Daves Random Ramblings

I'd have blagged the URL but unfortunately it was already taken by the Johnny (Brian)-five "short circuit" type robot but I've been having quite a few senior moments that I'm sure will entertain you or at the very least make you glad you've still got most of your faculties in order. The main part of this blog entry started last Friday (20th April), there is another separate incident which I'll just say, "leaving the best for last" that occurred before then.  Anywho, Claire F decided to come on down and visit the massage therapist that I went to see when I was suffering from post traumatic rigour mortis in my legs after the snowboarding event.  I suggested we go out for dinner to a place in Croydon called the JRC world buffet (it used to be called Cosmo's).  Knowing the place can get quite busy I booked a table for 8pm which I thought would make the journey to Croydon relatively post-rush hour free.  So, Claire got to mine and we start t...

This is going to be quite the mixed bag of a post ranging from hi's to lo's and in the middles.  But its not like any of my posts to ever follow a specific theme.  I already kinda know what I'm going to put into them and just think of some random "meh" title before I even write anything.  I could put it down to pure laziness as the title is the first box on the blog editor screen and I really cannot be arsed to scroll up or even move the mouse once I start writing away. So it all started last Monday, the day before the 11 hour snowboard-athon at the Hemel Snowcentre.  I got to work and still wasnt entirely prepared for the next few days.  Fortunately I was able to arrange a last second half-days annual leave which was awesome to do as I've had a .5 day on my annual leave for ages just waiting to be used up and it had been bugging the crap out of me, a lot more than it really should have been but thats just me and one of my oh so many foibles.  So, I get h...

I hope you all had a nice easter holiday break?  I may have gone a bit overboard with Easter eggs as there was such a good deal on them at Asda so my kitchen was partially reminiscent of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, except I only had Keegan to do the washing up and not a small army of oompah-loompahs. It was a good break though from work, payday on the Thursday and Keegan, Claire and I at the snowcentre first thing Good Friday morning for their Have a go freestyle session.  Seems weird the full parks are no longer on a Friday evening though but thats the snowcentre's decision to do, or rather not do that.  Saturday morning and it was an even earlier wakey upey time as Keegan's freestyle lesson starting at 8am.  The good news though and I think Keegan is getting a little spoiled for this is his group lesson as well as the last one, well its been just a one-to-one with him and Dave Thompson.  Claire and I watching on from the warmth of the lodge bar as...

Hi all! I hope you all had a nice weekend.  I went into last weekend a massive 1.6lbs UNDER my target weight.  Then I had a complete "treat myself" and my weight this morning, well, lets just say that I'm not under my target anymore.  Although I suspect that things will start shifting downwards again once Dave gets back to this normal programming. So, it was a semi-relaxing weekend.  Finally watched Despicable Me 3 which I enjoyed and also Transformers : The Last Knight which wasn't bad either (but not the best transformers film).  It was strange seeing Anthony Hopkins taking on a transformer in a battle that, well, didn't last very long, but still. So yesterday I actually got out on my road bike for the first time since June 2015.  I wasn't sure whether my cycling wear was still going to fit but I don't think it looks too bad.  Oh and in case you're wondering, no I'm not deliberately sucking in my gut especially for the picture.  It was a n...

Hey there everyone.  Well it was quite a mixed bag for me at the weekend.  Going into it just shy of my weight loss target and having Keegan so some nice activities were planned (or as us adults call it "cardio").  First of all we went to gravity force in Camberley.  It was the last session of the day (or should that be evening) so we get there and its absolutely deserted for jumpers.  The person behind the desk seemed to know my name, turns out I'm not famous it was just Keegan and I bouncing for the last hour.  So, just as the euphoria was kicking in that we had the entire place to ourselves, about 4 / 5 more people came in.... well bugger. That being said we had a warm up, the balance was quite a bit off as I wasn't carrying anywhere near the same about of ballast as I had been the last time I was there but that soon settled down, although I was starting to think that jeans were not proper bouncing attire.  Nevemind having a t-shirt that felt extr...

I was talking to a friend this morning about how therapeutic I find writing in my blog.  Its like a venting system of sorts for my brain.  While there could be nobody reading this or millions of people reading it, once its up there and posted then its all good and done.  But I will admit to periodically checking the stats on my blog as I have the luxury of being able to do that with the blogger dashboard.  So far, the "Who's your biggest competition" has been my most read entry at 166 views. In total I'm sitting on 1,051 page views.  But this post isn't about number crunching stats, although I did go off on that tangent.  No, its about writing about things I think, or see, or read.  Sometimes as you know there'll be no entries on a day (the famine days) but recently, in other words, yesterday, there's been a few things I'd like to write about. Lets start off on something positive, no, not snowboarding related although Keegan and I do have a three hou...

Hi there everybody.  I trust you had a nice weekend doing as much or as little as you wanted to do. I had today's blog entry thought come up today as I was walking to Asda while on my way to get my weekly lunch supplies.  Yes I know its all very random but that is what my blog is essentially all about.  But while the subject is a bit one-sided in that it is you doing the right thing, there's also the other side of it where its more "can you handle having the right thing done to you?". I would like to think that the vast majority of us are inherently good in that we don't go out of our way to deliberately upset people and we would resist doing something that we know is going to hurt someone.  Sure I'm not just talking about physically as you can hurt someones feelings which, in a way, can be much worse as those "injuries" can take a very long time to heal. Obviously I'm not saying that we should accept everything that happens to us th...

Hi there everyone, I really hope you had a fantastic weekend.  I had my son Keegan with me so we were out and about.  As you know, I went to see Black Panther with Keegan on Saturday afternoon which I'll tell you about a bit further down this blog entry. Officially the weekend did start for us on Friday evening so we went to get some pictures printed at my local Asda as they have a photo printing kiosk that you can connect your phone to.  Its a really great price also charging about 30% of what the local snappy snaps in Kingston does.  You can't really complain about an A4 sized photo for £2.50 which is being placed onto the national Beko fridge photo gallery. Well I have a collection of fridge magnets just there doing nothing in particular so it was time to put them to use.  I think it was especially apt that the photo is held on using a fridge magnet from Kaprun. Friday evening we had a bit of irony, it turned out the snowcentre in Hemel was closed e...

Well of course you do, unless you've been locked away in a box the last several days.  It does make me wonder why this country effectively grinds (or should that be slides) to a halt as soon as we get a dusting on the roads.   This is the first time Sasha has seen any real snow as its not really had anything like this since she was born (about 5 years ago now) so it was interesting to see how she would react to it.  But typically with Sasha, not much phases her.  She sneezes a few times when a snowflake goes up her nose on the walks and kinda did that wretching noise when she had her mouth open and I think one touched the back of her throat. The photo was from a couple of nights ago.  There's a tree stump at the halfway point on our walk so a great spot for a photo opportunity I thought. She wasn't too sure at first when she put her front paws up on the stump but was happy to pose for a picture once she eventually got comfortable enough to sit down...

I read a tweet today from Jamie Nicholls  . Well, when I say a tweet, he posted an image of a post presumably done elsewhere as there was no way it was getting past the tweet character limit.  The final sentence really did sum it all up... "In other words, go big or go home and live outside of your comfort zone! ".  Now I partially agree with that sentiment because if you always stay inside your comfort zone then you'll never grow outside of it and move into new territories where you gain new experiences and abilities.  But sometimes you need your comfort zone to take stock and have a base to launch out from. I was looking for a motivational meme for this blog entry and chanced upon this which I think is really suitable.  But as much as you are your own competition, you are also your biggest cheerleader also.  That voice in your head makes you capable of great things, or just kills the belief in yourself.  So the greatest battle you can have is the ...