Hello everyone,
It’s summer again which mostly means attempting to retreat to places where it’s cool … Oh and occasionally dodging energetic thunderstorms too. I think we’re due one of them later in the week.
The usual thing to say about GB weather is … it’s not that hot ! And it isn’t, the car was saying 32 C down to 29 by the time I get home. (cars will heat soak when they’re not moving). The room fan is saying 26 C. It’s Britain though, our houses and our bodies are set up to survive in temperatures that could range from minus 10 C (not seen that for a while) up to the high 30s. And we only have air conditioning in the cars. (So with no England cricket on this Friday, could be a short road trip ? Maybe).
I’ve been away from the blog for a little while. Same as usual there, I might not have something that sparks the inspiration off, I might be wanting to break up things like multiple lego build posts, or other similar themed posts. Lego ? I have more of that now … Oh and I still need to post the Caerphilly castle pictures at some point.
And there’s me getting distracted again. I did have a week off at the end of June (that feels a long time ago now). I’ll be looking to set up more away time soon, which could be :
Road trip Isle of Man via the ferry;
Scotland cottage for a week;
And the lovely Batkitto (from Twitch) was suggesting Halloween in Disney Paris with perhaps a few community members along, which would be a fun little extended excursion if it happens. Disney Orlando was a great fortnight holiday for me (summer 2005), it was just a shame what happened with the personal life upheaval when we got back. (That’s one for the dim and distant past).
I’ll be looking at September there probably for Isle of Man (or Isle of Wight) or Scotland, it’s cheaper and schools will be back so it’ll be quieter. And maybe with a cottage with a few rooms, I can bring a Friend along too.
Olympic action ?
I do like Olympics times, both Winter and Summer. It’s a chance for a lot of sports that normally barely get any coverage to come out and have their time in the limelight. Maybe some of them get more attention than others should get ? It’s good to see the snippets. Plus it can definitely be a case of “ok, that’s enough of that for now to keep me satisfied for the next 4 years”.
Kinda like the swimming on at the moment, I want to know who is going to win. But … you see a couple of races, you’ve seen them all. Same with athletics, the skill seems to be in the preparation of the athlete in training and it’s just unleashing that potential in the race. There’s very little reaction to what the other people in the race are doing.
And that’s where the competition is for me, like in the Rugby Sevens where it’s a team game. I used to watch a lot more rugby (well … the Six Nations tournament) but drifted away from watching rugby because the rules changed far too often, going beyond small tinkering. It felt like the players were struggling to keep up and the quality of the games suffered as a result.
Cricket isn’t in the Olympics (honestly don’t think it should, not enough countries play it) but I mention it because they’ve steadily tinkered with the rules but … they’ve kept it to a way that enhances the game without changing it. Like adding in a very well grooved and efficient Decision Referral System for close decisions and giving the on field umpires a hand with No Ball flagging. (A No ball is when a bowler is too close when they let the ball go, it means an extra ball is needed where the batters can’t get out)
It’s good to watch the cycling races as they steadily evolve. There’s skill, judgment and intelligence needed there for deciding which breakaway group to go with and how much to help out in getting them clear of the pack. Do they help a rival that could get the gold instead ? Or do they drag them back to the group and let other rivals back in to the race …
Oh no, there is a “meet the athletes” segment on at the moment to ignore. I know it’s filler but … there’s plenty of other events which aren’t being covered and it would be good to see some of that instead of very cringeworthy shorts.
Hopefully we’ll see some of the sailing, we barely see any of that. And that’s a genuine test of skill where sailors will be chasing the optimum path through to have their boats catch the best amount of wind.
Bit toasty here and I need to add more warm in because I haven’t had any dinner yet (oops) so I think I’ll wrap up here for now.
Good to post again, it’s been a bit too long. My own condition has been … middling again, I’ve perhaps been a bit too distracted by World of Warcraft again :
That’s my current 4 active characters with left to right being :
Iceangel the mage – because mage is a character class I’ve been playing in WoW for 19 years now and I’m familiar with it. Iceangel is pretty much the main character, first to go through new stuff.
Bashara the warrior (bashes things) – I’m playing as a damage character at the moment for levelling up but this character might end up tanking (being the character that soaks up the damage and collects the enemies together so they don’t go for the squishier characters).
Keeladanna is a Pandaran Shaman – currently set up to hit things really hard and throw elemental damage at the enemies (lightning, lava, windfury air attacks) but the shamans can be set up as healers as well.
And Ninkinanka, gnome hunter – Ninki Nanka is a name from West African dragon lore. From the wiki … “local residents were “dogged by fear of devils and chief among these is the Ninki Nanka… [If] seen by a man is a sure sign of approaching death.”” I saw the name and thought it felt in keeping with the gnomes, plus that’s a really cool meaning for the name.
Eek ! Time to put the dinner on. Nite all, hope you’re having a lovely summer.