I’m just in from a nice bike ride. I’d been threatening myself all day that I would go out on my bike and give my body a slight work out.

Normally this happens the night before. I’ll promise that I’ll wake up early and head over to Richmond Park for my 24 Mile escapade. A journey that is mostly uphill at the start of the park, with a demon hill in the first third, followed by 2 dangerous downhills and a crafty hill in the final third that I never seem to be 100% comfortable with. There is gentle downhill just by pembroke lodge that is really nice to get some speed going, but since I almost hit a squirrel there a few months back I’ve always been a little on edge there.

Going downhill should be great fun for a cyclist, but I’ve always found it unnerving. Take the 2 dangerous downhills in richmond park. They are dangerous due to two things: 1) tight-ish turns the whole way down 2) lack of care means that the bushes nearby are now overgrown, so whilst you used to be able to see things coming up the hill, you can’t now. I guess pedestrians really are the priority on the dirt, I need to get on to the road I guess!

The London to Brighton downhills were exhillarating because they were straight, with gentle bends and not many other cyclists around, great fun building up speed and hoping your breaks would hold out at the end of the hill. However, I did get to thinking how incredibly dangerous the ride would’ve been if it was tipping it down with rain. Best not think of these things….

Anyway, back to waking up early, and I never manage it. I enjoy the lie-in on my day off and never really think about heading out on my bike because its now “too late in the day” and the park will be full of people and the roads busy with cars. How I know this I have no idea as I have never been to the park during the day, and the roads round here are always quieter in the day!

I’ve never really gotten on with playing sport. I played rugby as a kid and hated the physicallity of it all and the being naked in the public shower. Alan and I used to play football in the garden, I was a good keeper but used to get some badass heat rash. Cricket was fine until I progressed to the proper hard ball and pads stuff. Tennis was great fun, I’m not sure why I gave that one up. I tried running for a bit as various posts here will attest to and when I’m racing I love it, its the training I can’t get on with.

Right now though, I have two sports I love, cycling and badminton. Sure it takes me forever to motivate myself to do a long cycle, but I NEVER feel like not going to badminton. I guess its because I’m actually good at it. I can’t think of a single sport where I have ever been good, but this one seems to buck the trend. I guess I’m only as good as the people I play against, so I’m not going to get ahead of myself and join a club or anything.

Consider this a warning, I will be blogging again and I won’t promise it will be all the time, but it will be more often than it used to be.

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Posted by Flams on September 27th, 2011 :: Filed under Uncategorized
Tags :: cycling

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I’ve just discovered the trailer for the new Planet of The Apes film. Now, I new this was coming but I was shocked to discover CGI apes!

For me the costumes in the original films were the best bit, ok you could tell they were people but to me it was more belieavable.

Regardless, I will be seeing this film in August as soon as it is out at the cinema.

Click here for the trailer!

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Posted by Flams on May 12th, 2011 :: Filed under Uncategorized

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Hello all!

 

Looking back at my last post I can see that I was cycling. Funnily enough, today should have been about cycling. I had grand plans to head to Windsor on my bike in preparation for the London to Brighton ride next month. I did it a few weeks ago with young Alan, 35-ish miles in 2 hours 45 minutes (ish). It was mad good fun.

I had a pretty knackering day at work on Monday/Tuesday, followed by some epic games of Badminton on Tuesday evening. I set my alarm nice and early and when it went off….sleep. I knew it would be a struggle to get up, but it appears the badminton finished me off. I’ve also developed a massive pain in my left foot that means I can barely walk. Ultimately I didn’t even make it out Richmond park or anything remotely decent.

Now normally I would try and go out for a run this afternoon to at least get some exercise, but with my foot that aint gonna happen. Maybe I’ll try a bit of wii-fit, or I’ll cycle tomorrow, but I’ve got badminton on Thursday evening which will be major exercise (presuming a: it goes ahead and b: my foot doesn’t play up again tomorrow. Life is hard you see

 

Gaming wise at the moment I’ve got a few things on the go.

 

CODBLOPS

Back to playing it multiplayer wise since I’ve got the internet in the new flat. Good fun, but pretty gay in places.

 

Dead Rising 2

Got stuck at some point and it really annoyed me, so I’ve not touch since I moved. Not sure I can stomach going back to it

 

Frozen Synapse

Little tactical shooter game on the PC. Its turn based, which means I don’t have to sit and wait for my opponent to move, and games last around 6 moves. So you can have a game done in about 5 minutes if you’re playing live, or over weeks if your opponent isn’t around much. I’m thinking of looking more into this turn based stuff, maybe one of the earlier civilisations…..

 

Minecraft

Everyone is mad for it. I’ve hit a stumbling block at the moment. I’ve got big designs, but little patience. I would love to build a castle, so far I’ve managed two turrets and a wall inbetween. My soul was crushed when I discovered one turret was shorter than the other.

 

Fifa 11

This never gets tired when playing against Alan. He beats me almost constantly, so I get frustrated but I always think the next match will be better. I get booked ALOT LESS these days.

 

Civilization V

Really really REALLY good, but no play by email mode which would have been aces to play against people.

 

Plenty going on then! I’m considering the new WWE all stars game as its a return to WWF No Mercy/WCW NWO Revenge levels of brilliance. Its over the top, fast paced and a reet larf.

 

Right now I’m going to sit down, watch “into the wormhole with morgan freeman” and play THUNDERSTONE.

 

See ya later alligator.

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Posted by Flams on May 11th, 2011 :: Filed under Uncategorized

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Since I’ve got my bike I’ve lost half a stone. Its amazing. I really enjoy it but the major annoyance I have is if I’m doing the early shift I can’t go out because by the time I get home I am shattered to the max. I’ve also discovered that if I cycle BEFORE a late shift it buggers me for work. So I’m only cycling on my days off, and as I haven’t had a day off in 5 days I haven’t been out. I’ve still got 2 more days to go after today so no cycling for a bit longer. I may try and do a quick cycle after work on Sunday but I doubt that’ll happen as my nan is now coming over!

I also think I’ve killed my arm, it feels like it could fall off. I’m not sure how it happened, but I noticed it this tuesday whilst playing badminton, and worse last night when I did the same. I may have to take a break from badders if my arm is going to explode as I don’t think that can possibly be good for me.

Of course it is my birthday next week, thats fine.

In other news: nothing.

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Posted by Flams on July 23rd, 2010 :: Filed under Uncategorized

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The world cup has touched us all, not least for the England vs Algeria match. Tom, Alan and Drew came over. We played FIFA, watched dull footy, ate burgers, drank beer and played more FIFA. I forget who was on my team at the time but me and someone else beat the other 2 who were playing as Brazil. Quite standard, but we were playing as some American team I believe, with 9 men….It was brilliant, but was as good as I get. Speaking of FIFA, I played it online today and won a match. I’m pretty sure thats my first win ever. 4-2 playing as Arsenal vs Barca. I had a few matches after but everytime I got to 2-0 up the other person would quit. I need more people to play against online I think!

Final Fantasy 13 has been entertaining me profusely. Its well weapon. Once thats done I’ll move on to Red Dead Redemption I imagine!

Work keeps me well occupied and I’m getting exercise on my new bike which is good too! Did a lap of Richmond Park with Alan the other day, can’t wait to try again!

Finally, its Sophie’s birthday today. Happy birthday Sophie (etc).

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Posted by Flams on June 29th, 2010 :: Filed under Uncategorized

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What-ho people. The last three days I’ve been doing a first aid qualification. There has been loads to learn and I honestly thought I would find it too hard but I got through! 100% on the theory and did great on the practical. The guys from county hall were great and we had a quick drink after. Came home, ate dinner, played football manager and now watching office space.

I need some serious exercise, badminton was great last night but the hot weather makes it tough. I was knackered after one hour, god knows how ill last 2 tomorrow….

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Posted by Flams on June 9th, 2010 :: Filed under Uncategorized

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Le bonjour!

**** This post contains minor lost spoilers, beware ****

Last week was our appreciation week at work, so we do fun things all week. It was great fun, copious amounts of food and drink all over the place. We did a quiz (which my team almost won!), volunteered at a charity shop (organised by moi) and had a cake competition to name a few! Around the middle of the quiz I started to feel really really run down (I had been working for 10 days straight and had gone to the charity shop on my day off, followed by the quiz) so when I went home I went straight to bed. This turned into flu over the next couple of days, but when I was back at work I felt good. Anyway, that didn’t last and come Sunday I’d lost my voice. Unfortunately with no-one else around I got stuck at work. Try doing my job with no voice, bloody impossible. So having to force my croaky voice to work I cracked on. By the end of the day I was absolutely whacked, pissed off and just wanting bed.

The next day I felt no better and eventually went to the doctor. Laringitis! Christ, I’ve never been ill with something proper before. 25, and I’ve got a doctors note! Excitement aside I was gutted cos I love my job and I knew I’d struggle to keep myself busy all week. I’ve managed somehow, but my voice has come and gone. Also, its difficult to not go up to people you know and chat because I kept forgetting I couldn’t talk. Quite awkward when I bumped into Tom in tesco :S Anyway, saw the nephew yesterday who is still awesome and have completed a few video games that I hadn’t finished yet. Got lots of paperwork done and finished off the gardening. I still feel like I have a chest infection (which the doctor said I had, or a virus or something I forget) but the voice is almost here to stay!

The LOST finale was excellent for me. I’m just glad that there is some sort of ending even if it was part happy part sad. I suppose it all worked out well in the end and Jack DIED, but then again they all did apparently. I can’t wait for some sort of novelty box set (maybe shaped like oceanic 815?) to come out, if I had a mantlepiece it’d be on the motherfucker.

In other news, I’m not sure! Will come back later if I’ve missed something I reckon. Respec’

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Posted by Flams on May 28th, 2010 :: Filed under Uncategorized

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I am finally at home. I have been spending such a small amount of time at home the last few days that its feels like a totally foreign place to me. I’ve stayed at work twice this week, its been epic but I’m needing a gap. Thankfully, I’ve got 2 now. Going down to Cancer Research in Twickenham tomorrow which will be ace!

Last night was Flight of The Conchords at Hammersmith. I came home from work, jumped in the shower and just about managed to charge my phone a bit. Met up with Alan and eventually Tash, got some really nice pasta at Antonia’s, the lady on the front page with the blonde hair was a miserable twunt, the service was awful but I have to say the food was good. We were going to have dessert but they neglected to offer it to us. Food: good, service: diabolical. I’d recommend it overall but if you see that woman, slap her for me.

Met Kim outside the apollo and went in, getting cider and a tea towel. Arj Barker (dave in the series!) was the support and was very funny.

FoTC were even funnier, altering the songs just enough to make them funnier. I missed songs like Boom and Robots but the set list was very good in general so I won’t complain. Sugarlumps was a bit crap but I’ll forgive them.

Got him in decent time and went to bed. Long hard day at the coal face, with ice cream at the end of it. In fact, come to think of it, imagine an ice cream mine. Good eh?

This afternoon I made chilli and now I’m watching Doctor Who. Good times!

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Posted by Flams on May 18th, 2010 :: Filed under Uncategorized

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Its time for a run down of Becca and my recent holiday to St Ives.

The day before we were due to “check in” Becca and I trundled down to Oxford to meet up with Oli and Sedj. We met the cats, toured the house and surrounding gardens and went off to Asda to get some dins. It turns out Asda fresh made pizzas are really nice. We watched the final leadership debate and called it a night.

The next day we rose, had bacon confusion and then set of St Ives. We stopped on the way for lunch and arrived in St Ives by 4 ish I reckon. St Ives is a very hilly place, lots of steep inclines and not many steps! The flat we had was lovely and Becca managed to shotgun the bedroom without a view of the sea >.>

A rough list of what we did included the Eden project, paradise park (where I was attacked by a lorikeet and Becca met a penguin), Godrevy cliffs (my highlight!) and lots of eating/shopping. Oli and I played copious amounts of Fifa, Golf and other games. Gold got pretty tense towards the end as we both started to understand the game and I even lost a few Fifas

The big news of the holiday was one of the couples getting engaged, I won’t spoil the surprise but it wasn’t me and Becca!

The journey back was tough, I seem to be suffering travel sickness for the first time in years and the train journey was quite epic, but we finally got home after 8 hours of travel.

All in all, #stives2010 was the best holiday I’ve had this year. No lies. In seriousness though it was ruddy awesome and I’ve gone back to work relaxed and happy.

GET IN.

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Posted by Flams on May 12th, 2010 :: Filed under Uncategorized

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I’ve had a busy few days trying to wrap things up at work so I don’t get any phone calls during my holiday. I didn’t really realise how difficult this sort of thing can be and now I get why my boss is always in the hotel during his holidays. Ok with me its nowhere near as involved but I have a couple of things that I couldn’t get done before I left, so these have been handed over to others to do. Ah, being an adult.

Tomorrow Becca and I travel to Oxford to stay the night with the Olis. Not in the way your dirty mind is thinking I’m sure but to have a layover between Twickenham and St Ives. The following day all 4 of us travel down the motorway for 5 hours to reach our holiday destination. It feels like forever since I last went on holibobs so I’m well excited but also kinda nervous. Its really nice to not have any commitments at the moment though. I am loving it. I’ve managed to fix the barbeque today, and drink tea. Hows that for a slice of fried gold?

I’ve also just managed to get myself lost in EVE, no big loss.

Looking round the room I see mess everywhere and damn its annoying, I shall have to sort this out before I go.

Badders last night was really good fun. Till came down which is always nice. We had 5 really good games, the standard is improving so its becoming much more enjoyable on tuesday evenings. I still think we need 2 hours, but oh well!

Pub for the footy tonight, should be nice.

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Posted by Flams on April 28th, 2010 :: Filed under Uncategorized

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I updated the about information for the blog today, you can see it on the right hand side there between “links” and “snake?”

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Posted by Flams on April 21st, 2010 :: Filed under Uncategorized

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I had my management training course today. It was very interesting this month and rather apt: Stress Management and Your Career Vision.

I’m currently under pressure to define what I want to do with my life so that my bosses can put together an action plan for me and steer me in the right direction. To be honest I’ve never had a direction in life except when I was very young and I wanted to be an astronaut. I think my current fears will put that to one side for me and I seriously doubt my employers can help me get that job. The question is: where do I want to go in life? I’m still no clearer after todays training except I’ll probably have a look at HR with an eye to continue in Front Office.

Stress management is also crucial in this age, and equally relevant after the crazy weekend I’ve had. Natural disasters that shut down airports in the UK are NOT fun. We had snow last year and this year a volcano. Get stuffed mother nature.

I have two days off coming up and no plans. If the weather is nice I may well walk to Kingston and do the cinema. Sounds lush.

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Posted by Flams on April 19th, 2010 :: Filed under Uncategorized

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What a few days it has been. Chinese at the Sabes’, Rugby at the stoop (46-11 to the Quins I might add, woop!) and first bbq of the year. To top it all off, no-one got ill from my bbq cooking. This weekend has been mega, and I got semi drunk AND drunk on two seperate occasions. More wine please.

I’ve started up EVE Online again, with the intention of becoming a mega miner making millions and going to war with arseholes. So far I am just about mining, found myself a decent ship to buy soon so I’m looking forward to that. It’s an ace game that keeps me entertained, I haven’t renewed the sub just yet but I reckon I might.

This weeks lost was epic, as I expected might happen we are seeing the two worlds collide so I can’t wait to see how that pans out.

Peace out Behatches.

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Posted by Flams on April 11th, 2010 :: Filed under Uncategorized

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Apparently this app now works on my phone. I made a really good post on her ages ago but it wouldn’t upload which made the app seem redundant. Seems to work now though. Peace out etc.

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Posted by Flams on April 8th, 2010 :: Filed under Uncategorized

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Firstly, apologies to drew. The Afforementioned post IS coming, but not right now.

I am now a fully trained Duty Manager at work, this is exciting. My CV will now read very well to any future hotel employers. Work continues apace, its more difficult now but much more rewarding. My days fly by and I really value my time off now however I’m getting more stressed at home. At work its very hard to let off steam. There is almost nowhere to get time to yourself so with me that steam has to come out somewhere. Unfortunately it appears to be the badminton court, and as I’ve been playing really badly of late it’s getting tough to keep it in. I don’t know why it comes out there but I guess its being mocked when I fuck up. Its not even malicious but I always take it the wrong way. Ho hum, at least I wont the last match today.

In other news, as per usual, there aint nothing going down son. I’ve got the weekend off but with no actual plans its going to most likely suck balls. I think I’ll try to get the wife out of the house.

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Posted by Flams on April 8th, 2010 :: Filed under Uncategorized

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