Meet 'the Major'

My effort at a snowman for 2013. Don't really know what I was aiming for, but ended up with some corpulent walrus/human mutant straight out of the Yellow Submarine movie..

A.

Boris Johnson on a dirt-bike (?!)

I had one of those random dreams which stick with you for days afterwards. Any analysts out there please let me know what my brain is trying to tell me!

I'm playing a video game. It features a wild haired blond man on a dirtbike driving through woodland. It's Mayor of London Boris Johnson. My POV is from fixed points in the woodland as BJ speeds by, his rapid downhill progress is partly blocked from view by poorly pixelated shrubbery. He has a problem as a large Jaguar starts pursuing him. I watch with interest as the gap between Mayor and big cat closes before the former is knocked off his bike by the the latter. The two of them proceed to duke it out Western bar room style. To his credit, Boris is handling the 250lb wild cat pretty well, he knocks it out with a forward roll before woodland reinforcements arrive. My POV changes as a field mouse leaps through the air, hellbent on kicking his arse. The Mayor connects with a satisfying flying kick a la Street Fighter 2 and little squeaky is knocked out cold. 

Wonder what it means.

That feeling of ice cold water between your toes...

So birthday time comes round again. I enjoyed this one alot more than usual.

At work yesterday I asked the kids how old they thought I was. 'OLD!' seemed to be the consensus response and I couldn't fully disagree. 'Thirty-six' I told them, rolling the number over in my mind. Thirty. Six. When you're ploughing through your late teens and into your twenties, numbers like 'thirty-six' seem clunky and baggage laden. You don't actively volunteer your age to someone if not asked when you're thirty-six, it seems unseemly. So I guess I'd just pushed my birthday to the back of my mind this time around. 

This time round I think X was more excited than I was. We spent a couple of days in the New Forest and stayed at one of those plush corporate hotels which host weddings and upscale Tom Jones impersonators at £35 a head. The breakfast was something to behold though - they served up feathery scrambled eggs with that melt in the mouth quality which I would've eaten a bucket of. We filled our boots (and sneaked out a little extra for luncheon) before hitting the road early Sunday afternoon.

We arrived at Deadman's Hill in the New Forest for our afternoon stroll (and to walk off our morning breakfast indulgences) about 2pm and set off to conquer a nearby woody hillock. It was sunny but cold and  the ground uneven. I had the inconvenience of having a baby strapped to my chest - visibility was.. challenging, lets say. The journey uphill was alright, we dodged a few boggy patches and clumps of pony poo and reached our peak to drink in the view. The way down was a different story, it all started going pear shaped when we left the path to take a direct route back to the car. The muddy patches became boggy and soon we couldn't navigate around the wet stuff but had to plough through the middle of it, hoping for the best. Now this is good fun when you're travelling solo, but disconcerting when there's a baby attached for company. D was her usual stoic self, she drank in the views and letting out little coos of interest every few minutes or so. I won't forget her little chuckle when my right foot went into the swamp almost shin deep and some animal instinct told me I better start running for safety. 

The crowning moment was leaping a stream running between us and the footpath upto the car park. E and X cleared it like the doughty mountain goats they are, Diz and I weren't so lucky and stumbled before clearing the bank. I rolled onto my side in a Colt Seavers stylee to spare D a winter soaking and got further drenched for my trouble. Her non-plussed look of "what's all the fuss about?" following our sodden adventure was particularly entertaining.

Anyway, we lived to tell the tale, X thought it would've made a good TV show. I won't forget that feeling of my feet marinating in a sock full of ice cold water and taking one for Team Dizzy. 

Hopefully next year will be just as satisfying,

A.

Imagination is a funny thing...

Is it just me or does anyone else's imagination go to interesting locations whilst they go about their day?

Here's the latest example of mine doing what it [seemingly] does best: linking Argentinian tennis players to fantasy fiction.

"You wouldn't like me when I'm angry"

In my pursuit of a few quid to make life a little easier I follow the tennis. The mens' pro tennis website (atpworldtour.com) is a treasure trove of stats, articles and live feeds throughout the year. As a sports website, I reckon it is second to none. I was reading an article about Argentian top ten player Juan Martin Del Potro - he has a bit of Lou Ferrigno about him and a sprinkle of Roger Moore too. Anyway, yesterday I was checking out an article on the website. You can imagine the sort of thing, praising Del Po as the South American terminator with a tennis racket.. and he does look like a scary dude too. 

Funny thing was my imagination took a look at the second pic in the article and ran with the thought.. "He looks like an extra out of Lord of The Rings!" the little voice in my head said. I couldn't rest before dredging the depths of The Web to find something equally bulky and fearsome.

A.

Plans for 2013? Part one

So we got through the Season unscathed. I started writing this on Jan 2nd with a short pause before work awaits for me tomorrow. A short breathing space for reflection of 2012 and resolution for 2013.

I've never really made any pledges for January 1st in the past..other than chasing away my New Years hangovers during my partying days, that is! A proactive friend of mine suggested doing so this time around so  I'm tentatively submitting my own:

The kicker is, I'm just not that good a planner. I've read some of the books which tell you to set daily/weekly/monthly targets and the like, my resolve tends to crumble after a few weeks if I'm honest. The one thing I've really stuck to over the years is writing a blog, and I've being doing that for [gasp!] getting on for six and a half years! I hope that one day in the future that X and little D may find something of interest in what I've written - if the Interweb is still about in 50 years, that is! In the meantime I'll continue to muse about my daily life, upload pictures of my daughter and occasionally post about the little things in life that make me smile. 

"What about your resolutions?" I'm sure you're asking as you're dying to know. Well the first is to get back into shape again. In my fitness days I could wear a relatively tight top and not worry about having to hold my gut in [much]. I would run several times a week to gain that serotonin high; it's enough to make you want to take on the world I tell you. Come the end of 2012 and I've just seized up, I get aches where I never knew I had muscles and I'm wondering if Spanx do stuff for men (and bugger me, yes they do!).   

Anyway, that's your lot for the moment. A crying baby awaits...

HAppy New Year To All

A.