Sleep Interrupted

The sun is just dropping below the tree line when I step out of the house for my run. The day is one of the hottest of the summer but now it’s finally cooler outside than in. The glow of the sun to my right makes me think of a song by Orbital, so I pass up on my current run tunes and select In Sides.

I turn down a long, narrow pathway between the houses just as the first track starts with the sound of a heartbeat. Myriad insects dance through the air, tiny specs of light forming a crazy jigging star field. I glide through them, carried by the opening bars of the tune.

As I near half way through the run, my solitude is shattered by a loud, fast moving “Woohoo!”. Two girls in a silver Peugeot 106 speed past. Oh yeah! Looking good! A bead of sweat runs down my forehead. Yes indeed, the ladies love that sweaty, lumbering look… shut up, brain.

I can’t help but smile at their youthful exuberance, though. I wonder when I started thinking of the “youth” as being a group of people I’m not one of. I start to compose this post to keep my mind off the running.

I cross the road at a roundabout and the first track draws to a close. All that remains is my breathing and the sound of crickets in Dinton Pastures. A few seconds later the purposeful sound of P.E.T.R.O.L. starts (that track still reminds me of playing Wipeout to this day). My feat fall into the beat of the track and I head for home.

A few minutes later I’m so lost in my thoughts I run right past where I usually stop; only when our house comes into view do I realise. Maybe it’s time for my run to get a bit longer.

I’ve been playing Arcanum for about six months and I’ve just completed it. It turned into a bit of a slog at the end but over all it was a well plotted RPG. I’d have to agree with other reviewers that the mechanism for travelling about became very repetative towards the end.

I haven’t completed many games in my life, so I thought I’d mark the occasion here. Thank you for your attention.

Phew, what a scorcher! Here’s a great non-alcoholic cocktail for a hot evening: The Grenadine Rickey. To half a glass of ice add 30ml grenadine and 10ml fresh lime juice, then top up with 180ml soda water and stir. You can substitute lemon for the lime to create a slightly sharper and more refreshing variation.

When I first tried this out yesterday I wasn’t too hopeful but Louise and I liked it so much we had to have one again tonight.

Ben is suffering from growing pains at the moment, manifesting as pain in his knee joints shortly after he goes to bed. It’s pretty distressing for him and us but he tends to bounce back like only small children can.

I recall very similar experiences when I was a teenager. Louise has done some research and apparently it’s not a recognised medical condition… great. There is a body of knowledge, though. For instance, it’s most likely to occur during growth spurts, one of which occurs between 3 and 5. Let’s hope it doesn’t last to long.

This weekend at Abi’s birthday barbecue, thanks to Adam, I finally got to experience Guitar Hero. Wow! What a fun game! I haven’t had that much fun since I mastered Gran Tourismo. The best thing is when you forget about the controller and you’re just absorbed by the game. With GT that took weeks or maybe months of play but the amazing thing with Guitar Hero was it happened on my first go!

If Ben was just a couple of years older I’d have the perfect excuse…

How big is space? The answer is very big indeed.

Wil explains, better than I ever could, why I can happily forgo much of my social life in return for being a dad. When I say “explains” I mean “rambles on for pages in an interesting piece of self analysis” so grab your beverage of choice and settle in.

Bonus marks for anyone who can work out why this post had me thinking about the lobby scene from The Matrix by the end.

When it got properly hot a couple of weeks ago I suddenly realised what was missing — a decent long drink for a hot summer night. That’s when I decided to learn about cocktails.

Enthusiastically assisted by Louise, we now have some of the basics: A cocktail shaker, a basic book on cocktails, limes by the dozen, mint, homemade sugar syrup, soda water, vodka, gin, tequilla, Bacardi, Cointreau… so many ingredients to buy, so many cocktails to try!

So, what have we learned so far? We first tried Mohitos (due to a reference on Lost) and they’re a good thirst quencher, although I think the recipe we used might be improved on. Long Island Ice Teas are the complete opposite, totally brutal. I found it just too strong following the single-shot-of-coke recipe, so I used a half can instead and it became passable but certainly not refined.

Tequilla Sunrises… I can’t recall much of the specifics other than the orangeness and being disapointed that the grenadine didn’t float on the top like the picture in the book. I blame this fuziness of recollection on the preceeding Long Island Ice Tea.

Margaritas and Daiquiris are quite similar in delivering a superb limey punch. Of the two I definitely prefer the Daiquiri — possibly perfection — but I did have to use 50/50 lime/lemon as we ran out of limes; perhaps I’ve invented something!

So after much nagging Tim has finally got his arse in gear and joined the Blogosphere — yay!

This means that one of my goals for 2006 is complete. Given that we’re approximately half way through the year it’s probably time for a quick review of progress. Close FFL: Done. Finish decorating lounge: Pending a trip to Ikea. Decorate another room: Planning changes to the kitchen. House paintwork: Pending replacement of some window panes. Tame garden: Done. Fix rust on car: Not done. Blog more: Done, I think. Invent TBMMPORPGITWE: I think I’m going to pass on this. Teach Ben to throw and catch: Slow progress. Improve carbon neutrality: Done some basic research. Run more: Failing miserably.

Apologies for the long gap in posts but this last week has been rather manic, the reason for which I may post about later.

Anyways, I had the afternoon off work yesterday because Jayne, Larry, Louise and I went to see the Red Hot Chili Peppers play at the Madjeski Stadium in Reading. It was probably the hottest day of the summer so far but the atmosphere in the crowd was really good — until it came to the massive traffic jams getting out of the car park at the end; I can’t be bothered to relate the episode in detail, suffice as to say we won and maintained the moral high ground.

Inside the stadium was fairly shadey, so the long wait turned out to be far more pleasant than we were expecting. We met up with Mark, Simon, Tim, Kathy, Fiona, James and Ruth, then later I bumped into Frank and Al from work; it felt like most of Reading had turned up!

The band sounded fantastic and the set built well until almost the entire stadium floor was dancing along. The time passed all too quickly, the mark of a great gig in my mind.