A Cause, Some Pain And a Relic

Hello everyone,

I'm a little overdue about promoting a cause !

There we go.

Long time readers will recognise the little lady on the left there. She'll be taking part in a stream on Friday 21st August that's dedicated to a fundraiser for ending the virus of racism. In this case, it's focusing on the endemic racism we've been seeing directed towards pretty much anyone of Asian descent.

Here's the fundraiser link : https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/endthevirusofracism

This isn't just about the plague that's out there at the moment either. The racism has been out there a lot longer than that. It's a fear of Different.

Sod that. Difference is good. Difference is strength. Difference is interesting. Difference gives us new perspectives, new stories, new things to learn. New ways to do things. It should be a positive, not something to bully people with.

If you're a regular reader, you should know me well enough to know that I hate it when people can't fight back. This particular cause has roots in how the media is presenting the Coronavirus. Even our BBC pretty much always has the Asian person in a mask as a symbol for the virus.

That's wrong. It promotes a stereotype that gets people hurt. It's rare that I get angry about things but I'm angry when I know that people I know and care about are facing abuse born from the ignorance of others. And I'm even more incensed because the people triggering this abuse are the media, who are the voice that dominates opinion.

It's tough to fight a message if the abusers have all of the megaphones.

They'll be on Kim's channel at 2pm BST (GMT+1) tomorrow, which is really convenient cos that's around the time I'll close the work laptop up (I work longer in the week so I can wrap up early on the Friday). Here's the link : https://www.twitch.tv/nanokim

I can guarantee it'll be emotional. There will be many stories that will hopefully open your eyes. It'll be powerful.

How about me and the Some Pain ?

(credits in the picture)
I'm still struggling at the moment. The perverse thing is that the pain I have in my arm and wrist is ok for working at home but is likely to be very bad in games. I've been in games only a couple of times in the evening this week, once for a Battletech session, once for Motorsport Manager. They're both fairly hands off games.

I may have to abandon Final Fantasy XIV early. I've been liking it ! But that MMO playstyle seems to be really bad for my wrist.
I'm looking at alternate control methods for the internet spaceship because the yaw mechanism is triggering occasional spasms.

The issues I'm coping with at the moment are mainly :
Back - the lower lumbar area that I hurt when I was 17 never really fully healed and occasionally flares again. I think it got activated by stress tension and the muscles reacted. Anyway, that one can give the "My Strings Got Cut" feeling that I guess people with a bad back all know about. It also causes soreness in my left leg, as the damaged area impacts the nerves going into the leg.
Shoulder and arm - I think I said something about this a few weeks ago. I think the joint moved again and the arm settled into the Not Quite Right place which means I get numbness in the arm and the impacted circulation will amplify that RSI tendency.
Hips - this problem started with the cricket again but massively increased in the worst days of my skin condition (99% fixed now) when I was sitting on the floor. My hips are wrecked ... I can walk around ok when I can actively control the movements but standing and turning can lead to screaming.

But apart from that, I'm ok. As long as I'm managing the issues and avoiding the activities that make them worse, I'm not needing painkiller assistance to cope with them.

I'm in a far better position than a lot of people there and I have to remember that because if I have the pain now, it'll inevitable worsen when I'm even older.

On another note though ... Relic ? Nah. That's not me. Check this out :

Perhaps a preview of something I have in mind for December's Advent series ...

The game is Neverwinter Nights, which originally came out in June 2002. This was a quite flawed but brilliant game. It had many critics who came from the Baldur's Gate series and they were upset because it appeared dumbed down with only a couple of characters in the party, compared to the 6 of the earlier Baldur's Gate Infinity Engine games.

My response to that is that while I bounced off all of the Baldur's Gate games (and the new Pathfinder Kingmaker game) due to the micromanagement you had to do in those, I took to the simpler Neverwinter Nights and played the hell out of it.

The big step onwards that it took between Baldur's Gate 1 and 2 and Neverwinter Nights was to turn the play area from 2d predrawn backgrounds into a mostly 3d environment. that had its critics too because the environments and models were pretty crude.

But that was the technology we had at the time. I think I'd have been playing this on either a 450MHz machine or a 2GHz Athlon XP and a distant ancestor of the graphics cards we have now. (Probably a 3dfx Voodoo2 with a whopping 8MB of memory)

I didn't particularly care about the graphics though. They tended to be a bit fuzzy anyway because that's how cheaper cathode ray tube monitors were. LED/LCD monitors are so much better.

Nope. I was drawn into the story much more and massively enjoyed it. I even have the walkthrough book somewhere. So I just had to go a bit further and acquire the two expansions when they came out in 2003.

This was a game from the days when they came in boxes with goodies too. In this case, a manual, 3 dvds and that map you see in the background as well.

Good times. (Although these goodies pale in comparison to what came with Falcon 4. Hopefully I can find that before December !)

People still play Neverwinter Nights too. The stream I have on the laptop is Distracted Elf (Twitch link) playing on a multiplayer Neverwinter Nights server. They made an excellent platform here.

Hopefully Kim's platform tomorrow will be super successful too. I'll bid you good night there, one more linkage !
Twitch stream : https://www.twitch.tv/nanokim
Crowdfunder : https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/endthevirusofracism

Good night everyone, stay safe, be nice to people you meet.

Need ... more ... music ...

That's right ! I've finally managed to finish listening to all the tunes in my library again. Must be time to reset the playcounts again ...

Before I pass on what I think of the new arrivals, a shout out for a friend : I have a colleague about to do a sponsored sky dive this Saturday and I was going to pass on the last bit of my Pink Hat Bounty as a little extra to the contribution I'd pass on anyway :-)

Here's her page - wish her luck (and maybe add a bit on for the cause ?). The catch in my last game of the season drew in another £5 of Pink Hat Bounty and for something like this, I'd have been putting in a fiver anyway :-).

Where was I ? MUSIC !

I saw this on Facebook and had to grab it. At the moment, they're joining me with listening to Retrospective by Suzanne Vega, which is a greatest hits collection from a few years ago. She's since gone on and created even more great music.

Next up will be Sounds From Nowhere by the Ting Tings. I wasn't expecting much from this. The reviews are marmite, which I really can't understand except by considering the viewpoint of the Entitlement crew. Those are the people who build up their own expectations to impossible levels and then throw their teddies out the pram when what they received doesn't match that expectation.

Sounds From Nowhere is a very listenable-to album. It's not as raw or edgy as their first album but it is a pretty good one. Perhaps that's where the aggro has come from, it's not as different as their first.

Tori Amos has been in the news lately - she does pretty well at rousing up the interest when there's a new album on the way. I managed to find Abnormally Attracted To Sin, which is a characteristic Tori Amos album. She's a hell of an artist but there's something that makes me avoid getting everything she's done like I do with groups like Alisha's Attic, Bat For Lashes and Garbage (except the latest which is rip off prices). This one's a decent album again but the most special thing here is the singer, there's no real stand out tracks. Some of Tori Amos albums are filled with stand out tracks (Beekeeper, Scarlet's Walk, Under The Pink) but this one is very samey. Still worth getting though for the Tori Amos fan.

Smash Mouth - All Star Greatest Hits. This one may provoke smiles. They must have had fun making this collection, although the best tracks on here are the cover versions.

Beyond Good & Evil soundtrack - is better in the background on the game to be honest. It definitely adds something to the game but it's a collection of background rather than something that would take the attention in the foreground.

Civilisation V soundtrack - same thing here. However - music like this tends to worm its way into your head, take up residence and drive you crazy.

Deus Ex soundtrack - from the original game. This works really well. I find myself wanting to take another look at a game I missed out on the first time around to hear the music in the correct context.

Edie Brickell's Edie Brickell album. I got frustrated waiting for this old album to be made available over here. Come on ! I can't even buy it from Amazon or iTunes because it's barred from sale. That's half the reason why piracy happens, because you literally cannot buy some stuff. I'll buy this one when it becomes available, it's good enough for that.

Machinarium by Tomas Dvorak. Soundtracks are the new classical music, whether they be on film, telly or game. Tomas Dvorak does a great job of setting the mood with his soundtrack to Machinarium and it's one you could listen to as a standalone album too.

Air's Premiers Symptomes - interesting EP. There's tracks here that give promise of better to come, including one that's like a precursor to the enchanting All I Need.

Katie Melua's Secret Symphony. You'll know what to expect by now from Katie Melua and this one is no exception. Good album, not particularly inspiring. There's nothing on the level of Shy Boy here.

Gabriella Cilmi's Ten. This one's a fairly worth successor to her original album :-) Although she should move on from Sweet About Me because that song can get old very quickly.

Trine 2 soundtrack. Awesome soundtrack. It's very listenable to as a discrete album. Must play the game at some point. (Guild Wars 2 permitting).

Transvision Vamp's Velveteen. I love this album. It's cheeky cheerfulness and I suspect was an inspiration for the Ting Tings.

King of Leon's Youth & Young Manhood - meh.

Stuff that hasn't made into the library yet includes :

Bat For Lashes - Haunted Man : I have this on preorder
Olympic Opening & Closing ceremony music - I may get these at some point
Garbage's latest : they're too greedy with the pricing or I'd have bought it by now.

Been enjoying my music :-)

PS No recurrence of the breathing issues yet, although I'm waiting to see if it flares up again tomorrow.
PS2 That's a lot of music isn't it ? I cheated when making that list by asking iTunes what I'd recently listened to. That's what it came up with for the last 90 days ... just over 300 new tracks.
PS3 Someone's doing a skydive ! For charity ! See link up top !

That hurt more than it should have done ...

4th game of the season tonight, despite the weather predictions :

That's one from Facebook that just had to get Yoinked :-)

Today's been the first dry day for a little while and despite a certain doomsayer (I know too much) saying : "It's sunny now but come 5pm ? Apocalypse Rain", we got the game on tonight.

We didn't do too well tonight. We batted first and lost wickets steadily. An early comedy moment involved our star batsman (not me) getting the strike stolen from him for several overs and when he finally got to face, his first ball ended up being hit on to a roof. 6 runs !

We scratched out 90 painful runs eventually. I didn't help, I think I only managed to get a couple due to not actually being on strike much when I was there, before falling lbw to a very straight one I tried to do too much with. That's the story of my batting at the moment - trying to do too much with the ball, not keeping it simple.

Defending 90 runs in the field is very tough in our cricket. It's feasible but only if you get early wickets backed up by good fielding.

I did earn another £5 for the Pink Hat bounty fund :-) As well as getting the Comedy moment for the game. (We'll ignore someone's bowling as that gets the Tortured Soul award)

Bowler comes in, batsman hits it around the corner. Straight ... at ... me ...

Cue the world going into slow motion as I'm peering through the gathering gloom, struggling to pick up the ball against the background. (I need new glasses as I've lost all confidence in my depth perception.) The ball hits my hands and I push it upwards. As I'm falling backwards, I grab the ball as it comes back down.

He's OUT !

Yep - comedy moment right there, at least I pushed the drop catch straight up so it was still in reach for the second attempt. Just one problem - I landed on the weakened right shoulder again and it's hurting a lot more than it should have done. Think I have real damage there and I'll have to break a habit and actually get it checked out.

There's another game tomorrow which I'm down to play in. I'll turn out if they need me, plus I'll be at the ground anyway because I have the team kit in my car.

Given up on me dinner (Chinese is very good for after cricket but there's a lot of it). Shower time after another Transvision Vamp track.

That catch earns another £5 for the Pink Hat bounty, which I'll add to a contribution to Thumper's next walk. Here's a link to her training blog. Thumper's next walk is going to be in San Francisco on 7-8 July (donations link) and I'll add my normal £5 contribution for things like this to anything more that comes from Pink Hat bounty before the 7th and 8th.

PS Not forgetting the Race For Life - click ! donate ! save lives !

Someone stole my holiday !

Back to work again tomorrow. I'm not quite sure where this holiday has gone to be honest.

I don't think I've been gaming that much, I definitely have managed to resist some of the "wake at noon, play until daybreak" silliness of previous years. (I'm not gaming as much these days). I need to read more stuff to be honest. I've been stuck in Stark's Command for months now, having just not gone back to it.

What have I been doing ?

Lots of music been listened to - since breaking up from work on 31st May, I've listened to 811 different songs lasting 2.2 days (iTunes is great for picking out stats like that) including 20 different albums. Of the new stuff, the opinion is :

Alanis Morrissette - still pretty good, if a little samey.
Transvision Vamp - fun 80s tunes. Me like.
Kings of Leon - dunno here. Youth and Young Manhood isn't that great to be honest, although I've not yet listened to it as an album. Just not as much my type of music as girlie vocals are.
Air - Premiers Symptomes - I like this too. It's good occasional listen chill out music. Can't sing along to it though cos it's instrumental and I do like croaking along to my music.

The weather has turned into something utterly appalling ... I should really have checked out repairing the fence in the back yard but I don't fancy drowning. Still, it's looking a lot better out there now than it has done.

Talking about weather - it held off long enough today to let CrazieQueen & The Fairy do their bit for Race For Life, raising money for Cancer Research UK (link to fundraising site + it'll go on the link list soon). I'll get the credit card out for that soon and the £10 bounty from the Pink Hat fund for the run out I pulled off will go there too. They've earned it today. If you click on one link from here today, make it be that one.

Back at home, I've been watching a lot of recorded stuff, plus there was a decent amount of cricket on the telly to enjoy. That 811 different songs is actually a little light for what I can listen to over a week off because I was having to keep up with the recorded stuff as well as watching the cricket.

Been recovering from that attack of house cleaning still too - either it's dust in the house or pollen from outside but my lungs have been full of rubbish (it affected me in the Thurs 31 game too) and my eyes have been almost constantly streaming.

One thing about all this weather - it's made me glad I bought something called "Supaguard" with my car. It's a protective coating that's supposed to keep showroom shine on the car. It seems to work too - all this rain has been quite happily washing the accumulated dust and road grime off the car, leaving it super shiny. Awesome. The last time I took it to a car wash was around Xmas and to be honest, I dislike using car washes because of the chance for it to scrape the paint off. Rain + Supaguard do a great job.

It's going to be strange heading back in tomorrow.

Usually after a break, I'd be looking to find out how everyone had gotten on. If they're ok, how they're feeling, whether any good gossip happened while people were away. I can usually tell the "are they ok?" from just a look. I'm like that - when I look at someone, I'll see more than they'd like me to. Most of the time at least. There's times when that perception gets jammed or blocked by a brave face being put on.

Tomorrow will be different though - the people I'd usually look to first are in the old office and unless I let Autopilot have it's way, I'll be heading straight up to the new office. Wonder if I'll get an excuse to go down there and say hello. I hope so, communicator and email are ok for messages but if you want to really know how someone is, there's no substitute for saying hello and grinning at them.

I do keep thinking of them, although I know there's a couple of them that know I keep this blog going and occasionally talk about them. Miss F made me promise not to talk about her, will have to 'fess up to breaking that promise due to saying something nice in the Moving Day post.

Reading that one again shows I occasionally follow my own advice - I ran into someone this time last year who's kept me laughing occasionally with insane chatting over Steam Chat. We're both gamers who happen to be interested in the same games ... She's talked me into getting Guild Wars 2 (and I'm not convinced now that was a good idea) and I've done a total of maybe 2 hours testing on that this weekend. The GW2 people would have been Expecting people in the beta to be putting far more hours in than that. Well ? I just don't feel like doing what they'd Expected me to do ! Far too much cricket and motor racing (and football being ignored) on to be gaming too much this weekend.

For now - it's a choice of either Moo2 (I keep opening that relic back up again for some reason) or continuing the Deus Ex HR run. Not convinced I'll do that much more Skyrim to be honest. It's a great game and I feel I've got my value out of it but it's let down by not being able to break out of certain quest lines. You should be able to choose to not be a cannibal or not crash the merchant ship.

It'll be Deus Ex shooty stuff I think - my neck and wrist have decided to dislike me, which means the static mouse gameplay of Moo2 is a Bad Idea.

Eve of the season ... again

I have a feeling that saying will rapidly gain legendary Deja Vu status :

It's the eve of the cricket season (for me at least). Oh, it was also the eve of the season on Wednesday last week too but that game was rained off. I suspect the three games this week haven't got much chance of happening too, due to all the rain that drought hit Britain is seeing at the moment.

(I had half an intention to head into Bristol centre to not buy anything again which I cancelled due to : huge threat of rain & not knowing if Globe Sports would be open - I'll go in on Friday pm if things work out)

But hey, if all things went well, I'd have three games of cricket this week to follow the cancelled game last week. I suspect the only one which has a chance of happening is the one tomorrow where we'd play on an artificial pitch. ("interesting" pitch, in a "wear a helmet or die" kind of way)

How am I set up for it ?

Well - A few weeks ago, a depression "inspired" post led to me abandoning the Pink Hat Project that I'd been talking about. And for good reasons too. I have a lot of my old speed and agility back but I don't know how long that's going to last. I have worsening RSI in my wrists that will affect fielding. I can't bowl any more. My leg, while 90% healed is not perfect yet. So I didn't want to lump so much pressure on me that I'd play no matter what (I would) and turn light damage into heavy damage by playing through injuries.

How am I doing really ?
Legs - duff hamstring but full power available. I don't talk about the infected leg thing from last year any more because while it hasn't completely healed yet, there's good tough skin there now and I think it could withstand me diving around.
Back - yeah, this will be what slows me down. However ! It also likes me to be moving around, such that running around a cricket field will actually keep it limber.
Shoulder - is knackered. Can't bowl any more. But that's not likely to be a huge problem if I keep to the infield, stay behind the stumps and Not Get Angry (If I make a mistake, I get very angry with myself and forget to keep throws to safe limits)
Hip - yeah, this still feels slightly torn but is another one I'll happily live with.

That's the thing about cricket - players will very often play with minor injuries. Sometimes they play on through fairly major injuries. Like players who are due for a hernia op on a Friday but play through the game Tuesday to Thursday. We'll play with broken fingers. I think I played through half a season with a cracked tibia.

Feeling quite good about this season actually. Because my old team didn't do pre season practice, I'd usually go into games with no clue as to how I'd get on in games. The new team had two limited sessions (not many people took advantage of them) where I learned :

To wear a helmet when standing up to the stumps as a wicket keeper (duh!)*
That my batting seems to have gone aggressive this year :-)
That I can keep standing up to the stumps to medium pacers :-)
Can't bowl (confirmation)

*(the cut has nearly completely healed now and the 'tache's days are numbered)

Hopefully we'll get a game on this week but I suspect the rain has already beaten them. I'll be shopping later in the week as I still want a couple of things :

Perhaps some wicket keeping gloves (the New Team gloves are maybe too big)
To feel out some inner gloves (never worn them, need to know + or -)
Seeing what facemask/grills are like
Grabbing some pink rubbers
(whoever raised an eyebrow there is a deviant - lol, perfectly innocent explanation)
And perhaps, perhaps ... a new bat.

Pink Hat Project is still a go by the way. But not in a Pay Per Game. That's just rewarding mediocrity, which I abhor. I'm also not too comfortable with collecting money off people, which is another Big Thing about why I've not gone ahead with setting up a Justgiving.com page. What I will do is set a bounty on the exceptional stuff :

25 runs = £2 donation
50 runs = £10 donation
Stumpings and run outs = £5 donation
Catches = £1 donation
(those may go up)

That might collect a decent amount from me. Anyone want to join me ? Send an email or leave a comment and I may well set up that Justgiving page anyway. The chosen charity will be the same one that the girls at work choose for a cake sale that's due this month.

Pink Hat Project

This one feels as if it's getting more alive now.

The Pink Hat Project was an idea that first came up a couple of months ago now while chatting with one of my dearest friends over online chat. We had a colleague who touched our team a little while ago ... She was one of the mainstays of a small team that got absorbed into our larger team and always answered my big popup meerkat grin with a little smile of her own.

But ... she's also been touched by breast cancer over the last couple of years and although we've seen her occasionally feeling well enough to be able to come in, she's really struggled. So remembering her (aka The Rose) is part of my inspiration to be the focus for a charity effort instead of just the contributor.

Thumper is also an inspiration for this, the original Pink Hat Project idea was spawned after me thinking "Why can't I do that too ?"

There's a simple answer to that : In a year or two, I won't be able to. Although I don't look much older than when I was at uni, at 37 I can feel the advancing years catching up to me. I'd still be able to bat and impersonate a fielder but if I can't Run Real Fast, I don't think there'd be a point in continuing the cricket. I have to be in the team on merit or not at all. Hopefully losing weight will give me another few seasons, at least long enough to make it worth buying the gear I'm intending to pick up.

But ... most sporty charity stuff involves running a half marathon or something like that. I'm not built for that. I don't have any significant run-for-miles endurance but have very good recuperation powers. I'm built for short fast sprints and lots of them. Cricket is the perfect game for me. And cricket over a season is a marathon because it's a very easy game to get injured in and someone like me will be carrying injuries over several games, plus you do more running in the field than you'd expect.

So my sponsorship idea revolves around cricket. And that can get really complicated as (if the shoulder behaves) I can do everything on the cricket field :

Cash for runs as a batsman (I'll expect lots*)
Stumpings if I'm needed as a wicket keeper (these are rare)
Catches held (more as keeper)
Run outs caused (lolworthy if I'm batting!)
Wickets (unlikely to happen unless I can bowl more than just doosras)

* While I've held my catches and won games with my bowling, (6 wickets in a game once, 4 wickets several times) I've never scored a 50 with the bat. That's something I Want to do, it's unfinished business. I've also turned games with my fielding, keeping the runs down, getting key run outs or holding important catches. But while I've anchored sides to wins, I've never had that massive innings of my own.

Other performance sponsorship options are things like Cash per Game played. And I intend to play as much as my body lets me this summer. And then play anyway if I'm feeling slow. Oh, another reason for thinking about doing this is to give me some solid motivations to continue playing.

So there we have it :

Pink Hat Project = Sleepypete trying to get as much cricket in as possible, wearing as much pink gear as I can acquire. That's been a struggle :

Pink cap - acquired, although I'm uncomfortable about wearing England badged gear on the field. I haven't earned that right.
Pink floppy hat - only idea I have here is to get a red one and leave it outside to get sunbleached.
Pink keeping gloves - these exist ... but I'd need to know I'd be keeping wicket.
Pink bat grip - I can get one of these at Globe Sports and will do so when I know which bat I'll use this summer.
Pink helmet - think I'd be able to get a pink cover for mine ... more investigation needed.

That's the limit for pink stuff though. We play with red balls and in the evenings when the light starts becoming a factor, so pink outfit + red ball = tricky to see -> unhappy opposition.

As for the fund raising bit, I'll be looking at Justgiving.com. I've seen other people posting up links to Justgiving and a colleague did a similar sponsored cricket thing a couple of seasons ago, I think using Justgiving.

That's it for now - Pink Hat Project feels like it's getting closer to reality the more I show people the picture of the Pink Hat I got last Friday :-)

Where's all the Pink Hats ?

Ok, so Friday I mentioned a potential project for this summer ...

The idea was born from a conversation with a very dear friend, with me remembering a colleague from a couple of years ago. Combine that with the controversy surrounding Karen Handel, formerly of the Susan G. Komen group and you get me thinking I could do a little more than just contributing to charities. I could be the focus for a bit of money raising.

There's a bit more to it as well. I probably have just one or two seasons of cricket left in me. Actually, with the state of my shoulder and a couple of other long term injury issues, I probably should have called it quits on cricket already.

But ... I like running around at daft speeds chasing and pouncing on balls. Maybe I'm part kitten ?

Hey ! I'm strange and am not afraid to admit it.

It's a curious feeling, this project. On Friday, it was just an embryonic idea that had the barest possibility of happening (me playing cricket this summer depends on my legs supporting it). But ... that seed of an idea has taken root and it's growing into a case of :

"So it depends on my leg getting better and the rest of my injuries cooperating ? Sod that, I'll play anyway.". If I tear stuff up again, there's plenty of time after the season for it to heal.

And it's similar for those other long term injuries. With the weight loss, I'm getting back my agility from a number of years ago. I have the same power available in my legs, it just has less weight to shift. That's awesome all round. As well as being more nimble, there's less stress on my legs.

In 3 months I've lost enough off my middle to do the belt up 2 notches tighter. Although one of my Facebook updates today is : "And just because you can put the belt one notch tighter, doesn't mean you should." I.e. Sleepypete becomes SqueakyPete.

I have a feeling there's a bit of Positive Mental Attitude coming in there though. Bit like having a cause to fight for. Or maybe a few causes as I'm looking out for a couple of people right now. Or maybe I'm just pleased at the prospect of having some of the old bounce back.

So - that potential embryo idea of "I could do this" is turning more into a "I want to do this". There's a few details to look into though :

Which charity - think I'll ask for advice from the girls at work for this one and go with what they say
(always follow the advice of women - it's much safer that way and it makes them happy)
Getting Pink Stuff
(no suitable pink hats in the Mall shops or online)
Getting ready for the season
(I really need to stop relying on natural fitness)
And sorting out the donation thing
(Probably via www.justgiving.com)

And there's that aspect of time running out. If I do something like this, I need to do it either this year or next. I'm getting too old now for running around cricket fields at daft speeds. The old injuries are making their presence felt more and the new ones are taking longer to go away.

As to the why ... I like helping people out. I live for it. And this attaches "helping people out" to me having fun. Plus there's the biggest reason why I like helping people out : Because I can :-).

PS Actually, now I think more about it, I think I'd do it 50:50. 50 for breast cancer for the colleague from a few years ago and 50 for Help For Heroes.

Potential Summer Project ...

One of the best and most interesting bloggers out there got me thinking yesterday ...

(Yes - that was the grinding gears sound you may have heard)

Thumper's wondering at the moment about what to do in the future for walking to help out breast cancer charities. The trigger is an American politician who has infected a charity over there with some daft ideas. There's plenty more info on that (said far better than I ever could) over on Thumper's blog (link on the side and Escaping Kitty link here).

Anyway. That got me thinking, along with remembering back to the more recent past :
A colleague who did something similar to what I'm thinking of last year
(or year before last - blurry time syndrome strikes again)
A colleague who is still Very Ill

The ill colleague is someone who definitely counts as Good People and it's tragic that someone so nice and so young (21 + a little more than me) has been struck down with the cancer curse. So there's a fairly close reason for thinking of getting involved.

What's the project ?

We've had a few people do running for charity but that's not really something I can do. I can sprint fast but not for that long a distance. I won't be running any half marathons any time soon. Cricket suits me quite well because it's bursts of being explosive interspersed between lounging around. Although I don't do much lounging around in the field usually due to being hyperactive.

Middlesex County Cricket Club have had an association for a few years with the Breakthrough Breast Cancer charity, with one aspect being that Pink dominates their coloured one day game kit. I can't go that far, because :

3 day games + cricket I play = red ball, needs white clothing
1 day games for counties = white ball, needs coloured clothing

So wearing pink stuff when playing with a red ball would not be appreciated by the opposition. I'd do it if there was charity money involved though :-)

Instead, picture the Sleepy One in a Pink floppy hat, batting with a pink cover over the helmet and wrapping the fingers around something round and pink and rubbery while batting. However, I'd need the pink helmet cover (or pink helmet), pink hat and pink grip for the bat. Can I find them ? Not on the web ...

I can't bowl any more, so if it was a Performance charity thing I'd need to do it on Runs, Catches and Run-outs. I'm not even sure if I'll play this year, that's all dependent on the legs which went a little backwards today. I don't think my skin appreciates the cold weather we have at the moment or the dessicated atmosphere in our office building.

I don't know if I'll actually pull this off this summer but the seed is there in my mind. Next time I wander around Bristol centre or the Mall, I'll be on the lookout for Pink Stuff. In the meantime, I'll keep on contributing to charity as I usually do. Spam through the letterbox gets ignored (there's too much of it) but I'll happily contribute for the personal touch.

PS Hoping for another charity cake donation thing in the office soon. Cakes made by our office people (the Snow Queen bewitches us with baking) are always 'Blink n Miss it' cos they are That Good.