz

Day 242 - Dark Magic

perfect patio

Today the renowned cowboy contractors came around to restore order after their wonderful drainage installation work.

We were delighted to find dubious looking workmen wandering around the garden when we got up.   It was gratifying to know that our agents had maintained their long standing tradition of failing to notify us of the visit. 

What are tenants rights (codified in law) for, if not for being ignored when it supports your commercial interests?

We are lucky to have an agency that with impressive discipline, fully embraces the efficiencies to be found in skirting neatly around your clients rights at every opportunity. 

Those pesky laws, like the one that allows a tenant to live undisturbed in their home...they're really not considering the negative impact on local small businesses!

And those others that say you can't just turn up on your tenants doorstep unannounced...how, in this day and age, would it be remotely possible to communicate a simple message to another individual?  This isn't some medieval fantasy world where voices could be sent using some dark magic, or thoughts psychically conveyed from one consciousness to another in an instant!

That said, as you can see from the image above, they've done a marvellous job of putting our patio back just as it was...I can only conclude that this miraculous artistry is born of some form of dark magic...

...so perhaps this is some medieval fantasy world?!

They've even faithfully recreated that pile of mud that our barbecue was partially buried in (or was it just standing neatly on a clean, tidy, flat patio, I can't quite remember)...

If you squint carefully, you can just about make out the invisible repair they've done to the lawn...

And that's not even the end of it, so extensive and exhausting have been their efforts today...

perfect path

Look at the craftmanship in that pathway...it's the one that leads from our carpark to our house...but I'll hardly dare stand on it, now that it's been so meticulously blended into the landscape...

It would seem like an insult to their mastery to spoil this work of art by walking on it in clean shoes!

We so lucky!

;-)

Day 241 - Soul Food

eye to eye

All day I've been lurching from intense emotion to intense emotion...whilst my exterior probably appears fairly calm and stable, my insides have been tugged all over the place, as if there's a tiny rollercoaster running through my core.

My heart is absolutely aching for my nephew Chris, his mum and dad, and his siblings.  I know Jools and Siobhan are both strong, capable, confident people, and they will fight fiercely for whatever Chris needs - and they'll get it.  But of course, he's on my mind and wrenching at my heartstrings constantly...

On the other hand, I interviewed a bright, young candidate for an apprenticeship today, and we're going to take him on, which is a great opportunity for him...a potentially life-changing event.  It's really nice to be able to give that chance to someone, so that has given me some proper satisfaction in my job, for the day at least.

Then at the same time, I'm intensely angry and frustrated with our landlords who are letting us down on every front.  It feels as though we're living on a building site, and we can't seem to get any remedial work done at all.  It's very depressing, and I'm fuming with our estate agent, with his endless yet entirely empty promises.

I felt a vague melancholy as Anna and I were chatting about the house situation whilst walking the dogs, and we gradually realised that our time here is ending.  I've lived in this little cottage for nine years now, and Anna with me for the last four or five...and our little menagerie, ever present of course.  

However, since losing both Bluez last Autumn, and now Jazz this summer, it feels as though the heart of the house has gone...it's lost its warmth, and its charm...and now the garden is ruined too, and suddenly we're running very low on reasons to be here...

But then we started to talk about buying our own place, and suddenly the mood turned to excitement as we realised that we should pursue our dream, and look for a place of our own...somewhere we can have however many of whatever animals we like, and make a home for ourselves.

And then we arrived back home, to be greeted enthusiastically by Loz...and that reminded me of how wonderful it is to have animal companions in your life...

catface

So I find that in spite of the all the other trauma, tension and discontent in other areas of life, it's still possible to be happy in the moment...and however worried I am about other people in my life, my worrying isn't going to help them or me in any way.  

Better to get my own soul food where I can, in order to support and strengthen me to be a shoulder to lean on, to stand my ground in the face of adversity, to be whatever I need to be for whomever needs me...

In fact it behooves me to be happy whenever I can, to find joy in the small things, and to use that powerful energy to positive effect in other situations that could well do with support...

It would be rude not to...

Day 240 - The Next Thing

repeat after me

Those faithful few of you who've been following my blog will be aware that I like to do a little rock climbing now and again...

Some of you no doubt consider this to be dangerous, and perhaps question my sanity...some question my morality...some even question my intelligence (raising immediate concerns over their own)...

I understand that climbing might appear to be dangerous, or scary (very different things)...and indeed sometimes it is one, or other, or in the worst case, both of those things. 

And yet here I am, unharmed and generally healthy, and largely unscathed by my adventures.

One life lesson I have learned from my crazy, stupid, ethically dubious escapades, is the value of the old Hitchhiker's Guide admonition, Don't Panic. 

It's all too easy, when standing at the bottom of a steep, intimidating rock face (or indeed when facing any steep, intimidating life challenge), to let your mind rush off quantifying all the possible negative outcomes...

What if I fall off?  What if it's too hard?  What if I get injured?  What if my equipment fails? 

What if I can't find my way?  What if the weather turns?  What if I drop something important?

However, if you rein your mind in from this unhelpful, counter-productive line of thought, and instead keep the Don't Panic mantra firmly in mind, you can simply focus on doing the next thing...

The next thing isn't so scary, it's just a couple of easy-ish moves up to that ledge...and oh, now I can reach that juggy hold above, and there's a little nook where I can squeeze a toe in to stand up on...and phew, there's a big hold inside that crack which I can lean back and rest on...

...and before you know it, you find you've reached the safer ground at the top, and...

Lo and behold - none of those possible negative outcomes actually transpired!  

When you think about it, even if any one of those negative potentials had happened, it would seem highly unlikely that another one would too...and actually, they're all manageable singly...

I have 623 outdoor routes and problems logged in my log book, and out of all of those, I only had a negative outcome once - I fell off a little boulder, back in May 2012, and broke my leg...but I only had 3 weeks off work, and I was climbing again within 9 weeks. 

The same can be seen to be true of life in general, self evidently through the observation that we're all still here...despite all the craziness, the trauma, the disaster, the tragedy, the misery, which we've all experienced to some degree at some time...despite all of that, we're all still here.

Whatever has befallen us, we all got through it every single time, and everyday life eventually resumed in accordance with it's doggedly determined insistence on continuing to tick along, regardless. 

That says something about the resilience of life, the innate, fundamental property of nature that is being alive.   There's life everywhere on this planet, and it's clear that life hangs on in the face of anything and everything. 

So when facing the daunting, the intimidating, the scary, the dangerous, or the unknown (or any combination thereof), really focus on the basic wisdom in that old cliché...

Don't Panic!

Just focus on what's in front you, do the next thing...you will come through it, you will survive, life will go on...it's the way the world works.

There's no avoiding it.



Thinking of you all, bro'...

Day 239 - Dark Skies Ahead

bill's mother's

These ominous dark clouds, blocking the sun and threatening to completely overshadow us with darkness, seemed disturbingly apt today.

A couple of my nephews were involved in a horrific accident last night, which has resulted in the younger Ollie being in bandages up to his elbows on both arms, due to burns, whilst the elder Chris is unconscious in intensive care, badly burned on his head, neck and arms...

To make matters worse, they were on holiday in Mallorca...16 year old Chris has been flown to Barcelona, where he will have to remain for a couple of months, and several operations at least...

It's a terrible tragedy, and my heart is aching for Chris, Ollie, and the rest of the family who are having to deal with this nightmare...not least my bro', of course, because, you know, he's my bro'...

It's been a trying day all round...

Somehow, after all the exercise I do, I put my back out pretty badly turning over in bed in the early hours of this morning. 

It doesn't feel like a huge, long term problem, but I'm not sure...certainly today I've struggled to stand up or move around, despite all the drugs I've taken, as well as both icing and lightly exercising it.

I'm really hoping it's not going to cause problems for Fontainebleau...bad enough that it's putting a spanner in the works of my preparation programme!

Then I had to spend a supremely painful hour or so trying to get Orange to give me a PAC code so I can finally give them the boot after 18 years and 8 months of being messed around and over charged by them. 

Still, they offered me £30 to compensate...it didn't...  :-/

Also, after several hours rain, I checked the two last inspection hatches in the drainage systems (old and new) - and neither of them are moving any significant storm water...so where's it all going?!

One tiny bright spot in all of this was a flock of sparrows that were clustering in the hedgerow just outside our lounge...

pair of tits

There are 17 house sparrows in this photo, and a couple of blue tits...more sparrows were out of shot, along the new fence that just went up yesterday, for example...

spot the tree sparrow

They're mostly juveniles, I think, recent broods out and about, and finding safety in numbers. 

So it was good to see them doing well this season, even though the dark clouds were so thick as to drain all colour, barring blacks and blues, out of our day...

Please send all thoughts, vibes, prayers - whatever your preference - to young Chris and family as they face challenging times ahead...

Thinking of you, Bird...

:-(

Day 238 - Spaceballs

pollocks

As we'd arranged to go for dinner at Christina's this evening, followed by an outing to the cinema, we didn't have the time (or, truth be told, the energy) to go for an outdoor climb.

Whilst the weather was fine and warm, it looked a little unsettled, and the threat of serious rain seemed feasible...so it wasn't too difficult a decision to save time, avoid the risk of getting rained off anyway, and instead go for a full on training session at the bouldering gym.

We did indeed have a pretty hard session, and climbed somewhere between 40 and 50 problems, including down-climbing probably two thirds of them.   The average grade was higher than usual too, probably around V3 (although admittedly that's soft indoor V3, which doesn't compare with a V3 on actual rock).  

I don't feel that I climbed all that consistently, despite the relatively challenging problems we were attempting...but the overall volume of climbing was good, and I even did a one-leg, no hands press from almost full squat to standing (imagine putting one foot on the arm of your sofa, then standing upright on it without any assistance from hands or your other leg). 

Traditionally, I find these a significant struggle, and mostly fail completely.  I think the Tai Chi has helped with general strength in my thighs.

However, for much of the session I felt a little tired and low on stamina, perhaps due to the Twenty Pull-up Challenge, of which we've just reached the end of week one.  Our third session of the week was last night, and we both did personal bests...Anna did a final set of 6 pull-ups, which is brilliant, and I did a total of 21 pull-ups over the 5 sets (with 120 seconds between sets), which is my best in that time frame. 

Also my finger's still a bit sore...and my ankle has never recovered from falling off when climbing off-piste earlier in the year.   Oddly, neither of these affect my climbing much, but hurt afterwards and generally niggle a bit.

What I find really weird, though, is why I utterly overheat, and Anna completely doesn't.   I have to keep going and standing in front of the large fan to try to lower by body temperature, and I become slick with sweat.  When we've finished, my tee shirt is soaking - I always take a spare with me nowadays. 

Anna, on the other hand, doesn't break a sweat at all, and even complains of being a bit chilly now and then...

What's that about?  Is it simply a factor of size, and all the additional energy I must burn in my muscles to lift and push my 190lbs upwards, compared with Anna, who weighs less than 100lbs?  Factor in the longer levers that I have and that pushes the energy demand even higher...

Suffice to say, we were well ready for this delicious meatball cheesy pasta thing that Christina prepared for us...

meatballs

After rudely shovelling this into our faces in much less time than it deserved, we went to see the space opera (which seems to now be a thing) Guardians of the Galaxy, which was good fun.  

Whilst waiting for the film to start, I thought I'd test this claim of theirs by taking a photo to see whether I'd get thrown out or sued or anything.

bollocks

Sadly my brazen act of defiance went entirely unnoticed.

I was so disappointed I almost decided to record the whole film on my phone, which sneakily doesn't have a red light, so you know, ooh, what will they do then?!

Still, it's fun trying to work out how many blatant lies there are in this piece of propaganda.

Two or three, possibly, but it's nearly midnight on Saturday, so I'm not going to get into it now!

Anyway Grauniads of the Galaxians, or whatever it's called...an entertaining romp, go see it, if you want to. 

'night all...

:-)

Day 237 - Vole Hoovers

vacancy

Friday night sure rolls around quickly of late...

This evening we found that they've now finished harvesting the fields around us, which frees up the access to the hole side of Barney the barn owl's tree. 

As you can see, it's a lovely shelter, with a solid platform inside a big old tree.  I've seen three young perched in here in the past, but they haven't nested here this year. 

Bizarrely, the tree is actually still alive, albeit much of it is hollow...

entish

We've had glimpses of Barney in several of these holes, and he seemed to be able to move around fairly freely in there. 

It's a very cool old tree, anyway.

In other news, the Killer Queen is on the rampage at the moment...

ritual sacrifice

I found this vole on the rug in the kitchen when I got home.

Within 5 minutes of opening the front door, Loz came in with a live, squeaking juvenile vole...I chased her out and got her to let it go, but within minutes she was back with another one. 

I shut her in for a bit, which she was really offended about...but later in the evening she was back out, and bringing more struggling young voles back, to the extent that we've had to shut her in again.

At the moment she's prowling the window sill, looking out into the night longingly, and miaowing at me in a frustrated tone. 

I presume the harvest has flushed lots of small animals into the hedgerow, and Loz just wants to go out there and sweep them all up, as I'm sure Barney would be if he were around...he's a vole hoover too. 

I've watched him hunt in the meadow (the next field over), and he was getting a kill every few minutes and brining it back to his young in the tree above...he must have killed a couple of dozen a day, at least. 

Hopefully the tidal wave of death and torture will subside in a day or two...

impressive

Speaking of which, my 'boarding injury is now a large, swollen bruise on my forearm...suffice to say, I wore a short sleeved polo shirt today in order to impress everyone with my war wound. 

I'm sure that will have had the desired effect, won't it?

One of my staff asked me what I done, and when I told him he said (as predicted),

"How old are you?!  There's some kids out the front doing loads of tricks on skateboards and bikes, it's crazy...they're about ten years old...".

So I'm fairly sure he's impressed with my youthful energy and enthusiasm.

I think that was his point anyway...

...yeah, that's probably it...

;-)