eat frog blog

What a great weekend!

2009-11-08T21:54:00.004Z

Friday

Found out that some really good friends are due to have a baby. Although this cuts them out of May's event, I can not express how happy I am for them. Yay for wonderful people having children.

Saturday

With the temperature around 70 Fahrenheit (twentysomething Celsius - in November!!!) we played some Ultimate. Our team - name Hard Ticket after the movie - was handy and fun. We didn't do as well as we did in regular league play (3rd) but we had a blast on pitch before sticking around to heckle the (club player loaded) final. I've really enjoyed being swallowed into the Ultimate social network on this side of the Atlantic and Lori & I are looking forward to taking to the field with these guys again.

Then, we were picked up by Uncle Paul to spend some time with him and Aunt Joanne. This was the second time this happened - they live 20mins drive from the fields - but was much more relaxed this time (for me at least) as there was no play on Sunday. We spruced ourselves up (Lori showing me another of her pretty skirts), ate some of Aunt Joanne's delicious cooking and then headed out to a local University production of CATS to which we were being treated.

This was my first live musical event (I've seen some on television) and we all really really enjoyed it. The costumes were realistic (and quite revealing! - found out since checking out some clips on youtube), the music was to my untrained ear tremendous, the singing was wonderful and the dancing was enthusiastically graceful (including the boys'). My only complaint was the temperamental glitches with the microphones, but as I think I understood about 50% of the plot, I can live with that. We departed with the welcome buzz that follows a great performance.

Sunday

Church (more enthusiasm, this time from the Priest) and then an on-the-spot organised breakfast with Joanne, Paul and two of their friends: Tom and Jean. The conversation flowed and my eggs benedict was Delicious*

Chatted to a German gentleman on the train back to the City (and took a photo of him with his children) and ate some Flap Jack.

WHAT a great weekend!

*Must remember to avoid the Head of the Table position in future.

Added later: Thursday night's team social / pasta party / movie viewing should have been included also!

My Review of Auclair Boomer Ski Mittens - Waterproof, Thinsulate® (For Men)

2009-11-04T16:26:00.001Z

Originally submitted at Sierra Trading Post

Closeouts . Auclair’s Boomer ski mittens feature a waterproof breathable Aqua Stop® membrane and warm Thinsulate® insulation to keep your hands dry and comfortable all day on the slopes. Waterproof breathable Aqua Stop® membrane Warm, non-bulky Thinsulate® insulation Wrist cinch strap for a se...

Just what we wanted!

By Richard the winter cyclist from Chicago, IL on 11/4/2009

Sizing: Feels true to size

Pros: Warm, Dries Easily, Windproof, Good Grip

Best Uses: Cycling, Hiking/Running

Describe Yourself: Competitive Athlete

Gear Usage: Cold Weather Living, Winter Sports, Winter Commuting

These were just what I was after. I was especially happy to find that the removable fleecy lining could be removed to wash / wear alone etc. My wife and I liked them so much that we bought her a pair.

(legalese)

Who has permission to work? Me, that's who!

2009-10-16T00:10:00.004+01:00

Correctly called an Employment Authorization Card (EAD), it is the most official looking piece of plastic I've ever received. It looks like this one, although mine has a picture of me and doesn't have VOID punched into it.

Next stop, find a job.

Just a short post, but this is the most important news in the Richard and Lori story since our wedding on July 24th (and my visa approval on June 8th).

It looks like people may receive Christmas presents from the Shelmerdine's this year after all...

(Incidentally, we weren't really expecting this for another month as the Department of Homeland Security puts time to receive an EAD at 3 months; we got it in 2. High five World).

Working Bikes

2009-09-27T23:26:00.001+01:00

People have been asking what I've been up to recently. Here goes.

There's a company called Working Bikes, 2 miles from where I live. There's a huge amount of information on the great website at http://workingbikes.org so go there and read about it in detail.

The short story is that they are a non-profit organisation with two coexisting operations: firstly donating bikes for charity organizations in the Chicagoland area / shipping to less fortunate countries; secondly selling bikes to the general public (which is the only way they raise funds as they receive no Government funding.

Lori spotted Working Bikes during a web search soon after we moved into the city.

I first ventured in on a Wednesday afternoon. After a brief look around downstairs, I found an employee and told them I was looking to volunteer. Jonathan was tucking into his lunch (pizza, lots of) and whilst we ate he asked me about my knowledge (some; I'm a fast learner). After this, he showed me around (some bikes, some workstations, more bikes, lots of tools, even more bikes), picked up a bike for me to strip for parts (the frame - a gorgeously shaped red Raleigh road frame was the valuable part) and helped me when I needed it (often!). As this happened, I chatted to Rick - a friendly young chap who is applying for law school and has sailed in Charlevoix (where I honeymooned). Time flew and I returned home to Lori with blackened hands and a wife eager to hear the news.

On my second visit the following Wednesday, I started again by stripping a bike. This is what we newbies often do, to give us the opportunity to see how things fit together.

As we worked, conversation flowed between Jonathan, Jesse, Bob, Larry and I about National Health Service - a topic that is big in the news over here right now thanks to a certain President (and ex-Chicago senator) Obama. It was interesting to hear the general opinion (that Health Service should be provided and the huge insurance companies shouldn't be able to treat Joe Public so badly (scouring your past records looking for a reason not to pay out) when you're in such a fragile state). In the UK, I can't see the NHS as perfect - far from it - but it definitely has it's plus-points.

The bike stripped (another road frame), Jonathan and I worked together on getting a cruiser (3-speed Sturmey-Archer; there are lots of them out here) into a rideable condition. 5 o'clock came round far too fast and I attached a note to the frame that I would complete the following week.

Wind the clocks on a week and after eventually finding the bike (it had been moved) I finished it before starting on a Schwinn which had met a car. The front wheel and forks were buckled beyond repair but I managed to find replacements. There are large quantities of spares for nearly everything for such occasions (see photos!) though Jesse and Jonathon were stunned that I managed to find an exact replica pair of forks (same make, model, colour(!), the correct length headset etc)).

Jesse, Jonathan and 'Rusty' (sadly with his arm in a cast following an introduction to a opening car door; it happens a lot here apparently) are paid mechanics. Everyone else is a volunteers for various reason (new to city, student, retired folk, community service etc) who are all willing to give up their time for the good of taking a piece of junk and crafting it back into something useable. As a newbie to the city (and the country!) I really enjoy chatting with these open-minded locals and learning more about their city / country.

Wanting to give Lori some space to revise for an exam, I headed in the following Tuesday evening. Rusty was running this workshop, and a few of us (including graphic designer Nathan, Michael who's starting a Working Bikes blog, and a few others) worked to fix up bikes for a 'local donation'. There is currently a demand for 20ish bikes to give to a an organization in the area. We also helped unload a lorry with Raul and ate pizza and drank Crown Cola ("it must be from the UK?" - ha!).

The following day being Wednesday, I finished up on the front-ended Schwinn. The last task was frustrating, but not all that uncommon: I stripped a thread on a screw - more through it's age and not being touched in a while rather than excessive force being used - then spent 45 minutes finding a replacement. It was an unusual front deraillure but a part was eventually found, smiles all round. I was quite proud of the job in the end - I learned more about front and rear derailleurs, replaced the gear cables, trued the wheels and used both a 3rd-hand & 4th-hand tool to get the brakes fixed. It went to the shop floor with a ticket for $60 and this is quite common. This level of bike comes in as a donation, gets fixed by a volunteer, has minimal $ spent on it (in this case just a rear gear cable) and goes on sale for mundane stuff like rent and other overheads. It was the first bike I'd seen through alone (this is debatable as I frequently need to ask for help) and although it took me wayyy longer than the more experienced employees would have done, I was proud of this.

There was great conversation during our burrito lunch: Matt told us about disturbing a male deer and riding away from it as fast as possible and Jesse informed us that people were using bells to scare off bears but this only works with black bears; the noise attracts the inquisitive grizzlies which made me think of a mammalian version of the crocodile from Peter Pan! Perhaps you had to be there and you know what, I'm glad I was!

There are a couple more photos here: http://picasaweb.google.com/rshelmerdine/WorkingBikes#

-----

Finally this Saturday evening, it was the 10th anniversary party of the organization. It had been a long day for me, but I'm glad I went (Lori couldn't; she was at a study group with a couple of friends, working hard towards an anatomy exam this week). I really enjoyed the live music and chatting with the interesting (and largely facial-hair sporting (men)) folk. It was a well attended event with the fabulous ethos of 'suggested donation' for stuff (entry, food, beer). With no income yet - I'm still awaiting my work permit, I am happy that I'm giving what I can: time and enthusiasm.

There are some pictures of Saturday night (and many other events) at the Working Bikes photo album here: http://picasaweb.google.com/workingbikeschicago

'Da' Bears

2009-09-27T22:32:00.000+01:00

In all my time in the the UK, I've never really followed a particular sporting team.

Don't get me wrong, I've watched as much sport as possible without paying for extra channels: [English] Football, rugby (my number one), cricket, tennis, athletics, the olympics (am currently hoping Chicago gets to host in 2016). Heck, I even enjoy golf.

But I've never really followed a particular team.

However, I'm really getting into American Football, specifically The Chicago Bears. A couple of reasons:

it's hugely available out here
one of my neighbours blows an air horn when we score
it's a new sport for me to learn the ins-and-outs of
Dan is a Green Bay Packers (our arch-enemies) fan and we watched a game with the Jarratt's the day after Lori and I got engaged (we lost to three; it was the only down point of the weekend)
I own a Bears baseball hat
Jay Cutler
The players don't pretend to be hurt when they're not

Today they beat Seattle's Seahawks meaning that if they win next week's should-win game against Detroit Lions, they will have had the best start to the season since year they lost the Superbowl in the '06 / '07 season.

------

In other (sporting) news, my UK Mixed Ultimate team just played at the European Championships. It's tough, helping the team qualify for the tournament in 2008 - in some style too - but not being able to play Euros (not that I have any regrets).

They did great: 6th (and from the sounds of it, some on the team feel this was an underachievement and their quarterfinal was winnable (and that team went on to take Bronze)) but I'm still very proud. Yeah BAF.

Green Card Application

2009-08-23T15:43:00.002+01:00

A couple of days ago, we sent off my 'Green Card' Application. Correctly called the Adjustment of Status, this allows me indefinite residency (as long as I do not leave the country for an extended period of time (or we divorce within two years!)).

Once I landed (14th July), I had 90 days until I had to get this submitted. We actually managed it in 38 - yeah us!

Now to wait, keeping our fingers crossed that we managed to get all these forms filled in correctly and that the process will not be delayed.

So the next question: how long will it take?

Assuming we did file everything correctly, the US Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) website puts the target time for processing at 4 months. As of Feb 28th 2009, it is currently standing at 12 months.

The other part of the application is the Employment Authorization Document (EAD; aka Work Permit). This is dealt with separately. The target processing time for this is 3 months, and USCIS is meeting it's target with this.

The process continues, but it's a lot easier to wait with my wife by my side.

Note from Lori: "Everyone seems really surprised that it's not get married > boom > get citizenship the next day"

If only!!!!

"Are things still as amazing as when you first got there?"

2009-08-21T06:20:00.003+01:00

This is what Mary, my ex-housemate asked.

My reply:

Apart from a stomach ache (right now), I'm doing really really well. This city is thriving. It's big and scary but you can't live your life asking what-if. I'm learning the areas I shouldn't go to (by day, not just by night). I can play Ultimate pretty much as much as I want (and when Lori starts back at Uni on Monday I probably will!). I'm cycling loads, as we don't have a car and it's free (unlike the transport system). Things are going wonderfully with my gorgeous wife. We're starting to make friends together, as a couple which is really great. There are friends of Lori's that I'm being introduced to - and all of them, so far, have been great - but it's so nice that we're making friends together. But then with her bubblyness and my Britishness, why wouldn't we?
Obviously I miss people from home, and familiar places, and food that I know. I miss staying up late and chatting with you. I miss being able to pick up the phone and speak to Mum. And having tea at Dad's. But I have no regrets. This is where I have - and want - to be, right now.

Sometimes, I literally pinch myself at all this. Just a year and five months ago, NONE of this had happened. Wow!

Shorter and more fun

2009-07-22T14:00:00.003+01:00

Some observations from my first week

"Compare with..." on a label means "equivalent to..."
"2 for $x.xx" at a supermarket means you can purchase 1 of those items at $(x.xx/2). Why not just have that as the price on the label?
Continuing with the supermarket (grocery store) theme: the rear wheels on a shopping trolley are fixed. This sacrifices some of the avoidingothershopperbility, but makes manoevering heavy trolleys a lot easier. I prefer them over here.
Root beer floats (ice cream and root beer (a sweet fizzy pop)) are better than sliced bread.
At our bank (not sure if this is universal), a photo of me is on my bank card. This is definitely something that UK banks (EVERYWHERE, really) should adopt.

Dear Diary mk. II

2009-07-22T02:45:00.003+01:00

Continuing from last time. This is a long one, so please grab a drink, kick back and enjoy.

Lots of packing. Or more accurately, getting rid of stuff. Things went to one of three places. i) I want them and brought them with me. ii) I want them but not with me - in Dad's attic. iii) No longer need them so get rid of them (second-hand shop, friend, family, freecycle etc). http://www.freecycle.org is a great site. Like Craig's List or eBay but no money is exchanged. You just give the items to a new home. People in and around Plymouth did well out of me for this.
14th June - went to my last kayak race, fittingly in Exeter (where my first race, 15ish years ago was). When I was at school I used to race kayaks over marathon distances. Paul (more to follow), organises the team and I have an open invitation to accompany the team, help out (race if I want to, but as I don't train, I don't want to). My best mate, Tim, travels down to most of the races so I get to hang out with him and his fiancee, Stacey. The sun shone. It was lovely.
Lots of packing.
25th June - went for a meal with Abi. Abi and I have been travelling to tournaments / training sessions for a while and it was a great opportunity to stop packing and enjoy myself. Thanks girl.
27th / 28th June - my 99th tournament: West Coast Sand on the beaches of Exmouth, Devon for Shake and Bake. We came second but with oh so much style. I got chucked in the sea after the last game (against Bristol, who I played for for a number of years, it was very fitting). Cheers guys! Full tournament report to follow, some time... Upon returning to Plymouth on Sunday evening, I went for a meal with my housemates. It was great to chillax with them. And yeah, I ate two main meals. I was hungry.
Lots of packing. You get the picture.
29th June - meal with Dad, Pam and half-sis Karen. She gave me a really lovely framed Cornish piece of art. I can't wait to put it up in our new apartment (please ask, if you want the address).
4th July - leaving 'do'. I'm sure all these things deserve their own entry. Anyway. I really appreciated Gordon's 12ish hour round-trip to come say goodbye. It was a really top night (started at Rocky's restaurant on the Barbican (REALLY great food, highly recommended), ended at View 2 also on the Barbican (who gave some great drinks deals - go in and speak to 'Sam'). Sunday was spent in Wetherspoons eating a fry-up, chatting with some of my best friends. It was a really great weekend, thank you to everyone who came along (or were there in spirit, you know who you are).
8th July - last day in work! I received one of those really big cards, signed by about a hundred people. It's next to me now, thank you. There was also a collection and I was bought a digital photo frame. Slight admission - I have one already so I've taken it back and recently used the money to buy a new mobile phone, so every day I'll be carrying around a little part of all of you. It was strange walking out of work, and as it was less than two weeks ago, I'm not sure it's really sunk in yet. I'm sure it will soon. After work, Jayne and I had a cuppa. She's just got married herself, so I'd like to wish her and Sean all the best for their future together.
9th July - English tea party with Paul & Celia. Paul is an ex-teacher (not an old-teacher!) of mine (History, but also Plymouth College Canoeing Team Coach/Manager/Boss/Ruler). He has more time for others than just about anyone I know. He'll not see these words himself as he's from the old school of pen & paper but he deserves a place in this little report. I need to remember how to write, so I can reply! Paul and his wife threw a small Plymouth College gathering for me (to which Cookie also came along). It was the first time, after all the manic-ness of recent times, that I was able to relax as I was pretty much packed by that point. Afterwards, Cookie drove me back to my house and we chatted, along with my housemates Mary & Mike. Again, it was so lovely to be able to relax and spend that time enjoying saying goodbye, not stressing about how much was left to do.
10th July - I left my house. Woke early and said goodbye to Mary (and later that day Mike). This was tough - between the three of us, we have been the most agreeable housemates I've ever had the pleasure to live with. The little things - looking out for each other, trustworthy with money, having a similar approach to cleaning (not crazy freaky clean, but doing what needs doing) - built up a picture of happiness in the home. In Lori's words: "I don't think your next housemate will be as easy to get on with". Perhaps not, but I'm happy with my choice! After a few errands (including picking up the family portrait), I said goodbye to lil' sis Kayleigh. That was hard. Kayleigh, get yourself a webcam and download Skype so we can chat. Olly, please help her with that! Then it was on to Dad's, went for a walk on Dartmoor in the rain (would it be any other way?), went to Tavistock, went for a meal in the evening, then a walk (in the rain) on The Hoe. I've had a love/hate relationship with Plymouth over the years, but I know I'm going to miss it. The country around it, the way you can see the Folly in Mount Edgcombe from the Hoe, the way you can see 'The Great Wall of China' from miles around (this one's for Vikki!), how the patchwork of Dartmoor looks like something out of a dream when it alternates between sunlight and cloud. To some it's sombre to talk about such things but when I die, I want half of my ashes scattered on Dartmoor and the other half thrown overboard somewhere off the Cornish coast.
11th July - left Plymouth. Dad and I drove a team of walkers to Looe (they were walking to Plymouth along the coast path; I'd have loved to have joined them if we didn't need to get moving), took some photos in the rain there and headed back to Plymouth. There, we said goodbye to Pam and headed to my Mum's. It was a great drive, time flew as we chatted about this and that. We found a lovely country pub for some lunch (PROPER soup, chunks of bread and a pint) and then it was the next stage. Dad and I have grown as friends in the last few years, and now we have to - like with others - learn how to communicate electronically over many many miles. But as Paul wrote in a card: "Friendship is a very special thing and some insignificant little Ocean in the middle doesn't block it". Hear hear! I spent the rest of the day getting Skype working on Mum's computer!
12th July - my last non-travelling day in the UK. Family stuff. Vikki's birthday (she LOVEd her marmite bear present). Relaxing in the Sun in the garden.
13th July - last full day in the UK. I got up early to breakfast with Vikki and Steve. More goodbye's (I think I'm pretty numb to them now). Then Mum and I went for a walk up the hill. England's green and pleasant lands will be there for me when I return, but I'm going to miss them! The drive to Gatwick was fairly plain-sailing. I spoke to Mike on the way. Mike is an old family friend who I haven't really spoken to enough recently. We both need to work on improving that. After checking into the hotel, mum and I went for a meal in Crawley. The town surprised us - absolutely beautiful. It reminded mum of Stratford-upon-Avon (Shakespear's birthplace) and me of parts of Bath. The Indian we found - http://www.blueindia.co.uk - was absolutely delicious. It was a lovely bit of time spent with my Mum. I think we were both nervous for the next day.
14th July 2009 - THE DAY I MOVED TO AMERICA!!! A very early start. My bags got accepted... - this was a concern, I was after all taking my bike in a HUGE box - ...and weren't too expensive. It was really really hard to say goodbye to Mum. I think we both wanted somewhere quiet but it wasn't happening. Psh!. The Guinness in Dublin was delicious; I wanted a second! The customs officers in Dublin were scary, but all was okay. I got plenty of space on the plane and made a friend on the flight (I hope you made your connection Jena!). All my luggage arrived okay, though bruised! I waltzed through customs, no problems and was me at the airport by Mark, Lori's brother (holding a huge name card!). Him, his fiancee Tarah and Tarah's sister Keira (spelling?) then took me to the hospital where Lori was waiting for surgery to remove her appendix. Eventually she got taken in (about 2200hrs) and it was taken out. It was a long cold night and I struggled to sleep in a sofa in the hospital.
15th July - finally got to speak with my love. The surgery was a success. We ate scones and yoghurt for breakfast (nutritious!). Took a long nap and woke to find Chris (Lori's oldest brother) had bought me a whole load of Mountain Dew (yeah Shake & Bake). A family friend, John Katkus joined us for evening meal then we headed to 'Uncle Al's' to watch Harry Potter #5 (no wonder I couldn't remember it - lame!).
16th July - Peter (Lori's father), Chris, Mark and I chopped down a tree whilst drinking the Dew. It doesn't get more All-American than that. After lunch, Chris, Lori and I went to a matinee performance of Harry Potter #6 (much much better!) then I picked up my new mobile phone (if you want the number, let me know).
17th July - We jumped into the car and headed to Chicago to our apartment. Lori appears to have found a great place for us. Basic pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/MaedleLori/ShelmerdineApartment?feat=email# Yes, those are air conditioning units chained to the ground outside. Summer is meant to be hot (seen flashes of that, there's room for more!). Once we'd emptied the car (we being Peter, Lori and I (making sure Lori carried no heavy items, which frustrates her a bit), we went for a walk to find food. After walking through the 'Medical District' (and the University of Illinois in Chicago (UIC) where Lori is studying for the next few years), we found a Thai restaurant. Yum! Upon return, I mended the vacuum, we tidied a bit and then we welcomed Katy to our place. She'd travelled up from St Louis to take L's place on the team for the weekend's tournament. In the evening, we headed to the pre-tournament party, then continued on for a drink with Jon(ny D) - one of L's high school friends. I'd met him in November, but then I was really really ill with Flu. He's a fun person to be around, especially during a game of Apples to Apples (though he's frustratingly good (lucky?) at it.
18th / 19th July - TOURNAMENT NUMBER 100. Sandblast. This will (also) have it's own entry soon. We had a great team, lots of laughs, came 4th in our division and our team shirts were (are) ace. The Saturday night party was good (free drinks always good). When we returned to our flat, a block party was coming to an end. It's a shame we missed it; would have been a great opportunity to meet the locals. The neighbourhood seems good. There is a mix of races, ages, there are children playing and as it's near the medical district, there are postgrad. students. I'm looking forward to finally settling there.
20th July - a quiet day. We looked over some of the forms that we're going to need for my Green Card application, we picked up a bed base, I spoke to both Mum (& Vikki) and Dad on Skype for the first time since I left (both good quality calls, though it's frustrating that Mum's webcam isn't firing on all cylinders properly) and in the evening we met up with a few friends for a drink.
21st July (today) - Peter and I tried to put new brake pads in the family vehicle. In the end, we had to take it to a garage as a pin had rusted and we couldn't remove it. Lori and I have just returned from some errands, including buying some stuff for our apartment (standing lamps, bathroom mats, etc - it's great to be able to do this 'normal' stuff that 'normal' couples do) and we returned to find that our wedding rings have arrived. This is an exciting milestone.

I guess this brings us up to speed. I'll try and post more regularly so less information.

A few other things.

The weather (you know, I'm a typical Brit, I have to discuss these things) has been completely atypical, apparently. Normally it's really really hot and humid in June and August (verging on uncomfortable). This year, it's been a lot cooler and much lower humidity. In fact as I write this, we've just had a thunder storm pass over. I'm not complaining - it's still warmer than the UK! My tan is coming along well; being out in the fresh air at a tournament all weekend helped.
I have uploaded a bunch of photos from my last few days to Facebook. Anyone (even those without a Facebook account - you don't need to register) can view by going to: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=108808&id=504361569&l=c61830fc45
The wedding is this Friday (24th July). We won't know exactly what time because the courtroom doesn't take bookings in advanced. Cheers guys, very helpful. This isn't ideal, but L & I are pretty used to making things happen so we're going to go with the flow. However, we're going to optimistically hope it's going to happen around 1500hrs. This is 2100hrs in the UK. Please raise a glass to us (then take a picture of it, email it to me and I'll add it to our digital photo frame). We're honeymooning in Michigan State. A cabin by a lake...

This this is easily enough now. Take care, stay in touch and love to all. I will be honest, I don't miss you yet. I think my body is still thinking this is a holiday. This will change, with time, I'm sure.

Finally, early congratulations to Richard and Amy for their wedding this coming Saturday. We both wish you all the best, guys.

Dear Diary

2009-06-12T00:20:00.007+01:00

It's been just about the most life-changing month-and-a-half of my life and I want to get it written down to look back on and mull over. And maybe others would like to read it.

8th May - Lori landed at Heathrow. Much happiness. Richard had medical for visa.
9th/10th May - Played our first tournament together, Mixed Tour 2 in Manchester. We (BAF) came 4th (in the country!).
For the next couple of weeks, I introduced Lori to family (including a wonderful few days with mum on the Quantocks) and friends. We visited many sites including 3 National Trust stately homes, the Eden Project and generally some of the greenest sights the South West has to offer. It rained lots. We put on a lot of weight as everyone was trying to fatten us up (this included 4 cream teas!),
24th May - Ran half marathon in 2:12:06
26th May - Lori flew away. Much sadness.
29th May - A letter arrived from the embassy inviting me for an interview in a few weeks. FINALLY!!!
2nd June - had vaccinations for diptheria, polio, tetanus, measles, mumps, rubella. For free (phew!)
6th / 7th June - Worked lots of overtime.

8th June - Spent 4 hours at the US Embassy in London. Our papers were checked and approved (more phew!) then I aced the interview, managing to convince the lady that our relationship is true. It started when she asked me to tell her how I met my fiancée; I wanted to ask how long she had! After telling her about the proposal disc, she asked to see a picture and I was happy to oblige. The lady told me that she was "delighted to inform me that [she] would be granting me my visa". I was overjoyed but unable to share with anyone as my phone was locked away in a left luggage kiosk 2 miles away as it presented a security risk (what?).
10th June - Handed in my notice (last day being 8th July). Bought a one-way ticket to Chicago O'Hare, leaving on July 14th.
11th June - Told landlord I'd be leaving on weekend of July 11th / 12th. Did something towards our honeymoon.

Wow, I'm still not really able to believe this is all, FINALLY, happening.

[The next day] Oops, forgot something:

11th June - Visa actually arrived at my house by courier along with my passport, with the visa page in it. I've not seen the visa, as it's sealed away in an envelope with big letters instructing me not to open (a tamper-precaution). I really hope it has a visa in there, and not some instructions to "arrest this man on sight" or some such!

Near-coincidences

2009-06-02T09:31:00.002+01:00

Yesterday, I popped in to town on my 'lunch break' to have a look for some shorts. Whilst there, I bumped in to my housemate, Mary (hi Mary!).

Before this chance meeting, I was collared by two separate 'chuggers' (= charity muggers; the people who stop you in the street with a clipboard and push you for money). Because of the angles that we were both walking, Mary and I would have missed each other if I'd decided to sign up the 'Shelter' (to be fair, a very worthy charity). Or even if I'd stopped at all. Or if Mary had been a single minute earlier or later, for the entire plethora of reasons that this could have occurred.

So, the crux:

If coincidences happen (and I believe they do, I'll leave it for someone else to discuss fate), probability would suggest that far more 'near-coincidences' occur than actual coincidences don't. Only we're never, ever going to know how how many more because if they were known-about near-coincidences they wouldn't be near-coincidences at all.

Unless we strap cameras onto ants and study them from above. Hmm.

Ho hum, off to the doctor to get some vaccinations.

BBQ Accident

2009-05-28T23:50:00.000+01:00

I want to be this flexible

2009-04-22T20:01:00.000+01:00

This is basically so I can find it later

TCP: mouth. Mouth: TCP. Please be friends

2009-04-21T12:31:00.003+01:00

Written on bottle of TCP:

LIQUID ANTISEPTIC

Sooths pain, fights infection

For sore throats, mouth ulcers, cuts, grazes, bites, stings & spots

I've had a mouth ulcer for a couple of days. I remembered something from my childhood about using TCP so dug out the bottle (I'm happy to do this - I love the smell) and read further:

To ease the discomfort of common mouth ulcers, dab undiluted three times a day. Should syptoms persist, blah blah blah

Sounds perfect. I just want to pick them up on a few points.

To EASE discomfort
SOOTHS pain

No. This is a blatant lie. I think we have laws about false advertising. It hurts now MORE than it did before. Imagine putting a bee, a red hot poker, a stinging nettle patch and an entire red ant colony all INSIDE YOUR MOUTH at the same time and munching them up and you'll come close to the blinding pain that you will feel.

Let this be a lesson to you all. Don't make the same mistake as me; endure!

Shower time

2009-03-27T08:59:00.002Z

This little thing happens every day. You'd think I'd be prepared for it by now but no, never!

I get in the shower. I stand with my back to the shower most of the time. My legs, if you don't know, are quite hairy. As the water trickles down my back, some of it goes round to the front and goes down my thighs. As it hits my knees, it doesn't stay next to my legs - some of it at least - it goes in a kind of freefall flight, using my knees as ramps to freedom. As it does this, it tickles the hair just below my knees. I can't stand this tickling!

What I have to do is to turn around, wet my knees and smooth the hair flat to my leg with my hand.

Phew, glad I've got that off my chest!

Pity?

2009-03-27T00:53:00.002Z

This morning, I was sat on the toilet looking out of the window. It was breezy outside but not too cold. It was, however, wet, and I was looking out to the slippery roof where a pigeon was carefully walking down the angled surface. It was picking itself carefully, in the way that an old woman would walk down her icy path to collect the morning post.

I felt really sorry for this pigeon, all awkward out there in the wind and rain.

Until I remembered it could fly, stupid dumb-ass pigeon.

It makes me thing that perhaps evolution failed somewhat…

Street View

2009-03-20T12:33:00.002Z

It seems we have finally caught up with USA and now 25 cities around Great Britain have Street View.

I listen to a radio show some afternoons - BBC2's Jeremy Vine show - and today they have been discussing it.

The amount of people calling in announcing this invasion of privacy is simply ridiculous. I could walk down the street myself and see these images - whether they be children playing, open doors (where there won't be a lag, unlike the photography (do people these images are updated in real time?)) or car number plates - with my own two eyes.

Chillax, people of Britain. Go have a cup of tea or something.

Typically Plymouth doesn't get this technology, not yet in any case. I reckon it's because of the hills...

#95 - EMO Invitational

2009-03-02T12:10:00.001Z

We met outside Cuba on Friday evening - Momme, Matty J and I - waiting for Drakey to turn up so we could become 4 stars in a reasonably priced (to hire) Chevrolet Lacetti. Instead it turned out to be a new style of Corsa. We were a little cramped but arrived in Loughborough (pronounced 'luff-bu-ruh') happily. This turned into über rejoicement when we found ourselves at the Friday night meeting point - a Carvery. Gammon / turkey and all-you-can-eat veg? Yes please!

Guns, Tiger, Smiffy and Chubby arrived soon after (they'd eaten previously - amateur mistake) and we had a good laugh at Slumdog (formerly known as Cowboy)'s season-to-be: we've elected him waterboy for the season due to his choice of missing out on the tournament for a half marathon. Well, he clearly likes running...

After a quick trip to the 24hour Tesco for food, a table tennis set and poker chips (aka rawl plugs in different sizes / colours) we arrived at the church hall which was to be our sleeping area. The poker went well even if I do suck. I'll be hanging onto them for future events.

I was woken at 5am with news that two others wouldn't be coming along. 9 players for the weekend - gulp!

In the morning we met Power at the venue and I spoke to Lori for a few minutes (yay!). Then it was warm-up time. The 4-pitch venue was great (even if the showers turned out to be scaldingly hot) and the the ground was perfect.

First game was against Haze.

We would expect this local student team to show some talent - and they did, some very classy EMO players there - but we beat them easily. We knew that with just 9 players we needed to be efficient with our offence and we did, all weekend. Guns scored the final point with a sweet one-handed falling backwards hammer grab.

Next up, Leeds.

Our game at Nationals in September - the last of the weekend - was intense and close (sudden death). They won to finish 7th; we took 8th. We were hoping to reverse this here. We played hard against this scrappy team but it wasn't to be and it felt to me like they won comfortably. In reality they won 11-8ish. Our defence turned it up towards the end - Chubby getting some great anticipatory turnovers from and Tiger working the deep-switches well once we'd (later than I'd have wanted) suggested putting him there - and offence was working, most of the time (not least Matty J and Power both putting in some pin-point discs for scores).

I knowe Ozzie was off injured - and maybe more - but with Cowie, Heff, Slumdog, Foetus, Luke, Josh, Piers, Ed (injury permitting!) and Ollie (perhaps) still to return - amongst others - I'm confident that we could definintely have won this game with our full squad.

Next up, cross-over (6 vs 11) against Kent.

We were by far the better side and although they put some points on the board towards the end (and had a great deal of success by putting on a zone and waiting for our rest-deprived lack of concentration to turn over - we duly obliged) we won. Eventually.

Quick shower, park the cars back at the church then head for food / rugby. We found a great place and refuelled (mixed grill, onion rings, a pint for £10 - bargain) and chilled. It was a good time. From there we headed to the party (where we didn't so much party as hang out), I got to speak with Lori again (I miss you, darling) and then to bed.

The church hall was packed but the sleep I got was deep. After breakfast at 'Spoons - sad to see old men (anyone, really!) drinking beer at 0900 on a Sunday - we got to the pitches in plenty of time for our 1100 game against the French team, Iznogood.

This game was 3 vs 6. We didn't really think we'd have much chance at running with them so we worked on a different zone (thanks Power, we'll be using this again) and tried to be as efficient as possible and we went into the game with no pressure on us. We were pretty even for the first half - I took a great lead pass layout score (and flattened my sunglasses in the process) - but didn't score in the second. It was pointed out to me that there was a lot of double-teaming going on which we didn't call - the sort of stuff less tired people might notice... - but we enjoyed some great Ultimate in the sun. It was great to play some new opponents (I'd last met them at Paganello 2007). I hear Iznogood went on to beat Brighton quite comfortably in the final - I'm pleased for them.

The next game, after a break, was 6 vs 7 against Limited Release. This was my favourite game of the weekend. We started really strongly putting many unanswered points on the board at the start - Smiffy just keeping on running down hucks, Matt J and Guns coming under to see lots of the disc and Momme & Drakey solid in handling. My game was good too (until the last point when I kind of ran out of steam!), favourite moments being putting up a huck to Power before he'd cut (he told me off for this, but we both knew where he was going!) and running the disc to check it in for an open throw before the Defence had switched on. Things got a little 'spicy' with passions running high. And it felt good to win by 2 in the end.

We were on straight away against EMO (who had done a great job of beating). Both teams had 9 players (they'd had more on Saturday though) and both showed great skill - albeit in a more relaxed manner. It was a great way to end the weekend and I look forward to coming up against EMO when each team is at full strength.

Play over, we arrived home swiftly and Momme enjoyed his first egg custard. Drakey and I chatted at length about the future of Devon. He's putting together a manifesto for the AGM. Be there (Saturday 21st March in Exeter).

Played: 6. Won: 3. Lost: 3.

Seeded: 6th. After pool play: 6th. After cross-over: 6th. After 'semi': 6th. After 'final': 6th. Was there any point going?

Apart from Power's subbing off after every tiny little knock (to the confusion of many an opposition (but this gave us the opportunity to see how his handling has definitely improved recently)) there were no injuries (I'm ignoring the pain in my leg!). I look forward to taking to the pitch at Tour 'Zip' with a full squad (and being fitter, myself).

Moral? 9 isn't enough, but when used well, they can still do some damage. Safe(ty).

Indecisiveness, but it turns out alright in the end

2009-02-02T20:47:00.008Z

Apparently, us Brits are famous for talking about the weather.

Aside: It seems no one's told the Yanks this as

a) they don't think that about us and

b) they talk about it just as much as us (if not more!).

Anyway I digress.

With Britain in the grip of a blizzard, ahem. and folk taking days off work around the country for fun in the park, I thought I'd check the weather forecast to see if we were due any here in Plymouth.

This was what it kicked up.

What is that symbol about, the one up there for Monday? The lamest, most sat-on-the-fence effort ever, that's what. A "we don't know what the weather is going to do, so we're going to pick three random symbols (and include the snowflake to give those Plymouthians hope, regardless of the facts that they never get any and should get real)", that's what.

I'm so angry about it.

Except I'm not really, because I spoke to Lori for about 9 hours yesterday and I'm still on a high from that.

(And I'm going to get more snow than I really want next year!)

((But I love Lori more than I want snow; just wanted to clear that up))

Peas

2009-02-01T17:27:00.004Z

I have been amusing myself recently by signing emails 'peas' (not 'peace').

Childish, yes, but I'd rather that than to be stuck up.

Locked in

2009-01-23T21:57:00.004Z

When I arrive in work, I lock my bike in a cage - an added security measure.

Yesterday, I arrived in work slightly breathless from the headwind. I looked forward to getting in out of the cold.

As I went through the process of locking my bike, removing helmet / gloves etc, I heard the cage door slam behind me. Not a problem: there is a handle on the inside just for this very eventuality, a sort of override for the coded locking mechanism.

It didn't work. I was locked like a feral beast in metal cage. In the cold.

I phoned my colleague to come and collect me. To her credit (thanks Jo), she tried not to laugh before putting the phone down.

I waited.

A few minutes later she called to say they were trying to find security to find the code. I patiently explained that I knew it...

They took a picture. Well, wouldn't you?

Anticipation

2009-01-23T02:10:00.002Z

36 days until EMO's invitational tournament. I am already so pumped for this, it's ridiculous.

13.1 miles

2009-01-15T10:26:00.005Z

2005 - Plymouth Half Marathon

Someone dropped out of my sister's work team and I took their place just 3 weeks before the event.

1:44:59

2006 - Totnes Half Marathon

Determined to beat last year's time, I trained hard. It turned out to be a really hilly course and the hottest day of the year.

1:55:??

I vowed to never run another.

2009 - Plymouth Half Marathon

I WILL beat that time! 129 days to go.

I've chosen the RNLI as my charity. It's not particularly Transatlantic, but is one that demonstrates much that I love about SW England.

T:B:D

Personality Types

2009-01-08T22:06:00.006Z

In work a few days ago, my team did this personality test. It is based on the Myer Briggs Type Indicator but in very simplistic form.

After the 4 questions, I came out ESTJ (Extraversion, Sensing, Thinking, Judging) which made me 'Chief Wiggum'. About 10% of the UK population - including my boss! - is this type.

I've since done two much more complete tests, this one and this one. Both have not 4 questions but over 70 and they both put me as INTJ (Introversion, iNtuition, Thinking, Judging). In the Simpson's scheme of things, this makes me 'Mr Burns' and ~1.5% of the UK population (I prefer being much more unique, but not sure he'd be my first choice of character!).

The 'badge' below is the result of one of the sites.

This site discusses the character traits of an INTJ type in depth. Bits which I see in myself (and probably more accurately, bits which I LIKE to see in myself; feel free to comment on other aspects) are below:

INTJs are perfectionists, with a seemingly endless capacity for improving upon anything that takes their interest
Anyone considered to be "slacking," will lose their respect
They tend to be scrupulous and even-handed about recognizing the individual contributions that have gone into a project, and have a gift for seizing opportunities which others might not even notice
They tend to have little patience and less understanding of things such as small talk
Perhaps the most fundamental problem, however, is that INTJs really want people to make sense

Finally, I'm more than happy to hear that Gandalf, Hannibal Lecter, Clarice Starling and - most importantly in my mind - Lance Armstrong are all INTJ's.

What type are you?

Added a little later:

I think the reason I am so interested in this is that the more I read, the more I understand why I do a lot of the stuff I do and think the way I think. I've always known I'm not the most 'normal' of people (not that there's any such thing as normal outside the world of washing machines!) but this is filling in some gaps. I don't think any of my friends are INTJ's.

er⋅i⋅na⋅ceous

2009-01-06T22:11:00.005Z

[er-uh-ney-shuhs]
-adjective Zoology

of the hedgehog kind or family

New Year's Resolutions

2009-01-02T13:20:00.006Z

Eat 4 eggs a week
Become a better listener (don't be a problem solver; empathise instead)
Spend less time on Facebook, replacing it with book
Keep a tidier bedroom
Stand on one foot whilst brushing my teeth (helps develop ankles)

Added later:

I meant to include this when I originally posted but I forgot - was on the phone at the time.

In the last few days I've asked two people who are close to me what their thoughts on NY's Resolutions are. Both said they don't believe in them as they continually question themselves and search for improvements. Maybe I don't do this enough. Maybe I should add it to my list. Maybe.

2008 RS Awards

2008-12-31T22:00:00.005Z

Most Focussed Period
January to March. Gym, food, work, sleep, repeat. Dull

Most "No way! Is That Real?" Moment
Just after I show anybody my Paganello logo tattoo

Lowest Point
Breaking my wrist 5 days before flying to Italy for Paganello

Best Feeling

Seconds after being injected with Midazolam. Doctor: "you'll feel like you've just taken 6 pints in 30 seconds". Wow!

Most Pivotal Moment
"I'm not ready to say goodbye just yet"

Most Humbling Experience
The trust that Piotr showed us. I look forward to rejoining the Couchsurfing world

Favourite Weekend
My birthday weekend. Berlin, the people, the weather, playing Ultimate on sand again, my girlfriend

Most Successful On-Pitch Moment

Beating Great Britain's National team (followed closely by finishing UK Nationals in 8th with an incredible Devon team and knowing we didn't do as well as we could have done)

Toughest Day In Work

Having 3 interviews in one day

Most Satisfying Day In Work

Being offered all 3 positions!

Longest Wait

5.5 months: Bristol Airport to Chicago O'Hare

Most I-Can't-Believe-I-Just-Got-Away-With-That Moment

Proposing with a photo printed on a Frisbee

Highest Point

"Yes"

People say how 2008 has been a tough time. I see this around me, not least in my own family. For me however, it's been the best year of my life.

I just hope 2009 can match it. I've a feeling it will.

Inspiration

2008-12-18T19:57:00.002Z

Ending my phone contract

2008-12-12T17:21:00.004Z

My mobile phone contract expires about this time of year. I tend to only remember this when, regular as clockwork, I get calls from mobile phone companies trying to get me to renew my contract through them. The fact that Orange passes on my details annoys me to be honest, but today I found out how to get rid of them. Instantly. It goes something like this...

[Richard's phone rings, he answers it]
Richard "hello, Richard speaking"
Phone company guy "Hi it's _____ from _____ mobile ltd. Our records show that your mobile phone contract is expiring soon".
Richard "I am emigrating soon and looking to cancel my mobile phone contract"
[Beeeeeeeeeep. Phone company guy hangs up]

It's not strictly true (not yet at least), but it's effective. I'm going to remember this one.

Interestingly relevant

2008-12-12T16:07:00.000Z

Immigration to the US, 1820-2007 v2 from Ian S on Vimeo.

One Last One

2008-12-08T20:37:00.002Z

Plus

Phonewords. 1-800-GO-FEDEX & 1-800-TAXI-CAB, that sort of thing. More UK companies should follow suit, for sure!

She said yes!

2008-12-06T11:47:00.000Z

I just realised I've not posted this here. So here goes, the full story...

I arrived in Chicago on the evening of Thursday 13th November tired (less than 3 hrs sleep in the previous 48!) but elated to be back with my girl. The reunion in O'Hare was beautiful. It wouldn't have looked out of place in the opening sequences of Love Actually. At one point, after I'd put Lori back down and we'd stopped kissing - almost 6 months apart; I think we can be excused! - a lady who was waiting at the arrivals lounge and I locked eyes. It sounds all very clichéd but in that briefest of moments, I could tell that she had / has known love and that she approved.

Lori's suburb house is huge (to my mind - you could fit a 5-a-side pitch in her back garden) and her family's 15-year-old Siberian Husky is simply gorgeous. I think it fair to say I was a little nervous about meeting Lori's parents, but they seem to like me.

It sounds strange but I think I spent so much time concentrating on seeing Lori again - 5 1/2 months apart! - that I neglected to consider the fact that I would be visiting a new country (nay, continent!). Incidentally, this is the 5th time we've spent time together and the 5th different country - I'm not sure we'll keep up this much longer!.
Everyone I've met, friends and strangers alike, have been so friendly (see more below) and seemingly enjoying talking to this British boy. The cars are huge (I've never been so intimidated by walking through a car park!) and the petrol price has fallen to a long-time low of $2 per gallon (in July it was over $4).

On Friday 14th we drove to Lori's alma mater, Valparaiso University to stay with Dan and Andrea. She speaks so fondly of this place (Valpo in general) that I thought it the perfect place to propose. So on Saturday 15th I did, with the help of a disc.

I had taken a photo of the two of us the night that we met in Italy and had it printed on a disc - a Frisbee, if you will - with the words "Lori will you marry me?". Having sat, warming up at the library at the University, Lori offered to take me to the 'kissing bridge'.
A while back, it was a bridge over a train track and couples would kiss for the duration of the time that the train passed underneath. The train track has since been rerouted and a stretch of the bridge relocated to the new campus but Lori seemed keen to show me the area.
When we got there and after we'd kissed, I gave her the disc wrapped as a present. She opened it, I knelt and asked 'properly', she said yes, we pretty much got out of there - it was so so cold!

A very sweet little event happened whilst travelling back to Dan and Andrea's and it seems quite fitting to include here. We stopped into a shop for some food. Nothing much - some cereal, a little cake and a candy bar - and completely unprovoked, the lady in front of us insisted we include them with her bill. Wow. I think she got a little shy at her own impulsive generosity but today of all days, it was frankly, just perfect. When we informed her that today we got engaged, she was most delighted. Her words were along these lines: "I remember being young and in love. I have been married for 31 years and although it's not always easy it's been worth it". A perfect blessing from a complete stranger - we were pretty much speechless for a while.

That night we celebrated with a meal with Dan's family, a basketball game at the University and a bottle of champagne with Dan and Andrea.

The weekend was capped off with a surprise party back at Dan and Andrea's on Sunday night. Ryan, Heather and Kim (some of Lori's Valpo friends) could all make it and it was just perfect. Except Lori punching me in the stomach upon realising there was more surprise.

I want to put here too a huge thank you to Dan and Andrea for everything - putting us up for the weekend, helping me with the proposal and throwing the party.

Now I'm back home and in a kind of daze. I can't quite believe that we've got another long time apart - the fact I had flu at the end of the trip doesn't really help as I don't feel like we got to say goodbye properly - but it's another chapter in our story. And hey, I don't like it easy anyway!

American Thoughts

2008-11-25T17:40:00.004Z

Plus

Peanut butter M&M's
Snow
The welcomeness of strangers
Siberian huskies
iPod vending machines
Drive-through banks
Lori

Minus

ENORMOUS cars / no one walks anywhere
The wind - it's cold
Italian beef sandwiches
Stop signs, everwhere
Fahrenheit
Date format (mdy, not dmy)

My photos

Off hand throw

2008-11-08T10:45:00.001Z

Why not just become a lefty?

Argumentative anti-argumentatives

2008-11-06T16:21:00.004Z

You know the type:

"It doesn't bother me but..."
or
"No no no, don't get me wrong; I don't mind but..."

before they tell you exactly how it does does bother them, or how they do mind. For the next half and hour. Without giving you the opportunity to defend yourself.

Stop it, please! If you've got a problem, be big enough to stand up and say so and then you can have a proper grown-up discussion.

Why would anyone do this?

2008-10-23T16:46:00.005+01:00

Generally speaking, if two free-thinking and free-acting humans want to fight each other, go nuts.
I. Don't. Care.

Start bringing in animals in, however, and I do.
I think we humans, as the so-called 'dominant' species (laughable!), have a right to protect other creatures.

I just watched this video about fighting stallions in the Philippines at the National Geographic website. Be warned, some of the graphic imagery is distressing.

I know that animals fight in the wild - for territory, for a mate, for food - but that's natural. This kind of human-incited provocation is just fucking sick.
Bull fighting too (worse perhaps - animals versus humans (cowards) where the odds are stacked so heavily against the animals).

I'm sorry if this brings a downer to your day. I just had to write something. After all, what else can I do?

Kill Mode

2008-10-18T18:06:00.000+01:00

I have it.

Have you?

Where did this come from?

2008-10-11T21:06:00.004+01:00

After the wettest August in the UK on record, this October day was not exactly expected (though very welcome).
I made the most of it with Dad, Pam and Karen by getting onto Dartmoor and having my first (I think; almost certainly the last) BBQ of 2008.

Now to bed to sleep off my hangover.

Over the last few days I...

2008-10-04T23:36:00.007+01:00

...finished work for the weekend at 3 on Thursday
...was taken for a walk by my mum's dog
...looked through / scanned hundreds of photographs from my childhood*
...have not slept well due to being trampled on by a cat all night
...was chased through a field by a bull
...got very, very, muddy
...walked through lush British countryside and passed quaint cottages which Lori would adore
...witnessed my mother sweet talking the barman to take our food order 10 minutes after last orders

* see Facebook!

Since then

...chatted with Lori for hours
...slept really well
...spent the morning being very lazy
...had a long-overdue shave
...played Ultimate for over 3 hours

What a great weekend!

This is for me

2008-09-29T22:00:00.001+01:00

...because I'm going to want to watch it again sometime!

Time

2008-09-22T18:47:00.004+01:00

TEN YEARS AGO I...

...spent many happy days / nights hiking on Dartmoor.
...had never played Ultimate. What did I do with my time?
...started 6th form and for the first time in years I had girls in the same year as me
...had more energy, and a bigger appetite than you'd think possible from a boy as skinny as me.
..., after a bad day at school, went for a bike ride that literally shook my wrist bones to pieces. 10 years on, after physiotherapy, two cortisone steroid injections and some surgery later, it's still not (and won't ever) healed.

FIVE YEARS AGO I...

...was loving living in Bath.
...captained my University team to 8th at outdoor nationals
...worked in the student union shop on campus. Still, the best job I've ever had.
...bought my mum the best Christmas present ever - a stainless silver coffee maker
...lived with 4 others. One was a guy who would never spoke unless you spoke to him. The other was Cookie.

TWO YEARS AGO I...

...was working at MDEC.
...said something I shouldn't have.
...beat Leeds to finish 6th at Nationals.
...had glandular fever over New Year's, again!
...set my half marathon personal best (1:44:58).

ONE YEAR AGO I...

...moved into spider house!
...was still working in the MDEC.
...was told I'd need surgery on my knee.
...joined a gym for the first time in my life.
...still wasn't in a relationship and still wanted to be.

YESTERDAY I...

...wasn't hung over.
...taught someone the triple S game.
...drank a chocolate brownie flavoured milkshake.
...chatted with Lori for a wonderful, uninterrupted, 4 hours.
...missed training in the sun for 8 hours of overtime. Yay money!

TODAY I...

...wore my bike helmet.
...am in a very happy place.
...will try to go to bed early.
...had my first day in my new job.
...will make tomorrow's packed-lunch.

TOMORROW I WILL...

...go to the gym.
...wear my bike helmet.
...get up at 0500 so I can talk with Lori before work.
...listen to Elbow's Mercury Music Award winning album.
...tell Lori that she's beautiful and that I love her. And mean it.

Shamelessly ripped from Heather's and Lori's blogs.

Happiness

2008-09-17T11:00:00.000+01:00

A few weeks ago I posted about girl magazines. Well it seems they don't always speak rubbish.

Dannii Minogue is interviewed in September's issue of Cosmopolitan (honestly, I really don't buy them myself!)...

Cosmo - Do you think there is The One for everyone?
Dannii - No. You have to be The One and then find someone you love to be with.

I agree with this. I honestly believe that if you expect someone to love you, you have to love yourself first.

Oakley

2008-09-12T02:16:00.002+01:00

I have a theory about Oakley sunglasses.

Let me paint you a picture.

Somewhere at the top of a high tower, watched by guards dressed in shiny armour, is a man. Nobody knows his name. He is chained to his desk. He is fed, well. The room is circular with reinforced glass for walls and ceiling. It is modern and warm, equipped with the latest drawing desk / pencils etc.

The man lives to design sunglasses. He is expected to churn out 4 or 5 designs a week. This is tough - he's a perfectionist - but he really really enjoys his job.

The chain is unnecessary for keeping him from leaving. It's there to make sure he's not kidnapped - he's very valuable.

His boss - some sort of sunglasses tyrant (I'm thinking Faramir's father for some reason) - looks through them and gives his verdict. He's very picky and, unlike the artist, has a business mind. The 'business' was inherited from his father who inherited it from his father.

The vast majority of designs are binned on sight.

Occasionally (once a month), a design sparks the lightest of interest. The tyrant states that these will be put into production. He chooses a material - a cheap grade of plastic - and a price. Typically in the £60-£75 region. These sell well.

Even more occasionally (once every three years), a design is produced that the Boss knows will be loved by the masses. As cool and collected as he ever is, he decides it will be put into production. And what he decides, happens. Or heads roll. With this particular design, he chooses the material as some sort of modern-age techno metal. Brushed titanium with nano-laranium and all the polarizing iridium trimmings. They're priced at £250. They sell even better.

I'm not saying this actually happens, but I find it hard to believe it's not something like that.

Efficiency

2008-09-12T01:02:00.001+01:00

Fact

J C Decaux are the company who look after the bus stops in Plymouth.

Question

Why is this important to me?

Answer

It's not, just an observation. But i will continue...

Plymouth bus stops are great.

I have, in the past, been stood at one of these bus stops when a (spotlessly clean) J C Decaux van has turned up. The employee has swept & hosed down the surrounding pavement (making sure to politely request any bus-waiters to make space), cleaned the glass (doubtlessly checking for any graffiti / vandalism too) and replaced the out-of-date timetable with a current one before jumping back in his van and moving on to the next one.

Plymouth buses on the other hand are rubbish.

They're dirty, pretty much always late and you expect the driver to be rude to you. And they chuck diesel out to kill off those cyclists who have the gall to shun local transport in favour of their own legs 'n' lungs.

Conclusions

J C Decaux should get the rights to all aspects of the Plymouth bus service.

And I should get the Freedom of the City for my insight.

SOARR

2008-09-12T00:42:00.000+01:00

Situation

Objective

Action

Result

Reflection

#91 - Open Nationals - London

2008-09-08T10:11:00.007+01:00

Friday night saw us back at Mrs Powers' being fed, heartily before settling down to hear Luke's criticism of Sahara. Way to ruin a film for us, cheers! I was able to receive a phone call from Lori too which clearly made me happy.

Returning to the venue where I broke my wrist about 6 months ago, I do admit to being somewhat nervous. But I was fitter & stronger after spending many hours in the gym and ready for action.

With the regular captains unable to make the event, I took over leadership. There have been many occasions when Devon have not succeeded towards the end of tournaments simply through lack of players but a few of us worked to make sure this was not the case. We'd put together a team of 15: 6 current/ex Exeter students, 3 current/ex Plymouth students, 4 Airbadgers (3 recently back from GB Junior duty in Canada, a Cardiff chap and myself.

Pool Game 1; Fusion East ; 5-15 loss
This was always looking like it was going to be tough - Fusion were seeded 4th after Tour and are known for their fitness and effective deep game - and it didn't disappoint. We (seeded 12th) started very sluggishly in the drizzle but slowly managed to regroup. Our defence struggled to shut down their long shots but our offence slowly managed to put some point on the board. We may have been heartily beaten but there were plenty of positives. Our structure remained strong in the face of the toughest defence we'd face all weekend and we acquitted ourselves well.

Injury-wise, I'd made it through the first game unscathed and even managed a layout grab (finger & thumb, under huge pressure).

Pool Game 2; Cambo Cakes; 15-14 win
We were straight on against our Dutch opponents who were seeded 6th. Whilst we'd played the Scots, they'd had a tough sudden-death win against BPF and this buoyed us (we expected to beat Bristol). It wasn't a fun game and they were at times hugely unspirited. On the 3rd or 4th time one of their players fouled Josh on the mark I stepped in and just pointed out that perhaps he was too close and he was at fault. That felt refreshing and to his credit, he did not repeat. Their team revolved around a few key handlers (one being 'Swampy' who used to play for Clapham but now looked well past his best) who earned their team a 4-0 lead but by shutting them down and letting our youthful D players get their blocks we won in sudden death. We shouldn't have gone down at the start and should have won by a lot more. But we did enough.

Next was a break. We refuelled and got prepared. After unexpectedly beating Cambo Cakes, we'd be top 8 overnight by winning this next game. It would still be possible otherwise, but that would involve a 3-way tie and I've lost out in too many of these over the years! But results aside, the current BPF team contains many Cardiff players and this makes them fair game for a beating!

Pool Game 3; Bristol Plastic Factory; 15-6 win
We came out strong in this game and just took it away. We would get blocks at will, put the disc in with relative ease and just romp away. It didn't help that Milky would have an unusually terrible game - dropping 4 simple catches from little more than gentle pressure - but overall we were so fired up. We matched up intelligently on and their key players - Ian King and Will D-J especially - didn't get the opportunity to perform. I had a stormer, offensively, catching 3 layout grabs (2 for scores). I always seem to play well whenever Uncle Wayne is around. Maybe he should be my team mascot...?

During the evening, we rested. No one was up for anything heavy and after another incredible spread from Mrs Power we weren't up for much. A futile shopping trip and some ice cream later, we hit the sack with intentions to get up early.

6-11 Game; Discuits; 16-14 win
We had already had a successful Saturday but we were keen to cement ourselves into the top 8 by winning this first game on Sunday morning. We made plans to be pitch-side 45 minutes before the game, but we actually only made it with less than 5 minutes to go. Not ideal. Consequently, we went down by a few at the start and it was looking bleak. I seem to remember calling a time-out to try and rally the troops. At the start of the game we went down to a few long shots so this is something we talked about cutting out. By keeping a strong righty flick force (thus not allowing Lee Noble's left throw out) and working on getting switches deep we negated their deep threat. A high point had to be Foetus skying Lee for a point-saving D. I seem to remember getting mixed up in a couple of theses two, once fouling Oli (but the disc went back for a pick) but keeping sustained pressure meant that they had to cut under...

...Which played straight into our hands. With a young fast team, they couldn't match us for pace so we stepped it up, a notch and started to take some points. It was during a baited layout D that Oli did something bad to his knee and had to sit out the rest of the weekend. At least he went out doing something great.

I took one grab early on that's possibly the best I've made in years and really got me up and firing. They came zone (a good idea in the breeze and soaking wet conditions) and to collect a wayward swing I had to run back down the pitch, lay high & early and make a one-handed trailing edge rim-catch, before ensuring my foot touched in before crashing to earth and sliding into a huge pile of bags. We were to shortly turn over cheaply and lose this point but I believe it's moments like this that can lift / lower heads.

So from going 0-4 down, we'd brought it back to 7-7 and they only took the half from a mac from a not-caught D from me. We gave too many of these away this weekend - some that the catch was attempted (like this one - I punched the floor with anger which I later reflected on as being A Bad Thing!) and some that the catch was not attempted on (= inexcusable).

The second half was more of the same. Lots of trading points. Lots of intense hard-fought Defense. Lots of layouts on the slippery wet surface. By taking experiences from all 3 of Saturday's games - starting slowly (Fusion), going down early (Cambo Cakes) and really wanting it (BPF) - we were able to eke out the win. It went to sudden death in the end but we'd worked too hard to get back into this one to let it slip away. Thank you Guns for collecting a hospital pass from myself, and Cowboy / Power to slotting it away.

6-7 Game; EMO; blah-blah loss

7-8 Game; LLLeeds; 14-16 loss
We lost the last two. They were both close and both winnable, but though we knew we should win, we simply couldn't raise ourselves to the intensity of the Discuits one and they slipped away. We weren't on our game - not close enough on D (especially against LLLeeds; partly due to being down to 13 players now we'd lost Rob to a bad knee too) and turning over too cheaply on O. Meh.

Overall, it was an outstanding weekend. Top 8 at Nationals was the icing on the cake after Devon's most successful Tour to date.

On his 17th birthday, Josh earnt himself an MVP award for his sustained solid handling. Really, really nice job. I see a Colonel of the future!

Steve did more than what was asked of him causing numerous blocks and showed why it was the right decision to invite him along. Luke really impressed with his vertical game, and encouraging by example on D.
I could write about everyone but won't. I don't need to - every single one of us earnt our cap in the Discuits game alone. Devon knows how they make it so good!

Last point: boy did it feel good to be back playing open. This was the first UK Open event I'd played and not got injured in since Open Nationals 2006 (when playing for BAF we came 6th!).

They've done it again

2008-09-03T01:15:00.007+01:00

Now that I've been using it for a while...

Cute, sporty, sassy Yanks. Ultimate. Custard. The Lord of the Rings. Animals. The Outdoors. Technology. Facebook. Google Earth.

These are all things I like. The last three reflect my geeky side.

And now I've a new one:

Chrome - the new open source web browser from Google.

Yet again those geniuses at Googleplex, California have taken what we've been using for a while, made a few small tweeks and improved what we didn't realise needed improving. I know it crashes occasionally (but it is the Beta and I can live with that for now) but I think it's refreshing and clean and I look forward to seeing what the future brings.

"Did you give her a hard time?"

2008-09-03T00:44:00.002+01:00

Ever since we moved into this flat a year ago, we've had issues with the TV Licence company. [If you're not from the UK you might not know this is basically what pays for the BBC].

We've been receiving letters along the lines of "please buy a TV Licence", "expect a call from a TV Licence officer" and the slightly fear-inspiring "if you do not own a valid TV Licence, we can summon you to court".

The thing is, we own a valid TV Licence.

The problem stems from the fact that our flat has a ground floor and a top floor (where we live) but the TV Licence company records show there to be 3 flats (ground floor, first and top). Simple mistake you'd think, but it's been going on for a while.

In April of this year a representative from the company called - I answered the door and they are always a little timid as if expecting the worst - and we thought we'd sorted the issue then.

After showing our valid Licence and a phone call, we thought this would be the end of the story. Needless to say, it wasn't and the letters have continued.

This Sunday just gone (who works at 2000 on a Sunday?! - at least they know people are likely to be in!) brought another visit - different woman, same timidness - so I invited the lady in. This is how I first differ from my housemates. I was told that I shouldn't have done so.

Whilst my mentality is that we've done nothing wrong and would like to rectify it, theirs is that we're being harrassed and thus should make their lives as difficult as possible!

This lady followed the same steps as the last one - checking our TV Licence was valid establishing where the error was, filling in the 'sort this out form' [which will then be sent off to another area of the company] - before saying goodbye. This all took less than 15 minutes and she was polite (like me) and genuinely apologetic of this mess-up.

Upon my other housemate returning home from work, she asked the question which gives this post it's title and it has dwelt on my mind since then.

I figure many people go about their work in an efficient manner to the best of the abilities but sometimes (often hidden) colleagues mess it up for them. I had a much-loved part-time job whilst at University working in Blacks, the outdoor clothing / hardware store. Often people would come back with a faulty product screaming and shouting and I would have to calm them down and resolve the issue which often stemmed from some other area of the business (i.e. the suppliers). I am 100% sure this, and more importantly the previous, lady tried to their best but someone else fell short of the mark.

Now to my point.

I think how you go about your manner in situations such as these reflects your character.

I am laid back. I don't like to cause undue distress to others. I try to see the whole story. In short, I pride myself on my open mindedness and understanding nature.

My two housemates aren't so forgiving. One was scared that we would get sent to court (a fair fear, but this simply wouldn't happen as can be demonstrated by the Sunday evening visits) and resented giving quarter of an hour of her day (because trashy Sunday night television is much more important! Meow Richard!) but the other actually thought I should have given this innocent 'middle-man' grief.

The thing that makes this last point most poignant is that this housemate (and family member) works in a the wedding industry and is often returning home with terrible stories where self-centred people make her life misery.

I guess when the chips are down even generally reasonable people have their breaking points. I wonder where mine is.

'Essential'

2008-09-01T10:30:00.002+01:00

es.sen.tial [uh-sen-shuhl]
–adjective
absolutely necessary; indispensable: Discipline is essential in an army

Whilst going about my business on the loo earlier, I was flicking through Marie Clair...

I'll stop there and quantify this statement. I live with two girls and they leave their girly magazines in the bathroom. I left a Haynes manual, but this is now hidden under copies of Cosmo, MC and Soap Weekly (Really?!? It's bad enough to be addicted to soap operas, but some people actually find it necessary to read up on them 2 weeks before they're aired! Crazy).

Anyway, back to this morning's literature-imbibing.

...On two successive pages, I found the word 'Essential'. The first informed me how a Little White Dress is as essential in summer as a LBD is in winter then I subsequently ascertained - in the essential accessories section no less - that no girl should go without a beach bag in the summer months. Oh, and here are four recommended ones (starting at £20)
I decided to pursue this further and discovered the word reappeared twice more.

It makes me glad to be a boy and that I don't have all these (largely financial) expectations laid upon me.

The irony is that in the same magazine there's an article bemoaning money and how today's society / drink / friends / shopping etc. all cost more than they used to.

[Percentage feel-goodness]

2008-09-01T09:18:00.005+01:00

Prepared evening meal and put it in slow cooker [90% - how fun can chopping carrots and peeling sweet potato really be?]
Got a lift to Exeter for training [100% - good banter, optimistic about training]
Warmed up, thoroughly [100% - wrist now totally healed, old knee injury not reappearing]
Drilled hard [90% - feeling the effects of a gym session yesterday, nothing out of the ordinary]
Played three games to five with drink breaks in-between [90% - nothing further physical, but my 'light team' lost all three]
In the first point of a game of three-on-three [5% - see below]

How can it be that after playing for a while (so I'm properly warm; I've not been playing too long so it's not been too long), I can change direction - like I've been doing for the last 2 hours with no ill effects - my knee decides it wants to be weak and just twists?
Apparently this time spent bulking up adding muscle mass to my legs in an attempt to reduce the likelihood of knee / ankle injuries has not been time well spent.

I despair.

So after breaking my right wrist, doing 'something' to my right knee (never really had it properly diagnosed - was told there was something going on with my right ACL) and spraining my ankle (badly - it took me 8 months to be able to get back to playing), I've now got a left knee to worry about.

One day I'm going to make the sensible decision and hang up my boots before I do something really bad.
In the meantime we'll see if I can patch myself up for Nationals next weekend, and Glastonbury the weekend after.

On the plus side:

Ate stew in the evening [100% - it was delicious and the best thing is that I've another two servings still to eat]

How many?

2008-08-27T22:33:00.002+01:00

Bert likes animals.

All of his pets except two are cats,
all of his pets except two are dogs
and all of his pets except two are birds.

How many pets does Bert have?

Things I miss

2008-08-26T09:18:00.002+01:00

The comfort blanket (name = sheet) from when I was real small. True story: mum had to steal it and wash it overnight because I couldn't bear to be apart from it for even a day.
Gulliver - a huge golden retriever that was only a few months younger than me.
Being of an age where creating a den in a bush in a park was an expected activity on a Sunday afternoon.
The days when chocolate bars were a decent size, before the scrimping powers-that-be decided a reduction in the amount of confectionery (whilst at the same time increasing the price) was the ideal method to increase revenue.
Hiking as part of the Duke of Edinburgh award when I'd be away from the world's news; instead having to be concerned about how to clean a bacon-encrusted frying pan with no detergent.
Venture Scout summer holidays where for a little under a week you were with friends in a foreign country. A certain episode with a firework and a metal bucket comes to mind. Not me mum, I promise.
Sailing with school every Friday afternoon for the summer term for two years as part of being a Navy cadet.
Playing for BLT - my university ultimate team.
When I could go off-road biking before my wrists decided to literally crumble away.
Similarly, the days before I got injured every season.
Not having to pay income tax. Or, for that matter, work.
My beautiful girlfriend.

How to win gold in swimming...

2008-08-25T13:51:00.001+01:00

Dreams

2008-08-24T21:02:00.004+01:00

I never ever remember the dreams that I'm told I have at night whilst sleeping. Ho hum, I've never known otherwise and there's not a lot I can (or want) to do about this so I'll move on.

What I want to talk about here are aspiration-type dreams.

I don't have many [actually this isn't true, I have lots, but of really big ones I don't think I have many - this is sounding like content for a future post] but one of them is to compete at the Olympics Games. I've wanted this for as long as I remember (probably since watching the Seoul Olympics at the age of 6) but the really saddening thing is that I am fairly certain this is one dream that will never be realised.

Which makes me wonder what the point of unattainable dreams (oh, here's another - I'd like to go into space: to look down on our planet with my own two eyes and not via Google Earth (incredible though it is)) is.

I am aware that neither of these 'pipe dreams' are impossible; just highly unlikely. I could push myself into some niche sport in it's infancy, or > insert method to worm my way on to NASA's Space Programme once I figure it out, here < but the realist in me says my time and efforts would be better spent elsewhere.

Talking about this subject with my sister, she suggested that it is good to have dreams - unattainable though they may be - because they put us in a happy place; they fill us with good thoughts and therefore we should embrace them.

By contrast, I would reason that once all sensible precautions have been taken, I do my utmost to rid myself of irrational fear - height, spiders, the dark etc - as I don't want to have to deal with irrationality (Vikki's argument would suggest that instead I do this because I don't want to surround myself with negatives) but if I am to rid myself of irrational unpleasantries then it follows I should shun irrational pleasantries also.

So I should be realistic and get over my Astro-Olympic chimera.

Back on-topic, I think the above would go some way to explain why I get so emotional - in a way that aside from stories of cruelty to animals, does not generally happen to me - about sport. To this day I can not watch a medal presentation without choking up, regardless of athlete, country and event.

At least now Beijing 2008 is over, I'll have 4 years of hopefully tear-free eyes until London 2012. Maybe in this time I'll either find my sport (which is going to get tougher when I move across the Atlantic!) or figure out a way to rid myself of these fatuous illusions.

In the mean time here's a good summary of Beijing with a look towards London.

Wow, a sensible post for once. And not about Ultimate. I scare myself sometimes.

If a job's worth doing...

2008-08-23T09:50:00.007+01:00

Few things sadden and infuriate me as much as biased refereeing in sport.
How can you miss a kick to the head?

Sometimes I wish my chosen sport had officials. Sometimes I'm glad we do it ourselves.

Later:
A protest was made. The decision has be reversed. My faith in refereeing and the IOC has been restored!

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

2008-08-18T10:50:00.003+01:00

[To give our country the correct name in Olympic terms]

So 'our' (in commas as I personally contributed very little!) weekend in Beijing was amazing.

In two days we scooped 8 golds, 4 silvers and 5 bronzes in 5 different sports and rose to 3rd in the medal table.
This page lists them all

There were downs as well...

Paula Radcliffe must surely be up there with the unluckiest of Olympiads.
She was the best marathon runner in the world in 2002 & 2003 (during which time she set the world record (which still stands)), won the world title in 2005 (posting the third fastest time ever; she has run 4 of the fastest 5 marathon times ever run) and (after giving birth to her daughter Isla) won the New York marathon last year.
It just seems that every time an Olympic games comes around, something comes up. But hey, it's sport and that's what happens and still managing 23rd after missing months of training through injury (and making a time of 2hrs 32 - at least two hours faster than I could manage) isn't exactly embarrassing.

The women's quadruple sculls were pipped at the post by China (who won their first ever rowing Gold) but if winning Olympic silver (even if it is your third successive one, as is the case with Katherine Grainger) is a disappointment, then it's not all bad.

But our pre-Games target was 12 golds (and we're already won 11, with a week to go) and it's looking very good, not least with our aim for London 2012 as 4th in the medal table.
There are people writing about how we're winning medals in 'outside events' which are somehow not as worthy as Track and Field but as someone who doesn't exactly play a mainstream sport I don't have much time for this.
Olympics (in my dreams at least) is about competing against others and winning. All of our athletes live, eat and sleep their sport. They are putting their bodies on the line and making more sacrifices than us mere mortals will never make. Come on Gee Bee!!!

On a personal note I managed to fit in cycling (both on my bike and a spinning class in the gym), abs & shoulder work, swimming, hill sprints (which I enjoyed, what?!?) and 3 hours of Ultimate this weekend. I've 3 weeks until Nationals and I think it's fair to say I'm looking forward to being fit for it!!

--
Literally as I finished writing this, our cyclists have just won the team sprint in yet another world record time. I'm struggle to type from the adrenaline pumping!

#90 - Ooo Devon - Exeter

2008-08-02T19:30:00.005+01:00

It was a strange start to a tournament weekend not having to take Friday off work to travel but that's what you get with a tournament in your own county. Score!

After work on Friday, I headed to Power's and found everyone there getting prepared for a night out. As I was out until 0530 on the Friday morning, I thought an early night was in order so after an hour of being sociable, I did.

I went back to sleep after my alarm went off on Saturday (really don't remember the last time this happened) but was still able to leave the house in good time and we all got to the pitch without too much of the "I know we're close, we must be close, it's somewhere around here".

Pool Game 1; Floppy Disc; 13-0 win
A new team we owned. It was a good opportunity in the slight breeze to practice the zone we knew we'd be using to good effect all tournament. I was particularly pleased with a stellar (not my word; Match Diesel uses it lots) inch-perfect two-thirds length cross-pitch inside-out flick to Nest.
After the game, the team were visibly dejected. It had been the second bagel they'd receive and it was only 1130 on Saturday morning. I remember being there though and it's no fun. You either improve or you quit (or you stay where you are and don't care about losing).

Pool Game 2; Mongosling; 13-1 win
At Sunburn, we lost to this team in our final pool game. It was hard to swallow - for me especially as I assisted a Callaghan. This was certainly in the back of my mind as we entered the game. To be fair, their team did include a number of new players who we suffocated on the sideline with our junk zone as our deeps / wings cut out passes. Our offence continued to be immense - I was gutted to concede the only score (though it was a break force so I'm not too angry). I got 2 point blocks and 2 D's from the wing position.
A point of note: there was the opportunity to lay out in a twisty sidewards awkward way for the D. I'm still very wary of screwing up my knee and didn't. I wonder if I'll ever get over this.

We had over 3 hours to wait now (thankfully the weather was good) so we hung out, the kids chucked grass at each other, Katie came to say hi before moving, permanently, back home, I had an ice cream and one of the most amusing events of the weekend occurred: a small white dog ran over to be friendly / try and steal some food etc so everyone made a fuss of it. Then it cocked it's leg and wee-d on Cowie before running off as fast it's tiny legs would carry it. Oh how we laughed...

Pool Game 3; Supermannschaft; 13-10 win
Just before I describe this game - a game that was looking like it would be a cracker - I want to talk about something which I don't think does Ultimate any favours at all. Just as we were about to start, there was the 'Ooo Devon Spike-Off' on the other side of the pitch. This was where the organisers had organised a 'spectacle' to enter: set up a score and then the best / most amusing / wackiest celebration wins. Maybe I'm showing my age (or maybe I want what is best for the game) but I don't think that this shows our sport - a sport which in many parts is working hard to shake off the hippyesque image of old - in the best light to any casual observers. Oh well, when I organise a tournament I guess I'll be able to have a say in these things so until then I'll keep schtum.
Just like Drakey's Nice Legs, Timmy's lovec-hild is Mannschaft. They've improved with time and scooped up better players to the point that they're now real contenders at the fun tournaments in which they enter (and look good in their white shirts with gold trim). I knew most of the players on the team and knew this wouldn't be an exception. We started strongly going up 4-0 before letting them back in to tie it. Game on! We traded for a while before pulling out another 3-or-so point lead. During the course of the game, the cool-headedness of each team (throwing-wise; the spirit was fine) degraded until there was a bit of a huck fest. I was finding this quite frustrating and didn't really understand why until Drakey explained at the end - as people were getting tired, blood flow was going to legs / arms (and not heads) hence the throwaways. I guess this isn't something I've had for a while. Towards the end of the game 'Schaft' had a bit of a come-back but couldn't quite manage it. We were 3-0 in games - back to Plymouth for a night out.

Back in Plymouth, we pulled into the supermarket for food - we were all going back to Power's to eat home-cooked Chilli - and Bex popped her head out of the van we'd unsuspectingly pulled up next to. Bex is an ex-Picnic player and was meant to be picking up with us on the Sunday. What a coincidence. As it happened, she didn't in the end - too busy recovering from a wedding...

I headed back to mine to shower, get changed and speak to Lori (not for long enough, but at least we got to speak - it had been a bit thin on the ground recently) before busting over to Power's.

The night was going well. We ate very well, were drinking well and banter levels were high. The d***head stick was doing the rounds and at about 2am I was just about ready to say good night. Then, some guy ruined our night. OK, things could have been a lot worse but still, it was really unwanted. A few of us went and joined Drakey upstairs and I was leaning against one of those touch-screen pub games (couldn't see the screen). There was no one playing (there was a guy stood the other side but he was talking to a girl) so for no reason I touched the screen. Immediately this guy came aggressively over to me and I realised immediately I'd just answered a question of his incorrectly. I apologised and offered to pay what he'd just lost, immediately. Fair enough, you'd think - genuine mistake, take the money, no harm done. No, the opposite. The guy continued to act aggressively so Power came over and asked what was going on. This guy - clearly he was no stranger to trouble - knew what he was doing and in one fluid movement took out his fake front teeth(!), glassed Power in the forehead and left. All that happened in a matter of seconds. Naturally, our first concern was with Power - was he okay? He tied his t-shirt around his head and the bleeding continued so after walking around the club looking for the guy (who we never found - coward) I took him to the hospital. The cut was deep so it required glueing / stitches but no real harm done. Thankfully. I feel really stupid being the cause of this but at the end of the day an accident happened and it's really "not my fault" (Barney's words). You have to wonder at what people do to each other - check out this.

As you may imagine, getting home at 0530 (and having to be up at 0645) wasn't exactly the most conducive towards a good start to the day. I was up on time, somehow, and sat and waited 30 minutes for my lift. I wasn't in the best of moods at this point - the team thankfully waited for us but they didn't have to. There are a few occasions when I really wish I drove and this is one - not having to wait on other people's time-keeping incompetence (another, sadly, being for returning home after the gym).

Crossover; Return of the Mack!; 13-8ish win
So when we got to the pitch to find it drizzling and we found our opposition and set about playing. This team was 'meant to' have come third in their pool and they weren't playing like it. I was really quite concerned that we'd throw it (literally), with our incompetence. We didn't, thankfully. They had some handy players and were up for it but somehow we pulled through.

After the game I remember we all laid around moaning. There was some discussion about what it's like playing tournaments without experiencing hangover. I guess I prefer it!

Semi Final; AWT (Welsh team with many Devon players); 15-8ish win
There were lots of Devon players we know well on this team - Mojo, Chubby and Cowboy especially - so we didn't want to take this one for granted. We didn't. We snaffled most of their long throws, ate up our own, mixed up our defence and generally played solidly all-round. We were in the final.

After the game JB chastised me for not wanting to play a dumb 'game'. We are at opposite ends of the spectrum, but I'm happy with that!

We watched the sudden-death end to the other game. In it, Danger! High Voltate managed to squander a few points lead and a poor hammer into the wind was the final turnover before Mannschaft put the disc in for the game. I was hoping Danger would go through because we'd not played them (and also I'm never a fan of the 'revenge factor' in replays) but also because there were a bunch of my BAF teammates on the team and I fancied beating them!

Final; Supermannschaft; 15-8ish win
So here we were again. A team of youth in white vs an older (but still definitely not past it) team in blue. The weather had got really damp now with rain falling constantly. It was neither windy nor cold though so for me, perfect Ultimate conditions (not least because when you lay out you slide). Before I pulled the disc to start the game I asked Timmy to chuck me another disc. He saw that I had the pitch disc in my hands so asked why. When I said it was because the pitch disc was brand new and therefore ultra-slippery, he laughed at me. I wonder if the game would have turned out differently if we'd switched (keep reading and you'll see why).
We started well, going up 3-0 before, like last time, they brought it back to evens. One of these points they scored was because I dropped the pull even though I did everything I should (two hand pancake, body behind, watched it into my hands). At the time it seems terrible but I still think it's good to try and catch the pull, always. Someone (Si Hill perhaps) wrote an article for Ultimatum, the British Ultimate publication, saying you should always try and catch the pull to get the point moving. It points out that sometimes you'll drop it but on the whole, the benefit outweighs the negatives.
In open play, both teams were dropping it with a messy regularity. I thought that as they weren't really able to catch the disc as perhaps they wanted, perhaps if we went man on man and put huge pressure on the undercuts (as we have some huge deep defenders and we weren't too fussed about the long bombs) we could get some turnovers that way. This worked, beautifully. We played man- for the rest of the game and they pretty much weren't able to deal with it. The only way they had any success, bizarrely, was use one of their players (who we voted MVP) to huck it deep for Ollie G to bring down. Thing is, with Cowie marking Ollie and and the wet slippery conditions, this wasn't consistent enough. And we kept getting the blocks and putting it in. One was quite memorable - Drakey put the disc a few metres further out in front than was necessary. Without thinking, I had to lay and caught it on the stretch. It's times like this that my knees are safe - laying forwards means your legs trail and therefore you take the hit on the chest and no - or totally reduced - chance of injury.
We won, Drakey picked up our trophy and we headed home. After speaking for a short while with Lorrine, I hit the sack and slept for longer than I'd done in months.

Something else I never wrote about. A few weeks ago (it doesn't seem like I've done much recently but I am working on saving money) I went to London for the weekend. The reason was to meet with Dan & Andrea and that went really well. I wasn't expecting them to be anything other than really lovely and I was correct in this. I look forward to seeing them again when Lori and I go visit them at Valparaiso in November. I also saw Dave (with thanks for putting me up when he had exams to revise for), Elfie, Sticky and Kat. I had a lovely meal with the last three at Canary Wharf.

Travel

2008-07-28T09:59:00.003+01:00

I've not seen as much of the World as I'd like to, Yet.

Matt has. He's quit his job, found a sponsor and has been (badly) dancing all over the place for a few years now.

www.wherethehellismatt.com

Wise words

2008-07-25T12:25:00.003+01:00

[I don't usually do this but some of these had me in tears of laughter, sorry housemates]

Don't throw a brick straight up - a stupid person's guide to life

Don't breathe car exhaust.
If you ever meet the President, don't offer him the surprise gift of a firearm by whipping it suddenly out of your coat pocket.
For all pertinent tasks, use a hammer, not your fist.
Don't stargaze with friends on a hilltop in a thunderstorm and use metal fishing rods as pointers.
The stuff on the bottom of your shoe is not for internal consumption.
If you need to get somewhere, and a freight train heading in the direction you're traveling just happens to be nearby, resist the urge to stand in front of it and grab hold as it passes.
If you want to pound on the radiator to tell the landlord to turn up the heat, don't do it with your head.
Don't flip off the Mafia.
If you're riding a bicycle down a hill, turn your head before you spit.
Wash behind your ears, not behind your eyes.
Light birthday cake candles from back to front.
Just because your body has orifices doesn't mean you should put things into them.
Don't stick screwdrivers into electrical outlets.
Although they are sold in grocery stores, batteries are not food. Do not break them open and drink what's inside.
The warning "Don't try this at home" really means "Don't try this at all."
Don't escape in to jail.
Don't wash floors with cough syrup.
Don't kick porcupines with bare feet.
Don't sled down hills with interstates at the bottom.
Sell at most one of your kidneys.
Don't test the strength of your skull with a nail gun.
Only squeeze the handle end of a sword.
Don't throw an angry cat straight up.
Don't lick dry ice.
Before you leap upside down onto a trampoline, make sure it's right side up.
Your body has the correct number of holes in it. Don't make any more.
Don't microwave yourself.
Don't chase a bear into the woods to get a close-up photo.
Don't bathe in gasoline.
Don't sneak up to a stallion and whack it on the rump.
Don't drink water that comes from swimming pools, puddles, bathtubs, dishpans, sewage pipes, radiators, oceans, acid rain, or toilet bowls.
Don't stick body parts into electrical outlets.
Don't go swimming in a well.
Rake leaves, not people.
Shovels are for digging holes in the ground, not the floor of your house.
Contrary to popular opinion, you're not supposed to strip the protective rubber coating off electrical wires before plugging them in.
If you want to chew gum, buy some. Don't use the gum from underneath the seats at schools and movie theaters even though it's free.
Don't kick stone walls very hard without wearing thick-soled shoes or boots.
Even if you need to get downstairs quickly, don't jump out of a window -- use the stairs.
When using an acetylene torch, don't feel the flame to see if it's sufficiently hot.
Better yet, stay away from acetylene torches altogether.
Walking barefoot in the sand is good. Walking barefoot on a cactus is bad.
Elvis is dead. Get over it.
If you're on a ball field and someone shouts "Heads up!" don't actually raise your head up. Cover it with your arms and duck.
Don't tie yourself to an airplane propeller.
Don't brush your teeth with a wire-bristled sanding wheel.
No matter how tempting it is to be one with nature, stay on the outside of all fences at the zoo.
When sticking thumb tacks into bulletin boards, press on the flat end.
Toasters should be used to cook bread, not your hands.

#89 - Mixed Tour 3 - Birmingham. A GREAT weekend.

2008-07-13T08:01:00.009+01:00

Friday

pa.ckras.ti.nate [pa.kræstəˌneɪt] verb, -nat·ed, -nat·ing
To put packing off till another day or time; defer; delay packing.

When I eventually chucked everything in my bag, I got to train station and met Rosie. I do like the way you travel to fields / sports halls all over the country with people you've never met before. We chuckled about this.
Abi met us at Totnes and we drove to Cheltenham where we were staying with Mez & Emma for the night. Thankfully we didn't have to repeat last time's performance of getting half way there and having to turn around...

Having heard stories about it, I was looking forward to seeing their gaff. Wow!, it's got a bar in the garden! A previous owner had purchased some real wooden bar stuff which was being sold when a bar in town was refitted. There are optics, beer-pully things (which aren't connected, but could be), a BBQ area outside, a disco ball and some really tasty (I thought - apparently I'm in the minority) green drink. They'll be hosting a Halloween Party again this year and I'm going to try to take up the invitation.

The evening just got better. We went back to the house and played on their Wii. Finally, almost a year after it came out, I got to try one. The first fun was creating our Mii's then we played sport. I sucked (Wii age of 65), but I loved it. Maybe one day...

Saturday

We got to Brum and met with the team. Everyone (I think) was there on time and looking confident.
There are going to be no easy games at this level but I think everyone was of the opinion that this was going to be a tough weekend. Our pool consisted of Thundering Herd, FAF (both Mixed Tour 2 opponents) and Leeds. [The other held GB Mixed, Chevron, Brighton and Discuits]. As previously, finishing in the top two in your pool gave you a late Sunday morning semi-final; bottom two an early start and a cross over down.

Game 1 (pool); Thundering Herd; 13-10 win

I wasn't at MT1 but apparently we lost a close game to Herd. We definitely should have won at MT2. This time we did, and with such style.
There was a medium cross-wind so we played (very) hard man-on-man Defence. We left poachers in the lanes, didn't poach of the dumps and generally brought down their swill. Our defence was amazing. I was happy with my couple of blocks; I wasn't happy with having my hand stood on but no damage was done.
On offence, we kept the disc alive and really, could & should have won by more.

A word on our offence. We can play the long game - look at some of our deep threats (male and female) - but most of our success comes when we keep the disc alive. It was something we talked about before the game (heck, it was something Discuits congratulated us on in 2006 when we beat them during an important game in Eastbourne) and we did it here. We took the first easy pass and we rocked.

The spirit was much better this time. It wasn't something we talked about particularly, but I think everyone (both teams) were working hard on this. Nice job everyone.

Game 2 (pool); Leeds; 13-5 win

We knew that in this pool, 1 victory wasn't even close to being enough. We had to keep going in this back-to-back game. Leeds had a small squad and were just coming straight off a sudden death loss to FAF. We traded for a bit and they fought hard but our D kept on getting turnovers and our O kept on converting (albeit a little less reliably than the first game).

It was nice for Jim and I to play against Adam and Calum, 2 of our Nice Legs Paganello pick-ups too.

After hearing that FAF had beaten Herd, we knew we'd done enough to take a top 4 spot....

Game 3 (pool); FAF; 9-13ish loss

[Yes I'm cheating and posting what I sent to the team on Sunday morning but they're still my thoughts]
...which was a bad thing. If we'd entered that game thinking we needed to really win it to remain top 4, perhaps we'd have come out stronger rather than letting them getting a bit of a lead before trading.
I didn't enjoy that they still had a really tall guy who was cutting from short and running everything down and I couldn't match him for pace. Something to work on (which we did, successfully, in the next game) was having the person at the back being more alert for poaches.

This is the third loss to this team in 2 tournaments and each time we've come out slowly. Perhaps we need more belief when faced with some outstanding individuals. At least it wasn't due to not warming up enough.

So that was our day done (by 1500hrs - weird!). We'd finished second in the pool and set up a semi, most likely against GB Mixed at midday on Sunday.

Whilst waiting for Tim to come and meet me, I watched some of Devon's game. It was so good to see Devon with a mixed team out. I think they ended 33rd but I feel that having a mixed team out is more important than results right now. Either way it's something for them to build on for future years (though I'll be sticking with BAF for mixed, and that's a promise).

On the way back at Tim's, I was completely drained. I don't think he realised how much but he spoke, I listened and it was all good.

It being his birthday this week, we had a mini shindig back at his. Stacey put on a great spread and the 5 of us (the other two being Ian and Naomi, a couple of their friends) had a fun night. They were all drinking pretty heavily; I wasn't but it was still great. The Wii was brought out (twice in 2 nights - what a lucky boy that I am) and I was glad to see I was improving.
It was really good to hang out with Tim and Stacey (and their new, matching, his 'n' hers iPhones - I'm jealous) - we'd not done this for a long time. They obviously wanted to hear all about Lori (who I got to Skype with for a bit, new webcam and all) and I was happy to talk.

It had been a good day I was out like a light when I got my head down.

Sunday morning was a leisurely affair (and bright and sunny outside, hooray). I always try to eat properly at tournaments and am always trying to follow the latest advice (which means I never eat the same thing twice). I recently read that cyclists in Le Tour eat ~40% of their daily intake of food for breakfast so I gorged myself. Well, not quite.

Ian had a genuine interest in hearing about Ultimate and I was so impressed that he got up, hangover and all, to come and watch it being played. I think he couldn't quite believe what he was seeing when a disc was pulled: "How far?". I'm so used to people dismissing Ultimate before they even know what it involves that it was a refreshing change.

When they left, I joined my team and we started getting prepared for the game. On Saturday, we'd talked about how we should go out and give GB Mixed everything we had. We really did have nothing to lose. I always try to be positive but even so, I was finding myself looking at their team and getting a little apprehensive. I realised this was happening and told myself to stop it. I was having a good weekend and would continue doing what I was (playing mainly D points, giving everything I had, keeping my hands low and not allowing the I/O, taking the first open option I was given and staying active on the sideline. If what I had to give wasn't enough, then so be it - I'd walk off head held high.

Game 4 (semi-final); Great Britain Mixed; 12-10 WIN !!!

We warmed up well and the mood was of optimistic expectation.

We started the first point exactly as we intended. Jim got a D off the second pass and ran to the disc. I ran into the zone, faked one way, cut the other and we scored. We kept up this intensity for the whole game up to the moment Gemma realised the lead pass to the zone was for her (Hughes apparently has this on camera) and she went and took it.

All over the pitch there was hot stuff going on - some lucky, some of our own making. At one point, on a high stall, Dave T threw a huck 'n' hope scuba into the zone and when Mez came down with it in a crowd (to take the half; perhaps they just called time out) we pretty much erupted.

There's way more stuff to write about than I can remember but I do recall random spectators cheering us on. That felt good.

I'm highly critical of myself but personally I thought I had a mixed game.
At one point upon receiving the disc, I saw Emma cutting long and sent my flick. She brought it down. A few points later from almost exactly the same position on the pitch, I saw Tim B do the same and sent it. My heart was in my mouth for a short while as it was drifted, inch-by-inch further out of the pitch but Tim B, the Rock Star that he is, planted his feet and was given in. Relief and celebration.
However, towards the end of the game, I was feeling it. I wasn't quite as sharp as I want to be on D and was struggling to get free. This shows that I've still a long way to go before I'm where I want to be fitness-wise (but I'll take where I am right now). Oh, and there was the catch for the score after a long point which I juggled. I'm glad that moment ended happily.
Also, I need to be careful of when / what I throw. Sometimes, especially to Mez, I throw something that is riskier than I should be. Just because he's cutting somewhere, calling for it and I can throw there doesn't mean I should (two occasions: the D that Caesar got and the contested foul with Dav. OK, maybe both were valid throws but I am sure if I'd faked it I could have found something easier elsewhere). Mental and physical fitness - stuff for me to work on.

Whatever, we won. So much for being overawed by the opposition. Belief, it goes a long way.

After the game, we sat around chilled out. It was a great feeling, knowing we'd done the unexpected. I was aching - perhaps too much Wii playing. Dave T and Lauren found themselves a lift so could stay for the final (though Lauren couldn't play due to a finger injury - hope that heals for Nationals).

Game 5 (final); Brighton; 10-12 loss.

So at the final opportunity, we'd attained one of our goals - to make a Tour final. We warmed up well (yeah us, finally getting that right (and look where we finished!)), but as soon as we got on pitch we moved from our own into Brighton's game - at times it was something of a huck-fest. We need to reel that in for sure. It works for them (most of the time) but as I mentioned before, we're at our most dangerous when we keep the disc moving and cut hard.

Neither team played particularly well but Brighton took the trophy. Well done to them, we can and should aim 1 better for Nationals.

I think Kiley is most responsible for us losing the game though. She wanted to renege on a vow to get a Blue Fly tattooed on her Bum if we won...

After prize giving (in which I think Gemma was robbed of MVP Female), I congratulated Felix, especially for scooping a tough hammer. He thanked me and reciprocated by saying how he thinks I'm playing better than ever right now. I think this is largely due to the fact I'm playing out of a big squad so the 100% I'm giving is better than the 100% I had when we played each other a lot in the 2006 Open season (when we'd meet at the end of a tournament).

One last thing.
I've talked about how our big names did some great stuff. It's easy to do that - they tend to be more memorable moments for a start - but this isn't just why we had such a successful weekend. The reason for that is the solid, base stuff that the rest of us mere mortals do. When we took 2 stall outs against Herd, it was because everyone had their man (or woman) covered.
No one will mention when Kermit received the disc on the dump and swung it immediately to Bisto. Or when Lauren had timed her cut to receive the continuation. Or when Alex had the presence of mind to call time out upon receiving the disc 15 metres out with few options.
It was a real team effort and this is why we came 2nd this weekend, this is why we beat GB Mixed and this is why Team BAF is in an exciting position right now. European's here we come*.

The journey home was uneventful except for pulling in to Abi's parent's house for food.
[Phone call]

Abi: "Hi Dad, is it okay if three of us go to the supermarket, get some pizza and eat at yours?"
Dad: "Of course my little sweetpea"
A: "Dad, can you go the the supermarket, get some pizza and have it ready for the three of us? We'll be with you in 45 minutes"

I spoke with him about triathlons. I want to do one. When I eventually get a road bike, I will.

* for me, hopefully not (= bittersweet)

Drugs in sport

2008-07-11T14:01:00.003+01:00

I find the drug taking in sport topic interesting. With Lance Armstrong being one of my Idols, it would be hard for it not to be.

At the age of 41, Dara Torres will be swimming in her 5th Olympic Games this year and has come under some pretty intense drug taking accusations. She has has never failed a drug test and even volunteers to be tested more than she is required.

This link is what sparked this
There's an introductory video clip and an article by a 'Ross' (ex-boxer and current trainer, I think) but I found the most interesting discussion to be in the comments at the bottom, for example:

"What, precisely, is the difference between the athlete who augments his visual performance (with Lasik) and the athlete who augments his VO2 max (with EPO)? In both cases they are trying to overcome their genetics. In both cases they are doing so through technology, not through work"

What happened to innocent until proven otherwise? I wish Torres all the best.

Messing with my head!

2008-07-11T10:04:00.000+01:00

I would hope everyone remember Thomas the Tank Engine. Who could forget that little blue cheeky chappy and his two coaches? And the theme song - brilliant.

How do you like this version?

Nope, a little odd isn't it? Who wants a remixed version?
Next (it improves, slightly, 20 seconds in), but still...

Hmm, if you can't beat them, join them (I could imagine this on my MP3 player!):

Thomas and MJ. Now we're talking:

There's loads other remixed songs out there for manner of cartoons. Pingu and Bob the Builder both feature heavily!

#88 - Mixed Tour 2 - Burton-on-Trent

2008-07-08T00:36:00.002+01:00

On the last weekend of June, I travelled to Burton-on-Trent for my first grass tournament since the fateful March day when I broke my arm. I have not played an entire grass tournament since Open Nationals in 2006, almost 2 years ago!

Friday afternoon saw me take the train to Totnes to meet Abi. The train was jammed but this didn't dampen my spirits - I was busy listening to the lyrics to a new new album (Dan le Sac vs. Scroobius Pip; Angles).
Abi picked me up and we were half way to Exeter when, with a flurry of foul language you wouldn't expect from a teacher, we screeched off the busy A38 and before I knew what had happened, we were heading back to Plymouth. Picnic (Plymouth University's team) had ordered a bunch of discs from Discraft a while back and due to some error their end, Picnic received 100 discs from an American college team. It would have cost a fortune to send them back so were told to keep them. Picnic had sold these discs to the Tournament Director of MT2 and Abi was the courier. She'd almost forgotten them - good job it wasn't too far for us to return! This detour added about a 1.5hrs to our journey, but this wasn't too bad. Even having picked up Abbie (playing for Chevron) and Scraggy (not playing, except with his new zoom lens) in Exeter, we still easily got our tents up in the light.
We headed to a local pub for food. As it turned out, it was a 'buy 2, get the cheapest free' offer (though as this was printed into the menu and it appeared was always offered, it's actually not an offer and is just cheap). Either way, brilliant! My barbecue chicken and gooey chocolate dessert (with custard & ice cream) washed down with Tribute was is clearly what all athletes should be eating.

I hit the sack around midnight and woke around 5 on Saturday morning due to the insane levels of light at this time.

Our first game wasn't until 1240 so the morning was spent gathering supplies, eating and thinking about Ultimate.

For the weekend, I was playing for Blue Arse Flies. The last time I'd donned my BAF shirt was Open Tour 1 in 2007 when in the second game (against some weak team we ended up thrashing (does this sound familiar?)) I'd laid out badly and done something to my knee. I was really looking forward to it.
We had a huge team (12 guys, 13 girls) which I was a bit apprehensive about - I like my pitch time - but as this year was always going to be qualifying for European Clubs next year (if it goes ahead (not that I hope to be in Europe for it!)) one of the goals was to practice working with a large squad.

Being who she is, Lori had set some goals for Paganello for herself. Some didn't happen but some did (watch the sunrise on the final night...). I asked her to come up with some for me. Some of their focus was on playing as a mixed player (especially when throwing), working on flow and staying positive (which I think I'm ok at already). I can't wait to play a tournament with Lori.

Eventually, 1100hrs trickled round and we all met at the time we'd agreed. We all had our boots on at 1130hrs as planned and we drilled well. Well, not quite.
It was blustery but the grass was green and I was loving being at Tour again. I perhaps shouldn't admit this here (team mates will possibly read this!) but I'd not chucked a disc for weeks and not in wind for months. This is what you get for living in an Ultimate wilderness!

Game 1 (pool); FAF (Friends and Foreigners); 8-13 loss

This isn't a 'regular' mixed team, instead composed of mainly London-based Great Players. There was Tara, some guys playing for NZ in Vancouver, DJ, Štěpán Materna (the Czech Republic guy who scored a Callaghan against GB Mixed at EUC 2007) and Wayne Wretter amongst others.
I know that some people don't like that some people just pick and choose which events to play for (and then get high seeded positions based on their players) but I don't see it as a problem. I would prefer the North American way of doing things - Open/Women's and Mixed is all held at the same time and you have to choose which to play - but appreciate UK Ultimate isn't there, yet. Until it is, people will want to play Ultimate and though it's not perfect, the fact we lost to FAF just proves they are worthy opposition. We need to be better.
So we lost. The match was now a while ago (and my memory is appalling) but at the time I wrote "they got an early start, we traded, we could have won".
The game was a learning curve with regards to playing with such a huge team. Duncan and Mez were attempting a relatively complicated method of calling lines which essentially revolved around (pun intended) two 4-player strings (one for O; one for D) and thus having to call just 3 players each time, not 7. I think the idea looks good on paper, but in practice it doesn't allow for personal factors (and also the 8 players on the main strings were getting huge amounts of pitch-time). It must have been tricky for the two of them and I think that two of our most influential players were thinking about lines as opposed to their own games. There is likely a link here that we improved as the game went on.
The comedy moment was Tim getting a block by having the disc thrown into his legs by Wayne (a Fire team mate). Mini-result!
I was pretty stoked to have got a couple of D's. One was anticipating the cut and running through. Given my relative lack of pace (I think, anyway), I don't tend to get blocks like this so it pleased me.

We had a game off so time to reassess the line-calling method (it got changed to picking teams largely based on who is due more pitch-time, editing for big points), eat some food (Clare combined jelly and custard for the winning-est combination), play some hack and discuss naked tea-runs (why me???).

Game 2 (pool); Italy; 13-11 win

Our second opponents were a team using UK Mixed Tour as a warm-up for Vancouver. Yeah UK Ultimate - pat on the back to us. Okay, some of the team live and play in UK but still, I know some of the team flew over.
With Brighton (MT1 victors), FAF (ringers) and Italy, we all knew that we had a potentially tough pool. We also knew that with no quarter finals (and 3-way ties aside), we'd likely have to win our next two games to make the top 4 again. Before the game, we had a good, thorough, warm-up.
My notes tell me that this is the game that I didn't lay out when I could have done, twice. Injury plays with your mind and I am working on changing it but I'm not robust enough right now. I have no regrets! Tim on the other hand made an awesome greatest throw but it wasn't backed up, sadness. They liked to huck and did succeed in bringing down more than their fair share of swill. Gemma fell in such a manner that made us think she'd surely damaged her neck - she bounced up just find, phew! Sarah hurt her back. Gee made a huge layout grab that won him a hat Jim had managed to procure from somewhere. I also thought my time away from Ultimate wasn't too obvious with a few break force assists.
It was a close game but I always felt we'd come out on top.

Game 3 (pool); Brighton; 13-3 win

It has to be said that this was a most satisfying win. We knew that with regards to finishing top 4, the Italy game was irrelevant if we didn't win this one. It was back-to-back with the last one but I think this counted in our favour (we're often poor at warming up anyway, and with a huge squad it wasn't like we were short of legs). We traded to 3-3 then won 10 in a row. Their team was small - missing Gash & Roach, for instance - and once we realised that their main tactic was to huck it long (in the often-gusty wind) we mixed up our tactics, D'd them long then beat them under.
In this game, I made a D on a hammer that I was immensely pleased with. I know I keep mentioning it, but I'm really loving The Huddle.

"Have you ever sat a stoplight and watched the light for the other direction turn from green to yellow to red? When your light finally turns green, it's just a confirmation of what you already knew was about to happen. How much quicker are you off that line if you're peeking at the other light versus waiting for yours to change? That's the difference between reacting and anticipating on D. When I hear that "up" call, I want to already know what throw is coming and already be poised to jump on it."

I guess it was fairly obvious that it may come (we were forcing flick, they were on the right hand sideline 20 metres out, wind wasn't too bad etc) but I was happy, nonetheless.

What I wasn't happy with was my first throw-away of the weekend. There were no cuts under coming and my safety was well-marked (though I should have stuck with it for longer), so I broke force for the swing somehow managing to miss the poach who ran in to snatch it up. Rubbish!

After returning to the tent, we sat in the sun reflecting on an enjoyable day of Ultimate with some beer. It was most enjoyable, and something I've missed.

It was just as I was about to head for a shower that I learnt that they were now shut - yuk! Abi and I headed in to town for food. I had Chinese and she chose Indian. They somehow managed to mess up Abi's order and provide her with vastly more food than she needed. I did my best to help out but still we couldn't finish it!

After eating, we chatted to our neighbour for a bit. The evening was beautiful. There was some strange phenomenon going on where there was a mini-rainbow (but no rain anywhere near!).

We headed to the party where I managed to procure a deck of cards. Scraggy, Abi and (at the end) Oscar played 4 games of rummy - the final game dragging on for ages - and I won all 4. It was immensely hot in the party, probably from all the hot sweaty bodies bopping away to Tom Styles' Blockstack party. Amongst others I spoke to Jeff, Calum & Adam (pick-ups from Nice Legs' Paganello adventure), Spade Hands and our neighbour for a bit, and just before I retired for the night, there was a dance-off which Bristol swept up at; Richie and Emily in the men's and women's respectively.

I woke early on Sunday again and listened to East Star All-Stars' cover of Dark Side. Again, we didn't start until gone midday so it was a leisurely morning for me consisting of breakfast (sandwiches and yoghurt), a (much needed) shower and watching some Ultimate. I didn't take any photos - I wish I had done. It was windy again.

Our first game was at 1210hrs so our team had agreed to meet at 1100hrs. We were all there on time and drilled hard. Nope, wrong again - many were late. I know I am not alone in finding this supremely frustrating.

Game 4 (semi-final); Thundering Herd; 9-11 loss

This was the game we lost but really could (should?) have won. There was a cross-wind and we faced zone defence pretty much exclusively but it was nothing that our handlers shouldn't be able to deal with. We turned over multiple times close to our endzone when swinging the disc amongst the handlers and we were punished. On reflection, I think 4 handlers may have been the way forward to minimise the distances of each throw. Also, we could have played 'Huck & D', getting the disc to the upwind sideline and then look to send it long (to a valid cut, obviously). What made it more frustrating was that our D was good but we couldn't capitalize. My second throw-away of the weekend came in this one when I threw into ground. Pathetic! I scored a couple of points that I was pleased with - a hammer from Mez and some swill from Jim when my defender had position on me. Most satisfying!
Sadly, the most notable memory of the game was the spirit. It was crap. There were aggressive fouls, sidelines getting involved and a patronising post-match speech. I don't like losing but it happens; you deal with it. I really didn't like losing to them. After the speech, Justin (and isn't it always the way when you have a poorly spirited game that there are players on the opposition you like and respect?) made the point that it was good to see that 3 of the teams in the top 4 being 'proper' mixed teams.

In the time off before our final game, the rain came down. It wasn't pleasant and the team as a whole didn't warm up. I know I've mentioned this repeatedly but it pisses me off. When we don't, it's like we gift the opposition 2 or 3 points at the start of a game, for free.

Game 5 (for 3rd); FAF; 7-13 loss

So we came out sluggishly and went down 6-0ish. Where was the fire and desire that took 10 unanswered points off Brighton (Mixed Tour 1 champions no less!)? It was sheltering from the rain under the marquee, that's where. In the second half, we scored lots including 4-in-a-row but it wasn't enough. On a personal note, it was my worst game of the weekend. A couple of examples being that I didn't even look at my dump when in a pressure situation (schoolboy error) and I lost the force. I think this reflects my recent lack of match experience and a need to be fitter. I also made my first (and only) drop of the weekend: I couldn't quite snatch a high disc but it might have been a foul (still not quite sure why I didn't call it - I was certainly clattered pretty hard).

A few other thoughts from the weekend

Although my fitness isn't great, it isn't as terrible as I thought it would be.
I enjoy playing mixed. This was only my second mixed tournament. I don't have any hang-ups about looking anyone off and think I can weight throws appropriate to the receiver if necessary.
I was happy with my defence. It tended to come through positioning (watching that light!) not physical ability but I'm happy with that.
BAF does better when warming up properly. I was especially disappointed with our pre-match attitude and performance to last game).
My original concerns about playing on such a huge team were completely unfounded. It's something I've heard about for a while (but never experienced myself) but having such a huge team enables you to give absolutely everything whilst on pitch. I kind of requested to go on for D points (and often ended up handling once we got the block, which suite me just fine) and the fact I was able to keep this up for the entire weekend.

Top 16 final positions (spirit score)

1 - Thundering Herd 1 (9.6)
2 - Chevron (12)
3 - FAF (12.4)
4 - BAF (10)
5 - Discuits (10.3)
6 - Leeds Loco (12.6)
7 - Brighton (11.4)
8 - Flump (11.3)
9 - EMU 1 (11.8)
10 - Strange Blue (11.2)
11 - BPF (11.5)
12 - Italy (12)
13 - Flaming Galahs (11.8)
14 - High Altitude (11)
15 - ABH A (11.4)
16 - 4 Hugs a Day (11.5)

Our team

Men

1 - Chris

2 - Dave T

3 - Duncan

4 - Gee

5 - Hwo

6 - Jim

7 - Jimmer

8 - Mez

9 - Paul

10 - Taz

11 - Tim

12 - Dean

Women

1 - Abi

2 - Clare A

3 - Clare W (Sunday)

4 - Debbie

5 - Ems

6 - Gemma

7 - Karen

8 - Kermit

9 - Kiley

10 - Lauren

11 - Sarah

12 - Tanya

13 - Gemma S

One last thing

Watching the women's Final at Wimbledon, Serena overrode the line-judge's call to give Venus the point. Finally, sporting 'spirit' in professional sport. The cynic inside me wonders if she would have made the same call against Sharapova...

Which actor?

2008-07-03T08:23:00.001+01:00

Something devised yesterday...

The challenge was to identify the perfect 10 questions to identify a human* actor.

What gender are they?
What nationality are they?
What skin colour are they?
What body type are they?
How old are they (if they are no longer alive, how long ago did they pass away)?
If they have hair, describe it.
If they are mainly known for a particular role, are there any iconic images, memorable tunes, catchphrases etc?
What decade did this particular role hit our screens?
What genre of film would you generally associate them with?
Are they any other clues you would like to add?

This is not the yes/no game - the challenger is allowed to (and should!) expand to give a little more information, as deemed appropriate.

If any of my readers would like to challenge us, please answer the questions as a comment, below, and Dave and I (mainly Dave - I'm rubbish at this kind of thing) will try to identify the artist. We won't cheat, I promise.

If you think you could come up with a better list of 10, please let me know - this is very much a work-in-progress (with potential to expand to other areas - musicians, films etc)

* This caveat is added because, as an educational experiment, Lassie was chosen as the third example (Morgan Freeman and Cameron Diaz being the first and second).
Answer 4: Athletic, slender, very fit.
Answer 6: Lots of; mainly white and gold-ish.
Answer 10: Their main role was eponymous.
- As an mildly interesting side-note, apart from the hair answer there are many similarities between Lassie and Superman!

"What's the force?"

2008-06-25T12:20:00.006+01:00

From a www.the-huddle.org feature on mixed Ultimate:

"On 6 Trained Monkeys, on defense [sic], we would primarily force backhand ... [because] the teams we played in the region were significantly better at breaking a forehand mark (probably because [they met a forehand mark more regularly])"

This is something I've not thought of before.

A common conversation at the start of the point:
Team-mate 1: "what's the force?"
Team-mate 2: "they're inexperienced, let's force flick / sidearm / forehand"

By forcing flick you are assuming they are going to screw it up in some way. This disregards the fact that they might be quite capable of breaking your force with a backhand.

What about a mentality that says you allow the backhand - your team-mates will, after-all, be on the backhand side of their mark - but (and this is the key), if the player is to break the break the force, they're going to have to use their supposedly weaker throw - their flick?

OK, so this is a very simplistic viewpoint but it's a new angle.

It would seem a good point here to mention that Drakey had a similar moment of enlightenment when helping Picnic 2 at student regionals. He noted that the teams they were matching against were often not particularly strong at throwing, so he forced middle - back into traffic. Apparently this was a successful ploy as many turnovers arose from the increased clogging in the middle of the pitch. Against stronger handlers - especially those who will throw immediately after having received the disc (and this often happens with momentum carrying you further to the sides of the pitch) - this may not work as the defence needs to get round to cut out the line but it is an example of changing tactics to suit (conquer?) the opposition.

The first section of the above quoted paragraph read as:

"On 6 Trained Monkeys, on defense, we would primarily force backhand ... the majority of the teams played primarily a forehand mark. While this isn't true as much of the best teams, it is what most of the teams were doing. We wanted to be different when we faced the good teams."

Another common conversation at the start of the point:
Team-mate 1: "what's the force?"
Team-mate 2: "default is flick / sidearm / forehand"

The point here is mixing it up. It's the same reason you would throw in a zone D point even if your team was killing the opposition on man-on-man. You want to keep your opposition on their toes - you don't want to allow them to figure out what they're doing wrong...
...which I've just seen is pretty much what Adam Goff talks about in the following paragraph (I'd not read it yet)! I bow to his greatness.

Four Points Challenge

2008-06-22T01:45:00.002+01:00

In case anyone reading this is not aware, my Dad is riding around Mainland Britain. This is for pleasure but mainly for charity.

There are two goals - to raise funds for The Jennifer Trust and (especially) to raise awareness of Spinal Muscular Atrophy. Ever heard of this? No, didn't think so.

Please do check out his blog (which I created / am updating hence the similar style of writing (sorry!)) and especially make sure to find out about SMA.

thefourpointschallenge.blogspot.com

Thank you.

#87 - Sunburn and Great Inventions and a Phone Call

2008-06-15T22:51:00.016+01:00

After the non-playing nightmare which was Paganello (though it clearly made amends in other ways), I made my on-pitch debut for Nice Legs this weekend on the sand of Bournemouth Beach (tournament name: Sunburn).

On Friday night Power, Drakey and I cruised up the A38 to pick up Dav - once we had escaped the black hole that is Exeter road system that is - before heading on over to Bournemouth. The three of us who weren't driving had a small supply of beer to consume and thus the journey was enjoyable. A great opportunity to listen to some tunes and start on the banter (I wonder if Drakey ever did put that application in for McDonald's Dorchester).

Upon arrival in B'mouth, we hurried to the pub to catch up with our team mates. I knew Beardo, Freddy and Matty T but Couch and Sam were new to me. Michelle, Beardo's suffering girlfriend (imagine spending the weekend with your boyfriend and 10 guys, poor girl), was there too.

We had some beer and chat, discussed previous tournaments, debated the greatest "why is he wearing that number" to date and generally had a 'laff' before heading back to Sam's to crash. Apparently 6 others live with Sam (all Polish, I believe) but I saw no sign of any of them all weekend. Very odd. Anyway, my strip of floor was a lush green carpet in the lounge. I'd bought my Therm-a-Rest [world's best invention, end of] and slept well and heard neither Dav (on the couch) or Drakey all night. Oh how that would change the following night! I woke early as normal but had not prepared myself properly by putting my MP3 player [another treasure, complete with a 40 hours of battery life: take that iPod] next to my pillow - schoolboy (or, if you're American, 'bush league') error.

We got up, I faffed with my bag (one day, I am going to pack then let someone else repack, removing what they think I'll not need) and ate some toast [another, though I prefer to cut it myself] before heading to the pitches. It was about this time that I got a nose bleed. These things always look a little scary - no one likes to see someone with blood pouring from a hole in someone's head - but I don't tend to worry about such things. Until they last a weekend, leaving me at one point with a light-headed dizzy feeling. Ho hum.

Paul 'Spade Hands' then turned up with his huge mop of floppy blonde hair as normal due to his crazy Dutch / Scandinavian origins.

Game 1...
...was against PAF from London. They only just managed to scrape together 5 players together in time and we utterly destroyed them.

2...
...STD had one guy who was pretty handy but they were no match for our zone D. This is hardly surprising with Dav and Spade Hands as deeps, Drakey owning on force and the rest of us somewhere in the middle, most weaker teams absolutely crumbled (and some not-so-weak team too). We won.

3...
...was against BUF. This is a team I've heard stories about this year. They did phenominally well at Tour 0 (where I broke my arm) with an ironman team, finishing 4th. Belief goes that being able to keep warm by being young and not having to sub off gave them an advantage in the cold. Either way, we didn't want to underestimate them. It was hard to mark the same guy all through the game as their kit matched and they all had dyed blonde hair (in honour of their captain, I think). Either way they wanted to run but our zone kept them at bay and we kept on putting points on the board.

There was then a break in the games for a 'who can layout the furthest' competition. Our call with BUF was to pick each other's representatives. Power and I were chosen so we decided that I would throw to Power. Whilst we waited, we watched others and we changed it to make use of my positive gorilla index (my arm span is greater than my height) and switch it over. We were quite a disappointment: during the first attempt, the disc was too high and I couldn't catch it and during the second it was too low. I also got winded and had to go sit down and remember how to breathe again. Ho hum - our moment in the spotlight went seriously lacking!

It was about this time that someone spotted Beardo's twin. It was an uncanny resemblance - it kind of freaked out Michelle. We would later get them together for a photo shoot and Dav noticed that they were wearing exactly the same shorts.

4...
...first game back after the break was against Bristol Plastic Factory. They had a wide-range of abilities on the team including 1-time Paganello winner and ex GB masters captain 'Uncle' Wayne, long-time GB woman 'Aunt' Lucy, Steve 'Sven' Stevenson and a bunch of others. I used to play for BPF and in the increasingly windy conditions was happy to continue my 'never lost to them' record (their bagelling of BAF at Tour 0 in 2007 doesn't count as I wasn't on the pitch). Their handling skills were slightly worse than our increasingly strong zone and we won, setting us up with a pool decider for the last game.

5...
..., Mongosling, was my worst game of the tournament. Although I did some good stuff (layout grabs, a few assists, solid handling up wind), I also managed to assist a Callaghan score. I put it down to a recent lack of game awareness / sharpness. I didn't have much on apart from a break force cross pitch swing (dump was marked out) and their player skipped forward to land in. Gutted. Hindsight would tell me the the best option would have been to huck and play D.
Thinking of this Michael Jordan quote cheers me up somewhat:

I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot. And missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.

Edited 7th August: I've just found this. Okay, it's from a commercial but still, there's a valid point:

We finished second in our pool and though this meant we missed the late start (1130!), 1000 isn't too bad. Saturday night was not too heavy really. We headed back to Sam's to chill, drink some beer and watch some football before heading in to town for curry. The food went down well (I thankfully didn't order a too-strong one), as did the couple of beers but we were all pretty shattered so we headed home relatively early for a good night's sleep.
This night I thankfully did remember to get my MP3 player and was thankful of it - both Drakey and Dav were snoring like traction engines. A bit of Dire Straits and I was back in the Land of Nod.

6...
...Tritium was an easy win. At the start of the game our offence was firing (we got a little lazy towards the end of the game when the game was out of reach, not that this is acceptable), our Zone was impenetrable and we pretty quickly went up 4-0. After this they never really got into the game. I personally had a storming game (probably due to the previous game, the evening before!) and got 3 layout D's including one on the first throw after the pull.

7...
...wasn't an easy pill to swallow - we lost in sudden death after having led the game right up to the last catch - but I sure did enjoy it. Again I think I played ok (this is a large factor of mine in Ultimate and although I appreciate that it's a team game, if everyone minimised their individual turnovers, it's pretty likely the team will improve) with loads of layout grabs (often to underthrown discs). I often find myself laying out and snatching discs from around defenders due to my twig-like long limbs. It's a great feeling! Another great grab was when I had to grab a high disc whilst running backwards. Power was the first person over to me because as he reminded me, it was not dissimilar to when I fell backwards and broke my arm. I love playing on sand - it's so soft!
The hooter went at 7-7. We had the disc and I put the huck to Dav. He tried his best but couldn't quite grab it and toe the line and they scored (under huge pressure).
It'd have been nice to win - and again it felt like I threw the game away - but it was enjoyable. The loss I can accept; even in sudden death. It's losing to a team wearing pink vests that troubles me...

8...
...Here we played BUF again. I never like playing the same team twice in a tournament, especially if you beat them the first time - they'll be out for revenge. This proved to be the place and it was much tougher this time. I made a call during the game - they made a grab in the zone close to the line and I thought they were out (foot under line) and needless to say the whole of their team disagreed (it would have been a rare upwind score, hence the importance) which pretty much made me the bad guy but I (and others) honestly do believe they were out so can live with this. A pivotal moment was when they didn't convert having sent the disc back to the thrower and once we put the downwind score in for a lead of three there was no way back for them.

9...
...Our final game of the weekend was 5 vs. 6 against Wink and the Gun. Clearly I'd like to finish a tournament as high as possible but failing that (and we could have finished higher) I like finishing 5th. 8th too. I guess it was we finished as high as possible once we lost. Also you end your tournament by winning a few games in a row. The game was good. In the post-match speak they mentioned how we were more up for the game than they were - and thinking back, this is very much true - so it was a fair result. My personal favourite point was when I D'd a high disc under pressure from two of their players. It scared me slightly that I wasn't quite able to catch the disc (I think someone hit me whilst I was in the air) and one of their players laid a great bid to try to grab the mac. Happily (for us; not for him) he didn't quite scoop it. I'd have been gutted!

Our team played 9, won 7. One loss was by 2; the other in sudden death. We ended up in 5th, which ain't bad for a bunch of guys who've never played together before.
On a personal level, I had moments of great play and times of weakness about which I'm not too happy. Most of these were throwaways. Self-analysis is a great factor in improvement for me so that's a healthy first step.My next competitive Ultimate is Mixed Tour 2 with Blue Arse Flies in just over a week (now, it's taken me all week to write this up!) and when I'm playing with them I'll very much be in a more treasure-the-disc mentality. Also we've got a huge team and I'm going to be very happy to spend large chunks of time not playing. I want to get back into Ultimate at as high a level as possible but it's going to take time and right now, I'm happy how it's going. Thoughts go to Lori at this time because of her poorly shoulder. You'll be back honey, and you'll be great again.

In the days following the tournament, my right tricep (remember I'm a Lefty) really ached. I was wondering why and now think I've got it sussed.
One of the beautiful bonuses of playing on sand is that you can lay out without worrying about getting hurt (trust me, I worry!). Consequently, you have to climb to your feet a lot. When doing this with the disc in your throwing arm, I think you'll use your non-throwing hand more to push up. It's my theory and Power agrees (it's the same in Snowboarding) so that's good enough for me.

A phone call from our ISP / landline provider:

Me "Hello, Richard here"
Him "Hello Richard, this is -insert boring-sounding name- from Virgin Media. I'm just ringing for a courtesy call and to tell you about some special offers"
Me [dubiously] "OK"
Him "Let me look at your account" [pause] "Let me tell you about an offer whereby you can upgrade to include TV for no extra charge.
Me [still dubiously] "OK"
Him "For the first month you will receive -insert dumb-sounding name for Large-sized TV package here- and then for the lifetime of your contract you will receive -insert dumb-sounding name for Regular-sized TV package here-, all at no additional cost"
Me "Really? Nothing else to pay? Absolutely nothing extra?"
Him "Exactly. Nothing extra"
Me [still dubiously] "Hmm. OK, I'm listening"
Him "Let me get you a quote"
Me "Whoa. Hold your horses. You just said there was nothing extra to pay"
Him "Apart from the first payme..."
Me "Thank you, goodbye" [click]

UNbelievable!

I've just realised I'm using caps this entry. I can't be bothered to go through and remove them all, so guess this is how it's going to look from now on.

views, cars, zany marketing and goodbye

2008-06-09T11:38:00.007+01:00

it's quite sad to say that i still forget how stunningly beautiful some of the surrounding countryside is around plymouth (admittedly it's exceptionally great in the sun, and that doesn't happen all that often!).

on sunday, a few of us headed to whitsand bay for some beach action. photos here.
on tuesday morning, guillaume (a courchsurfer) and i caught the cremyll ferry over to mount edgcumbe. photos here.

at times, guillaume was literally speechless with from what he saw. in his french accent he later thanked me for showing him that such sights exist in this country - he compared it with italy.

watching an old episode of top gear (another british institution; a british car show on bbc on sunday evenings) today, i saw something about a 3-wheeled dutch car called the 'carver'. i want one!

i love innocent smoothies. i like also the efforts they go to, to be 'wacky' (with little messages on their cartons etc). in that aspect, they are similar to fabulous bakin' boys who have sell amazing flapjacks and have a great site.

tschüs!
this is german (kind of obviously) and means 'bye bye'. whenever i hear this at the end of a phone call it makes me chuckle. i always think that german language is very harsh - stop starty, nothing like french which is flowing and butterfly-like by comparison. so to hear someone end a call with 'tschüs' (which is said something like 'choose', in 2 syllables and really high-pitched in the middle) just amuses me.
am i bad for this?

am i weird...

2008-06-05T09:42:00.002+01:00

...for loving that burning feeling deep in the muscles the day after a hard gym session?

couchsurfing

2008-06-02T11:10:00.005+01:00

i mentioned couchsurfing in a previous post.

that time i was a couchsurfer with lori and our host, the wonderful piotr was EVERYTHING one could ask for: warm, hospitable, trusting, thoughtful, knowledgeable and had a fabulous beach-side apartment.

last week, for the first time, i hosted some couchsurfers (does that make me a couchsurfee?). ashley and her fiancée, james, messaged me late one sunday night asking if they could stay the following wednesday night. their megabus arrived in plymouth at 2230 and they were continuing down to cornwall on thursday at 1600. so after meeting them, i brought them back here, we headed to mutley (and had their scottish money refused in goodbody's - odd) and chatted before setting our alarms for 0900hrs and heading to bed. the following day we were all lazy (i'd spent the weekend with lori; they LOVED my couch) so after a leisurely breakfast i showed them a few of the sights of plymouth in the rain and then we ate lunch and i had to head to work. the two of them have spent a month in south africa, 3 weeks in uk and are next cycling across europe before heading to asia and then australia. this is pretty typical, and it's making me want to see more of the world myself. it's certainly good for me (as is thinking about lori and canada!).

the initial reaction when i tell people about couchsurfing is "woah, you let these people in your house? you don't even know them" because we sadly live in a world where you hear terrible stories every day in the news. what we don't hear about are the millions (billions!) of really lovely, genuinely nice people out there. i am one; piotr, lori, ashley and james are others.
another way of learning to trust people is that once you have a cs experience, you write a little report and the other party / parties. the fact ashley and james have had 12 'extremely positive' or 'postive' experiences helped.
this is what she wrote about me:
"we messaged dean with only 3 days notice because (long story short) the bus websites were down, couldn't confirm tickets - didn't know exactly when we'd arrive. but he was so accommodating, he met us at the bus stop, and we went back to his place. we were his first guests! you wouldn't know it because he was such a great host. before work the next day he showed us around town - even though it rained he still trucked around with us. dean is a great guy, superb company - definitely recommend as a host if you're staying in plymouth!"

it reminds me of something that happened a few years ago. there was a track that was getting a lot of air time on radio 1 - anthony and the johnsons, hope there's someone. i loved it - still do - so went on an american forum (they were very new over here) and posted a message saying how bbc was playing it and people were loving it and when i next got paid i'd buy the album. in order to post, i had to write my email address which i wasn't too happy with but i did regardless. the next day i received a pretty short email asking for my address. well i'm pretty careful what details i release to the world so i emailed back asking why? the writer who i later found out was based in new york and has been a long-time supporter of the band replied saying that no one should have to wait until pay day for their music. i bit the bullet, gave my address and a week later a beautifully wrapped (i'm quite sad i didn't take a photo) package arrived with 2 albums and ep and a card wishing me well. it made me quite humble doubting this genuine person when she was only being kind.
lori has a phrase (that i've just learnt is a film - i need to see this film) which is 'pay it forward'. i intend to, and in some strange way, i guess i kind of am with couchsurfing.

so to bring it back on-topic, if you're going travelling and are a nice person, sign up. as well as potentially getting some free accommodation you'll meet some great people and have your faith in humanity restored. not bad for 5 minutes sign-up time...

random thoughts #1 (i'm sure there will be others)

2008-06-02T11:08:00.001+01:00

there is an email forward i've seen a few times. read it here: reason, season, lifetime.
i don't normally spend much time dwelling on email forwards - they're normally rubbish (yes mum, i just hit delete immediately) - but this one sparks something. i can't read it without thinking of the people that are no longer in my life. were they in it for a reason or a season? what was the reason? why just a season? and then, quite soberingly (is that a word?), i have to think of the people currently in my life. are they going to be 'lifetimers'? will they be leaving soon and if so, 'reasoners' or 'seasoners'?
i am not sure why i'm writing this - i've not seen this forward for ages - but perhaps the fact i'm newly embarking on a relationship may have something to do with it. i guess time will tell.

next.
i'm now back in work full-time after the dark times (aka my broken wrist, though good things happened during that era so i'm being told i shouldn't think of it this way) and there one little thing i want to say. the number of people who don't write addresses on envelopes and (especially) postcards is just crazy. how hard can it be to write legibly, on separate lines, remembering to write a country for international mail (and then, to write the correct country!) and to not write a thousand other distracting messages or draw pictures all confusing the automatic recognition software? i don't like to bring my work home with me (not in this job anyway) so perhaps i shouldn't care but when people tell me how rubbish royal mail is i can't help but wonder if you are one of these people who make these stupid errors and it's not our fault, it's yours.
lastly (on this topic anyway), i have to chuckle when i see this: the delivery address is 125 englebert street and someone has written 'incorrectly delivered to 127, please redeliver'. now come on, get off your fat ass and walk next-door and hand it to your neighbour yourself!
rant over...

...let's get on to something more fun, ultimate frisbee:

cutting is a matter of

being inventive
deceiving the defender
applying well timed and well directed physical effort

when cutting, players should

do it at pace
do it with conviction
decide on a course of action and stick to it, rather than have a change of mind halfway through. they must have faith in their choice of cut
finish their cut; cutting also creates space for team-mates, so stopping halfway through a cut may impded a team-mate who is seeking to exploit the space their cut would have created
clear quickly if a cut is unsuccessful and try to turn the clear into another cut whilst not clearing through a passing lane and cutting off a team-mate

simon moore, 2007

i say this to point out the fact that a 'banana cut' - jogging in an arc - IS NOT, HAS NEVER BEEN and NEVER WILL BE a cut (and if you still do it and succeed in receiving the disc, i vehemently believe your defender should be shot!). this is still true even if you're really really fast because one day, you'll meet someone who's as fast as / faster than you and then you'll be ghosted*.

*a word that i accidentally used in this context elsewhere and it worked and now i'm going to try and make it stick

video clips part two

2008-05-31T00:50:00.004+01:00

so i'm a total rock star(!) and did figure out how to embed the clips from youtube.
here's the first one (the one i rotated):

the others can be found here

rotate video

2008-05-29T09:38:00.006+01:00

on tuesday i took a video on my camera in the portrait orientation. this is great until you watch it on your computer and have to tilt your head 90 degrees. now i've found a great little programme which gives you the ability to rotate, flip, mirror etc. your video clips: dvd video soft's awesome creation.
i'll try and figure out how to embed a video here at some point.

caring is...

2008-05-26T17:36:00.002+01:00

...not changing position when on a train journey even though you are uncomfortable / have an itch / want to straighten your leg so your knee 'clicks' / generally fancy a bit of a change, because someone is resting their head on your shoulder and trying to get some shut-eye and you don't want to disturb them.

happiness is a revolving disc

2008-05-17T12:31:00.004+01:00

this may come as a shock to some of you (which makes me wonder who is actually reading this!) but i have, in recent times, thought about retiring from playing ultimate. each time i get injured it just drives me crazy. not just the time off doing what i am so passionate about but i also remind myself that without injury, i could be quite good at this game. main injuries have been a broken radius (missed paga 2008 & 2008 open season; an aside: the cast on my arm meant i couldn't spin a disc on my finger which i missed), acl 'scare' (still not sure what exactly is going on down there; missed 2007 open season) and a really badly sprained ankle (missed 2004 season). i also wonder how these ongoing niggles will affect me in later life - knees especially.

but then i am able to play again (i was discharged from the physio this week). the sun shines. the people around me are all great. and i realise how much i love the game. recent examples of this are a fabulous weekend in berlin and more recently an evening 'summer league' game in exeter. this was the third of three mini hat-league events - i'd missed the previous two due to work - but there was some great ultimate going on (a particular kid - i mean it, he can't have been more than 12 (yeah airbadgers!) - was completely stoked by ending a sweet flowing point with a cut to the corner for the point and how he lit up after this after he realised how much contribution he could give was delightful), the banter was high and the weather was perfect (evening sun with a bit of a breeze). it was just another of the thousands of GREAT ultimate-based experiences i've had.
i'll not be giving up any time soon!

continuing the feel-good theme, i was on the train back to plymouth and i realised how good i looked. dark outside + lights on in the carriage = windows become mirror-like. a combination of suntan, shorts, stubble and messy hair - i should have taken a picture!

a few weeks later: i've received much criticism for the last paragraph but i just don't care! after considering myself a geeky nerd boy for most of my life i'm now much more happy with my appearance and this (along with other factors, for example growing up) has made me a much more confident person. and i like the person i have slowly evolved into. so go stick your flak! :op

my favourite

2008-05-15T14:04:00.002+01:00

just because i couldn't squeeze it into the previous post...

#86 - sunny berlin & BUM

2008-05-13T08:57:00.016+01:00

it's now been a week since my birthday and it's just flown by. the majority of my birthday day was spent travelling so nothing too enjoyable about that (especially not the flight which also transported two loud stag parties) but seeing lori again, meeting her friend rob (who's house we stayed at that night; it has the longest thinnest toilet ever!) eating my birthday carrot cake(s), receiving my present (an awesome chicago mix-tape; my favourite track is 'the night chicago died' by paper lace - check it out) eating at an immense burger bar and drinking beer meant the day ended very well indeed.
friday morning was spent lazily - listening to my cd and chatting. in the afternoon we went exploring berlin. i'd visited the city in 2001 as part of my venture scout trip to poland but was wholeheartedly disappointed by the experience. 4ish hours just isn't enough time to spend in what i have become to realise is one of the best cities i've ever visited in a country i really could learn to love. we shopped for marshmallows (and saw the best pasta display ever), waited for the world clock to change in alexanderplatz (it didn't), watched a film crew preparing for the 75th anniversary of the burning of the books outside humboldt university, joined another 50,000 tourists taking photos at the brandenburg gate, took a sobering break at the jewish war memorial listening to the numbers of jews who died in various concentration camps, played some disc on the grass by the reichstag and most importantly, bought a key fob in the ampelmann shop. certainly, my second berlin experience was already far superior to the first! that night we got to the gym where some loud germans meant we barely slept - way to prepare for my first tournament in months!
our team - the beach pirates - met on saturday morning for the first game. we were a brit, an american, a pole, a frenchman and a bunch of germans. we were all pretty young and up for a good time. over the weekend, i tried so hard to learn everyone's names but in the end failed miserably. on pitch in the baking heat (even our 1845 start against a dutch team was obscenely hot!), we won 4 of 4 to win our pool and earn ourselves a saturday morning cross over into the power-pool. nice work for a pick-up team! also on monday i was introduced to (and actually played against, in the first game) a fellow fulbrighter of lori's - katy - who was lovely even if she does wear a t-shirt which makes me feel dizzy. i know lori picks her friends carefully and it showed. on saturday evening, we ate lasagne and hit the sack relatively early (probably around midnight).
games finished early on sunday so everyone could head into town to watch a carnival. our team was down from 13 to 10 and this may have played a part in losing the first game. we were destroyed in the second game by a team who's main tactic was to huck the disc to a tall fast guy. it was a great decision to change to zone at the end and though we brought it back to sudden death it wasn't enough. still, one of the guys had dropped the pull on a sudden death point the previous day so he bought everyone beer. lori and i actually hung around at the venue after games finished and though we missed the carnival, we took part in a great pick-up game so no complaints there. lori even managed to find a fellow yank who hadn't played ultimate in years but her beach volleyball game had been cancelled so she was keen to hang out with us cool cats (her words). she even came and picked up on the final day. this would seem an opportune moment to talk about the venue. it's right next to where The wall used to stand and it couldn't be built on because of the subway underneath (very strange feeling a beach vibrate due to a train underneath your feet!). so instead of leaving the ground to go derelict as would be the british way, they built a bunch of beach volleyball pitches. genius! oh, the tournament was called berlin ultimate mitte (BUM; titter) - literally ultimate in the middle of berlin. so, following the pick-up game and showers, robert (another fulbrighter), sébastien, lori and i headed in to town to eat and though robert's favourite burrito place was shut, we enjoyed delicious vietnamese and shared a mango & coconut smoothie at a place that lori knew. we then headed to the aftermath of the carnival (a huge street party with dancing, stalls, music and general merriment) where i unwittingly didn't lose a game of freezemaster (mainly because i was daydreaming) and ate some lovely particularly unhealthy doughnut-like balls. the party venue was the next stop and we eventually hit the sack after sinking some vodka and losing a couple-off (to a couple who weren't!).
first game monday morning somehow saw me play my best ultimate. it's nice to know that even 7 games into a beach tournament after an 8 week lay-off, i've still got the fitness to be able to play some great ultimate. that, and using my large pivot to enable me to break the force (and throw under less pressure - i threw away 6 times in the weekend) makes me wonder how good i could get with some regular open training, solid fitness work and (mainly) a respite from injury! we won the first game and lost the second finishing somewhere around 13th i think: won 5; lost 3. it was a successful weekend. our team disc which we all signed was given to sébastien for most improved player - which he throughly deserved. lori has a great digital slr with a zoom lens. one day, i'm going to follow suit - it's way better for action shots than mine and i love ultimate photos. here is lori's album of the weekend.

lori and i watched the really great close final from the end of the pitch. we played fantasy ultimate (yeah austria #'s 0 & 22!), soaked up the sun and joked. it was a perfect way to end our time in germany.

two thoughts

2008-05-04T18:38:00.003+01:00

one. a couple of nights ago, i was in the enviable position of being on a night out with 4 girls and something which i've noticed before happened again... when a guy is on his own with just girls, other blokes treat him really oddly - strange looks, pushes on the dance floor and general unpleasantness. there must be some primordial psycho-something going on there.
two. when hungover and taking a break from disc golf in the sun, nothing beats this: roughly tear a hot-crossed bun open; fill it with fresh strawberries; smear with plenty of clotted cream. wash down with fresh orange juice (with juicy bits).

returning to normality

2008-05-03T10:41:00.011+01:00

and this post will bring me up to date, hooray. following my great week in germany, i started back in work. it's interesting how though i don't have the fulfilling role in the world, i do miss parts of it including the regular structure it brings to your day and the interactions with the colleagues i didn't get to choose, even though i'd spend more time with them than if i had a significant other (which makes me realise that i'm fortunate in who i get to work with!). another huge plus was my cast coming off. the photo of my x-ray could have been posted a long time ago but it wasn't but i still want to include it as it looks so cool! anyway, clearly no one likes the enforced 'reduced mobility' (a phrase i learnt whilst being kicked off the front row of seats on a plane, just when i was thinking how lucky i was to be presented with so much leg room) of a limb in a cast - showering with one arm in a plastic bag (tough for someone as meticulous with cleaning as myself), not really being able to cook, having to pick clothes on the merit of their cuff width - but i also realised how lucky i am that this is a temporary thing. at the end of the day, it could have been so much worse. whilst at the hospital i saw a girl with both arms in cast. or i could be blind. so my cast is off, metal pins (see pic; from bottom to top: tom, dick and harry) out and now to get my fitness back. i'm finding this difficult because i struggle to do exercise when i can't do exactly what i want to (i.e. lift weights with a weak arm or go running with last year's ACL scare).

germany

2008-05-03T01:27:00.007+01:00

i returned home from paga tired but very happy on the 25th of march.
on the 10th of april i found myself landing in sczcecin, poland to visit lori. our first three nights were spent staying with the incredibly warm and welcoming pole, piotr, who we met through couchsurfing (if you're a traveller type, check it out - it's an incredible concept which really works). piotr was an amazing host introducing us to some local delicacies (intestine soup anyone?), taking us to an art gallery, throwing a mini-party where we met some of his cool friends and, naturally, sampling some of the world-famous polish vodka. a really strange coincidence of this trip was that i'd actually visited sczcecin in 2001 with the venture scouts where i first started drinking! on our last night in poland, we headed north to the baltic coast to stay at piotr's family's apartment. naturally lori and i chucked some disc on the beach and the three of us spent a lovely evening watching the sunset, drinking wine and talking. on the sunday we had to say goodbye to piotr and head to lori's worktown of greifswald for the remainder of the week. highlights of this included a look round the town (not bombed during the war, unlike our previous location), throwing discs again, the BEST soup (fish) i've ever tasted in possibly the best pub i've ever been (a max capacity of ~15!) and being taken into lori's school to talk about myself / england and ultimate. all this was another bonus of being off work recovering from a broken arm (every cloud...).

paganello

2008-05-02T15:43:00.010+01:00

it's now been a long time since paganello, but it has had a huge impact on my last few months so i figured i'd backdate. really, paganello 2008 started at my first beach tournament: paga 07. i went, picked up for ow!, played well, got a great tan had the best week of my life and generally decided to go again. nov 07: found out i'd managed to secure a spot for bolt at the 3rd year of attempting to do so. dec 07: realising bolt wouldn't get enough players, i spoke to drakey and changed the entry to nice legs. jan - march 08: worked mega-hard in the gym / cycling / stretching with drakes. also had my tattoo done - i had been thinking about it for a year and decided to go ahead before the event. paga minus 1 week: whilst playing for devon 1 in the first game of the season (whilst up 5-0 in a game we went on to win 15-0) i stumbled backwards in the endzone and broke my radius. it wouldn't have been so bad if i'd caught it for the point! i (obviously) still went to rimini and though it sucked not not being able to play there were loads of positives: mainly that the weather wasn't great so i was able to stay warm and that i had a really great time socially, especially speaking with many people i perhaps wouldn't have done otherwise. one of these was lori, an american i got chatting to at the rose & crown on the last night and when we finally said goodbye 8 hours later after having watched the sunrise it was with a mixture of emotions.

eventually

2008-05-02T12:14:00.006+01:00

talk about taking my time. i created this blog in 2005(!) and am now going to start using it (2008).

recently i've started putting my life in order with the help of a private (for now) blog but i'd like to have one i can start using regularly so this is it.

if anyone reading this wonders about the 'eatthefrog' name, i'm sorry - i just don't remember! it was available in yahoo! when i first got online and have used it on-and-off since then.