That was the weekend that was

Just had a busy weekend. Well, technically it's weekend +1 now but hey.

Actually - come to think of it, it is +1 day on something :

May the 5th be with you ! Oh wait - one day late. Oh well. That's an example of one of the Gimp photomanips that I'm maybe ... 80% happy with. Why not totally ? Because there's a mismatch between the two images that have been cobbled together. To really work, the images have to be all sharp, all fuzzy, they need to be consistent across the image. In this one, the dwagon is fuzzy, the Star Wars bit of it is sharp.

Oh and they don't trust me with lightsabers any more.

It's going to be mental around the scifi geek community in 2 years time when the 40 year anniversary comes around. Star Wars really caught the imagination when it came out. There'd been scifi films before then but they'd never really hit the mark before this one. Hell, Star Trek had been going strong as well. But Star Wars grabbed people in a way nothing before it had. And then it continued that with Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi (one of the first films I saw in the cinema).

The sequels weren't quite the same but I think they were still pretty good.

Enough about Star Wars though. Just had a busy weekend :

Work trip on Friday - 100 miles there and back and a fairly full day of meetings too. It's a new contract and it's very encouraging. We might be hard pressed to keep up with our contractor, they're really cracking on. (A nice refreshing change!)

I could have done the run to see the parents on Friday night but to be honest, bank holiday traffic can be nuts and I welcomed the easy evening. So I travelled on the Saturday morning instead. Straight to the pub. Lovely steak and tangy chips too. Yum.

And as well as seeing mum, dad and sister for the first time in a while, I get to see this fella too :

That's Ben the Staffy. He's getting on a bit now but he's still got an absolutely lush coat, finely defined muscles, a distinguished greyness to his muzzle and a tail that oftens disappears into motion blur.

He's got a great temperament too. He'll bark when unfamiliar people come around but when his people give the impression that the unfamiliar person is ok, then he'll start with the slurping. Typical Staffy. And he likes to keep an eye on his people and make sure they're ok. And if they're not, it's slurping time.

It's good to see the family. And there's another important thing - dogs, cats, they're family too.

Back to work today though. I may need to escape for another break again soon, although that might come partly due to domestic stuff. Need to sort the house out. I'll accept certain standards for me, even a certain amount of clutter (because my brain likes familiarity, including clutter) but I expect to provide higher standards for others. And I need to bring my house back up to those better standards.

In a bit. Having me dinner now.

At least it's calmed down a bit now. I added the following to Facebook earlier "It's a hat stealing, umbrella murdering, wig pinching day out there but not quite at 'small person grab an anchor' levels". Very windy. Thankfully it wasn't raining when I was outside. You know what the unsettled weather means though don't you ?

Cricket season is upon us !

One of the work sides starts the season tomorrow night. I'm oh so close to being intact enough on the outside to play again. That's a bad idea though because I wouldn't be able to put in the performance level that I'd be happy with. If I had the chance to up the fitness levels and prepare, maybe. But as it stands, an evening of play would be followed by days of pain. Besides, there are fitter, younger players who want a game more than I do who can be more effective for the team.

Why do I discount myself there ?
Reactions have slowed - so my batting has suffered
Carrying the weight (this is something I need to sort anyway!)
Very weak throwing arm

I have like 95% movement in both shoulder and hip but the movement lost in the shoulder is critical to bowling and throwing (and not much else!). So while I can throw when I need to, I save it for special occasions.

The upshot is, there's people who play way better than I do now. So I'd be taking away from the team if I demanded a place ahead of the young whippersnappers. And the captains like me enough (I'm gobby on the field with constant encouragement for the team and my energy level is usually high) to find places in the team for me if I wanted it.

I dunno - it just doesn't feel honest to everyone if I still looked to play. And honesty is everything with me.

And on that note ... cya soon !