Friday, August 28, 2015

My God, It's Full Of Stars

Bank holiday time !

Ok. Maybe not something to get amazingly excited about but it is an extra day off over the weekend. Actually, it can be a bit of a nightmare sometimes as the bank holiday weekend is a favourite for people taking breaks away. Which turns the roads into car parks.

I won't be going that far this weekend, although I do have some plans.

First up - I'm enjoying watching the England Ladies play the Aussies in Twenty 20 cricket. Ladies cricket is played with the same rules and equipment as the men but the different physique turns it into a slightly different game.

The fastest bloke bowlers go up to 95mph now, international bowlers average around 85mph, county bowlers go up to 80mph. It's rare for a female bowler to reach 75mph, there are only 2 in the world who can do this at the moment (Katherine Brunt of England, Elyse Perry of Aussie). It's similar with the batting, where they don't have the power to brute force the ball over the boundary.

I think it's a better game to watch. The professional men's game is littered with errors usually coming in through testerone overdoses. The bowling tends to be woefully inadequate, spraying the ball all over the place. When I watch the professional men and compare it to the players I'd face, I faced slower bowlers but they were very difficult to get away because they were extremely accurate.

The women are similar, power is substituted for skill and precision. Sarah Taylor is the best wicketkeeper in the world, in my opinion. She'll stand up to all our bowlers except Katherine Brunt and does an exceptional job there. It's a joy to watch her work and see that skill on display.

Sadly though it looks like Aussie will probably win this game, England have a low target to chase but have lost too many wickets already.

Stars ?
I'll make more of a dent in the trip to the centre of the galaxy this weekend. That's maybe halfway there, getting over a boundary where the density of stars in our galaxy gets very much higher. That shows in the game with far more Pretty Shiny Starry Thingys appearing in the background than you see in the populated areas.

It makes for a very pretty game.
The blue diamond thingy is where I was when I hit halfway, I've done another 1,000 light year leg since then. If I get some good sessions in over the weekend, I may get there and back before a new community goal to "Map the Cosmos" finishes. That's possibly ambitious though. We shall see !

It's not all Pretty Pilot Pic Gathering though. The men play their Twenty 20 finals tomorrow, which is a long day of cricket watching. There are rumblings that the format of playing 3 games for the final day is bad, you definitely lose interest by the end of the day. Those games will substitute the skill of the girls with brute force brawn.

I think I'd rather watch the ladies to be honest ... and not just because I'm a sucker for a Pretty Lady Smile.

Sunday may see me head off for more Shaun Hunting. I thought about going round some more today but ...

It felt like the Long Screwdriver Merchants (we have lots of those at work) had been digging their long screwdrivers into my ribs - big ouchies.
Poorly ankle that didn't want to work properly.

It's wierd to think it's my insides that are now slowing me down, as my outsides recover.

Sunday's tabled for keyboard hunting as well, there's that pooter fair on. If I don't find anything there, I'll get a Turtle Beach Impact 100. The Amazon reviews seem to like it. A case of Good Enough, Not Spoiled. The current fashion/trendy item with keyboards is the Cherry mechanical switch. It (allegedly!) makes for a good keyboard but if the box it's in is rubbish, the quality (and high cost) of the keys doesn't give you any benefit. Cherry make their own keyboards but put them in a poor quality case, whereas one of the strengths of the Turtle Beach keyboard is a high quality case.

Hopefully I'll be able to check one out on Sunday. With stuff like keyboard, mouse and screen, they're very personal items. Different people get on with different types.

And then it's more cricket to watch on Monday as the ladies play again, followed by the England men taking on the Aussies.

Fairly busy weekend !

Of course the plans could change in the blink of an eye if an offer to spend time with a Pretty Lady comes along.

Cos that beats everything else.

Enjoy your weekends !

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