I’m happy.
There’s a Gran Turismo application (or program to someone my age) for the iPhone. It’s called GTune5 and is an app that should make the tuning of cars easier.
I think the idea is that it will give you settings based on a car set up you like and translate them to other cars. So, I like some oversteer in my cars and the app will allow me to recreate that in other cars once I enter the details for a car I can really handle well.
Lovely. Now I just need some time to play the game!
Find me on PSN as Kertz.
Glorious
Here’s a picture of the lovely sunset from a few nights ago. I was walking the dog. I only just got this shot as it was quite windy and the clouds were moving fast.
Just Rubbish
Bought a toy rubbish truck for #1 and he loves it. He played with it for two hours straight yesterday. It makes some noise and flashes lights, the rear door opens to retrieve the recycling and best part of all is the motorised bin arm that takes the yellow bin and deposits its contents into the truck. He woke at 530 this morning and the first thing he said was “can I play with my rubbish truck”.
Chance
I’ve been watching Human Target on Blu-Ray with WW. It’s, surprisingly, a well constructed and brilliantly scripted tv show. It’s a little quirky but funny and subtle. Anyway, in episode 3 of the first series the main character, Christopher Chance, says:
That sounds like a tomorrow problem.
This is a wonderful way of looking at particular issues and it’s something I’ll be saying in the future, possibly tomorrow.
UXB
There were interesting times in Eccles over the summer. WW went for a run one evening around the sports field but was stopped by some youths claiming they had found a bomb. She was rather incredulous about this but they insisted and said they had called the police. She decided to run elsewhere.
When WW got home she explained what had happened and we didn’t really think much more of it until . . . .
About 9 that evening there was a LOUD bang. It shook the windows in the house. It didn’t wake the children though which was good.
WW ran back down to the sports field to see half the village looking at nothing and asking the police what had happened. When asked why we weren’t told that they were going to detonate the bomb the police replied “because you would all have come to watch and it would have been far more dangerous.” Fair point.
This bomb wasn’t as loud as the two I heard when I lived in London. Check out this post here.
GT5 Set-up
Here’s a picture of my Gran Turismo set up. There’s a big tv with home cinema 7.1 sound and my music playing using GT5’s jukebox function (shame it doesn’t run from a NAS drive though). Anyway, here’s my Logitech (their stuff is brilliant) Driving Force Pro wheel attached to the force feedback stabiliser (ironing board).
Wow
WW and I went for a meal last night (14 August). It was the first time we had used a proper babysitter and left the kids at home, sleeping soundly.
We headed to Pizza Express in Maidstone as WW wanted a goats cheese something. She has been needing goats cheese for a while and supermarket bought stuff doesn’t make her taste buds flower!
I ordered whatever I wanted but was shocked when I came to enter this information into my food tracking app.
Il Padrino Pizza – 922 kCal
Chocolate Glory – 691 kCal
Glass of red wine – 191 kCal
Shared tomato and mozzarella salad – 243 kCal
My dinner came to 2047 kCal. This was quite a shock. Even with a 10km run in the morning I was way over what I consider my daily calorie allowance! Much more running going to happen over the next few weeks to normalise my intake!
4 Meals In A Day
I accidentally ate four meals on Monday 13 August. WW and I took the boys to Mote Park in Maidstone and let them play in the playground. After we fed the ducks at the lake we went and ordered some food. My order was as follows:
Two sausages and chips and a sausage roll and chips please.
My intention was to buy chips with two sausages for #1 and the the sausage roll and chips was for #2. What I received was two plates of sausages and chips and an adult plate of sausage roll and chips. All in all far too much food for my children to eat! Obviously I just helped out and ate the adult plate of food. As it happens WW and I had already planned what to eat later in the day and so I had:
- breakfast
- lunch
- accidental tea
- dinner
This is a little extreme and when I looked at my calorie count for that day it was 3041 kCal. Even with a run I was over my daily target.
The Limits of My Tolerance
After a day spent at a major theme park near London (Thorpe Park) I have to announce that I am officially disappointed with my body’s physiological reaction to rides. I have known about this reaction for many years (since I was about 14) but I have never really analysed it much before.
Many years ago I spent lots of time in the Air Training Corps and during that time I got some Air Experience Flights in a DeHavilland Chipmonk. After my first go the instructor always asked if I wanted to do aerobatics and, of course, my answer was yes. Every time my reaction was to turn a gentle shade of green and feel very sick and disorientated for about 3 hours afterwards. Eventually I would become very hungry and then finally I would be ok.
When on a trip to the Kennedy Space Centre in 2004 I experienced time in a multi-axis spinner designed to throw the best of the best out of kilter. With me I experienced about 4 hours of green and sickness with clammy skin and finally I grew extremely hungry.
The most recent trip to Thorpe Park confirmed that I am useless at roller coasters and similar rides. It’s such a shame as I do enjoy myself, it’s just that I feel like crap for ages.
Shame.
My London 2012 Experience
I went with WW to see a couple of basketball matches at the London 2012 Olympics. We went on the first day of competition and had a great time. The travel from Ebbsfleet was smooth and fast. The entry into the Olympic park was swift and the park itself was gorgeous and had a lovely atmosphere. The only issue was the availability of food which, due to poor organisation and deliveries, was not plentiful. We ended up eating a pretty poor chilli and rice (picture below).
- Aussie free throw
Here’s a picture of the slop they called food:
Poor Design
Here’s a picture of my toilet seat. It’s a special one with two seats. A seat for adults and a seat for children that attaches to the lid via a magnet.
This communication regards the poor design of this seat.
After my children’s bath I sit on the seat lid to dry #1. If you see the supports that transfer my weight force through the seats onto the toilet you will notice that they are NOT aligned. This results in a moment affecting the adult or lower seat. Over time and with my weight force this results in the lower seat bending and breaking at the point indicated. It’s a lovely seat, but it doesn’t take much to design it properly.
First Words
Because sometimes you forget these things.
#1’s first word was “dog” closely followed by “mok” for milk.
#2 says “duck” or “quack” when shown a duck like bird.
Very Proud.
Keeping Watch
It shouldn’t really affect me, but I’m quite proud to have Ben Kenobi looking out over my children while they play and sleep in their bedroom. Even if he is Lego!
Quite bizarrely it makes me think they are safe!
Proud
I am rather proud of the run I did today. It was 4.85 miles, which isn’t the main thing. The thing I am most impressed with is that I ran around Burham Nature Reserve which is comething I’ve been meaning to do for a while. It was also rather hot today (26C).
[There was an iframe here that was linked to my MapMyRun account. But I have deleted the MapMyRun account. This is no more.]
This is a picture of the monument to the Battle of the Medway. Not to be confused with the Battle of the Midway!
Back In Time
On the way to the leisure centre I saw this beauty parked in the car park. Now, it’s not a DeLorean but it’s close and it looks great. I don’t think you’d customise a DeLorean this much! Sciroccos are much easier to come by.
Vineyard Summer
This was taken by WW while out on a run today.
Beautiful [just like WW].
A Walk In The Park
Such a lovely morning spent walking the dog and children in Cobtree Park. The various tree species make it such a wonderful place. #1 loved it, I think #2 did too. WW had a good time.
Three Stones
Recently, #1 has taken to placing some of our garden stones on to the window ledge. He always asks to place three stones on the ledge and then does so.
Not Symmetrical
This is probably my best train set up so far. All pieces used and no funny angles, you can bend the joints a bit to “make” a track fit, but none here!
Now I just need to keep this map handy so I can recreate this when needed.
Michel Vaillant
I am officially a member of the Michel Vaillant club, I think.
I have the letter but I need to read it, carefully and slowly! I don’t really speak French. If I really struggle then I’ll ask some people at work to read it for me. We have many language specialists!
