Another year, almost done

It's been quite a year this one. It started out in uncertainty which has turned into security. It saw me return to the cricket field although not as a bowler. New toys appeared which have been greatly appreciated. Disappeared from one game and jumped into another. Expanded my music tastes, with a little prodding from the sister.

As is usual for this time of year, I'm pretty much hanging on until I can do a big crash out tomorrow night. There may well be pizza involved. Currently very tired and feeling the effects of the year gone by.

I came back out of retirement to go back on the cricket field this year, one reason I'd been keeping away was that I really didn't know what my reaction would be to playing in the same team as the bloke that's going out with my ex. Not knowing if you'll stay rational is not a good place to be. Gotta say I'm proud of how I handled it and being chummy with the guy probably messed with his head - muahaha. I broke stuff again on the field as I cannot do any less than 100%, even when I should be taking it easy due to injuries. I have definite damage to the shoulder that's still with me, however it's better news with a (possibly fractured) shin that's completely healed now.

I didn't do any bowling this year, which I have mixed feelings about. There were a few games which we lost partly due to not having enough decent bowlers in the team. A fit and firing Sleepypete with the ball in hand could easily have seen a different result. (Lol - I was that good) But alas the damage to my right side & shoulder mean that bowling is not advisable nowadays. Instead it's fielding, still being one of the fastest in the team despite that damaged shin :-) I help out with the batting too, in a solid if unspectacular fashion.

Would I have made a different decision 6 months ago knowing I'd damage the shoulder and that shin ? Hell no (oops - a "yeah" slipped in there by mistake). There's a buzz that comes with pinning the ears back and Running that I don't get anywhere else.

What toys have appeared ?

My telly + sound stuff has completely changed this year. I've gone from old stuff to a 1080p thin LCD screen, I now use blu-ray discs and I have a surround sound system that I'm very pleased with. I reckon the surround kit is the best of the bunch as it does the business with iTunes audio as well as being awesome for movies. The old surround kit could sound very good but suffered from an inconsistency where it would sound very flat.

Relationship wise it's the same old story. All the interesting people are already very much more interested in other people. And not just that though, there seems to be distance coming in to the friend relationships. Really don't know where that's coming from, apart from maybe people being so focused on their own problems that they're blind to when other people might need a little help. Or maybe in the absence of a relationship of my own, I'm becoming too close to those who do.

Talking of relations ... I started the year in Eve and then halfway through switched back to the old addiction, Warcraft. They're chalk and cheese in terms of how online games go. But - Eve suffers from tedium after a while and if the corp people don't contribute enough to pull you out of the boredom (Saying that, Luth tries his hardest to keep me in interested in Eve !) then you just don't go back. Warcraft is a very different animal, there's huge variation in the world. Plus it's the home of the Hot Swedish Girls. Guild chat in VR is rarely dull.

They've also been redecorating in Warcraft, pretty much everything has changed. And I love what they've done with the place. It's a much richer world than when I started in it 5 and a half years ago. Things like a goblin starting storyline where you go from the Goblin city to a wild island with pygmy voodoo sacrifices, rabid flora and goblin engineering insanity.

It's top stuff, it's kept me laughing.

It's not all dull in the Eve world though. There's a cluster of people who act as a strong backbone to the group I play with. I've already mentioned Luth but there's also Agent Stone and Ham Handerson who were in the mob who I went up Snowdon with earlier in the year. I was woefully unprepared for that and definitely lacking in fitness readiness but we got up and down there. I also did all the driving for the weekend. Got a huge buzz from that weekend, I'll have to try and remember it for drawing on.

Last day of work tomorrow for this year, although I'll be checking in periodically with a working at home laptop (means the inbox doesn't explode). I'll be making the trip up to see the parents over Xmas, most likely picking a time when the impending snow doesn't make things too awkward ...

The job's gone pretty well over the course of this year. My previous post in the project had been disestablished because it was running out of things to do. The biggest contribution it had in its closing days was finance (bleh) and organising some technical documentation (a better task than it sounds). The purpose of it was "system engineering" and there wasn't a whole lot of that going on at the late stage we were at. So I was fairly philosophical at needing to find something different. The new post has led to rediscovering that "making a contribution" sense that was starting to become forgotten. I will be glad of a few weeks off though, definitely need the chance to rest & recharge.

The music tastes have expanded, with artists like The XX, more Cardigans, Kasabian, Goldfrapp, Lily Allen, TingTings, Gorillaz and Franz Ferdinand joining the established favourites. And "Chew Lips" are looking like they could join the collection too ...

So - a better end to the year than it started. Could be better still but we'll see what the new year brings there. It's likely to be Interesting Times still, wouldn't have it any other way.