Softball, Bad Parking

Softball is a game a lot like rounders and even more like baseball. You hit a ball with a bat and run to bases. For a full explanation click here.

My work entered a softball competition run by The Huddersfield Law Society or something with ten other teams in. It wasn't a fine June day. It was cold and that fine mizzly rain which makes you quite wet. This was not a good start. The next thing that I got wrong was not finding the place we were playing at but I wasn't too late, just feeling a bit stupid.

We only had seven players on our team, which was three short of most of the other teams who has the full quota of players and in some cases team shirts and fleeces! This wasn't due to lack of effort in trying to get people to play, just lack of effort from people at work in supporting anything remotely social, or maybe it was just the weather but either way i'm sick of organising stuff that loads of people say "maybe" to rather than give me a straight answer. Anyway, back to the subject.

We played our first game against a full team but not one with kits. We won the toss and chose to bat. Our best two batters went in first and both got out first ball. We were playing ten minute games so nine and a half minutes to go. The scoring sees the batting side get one run for going all the way round and two for a "home run" or going all the way round from your own shot. I think I got three or four runs the first time but it was all go so I wasn't really counting - just being knackered as I haven't run since erm I can't remember the last time I ran. We ended up with 16 runs about two or three minutes short of our allotted time. The opposition easily beat us but now we knew what to do we felt a bit more confident.

Then we had a drink and soon it was time for another game. We also scrambled an extra player which proved useful. This time we bowled first and I was fielding quite deep which isn't good when you can't run and throw like a girl (a non-athletic girl to be politically correct). Sure enough I had soon managed to drop a catch and throw the ball high in the air but not very horizontal and I was soon put on first base where I was happy to take a throw at the second attempt but unhappy to fall on my arse while doing so and to find the batter hadn't even run! We were later told off by the (dodgy) referee for changing our field too much. They got 22 I think. I was run out early in the next game due to Tom's overeagerness but that was probably no bad thing. After numerous no balls, the (dodgy) referee (who knew the first names of all the other team) told us we were on our last batter and one run behind. Greg stepped up and hit it into the trees so we won by one. Woohoo!

With a record of one win and one loss we felt happy we had done quite well given the conditions and also quite sure we wouldn't reach the semi-finals. Then it rained more (we were drinking again) so games were called off after everyone had completed two games. I then got ribbed over most things in life. Ha ha. There was a big queue for food so Tom and I played pool. We sucked, but I won so it doesn't matter :-)

We then joined the shorter queue for between five and ten minutes and got to the front to be the first ones turned away as they had just run out. Bugger. It was soon to be presentation time but it was decided to go on total runs scored. The top three all had kits and looked like professionals (lawyers and accountants ha didn't even mean that one)! We came joint 10th which meant the two team captains had to sit on the floor and pull a wooden horse attached to a (very long) piece of string across the floor. I think videos were taken and who knows I might be the next big thing on YouTube. I lost by about a length making us last. Rubbish!

We didn't make any friends, but despite all my moanings, I guess it must have been enjoyable given the length and soonness of this post. Hopefully next year more people will turn up and we'll have a proper shot at the title. Or not come last anyway. Thanks to Greg, Adeel, Cheryl, John, Tom, Andrea, and Jagdeep for turning up.

In other news, I got lost again today but once I got directions it was fine, though in getting my new directions I had to park in Dewsbury which i'm not familiar with. For my parking spot I chose double yellow lines, two wheels on the kerb, blocking two cars in facing the wrong way down a one way street about two foot from a corner. Not my greatest driving moment ever! In the end I decided to reverse round the corner only breaking one of the above motoring laws. I don't condone this but it wasn't doing anyone any harm so didn't matter too much.

Henman is out of Wimbledon in the second round after going two sets down he once again showed his fighting spirit by coming back to two all only to bottle it in the final set and lose to the similarly ranked no. 78 in the world Mr Lopez from Spain. Maybe he'll win next year!

I mentioned it was cold and wet. Now i'm feeling quite fluey. I've been getting a cold all week and now I ache a lot including muscles I never knew I had so I will be sleeping and relaxing this weekend before finally having a day in the office on Monday. This would have been good but no doubt the above will get mentioned. Never mind, it will all be forgotten in a couple of weeks.

Hopefully i've made this post so long no-one will read it and find out how rubbish I really am ;-)

Meals, Lasers, 81s, Wet, Henmoania

Ok firstly a quiz update. Kate and I got 81 out of 142 by ourselves (with a little help via text) last week but yesterday Kate, her mum, JJ, Caroline and I got 81 out of 138. We came 7th and 6th out of 8 in both weeks so that was average and I won a decent bottle of wine last week (Kate also won some sellotape). On the music front my favourite songs were Breakfast At Tiffany's by Deep Blue Something and Take Me Out by Franz Ferdinand.

After a quiet birthday on Wednesday, I went out for lunch with Rob on Thursday (only to Goose) and my parents for a birthday meal. On Friday I went to The Shears whith a couple of colleagues. It was busy but worth the wait. On Saturday JJ, Caroline, Kate and I went to Laser Quest in Huddersfield. ~We were playing with a load of kids and a few parents of the kids and I ended up 6th out of 25 which I thought was quite good for my first time. Then we all headed to Cibo's which filled us up with Italian food and afterwards went to bars and Livingstone's and drank plenty!

So thanks for a nice birthday celebration everyone and don't worry everyone at work - I will bring cakes in when I am next in the office!

It's rained a lot recently. My roof has leaked a lot recently. There's been lots of flooding in Sheffield which isn't far away and I couldn't get a train yesterday as Leeds Station was closed. The rain hasn't stopped Wimbledon much though. With Mr Wimpy Andy Murray out with a poorly hand or something British hopes are once again left with our ever faithful loser Tim Henman. Sure enough he didn't disappoint in the first round by winning a five set thriller 13-11 against fellow former decent player Carlos Moya. I wonder how far he'll get this year before dashing the hopes of the nation once again. I'm not getting my hopes up and wouldn't advise anyone to get theirs up either. We'll still support til the bitter end though!

End Of 2006/07 Season

Manchester United won the Premiership with the final turning point being when they were 2-0 down to Everton while Chelsea were 2-1 up against Bolton only for Chelsea to draw and Man U to win 4-2. It had looked like the two teams would meet three times in May to decide three trophies but this was not to bewitht the Premiership encounter being a dead rubber and them both losing at the semi final stage of the Champions League which AC Milan won after beating Liverpool 2-1 in the final. Chelsea won the FA Cup final after extra time and had already secured the League Cup back in February.

At the other end of the table, West Ham won seven of their last nine games to stay up and send Sheffield Utd (who lost a six pointer to Wigan on the last day), Charlton and Watford went down. At least for now anyway as there could be legal action against West Ham over the signing of Tevez etc.

Birmingham, and Sunderland got promoted automatically along with Derby while Leeds got relegated to League 1 so they will be Huddersfield's local derby next season after Bradford City got relegated (which I have to say was most pleasing). Torquay and Boston got relegated from League 2 and will go into the Blue Square Premier next season. Leeds and Boston both went into administration once relegated thus getting a 10 point penalty this season and not being penalised, a loophole which the Football League have since closed. Halifax survived on the last day St Albans (see last season for a very interesting tree story) got relegated back to wherever they came from. Scarborough got relegated and then got wound up due to their debts being too big and no buyer being found and finally hard luck to Lancaster who finished the season on 2 points which must surely be some sort of record.

25 - Time For More Philosophicalness

Hmmm that's a long and very dubious word, anyway...

Back when I was 23 I took a philosophical look on how life was and how I planned on life to pan out. I had other things on my mind when I hit 24 so now i'm 25 it's time to look at life again and see how it's going. I'm not going to repeat anything from previous years hopefully as they all link in together.

There is no way now that I can be described as early 20's. In fact i'm nearer to 30 than being a teenager which is a bit of a scary thought. However in reality i'm still feeling young and still able do stuff teenagers would do but just be wiser about it in the process.

I'm generally happy with work at the moment and seem to be doing well if not really going anywhere but hopefully I'll be back on the road to going somewhere if I start studying again in the Autumn. That'll mean I'll be a student again, but older and wiser and more knowledgeable this time around which will give me a better shot at it I reckon. Hopefully after three years then I'll be a somebody rather than a nobody but I feel valued enough at the moment which is why I'm happy and set for the longest time i've stayed in a job after another month.

Life has changed this year after the windfall as I moved out of my parents house though i'm not yet fully independent which will hopefully change by the end of the year as the washer is in place - just not being used. Other than this very little has gone on. Here is a list of things i've done and not done before I hit the quarter of a century.

Had children - Not done
Looked at other people's babies and thought "cute maybe in a few years" - Done
Happy

Been in love - Not done
Been loved - Not been aware of it (other than family of course)
Content but aware if it goes on many more years i'll be discontent

Hurt myself when drunk - Done (in style) - Proud, lesson learnt, wouldn't do again (probably)

Been to war - Not done - Not in army and not near World War 3 - Happy

I would say i'm becoming llowly slightly less fearful of rejection though I do have to have something else to focus on to get me through it. I am becoming ever more fearful of flying though which is a bit odd. I wouldn't say I'm scared of conflict any more but in the last five years or so I've become a much nicer person caring about other people a lot more.

Take last Saturday for example - five years ago I wouldn't have talked to Rob for half an hour to make him feel better I'd just have gone home and the girl who may never have got to Leeds I wouldn't have given a second thought to. It was only because she was hot I didn't help her!

I'm also becoming a much more patient person making me less likely to shout and hit people. It doesn't do me any good sometimes as I do get very frustrated inside but always seem to act cool and unflustered even when i'm not. I still appear not to care about things sometimes but often care more than others think. Perhaps I should give myself more me time and be selfish once in a while but again, with my personality I'm generally happy.

I've plenty friends but very few close friends especially very few who live nearby but feel i've always got someone to talk to if necessary. Content in this area.

I've never experienced the death of anyone close which concerns me a little as I don't know how i'd cope and by 25 I feel it is something I should've experienced. On the other hand hopefully i'm not going to go and kill people and am very grateful for this fact.

So my general feeling now i've hit the quarter century is of all round contentness. Things could be better in certain areas but with happiness comes complications and at the moment I'm just content with my simple life trying to ensure that everyone else around me is also content/happy.

Enough of that for another year. I wonder what will change before I hit 26?

Back To The Old Phone

On Saturday I sent my new (well 8 month old) phone back as it keeps breaking so i now have my phone from 2002 for a few days. I then went out for lunch with all my grandparents. I won't be putting them in the back of the car again as they had trouble getting out. I then took my laptop back as it keeps breaking but they wouldn't have so i'm currently executing another one of Ed's plans to figure out what the problem is.

Due to pretty much everyone I know being on holiday last week I had to get the train to Halifax to see the only person who wasn't (Rob). It didn't come and was replaced by a minibus which I duly got on but the other passenger from Brighouse (a hot blonde as it happens) was going to Leeds so didn't bother. I could've advised her on where to go but just walked on by and ignored her. I wonder if she ever got there. Later on though I was a good friend which made up for it.

Voiceless

Last week's quiz was JJ, Caroline, Kate, her mum and I and we got 97 out of 146 coming 5th out of 10 which was pretty good. Special thanks to the random bald guy John who helped us before disappearing. I wonder if we'll ever see him again. Song of the week was REM - The One I Love. It was also an amazing week as we got ALL the pictures right for the first time ever I believe.

Yesterday we didn't do so well without JJ and Caroline getting 85 out of 135 and about 9th out of 12 with song of the week being Erasure - A Little Respect.

I'm not very well at the moment as I went out on Friday with Kate, JJ and Caroline and lost my voice, having to walk down my road as i couldn't tell the taxi to turn right. I can now put a couple of sentences together but struggling otherwise. This isn't being tested much though as i'm working alone all week and all my friends and brother are on holiday. :-(