Blow Away The Cobwebs

Not blogged for a while but that doesn't mean I've not been online. I've been online loads, in fact, I've probably been online too much. Well, tomorrow we're off on holiday and I'm looking forward to being very much "offline". The only gadget I'm taking away with me is a camera. We've got a cottage in the village of Beadnell in Northumberland and the dog is coming with us. Hopefully there will be lots of invigorating walks on the windswept beaches. Should blow away the cobwebs.

Saw Phil today in the office for the first time all week. Good to see him and his swanky new MacBook Pro. I'm ever so slightly jealous. At the risk of being seen as a copycat, I want one.

Another good session at the gym today. 20 minutes on the cross trainer and all of them in the cv zone. Hope to work some exercse into my relaxing routine next week.

History Is Fantasy

Eduardo Recife is a graphics guy I like a lot. I've been checking his Misprinted Type site for years now but only today did I find his commercial work site here. Really great stuff that guy does, so inspiring. Following a link to some video for an HBO history lecture show called Assume The Position. It looks pretty good stuff and I might just BT some of it for a look-see. You gotta love bittorrent, it's so cool being able to just download stuff that seems interesting without having to wait for your own broadcast networks to pick up on it. Phil passed over a bunch of episodes of Dexter in the week that I'm looking forward to sitting down with.

Only a week to go until our Easter holiday break up in Northumberland in the village of Beadnell. Really looking forward to it. Taking Pebbles up with us will force us into a different sort of holiday I reckon. A simpler holiday, consisting of fresh air and beach walks hopefully. Dylan is keen to check out out some Roman stuff so a trip down to Hadrian Wall is definitely in the plan, if only for another sword for his collection.

Not much to summarize from the working week. Ducked out of gym on Friday due to strained muscle in the hip area. I'll be back on Monday, if only on weights. Popped over to Coventry on Wednesday to catch up with ex-colleagues and members of the elite Chancers team. Great to see everyone and love the fact that eveyone seems to really value keeping in touch. Long may it continue.

Karting

Karting last night with some of the guys from work. The group split into teams of two for a 1 hour endurance race. Phil and I teamed up in Kart 11. Phil drove first and set off at a great pace getting miles ahead of the pack. I was half-pleased and half-terrified, concerned that I would let the side down. It took me a while to build up the required agression to go full-out around the course. But once I got into the zone, the red-mist came down and I was pushing myself hard to keep the pace up. I was stoked. In the end, we came in third place which I was chuffed with considering it was my first time karting. Glad I didn't let the side down. Top fun all in all. The kids were impressed with my bronze medal. You can see an example lap of the track here.

A lovely spring-like sunny morning, Dylan and I did the swimming lesson routine and Harriet played out with her friends. Later on I went down the high street to pick up the obligatory mothers day flowers and bumped into Mike who was looking well. I hope we can get together for some creative action soon.

Games In Good Health

Listening to the 1Up Yours podcast on the way to work this morning reporting from the current Game Developers Conference. It sounds like Sony may finally have some interesting stuff coming up on the PS3. It will be nice to get excited about that bit of kit at last. Hopefully some Nintendo news will be coming out from there soon too. Go Ninty!

Gym attendance still going strong and I'm starting to feel some benefits from it in a general feeling of well-being along with a flexibility I've not had for many many years. I'm already starting to wonder why I ever left it this long to do this when it makes me feel so good about stuff.

Official Companion

Meeting tonight with my soon-to-be accountant in Birmingham. It was a two-hour chat that went by in a flash. My mind is spinning a bit with figures and I'm musing on some decisions that need to be made. As always, talking it over with Jacq helped me with my moral compass.

Managed a little bit of retail action while walking through the Bullring tonight. Picked up a copy of Firefly: The Official Companion for a real good price. It looks sweet, with lots of pictures and info that I can geek out over later. On a related note, my second set of trading cards arrived today, full of Serenity goodness.

Lunar Eclipse

After swimming, the afternoon was spent over at Marys house for Jodies birthday. Good to see everyone as it's been a while.

Waiting in the drive-thru on the way home, I rambled on about how great our new car is. The improvement in space and functionality for the family is a joy to me. I think it suits us really well.

It was a lunar eclipse last night. The sky was clear so we got a good look at it. Although Flickr is full of moon shots this morning (no, not THAT type of moon), it wasn't worth pointing my camera at it as I just don't have the lens.

Look What Happened There

Can't remember much of what happened at the weekend as it's got to Thursday night already in the blink of an eye. One thing to report though was a quick shopping trip up town on Sunday afternoon where I scored the first series of Battlestar Galactica from Virgin for just £12.99! Thirteen quid for 4 DVD's, that's good value in my book. T'wife says I can't watch 'em as they're too boring but she wasn't keen when I brought Firefly into the house and look what happened there.

Pleased to report that since joining the gym last week it's been 100% daily attendance so far. It's a bit of a mad rush trying to get a solid block of time actually on the equipment so I hope I can stretch my lunch-hour by a bit as I get more settled into the workplace.

Booked holiday for the upcoming Easter break up in Beadnell, Northumberland. Easter is at the end of this month which seems ridiculously close but it will be fun to be away with the dog for the first time.