Year: 2008

We’ve seen those idiots here who go screaming everywhere in their cars and it irks me no end. The thing is, they do their speeding along city streets as well as on the Highways.

We’ve seen a fair few go screaming by us, and then 10 minutes down the street, they’ve been pulled over by the cops. Always makes me laugh.

We’ve been cutting down drastically on our use of the car though. Rising Gas prices have made this a necessity, and we’re starting to feel the hole in the pocket more than ever.

Been away for a few days because my sister and I took trips to my mum’s & dad’s place for Father’s Day. It was a good chance to check out the car on a long trip on motorways 🙂

The relaxed, no-effort feeling from it continued, it just takes everything in its stride. I think I may get a recurring feeling of a hole in the wallet though every time I fill it up. I’ve done two fill ups now, one was mostly urban driving and returned 30mpg, the other was mostly motorway and 35mpg. Not as good as my last car 😉

I’m typing this while watching the end of the first half of the cricket. Durham have a youngster bowling the pressure overs (2 of the last 3) and he’s doing really well. But he’s got a lot of pizzas to eat before he truly becomes a Shane Warne replica … There’s a few Dancing Girls at this game too, except I think they’re far more concerned about keeping warm up there than even getting out of the way when the ball comes their way.

Heh heh heh – it’s Twenty20 cricket – get those hard hats on in the crowd 🙂

Back to driving – I struggle to understand why there’s people who scream down the motorways, in more ways than just going 100mph+. All that happens is that they will :

• Run their car into an early demise
• Get tired due to the extra attention they’re hopefully giving
• Be stressed when they get stuck behind someone with the temerity to only be doing 75.

I prefer to just cruise and stay away from the morons. I learned from my Astra (aka The Buggy) that going for an 85mph average only led to bits dropping off the car (sometimes literally) and wouldn’t get you there any time sooner. 100 miles on a motorway at 70 takes 1 hour 26 minutes, going at 80 would only take 11 minutes off that, if you can maintain the extra speed. I still have the Need For Speed (no3 was a great game) but I’ve grown up to the point where I like to arrive relaxed and fresh.

Oh – IpodFM is still alive and well and working happily in the Focus 🙂

White is a target for getting dirty easily!

Michele sent me.

My cricket whites still have a slight grass stain on the knees …

Lost count how many times they’ve been washed since I played last !

I absolutely never wear white for precisely that reason. Somehow it always ends up dirty no matter what!

Lol – I’m a confidence person … I need the confidence to enable me to do stuff 😉

And it’s replies like your’s that really boost that confidence 🙂

‘Less is More’ and ‘Keep it Simple’ along with pizza and popcorn and a wry sense of humor.

You Rock!!

Not done one of these for a while, partly cos I couldn’t think of a theme … Time for some random thoughts 🙂

Thirteen Random Things 1…. Graeme Hick at 42 is still great fun to watch. Currently got the Glos. vs Worcestershire Twenty20 game on and I’m thoroughly on the old guy’s side. 2…. Pizza has to be my all time favourite food. 3…. From the showing in badminton last night, mebbe I’ve had too many 😉 4…. The tendency to “Less is More” is a very good thing. 5…. Kinda wondering if the fuel protest due tomorrow will interfere with me doing a long drive to mum & dad. 6…. Overcomplicating things tends to spoil it due to the complexity getting in the way. I’m a fan of the Keep It Simple Stupid principle. 7…. You can “save” heaps of cash on special offers but you’re still going to end up lighter in the pocket than if you avoided the offer … 8…. Popcorn is also on that list of favourite foods. 9…. Sometimes pure talent doesn’t get you to the top of your sport … but it definitely helps ! Thinking of Vikram Solanki and Graeme Hick above, who have lots of talent but never cemented their places in the England side. 10.. I definitely play too much Warcraft ! My new main character is now on level 58 after just 6 weeks. 11.. Team stuff is a lot more fun if you enjoy the people around. That goes for work as well as play … Was with a badminton player last night who poached far too much and then blamed his partner for not going for what he left. 12.. MUAHAHA ! Cricket again. New batsman in, bowler brings in the field, ball gets bowled and a few seconds later they’re fetching it from outside the stadium. 13.. I was That Close to wearing a white shirt with my pizza tonight ! That’s always too much of a temptation for fate … Especially if that white shirt just came off the drying rail.

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Had a couple of things to acquire for this weekend, so I hit the Mall again tonight. It’s full Summer now and the usual suspects are out on the prowl. There’s a few types there :

The ones who are gorgeous without really thinking about it. They have an unconscious natural grace that shows in everything they do. (Miss L has this)
There’s the jailbait … and that one word probably says it all there !
Cheeseburger Girls. And that’s not because they’ve had too many, it’s because it would do them a favour if you frogmarched them to the local fattyfood store to get them a cheeseburger.
Look At Me Girls. Otherwise known as the “I’m trying really hard to get stared at” people. I’d put young men in muscle shirts in this sterotype as well.

There was a Look At Me Girl at the Mall tonight, probably a lot more that I filtered out but this one was particularly noticeable. She was wearing something that probably would have embarassed an Olympic gymnast, although you definitely wouldn’t have wanted to have been swinging around the asymmetric parallel bars in that. You’d be arrested. Anyway – the Look At Me Girl. You can usually spot them as the ones desperately trying to stand out from the crowd, by any means necessary. And that “trying too hard” thing tends to put me off.

Just in the middle of watching a couple of NCIS episodes and Pauley Perrette who plays Abby Sciuto (imdb link) kinda fits into the unconscious grace category as well as Jailbait. And she’s 39 ! According to IMDB that is. I don’t believe it.

Right – much more talking about the girls at the Mall and I’ll be needing a cold shower. Which will be a good idea anyhow because it’s getting uncomfortable for Brits who complain at mild heat just as easily as they’ll complain at snow 🙂

Did I mention anywhere that I like air conditioning ? I only have it in the car but I wouldn’t acquire a car that doesn’t have it now.

Where’s the title for today’s entry come from ? I have a fairly chaotic, yet ordered, mind that finds it difficult to relax without a fresh neuron firing off pointing me in another direction. Strangely, I find it peaceful sitting in the open in the food court munching something (ok – a KFC!) while watching the people go by. The general murmur of the crowd helps to keep all those chaotic neurons quiet and I can slow down my brain and get a break from thinking/ watching/ listening to several different things at once.

Peace today – Motion tomorrow. Badminton again 🙂

I’m currently managing a session every fortnight, as I have a habit of breaking things by pushing too hard, too early. However, I was very pleased last session as I went straight into putting the new serve in action. And it was a nasty one too – accurate and very repeatable, even from absolutely no practice too. Apart from a bit of mental preparation that is. I have a partially photographic memory, which allows me to replay what I’ve done and attempt to build new ways of doing things by visualising the movements in my head. What I’d love to know is whether the picture in my head matches up to what would be on a video camera 🙂

That’s a little too much rambling from me tonight – here’s to Unconscious Grace and a little bit of peace amongst the chaotic world we live in.

I’ll probably go until the end of the month and then skive for a week 🙂 I’m reasonably fortunate in having fairly free choice in when I grab time off. Although I do try to avoid having time off in hectic periods. Timing it to avoid the rush times helps to keep me going when things do get frantic.

Gives me something to look forward to 🙂

PS Younger and dafter 🙂