Year: 2013

Definitely getting older.

However … as is typical for me, it’s not showing in the typical way. I have what you could call the results from last week’s cricket in now, if you could call it the aftermath of a fitness test.

Cricket’s a lot more energetic than people think, although that depends on how much the player puts into it. I’m either sleeping or hyperbunny. If I’m dispatched to the outfield, I get sleepy. If I’m closer in, then I’m hyperbunny. Lots of short sprints to get to the ball quick. Lots of reaching for the ball and diving around. Bruises from being inept. I got to be hyperbunny in last week’s game.

I’m usually struggling badly for the 2-3 days after the first game of the season. The unaccustomed exercise and use of muscles that don’t get used much leads to them screaming at you for a few days. However much I practiced in the past, it was no substitute for actual match fitness. It took a few games to get conditioned. So I was expecting a few days of hell where I wouldn’t be able to move much.

What actually happened ? Here’s the surprise – I actually survived the game pretty well. Apart from a couple of bruises, the days of hell didn’t actually happen. I could still move well. Ok, not 100% because there’s internal wear and tear damage to my hips and knees that won’t heal easily. I have full running speed available, just not full agility.

Yeah – I’m amazed actually.

I went into last Wednesday’s game with the absolute minimum of preparation. No training, no practice and it was 3 weeks after I’d given up on 1/3 of the season to my legs not being in a fit state. Oh and I was short enough on hydration during the day that I nearly had calf muscles explode due to cramp, although the cramp may have been brought on by the heavy ground conditions.

So – internal damage aside, not quite so old as I thought. Still mostly able to keep up at 38, although I am definitely slowing down. That’s a relative thing though because I used to be lightning quick and still have most of that leg power available.

Actually yeah – I still had enough leg power to make my skin bleed a few weeks ago and make it difficult to stand for extended periods. And that’s recovered enough to let me use maximum sprinting power.

So what’s this about feeling old ?

It’s actually gaming. I used to be really good at driving games and I’m pretty decent in a kart (I’m just too heavy cos of those legs). Now ? I try racing games like F1 2012 and Grid and I’m really slow. It feels like I’m half a second behind where the racing car is. I even had to stop playing Grid after not that long because my back was killing me (need to figure a better place for the wheel).

Upside (or Sleepy is not old) :
I didn’t suffer quite as badly from going into that game unprepared
The skin damage didn’t cause any issues
Most of the old speed is still there

Downside (Sleepy is ancient) :
I’m too old for the gaming !!!!!

Woe is me. I better stick to the cricket for now. (lol)

Perhaps the lanolin connection is why I've been reacting to wearing those jeans ?

Curious …

And a bunch of Eve pilots just went “doh!”

(It’s an Eve thing).

Actually played cricket tonight. Or should I say, I turned up at the game in my whites and impersonated a cricketer for a little while. I am literally getting too old for it now, although I did survive tonight’s game relatively unscathed.

It was surprising that we played tonight – we had rain on and off all day, with lots of sunshine at times too. There was steady but light rain when we were practicing before the start. There was even Hail.

In May. There was hail. Global warming is definitely having its effect.

The rain held off in the game, with the sun coming out. The sun actually causes a few problems, the ground we play on isn’t great for seeing due to the colour of the houses on the other side of the boundary. We play with a red ball with whites with no lights at the ground, so if that red ball crosses the red brick of the houses, it tends to disappear …

You get used to it and it’s the same for both sides. Similar for the ground condition. Water changes the way pitches play in unpredictable ways. It can make the ball bounce more, or it can skid on and almost speed up when it bounces. You never really know until you play, which makes my usual job as opener (first to go out there and sample the conditions) a lot harder. I didn’t actually bat tonight, which I’m up and down about.

I was in my spiked boots tonight but was still having real trouble with the footing … I dropped two catches tonight, the second saw my feet jump out from underneath me (true), with me falling on my bum. Didn’t manage to knock the ball where I could catch it. And that’s not the only time I almost ended up on my bum. My legs still seem to have enough power available to cause me trouble :-).

Lots of fielding tonight – I took a heavy knock on my knee (moderated by the knee pads I use), plus I’ll have a fantastic shiner on my left hand from another catch which I really should have held. (Need new glasses).

We lost tonight but salvaged our honour after a really bad start to our innings.

I’ll definitely be suffering tomorrow from :
Sore quad muscles on my legs
The bruising on my left hand
Bruising to come on my knee
A calf muscle which very nearly got pulled due to cramp
(need to remember to prepare better during the day)

Everything else seems fairly ok, although I will definitely suffer for the next few days after my body gets a chance to stiffen up. That’s an early season inevitability. I should really train more to get the conditioning. Actually, one thing I did notice from tonight was that my lungs were better, I didn’t lose my breath even though I did a few sprints (batting would be more stressful). Perhaps I’m avoiding an allergy something that would be affecting my breathing.

The big news from tonight is that my ailing skin actually survived the game with not many issues. A month ago, if I ran up the stairs the back of my knees would bleed. The skin there was that delicate. It’s still sensitive but much more resilient.

That’s actually really good news, although I have to stay on top of it by making sure I don’t “help” it too much.

Oh ! Star Trek Into Darkness tomorrow. That should be awesome. Looking forward to it.

Good to hear all round. 🙂
I'm allergic to lanolin – you get it in sheep's wool. Keep up with the positive stuff x x

I seem to be approaching something near to rude health again.

That’s right – I’m having to think of other ways than just rolling the sleeves up in order to scare people. (I’ve gone back to the tried and tested traditional methods of just being a loon – it’s working).

What’s that “more data” thing ?

I’ve added a couple more things to the allergy list. I appear to be allergic to my jeans. Yep. I improve, the skin on the back of my knees gets silky smooth (that’s been the messy bit), then I wear my jeans and that skin goes nasty again. I don’t wear those jeans too often, it’s suit trousers at work and tracksuit type bottoms at home (unless I’m protecting the skin by going to shorts). But I wore them on Wednesday evening to go to the game that didn’t happen.

Clues ? Could be the dye, could be the material. Jeans are rougher than normal and it could be the roughness that’s causing the problem. I’ve taken steps – the jeans have been washed again and I’m using different (anti-allergenic) washing blobs and softener from a different manufacturer. I’ve also bought some new jeans.

The healing’s good actually – on Friday, my condition had gone backwards enough that I was considering letting the cricket people know I wasn’t going to be available on Wednesday. Now, I’m fine again (externally – internally my knee hates me) although I’m having to work the discipline to stop me “helping” the healing by tearing at the bad bits.

Yep. Self inflicted wounds and all that.

Wonder if I’ll get any cool scars after all this is behind me. There’s none on my face, where there were a few Zombie Plague patches visible last year.

Another thing I might be allergic to is lanellin (however it’s spelt!). My sister put me on to this, as she reacts to it too. It’s a base for medicines, like the steroid creams I’d been using. On the one hand, you get healing from the steroid cream. On the other, you’re applying something which gives you an allergic reaction to an area that’s sore and sensitive. The new stuff is helping rather than hindering.

So – good news all round there.

Looking good. Feeling good. (Although my knee and shoulder have been telling me I’m an idiot to consider playing cricket again). People think I’m looking young again. Canteen Girl (different one) thought I was 32. That’s 6 years below my actual age. Sweet :-).

Oh – you know when you think of some really cool stuff but when it comes to the right time, you can’t remember ? Yep. Got that. I had some good thoughts for a post earlier when I was at work but can I remember them now ? Nope.

I still need to get the allergy test done – and it’s getting closer to when it’ll give me good data too. There’s enough of me back to good condition.

I have new stuff too now, although I was looking to get more :

New shoes. This turned from “it can wait” into “must have now” when I got wet socks from wearing my last pair of shoes on a rainy day. I break shoes before they get dirty. Dunno why, I’ve tried to train myself to have an efficient stride that shouldn’t put too much strain on the shoes. Because strain on shoes means strain on knees and hips and I have to look after those.

So I have new shoes – eventually. £65 for shoes for work ? Inflation is going nuts. I got £20 off mine and they seem ok.

But I don’t have a long sleeve cricket shirt yet. I’ve never used these, long sleeves interfered with my bowling. However, a long sleeve will protect arms that are still healing when I forget my age and dive for the ball when fielding. Can I find one ? Nope. Nothing in Sports Direct and that’s the closest shop to a sports shop outside of Globe sports. And even there, it’s more fashion store than sports store.

I think I started rambling quite some time ago didn’t I ?

Closing up :

Feeling and looking healthier. Although I’m not completely healed yet.
Lanellin = bad.
I look 6 years younger than I am – and a pretty girl said so.

And that last statement is possibly the best way to close 🙂

Are very often the simple ones.

At least, they tend to be founded on very simple principles which allow for great scope and depth. Those principles when turned into gameplay can’t get in the way of enjoying the game, or gamers quickly get frustrated and walk away.

I’ve bought a little selection of games lately and it may surprise you which has taken more of my time over the past week.

F1 2012 – is a racing game based on Formula 1 Grand Prix. They’re the fastest cars on the planet. I left this one aside for a while because I didn’t have the equipment to appreciate it properly. Strange thing is though, now I do have a steering wheel for my PC, this game still leaves me cold. It doesn’t have the immediacy of Forza on the Xbox or the old Need For Speed games I was addicted to way back.

I suspect it’s because it has bits interfering with the gameplay. With the settings I had active, the game was actively slowing me down. The brake pedal didn’t do much. I didn’t have the chance to do late braking because the game was taking away that ability to make and learn from my mistakes by braking for me way too early.

And that’s very frustrating and interferes badly with the ability to enjoy the game. The interface is also far too dominated by console influences.

Napoleon Total War – I was happily addicted to the original Shogun Total War when it came out and have followed the Total War series with curiosity, if not by buying it. It’s another split game, where there’s a strategic layer combined with a tactical battle layer. The forces at your disposal in the tactical layer are the ones you’ve built up in the strategic layer.

The Total War series is another which has all the ingredients to make a great game of its type. The strategic layer is full of depth and scope. The tactical layer looks gorgeous with plenty of options for commanding the troops. But … something doesn’t add up with it. Things like having the options for commanding the troops but ending up with them facing the wrong way. Yep, did that in the tutorial.

I’ll go back into the Total War series at some point but all the tutorial did was remind me why I avoided getting Rome Total War a few years ago. A game with great promise but that gameplay got in the way of me enjoying it.

So what have I been playing ?

Let’s start with the Steam stats. Steam tells me I’ve spent 32.8 hours on it over the past 2 weeks. Except that isn’t over the past 2 weeks, it was all last weekend. In comparison, I’ve spent 179 hours on I think 4 Deus Ex Human Revolution playthroughs, 86 hours between 2 Skyrim playthroughs (and barely scratched the surface of that game), 33 hours on the latest XCom game (1 playthrough) and the 2 Torchlight games lasted me about 12 hours each before I got bored of them.

In terms of value for money this latest one cost me about £4 on a 75% off sale. So I’ve already got 8 hours per £1 spent. And I’d get many more too … I’ve only played through the main campaign and none of the extra content so far.

So what is it ?

There’s a genre of game called Tower Defense. The premise is that overwhelming wave after wave of monsters are attacking and it’s up to you to stop them by deploying defensive towers. There’s usually a bunch of different types of tower and different layouts to the maps. Each level is a puzzle to be solved. Most games of this type are free to play, although there is the occasional paid version.

The game I’ve been on is called Defense Grid : The Awakening. I stayed away for ages because it wasn’t free to play, which was a mistake as it’s actually incredibly good and worth the little amount of cash when it’s (often) on sale.

It’s fairly typical of the type with a wide range of enemies and enough towers to keep things interesting. It’s simple to play but tough to beat. And you get a little extra value from the money by there being a narrator who gives you a bit of context.

Trouble is, a game can be a little too good.

I’ve been struggling for sleep over the past week. One cause is my skin condition, it’s much better but there’s still enough irritation that I’ll “help” it. I’ve had better discipline there but when I’m trying to sleep, my discipline is much weaker because I’m not thinking. But the other cause is Defense Grid. I’ve been playing it in my head while trying to get to sleep. ARG ! It’s that addictive and that simple. Here’s a video to a walkthrough of one of the levels which will give you an idea of the gameplay.

Verdict on Defense Grid ? So good that it’ll kill your sleep. Buy it anyway. I’ve banned myself from playing it midweek cos you know ? Gotta work ! And I’ve been struggling to function on the limited amount of sleep I’ve been getting.

Friday tomorrow – bring on the weekend 🙂

For a person with extremely high IQ, I can be a real idiot sometimes.

Road trip today 🙂 I had two objectives : acquiring a steering wheel and wandering around Stoneleigh until my feet were too sore to walk any more.

The first part went just fine, although Coventry’s roads are somewhat a) dangerous, b) clogged and c) confusing. Been noticing with new roads built lately, they’re not building roads the way they used to. New roads hold the water. And that’s definitely not a good thing. Roads are supposed to be designed so that the rainwater flows off them. Standing water shouldn’t happen. Yet on the new A46 and the A45 around Coventry, the water stays on the road and creates dangerous puddles. Bright blue sky, no rain for a while, yet still a big chance of aquaplaning. Yep. Had one incident today when the traction control woke up to stop the car going sideways.

That’s not good.

Yet on the M5 motorway, occasional apocalyptic rain saw really poor visual conditions but there was always sure footing under the car.

Ok. Steering wheel acquired – been meaning to pick up one of these ever since putting F1 2012 aside due to it really needing the right equipment to enable enjoyment of that game. On to Stoneleigh.

I had a feeling I’d messed up when I was approaching the showground. In my defence, I think I picked up on the show dates by misreading the ticket prices. I’d read the camping prices, thinking “cor ! not paying that to get in”. I think that made Saturday as a show day lodge in my mind.

Oops. I figured it out when I read the signs for parking : “Sunday and Monday”. Ah well. One successful roadtrip, just one day too early.

So off I pop on the way home, having not seen any kit cars. Not straight home though … there was tell of a Bristol Motor Show on at the Mall, which put me in the right place for :

New trousers for work (yep – needed those)
Lurking round the Mall (Nerina Pallot cd and Superman blurays)
Sweetie shop (munchies !)
Iron Man 3

I have to say, the motor show isn’t worth going to see. There’s barely any manufacturers there. Even people like Audi (who have a showroom about 500 yards away) didn’t turn up. No opportunity to check out the new Lexus.

Iron Man 3 is well worth seeing. The first two are great films, this one beats them. Far more story involved than the bangs and bumps of the first two. And I’m not telling anything cos it would be so easy to innocently spoilerise this film. If you enjoyed the first two, this one is even better. Definitely beats the Avengers movie.

I really enjoyed today. Yeah, I drove a couple of hundred miles and didn’t get to see any kit cars. However. That’s not the important thing.

I feel as if I have some of what people may call “mojo” back. It felt weird earlier to be able to jump in the car and just go somewhere, without having to worry about the implications of my skin condition. I’m not free of it yet, there is still a lot of me that looks like it’s been dragged through a very thorny bush. But it’s no longer at that level where it dominates my thinking.

I was thinking about that “weird” feeling. I’d describe it as “liberating”. The point where you get your freedom back. I had options today. I had a text fairly late yesterday offering a game of cricket. I assessed my condition and thought – “yeah, could have played”. I declined because I’d made other plans and playing a 40 over game of cricket in my current fitness condition would have been … stupid. I can get away with evening games but need a lot more conditioning before trying longer games. That’s if I’m able to play longer games any more anyway – I’m getting older and more broken inside.

Wasn’t feeling broken today though. A fortnight ago, if I ran up the stairs I would have started bleeding from the back of my knees. (Seriously!) Today, the knees are very close to fully healed, which I wouldn’t have believed a week ago. And I have my full movement available, which includes being able to dodge trucks when running across the road.

Yeah – really enjoyed it, despite the feelings of being an idiot. The road trip marks a change from reclusively dealing with the skin condition to hopefully being able to put it behind me and move on.

PS I also have a sugar mouse. Or should I say … had.
PS2 That Spa trip just got a lot more viable 🙂
PS3 Those Superman blurays mean I have a spare copy of Superman Returns on dvd now if anyone (local!) wants it

Feels very weird to be making plans.

Lately, when I’ve had a break from work, all I’ve planned to do is stay at home and protect my arms and legs so they heal up a bit more. However, those arms and legs are far less angry with me now, even compared to just over a week ago.

Hell, I even declared an availability for playing cricket after thinking that the first half of the season was written off. Things have improved that much.

So how about those plans ? They vary in scale from just mundane to perhaps a little bit epic.

Mundane – clothes. They’ve cleaned up ok but I know what the condition of the skin underneath was. I need new stuff. I need new shoes too, I’ve been waiting until my skin’s been on the mend for that because new shoes always shred my achilles tendon area. I’m also thinking of buying some wicket keeping gloves, although I’ll wait for an answer from the skipper to see if that’s really necessary.

Bristol Motor Show this weekend and I’ll definitely be going to that. It’s up at Cribbs Causeway this year. Dunno how they’ll arrange it. I suspect there will be cars in the Mall and cars on display in the car park. I’m curious. And I’m hoping the new Lexus will make an appearance. I have to get the car serviced as well soon but that will be before the new Lexus appears at the garage for peeking.

Stoneleigh.

This is kit car mecca. I’ve always been interested in kit cars, although I’ve never had that combination of Money, Facilities and Time come together to let me build one. Stoneleigh is the biggest show of the year, so there will be tonnes of stuff to see.

Oh and it’s just 7 miles down the road from a place that will sell me a steering wheel for the PC.

The last place is a lot more miles away. Bear with me while I think through the arrangements …

It’s the Belgian Grand Prix. I know … epic road trip ?

The road trip itself would involve crossing two international boundaries and about 450 miles each way. That’s not quite as bad as it sounds by miles, because roughly halfway there’s a break from driving while you’re on the Channel Tunnel.

Then you have Channel Tunnel prices at £51 for a Short Stay Saver, £75 for Standard Single or £149 for a 5 Day Flexiplus. The more expensive tickets allow more flexibility or more days between there and back.

Finishing it all off is the main event, tickets for the event and hotels. If you’re doing this kind of trip, you really have to go All In. And that means tickets covering the entire event, not just the race day. There’s more to see too, with support races featuring other classes. How much for this ? Erm. A “certain package deal specialist” is offering £296 for Silver Grandstand event tickets, plus £398 for a few nights at the hotel.

That makes it almost £800 for the weekend, with petrol to come on top.

To be honest, the Spa trip is a bit far fetched. It would be fun but it’s one where I’d definitely want to have company along. (Oh look there’s just been an email in from an online site …). The motor show and Stoneleigh trips I’ll happily go to on my own but I think the Spa trip would need me bringing a sanity saver.

Oh – the motor show trip also gets me in the vicinity of a cinema with Iron Man 3 on 🙂

Glad that your Mum's on the mend.

Not seeing either Iron Man or Star Trek (as you know). No doubt you'll enjoy both of them though!!

It was my mum’s birthday on Friday, so the mob made the pilgrimage up there again this weekend.

Just me from this end but my sister had the Muttley with her. With my mum going in for brain surgery, the dog’s been staying with my sister (and incidentally, been on a stricter regimen of diet and exercise – poor thing).

My mum’s ok by the way, if you caught that BRAIN SURGERY thing. She’s back to her old self, although bumping her head on Saturday morning can’t have helped. It should be a really good thing, as the surgery was to correct a benign thingy that was disrupting short term memory and balance. We’re a tough mob but our bones aren’t great and that balance issue was leading to some nasty injuries.

Anyway …

The gang’s all back up there again, except my nan who we still miss.

Ended up doing techie spotting again 🙂 We all have our own laptops and other assorted computing devices. My mum & dad have them to keep their brains active as well. But my mum’s been lacking a laptop lately, after the disaster which was an Asus Transformer pad. It was a bad buy for 2 reasons :

1st – it wasn’t what they wanted. My mum & dad are well used to Windows and can interact with it. They’re not that tech savvy though so switching to Android was too big a shift. Hell, switching from a Sky+ box to a Humax Freesat DVR was too big a shift. (oops! lol). But they got mis-sold this thing by a CURRYS salesperson and were not allowed to switch it for a Windows laptop.

2nd – it was unreliable, kept rebooting without cause. And the CURRYS people still would not honour their Sales of Goods Act obligations and replace the faulty kit.

Note the caps. I’m blacklisting PC World and Currys for a while (they’re the same people), partly because I see no reason to shop there. They don’t offer anything of benefit over the competition plus there’s that whole sales of goods act thing. Comet were worse, look what happened to Comet.

Anyway …. (there’s that word again for when I feel a rant coming on)

New laptop – Acer Aspire S3. It’s actually quite Shiny. It’s in the Ultrabook style, which means thin, light and fast. It fits all 3 of those, even though it’s on the cheaper end of the range. It benefits from a Boost drive (20GB SSD) that retains what’s used most often. SSD drives are lightning fast and it shows. It makes for a much smoother and more responsive machine.

Yep. Shiny. And it’s got me thinking more of retiring my laptop (it’s suffering as well from my skin condition) in favour of something newer and quicker. My laptop is good for web browsing, all the other general stuff and for streaming music continually across the network. However, try HD video and it’ll soon overheat and slow itself down for protection.

I have my eye on the Acer Aspire V5-Touch. We’ve had a bunch of Acer laptops now and they’ve been consistently reliable and strong performance. Can’t remember why we retired my dad’s old one though (edit – yes I can, busted hard disc which prompted me to take notice of the signs mine was giving …). I won’t be buying yet though. There’s no reason (outside of replacing broken stuff) to buy when there’s no sales on.

Other new tech – printer.

They had a Kodak all in one which has been having issues … We diagnosed it as a busted print head – no yellow came out of a new cartridge plus the other colours were bad. So we picked up an Epson printer.

Verdict – it gave a good output but the software is nasty. It sets up a few network drives, which is ok … but it means that you get annoying pop up errors if you start the computer without the printer being accessible. That’s unnecessary, the HP and Kodak software didn’t need to annoy the user like that. The set up routine is also somewhat nasty although I figured it out in the end. You can lock the devices out of the network for up to ten minutes, with no “cancel” option to go back and abort when you realise you picked the wrong option.

Ah well.

So – techie business satisfied 🙂

Not a bad weekend for me, the skin thing definitely seems to be improving although I hope I haven’t set it back too much tonight by attacking it :-(. It’s good, it’s actually better than it’s been for ages. This time last week, I’d written off me taking part in the first half of the cricket season. It’s cleared a lot since then. I just need to stop “helping” it – lol.

In fact, it’s improved enough that the dog wasn’t too worried. He’s a smart pooch and was giving a “what’s wrong with your knees ?” sniffy investigation when I’d been there before. He wasn’t too bothered this weekend, which another sign of progress :-).

In fact, I think subconsciously it’s improved to the point where I want to get out and do stuff again. What’s coming up ?

Star Trek Into Darkness – must see
Iron Man 3 – COME ON ! Shoulda gone to this already
Kit Car show at Stoneleigh – curious. That’s next weekend
Bristol Motor Show – even if I wimp out of Stoneleigh, I’ll go to this.

Right – I bought a bunch of new games (Total War series for 75%+20% off and Defense Grid) and they’re calling …