Wednesday, June 25, 2008
"One step forward, two steps back"
Literally! Life is so aggrevating at the moment. I'm stuck in a rut, and I can't dig myself out of it. I'd resolved to get back to my old ways - gym, running, and being in shape. Things haven't been going right in the lifestyle direction lately, I've been getting a little more overweight, and sluggish. I noticed it most in football training, and in playing games. I'm so far away from where I was at earlier this year, it's not funny. I've got no real excuse. I could blame injuries (had a rib injury that stopped me training for the Sun Run, and now, the latest thing, I've wrecked my ankle), but it's just been a slip back into my old ways really.
I hurt my ankle over a week ago, trying to cut out a shot at football training. End result, a trip to the hospital for x-rays, and a bad sprain of the ankle, requiring crutches for a few days. I've been taking tablets for the inflammation and pain, and as soon as I could walk on it, I started to (on Doctor's orders.) Over the weekend, it was sore, but I could walk on it. I went back to work in the office on Monday, and it was a terrible day. I was hobbling around the office, and outwardly, was acting as if things were ok. Truthfully, it was killing me. I couldn't find a comfortable position for the leg sitting at my desk. I got home on Monday night and it was starting to swell up again. The swelling has got worse since Monday night and now I'm almost back to square one in terms of having to ice it, and take tablets to get the swelling down. I've lost my patience. I did exactly what the doctor told me to do, and it seems I've only made things worse.
The other frustrating thing is that I wanted to start running again, and training. I decided to make a real effort on it on the Tuesday afternoon, and on Tuesday night I did this. It's really pissed me off!
The other thing that is annoying me is that I don't like being at home. I've been back home now for a month or more, and I am bored all the time. The only things I've been doing are going out with friends to the pub and drinking (which I DONT want to keep doing - not gonna help me put myself right fitness and health-wise). I seriously need to get my music going again - get some strings back on my guitar, and start all over with that. It's not helping at all that I feel like a cripple, can't go out running, can't go out on the bike, argh!
I'm trying to clean my room up a bit, and re-arrange things. I acutally arranged my dvds in alphabetical order last night, I was so bored. It made me realise I have a few missing from my collection - Spaced, Sean of the Dead, I think Rob and Carly have these?, and My Name Is Earl Season 1 and Season2, and Clerks 2, which I think Jon has (and probably hasn't watched). If anyone out there has any of my DVDs, give me a shout and let me know. For the record, I have 126 of them... about 10 aren't even opened. Gotta stop impulse buying from play.com
I started working my way through my '24' box sets (season 4 right now) and even that is annoying me... isn't it strange how everything bad that ever goes on (alright, I know it's fictional) happens within a 15 minute square of CTU? It's actually smaller than that, because wherever Bauer or whoever is, they are always "15 minutes out" when they need to get somewhere. So it must all happen inside an area about 2 miles square. And, why, in every series, is there always an "insider" who's working for the bad guys inside CTU? Didn't they learn the first time? Bah.....
I just had Monty Python's Holy Grail delivered. I might watch that later... I took Sarah to see the Spamalot musical in London, and it was great fun, but I've never seen the original film, so I thought i'd watch it and make a comparison!
I hurt my ankle over a week ago, trying to cut out a shot at football training. End result, a trip to the hospital for x-rays, and a bad sprain of the ankle, requiring crutches for a few days. I've been taking tablets for the inflammation and pain, and as soon as I could walk on it, I started to (on Doctor's orders.) Over the weekend, it was sore, but I could walk on it. I went back to work in the office on Monday, and it was a terrible day. I was hobbling around the office, and outwardly, was acting as if things were ok. Truthfully, it was killing me. I couldn't find a comfortable position for the leg sitting at my desk. I got home on Monday night and it was starting to swell up again. The swelling has got worse since Monday night and now I'm almost back to square one in terms of having to ice it, and take tablets to get the swelling down. I've lost my patience. I did exactly what the doctor told me to do, and it seems I've only made things worse.
The other frustrating thing is that I wanted to start running again, and training. I decided to make a real effort on it on the Tuesday afternoon, and on Tuesday night I did this. It's really pissed me off!
The other thing that is annoying me is that I don't like being at home. I've been back home now for a month or more, and I am bored all the time. The only things I've been doing are going out with friends to the pub and drinking (which I DONT want to keep doing - not gonna help me put myself right fitness and health-wise). I seriously need to get my music going again - get some strings back on my guitar, and start all over with that. It's not helping at all that I feel like a cripple, can't go out running, can't go out on the bike, argh!
I'm trying to clean my room up a bit, and re-arrange things. I acutally arranged my dvds in alphabetical order last night, I was so bored. It made me realise I have a few missing from my collection - Spaced, Sean of the Dead, I think Rob and Carly have these?, and My Name Is Earl Season 1 and Season2, and Clerks 2, which I think Jon has (and probably hasn't watched). If anyone out there has any of my DVDs, give me a shout and let me know. For the record, I have 126 of them... about 10 aren't even opened. Gotta stop impulse buying from play.com
I started working my way through my '24' box sets (season 4 right now) and even that is annoying me... isn't it strange how everything bad that ever goes on (alright, I know it's fictional) happens within a 15 minute square of CTU? It's actually smaller than that, because wherever Bauer or whoever is, they are always "15 minutes out" when they need to get somewhere. So it must all happen inside an area about 2 miles square. And, why, in every series, is there always an "insider" who's working for the bad guys inside CTU? Didn't they learn the first time? Bah.....
I just had Monty Python's Holy Grail delivered. I might watch that later... I took Sarah to see the Spamalot musical in London, and it was great fun, but I've never seen the original film, so I thought i'd watch it and make a comparison!
Thursday, June 5, 2008
"I can't remember anything, can't tell if this is true or a dream"
Been a while since my last update. I've got no excuse really. A lot has gone on in the last 2 months. I've been on various trips and excursions (to Canada a few times, to the US, and to various places around England). We've also now got two new housemates in the house, after one guy left. So, for the first time ever, the house has 4 people in it, and it's occupied most of the time. We're just starting to get the garden sorted out (professionally!) hopefully in time for a good summer.
It's hard to write an update on things when so much time has passed. I can't actually remember most of the stuff that's gone on. I guess whatever pictures I took are on facebook somewhere, and there might be a few wall posts here and there. Meh...
In any case, the most recent thing is of course that Sarah came to visit for two weeks. The time went really really fast, which was a shame.... No sooner had she arrived through the gate at Manchester airport, we were seeing her off again. But we managed to fit in a lot of stuff in the time we were together over here (again, refer to facebook notes for the details!).
I have a busy summer coming up, work wise, with lots of things happening. Hopefully I'll make it over to Vancouver for a short time to do some work, but mostly, I think I'll be based out of England, which will be a novelty! I guess it's about time I made use of the house I pay so much rent for. And with the garden and trees being sorted out, it will be good to have a nice summer - plenty of BBQs and stuff I'm sure...
Games-wise, I guess over the last couple of months, I've gone rhythm game crazy. My real guitars still aren't stringed (although I hope to get to do this one of these days soon), so I've been playing Guitar Hero III and Rock Band on the xbox360. They are fun, but it's frustrating to think I could put that effort into real instruments and get somewhere, so I am resolved to sort out my real guitars ASAP.
On the note of instruments, I watched a show by Derrin Brown (Trick or Treat), in which he taught a piano novice to play a concert piece (she did a recital in a well known national concert hall) in only 2 weeks, and she barely touched a piano before the performance. Just prior to going on stage, she said "no way, I just don't want to do this at all." She went out, played a few notes, and then stopped. Just when you thought the whole thing had collapsed, she took a deep breath, and then played the most amazing piano recital (given that she couldn't play at all). The astonishing thing is that she learned the whole thing in her unconcious mind, and Derren Brown removed some mental blocks she had that were stopping her playing, and wham - she did the whole thing. Interesting. He's also done some other shows, notably one where a guy absorbed the contents of hundreds of books in a week or so, by speed reading them, and then went and came second in a "pub quiz of champions" competition.
I might apply for the next series!!
It's hard to write an update on things when so much time has passed. I can't actually remember most of the stuff that's gone on. I guess whatever pictures I took are on facebook somewhere, and there might be a few wall posts here and there. Meh...
In any case, the most recent thing is of course that Sarah came to visit for two weeks. The time went really really fast, which was a shame.... No sooner had she arrived through the gate at Manchester airport, we were seeing her off again. But we managed to fit in a lot of stuff in the time we were together over here (again, refer to facebook notes for the details!).
I have a busy summer coming up, work wise, with lots of things happening. Hopefully I'll make it over to Vancouver for a short time to do some work, but mostly, I think I'll be based out of England, which will be a novelty! I guess it's about time I made use of the house I pay so much rent for. And with the garden and trees being sorted out, it will be good to have a nice summer - plenty of BBQs and stuff I'm sure...
Games-wise, I guess over the last couple of months, I've gone rhythm game crazy. My real guitars still aren't stringed (although I hope to get to do this one of these days soon), so I've been playing Guitar Hero III and Rock Band on the xbox360. They are fun, but it's frustrating to think I could put that effort into real instruments and get somewhere, so I am resolved to sort out my real guitars ASAP.
On the note of instruments, I watched a show by Derrin Brown (Trick or Treat), in which he taught a piano novice to play a concert piece (she did a recital in a well known national concert hall) in only 2 weeks, and she barely touched a piano before the performance. Just prior to going on stage, she said "no way, I just don't want to do this at all." She went out, played a few notes, and then stopped. Just when you thought the whole thing had collapsed, she took a deep breath, and then played the most amazing piano recital (given that she couldn't play at all). The astonishing thing is that she learned the whole thing in her unconcious mind, and Derren Brown removed some mental blocks she had that were stopping her playing, and wham - she did the whole thing. Interesting. He's also done some other shows, notably one where a guy absorbed the contents of hundreds of books in a week or so, by speed reading them, and then went and came second in a "pub quiz of champions" competition.
I might apply for the next series!!
