danieldwilliam | Entries tagged with weekends

I spent most of the weekend playing Madden 17 on the PlayStation.

Other things happened too.

I was feeling a little sore for most of the weekend.

Madden is about the only console game that I play regularly. I haven't played for some time, not since we had the PlayStation 2. When I bought the PS4 I treated myself to the newest version of the game. I'd not put much time in to it. It's a complex game. At least I find the controls complex and they don't come naturally to me. The Captain discovered it whilst playing on the PS4 with his pal on Friday afternoon and wanted me to show him it. So we spent most of Saturday playing on it. Fortunately we can play on the same team. So I do the play calling, he does the quarterbacking and I try to explain how the game works (from the little I know) and how American football is not the same as rugby.

A draw back of the game is that there is no pause function that shows the playing screen. So you only have about 30 seconds to select your next play and get set up. This does not leave a lot of time to explain things to a 7 year old. Especially one who doesn't like losing, doesn't like not understanding things, isn't great at understanding that he might be the problem and is'nt hugely patient. Some small fights occured.

But we mostly had a nice time.

Friday was MLW's birthday. She's not a great celebrator of her birthday. My official birthday is marked by two weeks of celebrations, with banners, flags and cakes. He's not so much. But we went out for dinner at a tapas restaurant near to our home and had a nice dinner and talked about the future. Not our future but the Dawn of the Robots. The conclustion we reached was that she and I seemed to have just got in before the difficulties started but the next few decades will be interesting and unevenly distributed.

Saturday - Madden. Packers. See above. But also, my first full game I managed a 12-0 loss, including giving up a safety on fumbled punt return. I may have been holding the controller upside down. I'm more out of touch than I realised and also, the Packers seem to have a really average running back.

The sound track from Madden is very good. I might use it as a way of discovering some new music.

Sunday - MLW was singing in the morning, so more Madden but also some reading. After lunch rugby. Difficult. The kids were not in great form. Nor was I (perhaps a cold, perhaps soreness from the gym on Wednesday, perhaps an unholy alliance of the two). Hey ho.

After rugby I had a play workshop. Some conversation about gender, some about ageism and the cross over between the two. There was some acting. It was good to see.

Home for a roast beef dinner and more Madden, followed by part two of the historical biography of Lady Jane Grey. I confess to not finding this greatly interesting. Sadly, she's a bit of a historical footnote. She doesn't seem to have been alive long enough to have developed views, so we don't really have much in the way of a counter-factual to go at and Northumberland, her father-in-law, seems to have been a bit less than averagely competent or specatularly incompetent for the Tudors. It also does that thing that I find annoying of having actors in period costume providing VT to sit underneath exposition from the main narrator. If this a Tudor queen I doubt I'll be much interested in the sequals.

Gym this morning. Felt like hard work. I wonder if I am fighting off a cold.

Saying goodbye to the Captain this morning made me think that perhaps life (or his childhood) is too short to be hurrying out of the door to a job I don't love.

Current Location: Home
Current Music: Hymns and Arias, by Max Boyce

Last week's weekend was a belter but tinged with worry.

Mostly lovely and sunny with some odd weather to make things interesting.

Saturday morning had the usual early start to watch Red Dwarf with the Captain. Then soccer in the park with his school. I was observing to the dad of one of the other kids that the kids seemed to have gotten the hang of kicking the ball when the Captain got a sturdy shot right in the chest which ricocheted in to his face, flooring him. He was a hurt. So much so that I was half way to him before he was coaxed back to his fit.

After a snack it was time for rugby. The Captain was sin binned for offside during the tag game. Harshly I thought. Unfortunately the fact that the Captain was sitting on the sidelines slipped the mind of the coach and the Captain was out of the game for quite a while. He took this in quite good spirits. Considering. Generally a good standard of play but not quite as keen as usual all round. What was nice is that the kids are begining to remember each other and interact as pals.

Saturday afternoon was snoozey. I fixed the new loo seat. It is silver. I'm not sure I love it but I don't hate it. Had a bit of a nap whilst listening to the cricket whilst My Lovely Wife and the Captain painted paint samples on to paper so we could compare colours to the short-list of wallpaper. We discovered that the understair cupboard door had been painted shut by the painter. My opinion of tradesmen took another knock - painters in particular.

Sri Lanka would be a better team if they picked a few batsmen and bowlers to go along with the 11 fielders they seem to have brought to England.

The living room is to be redecorated with similar wallpaper and paint to the current offering. I favour a wallpaper pattern with some peony roses which I would team with a red couch.

MLW then watched the Musketeers (which I'm sceptical about at the moment) and House of Cards (US version) which I think is great.

Sunday also started early. Most days start early. We went to see watch the start of the Edinburgh Marathon and cheer on a couple of friends. We saw them both but, slightly embarrassingly only after they had spotted us. Then brunch with WidgetFox in Soderburgh, the Swedish cafe in Quartermile. They do a few things very well. I enjoyed my breakfast. It was lovely to see WidgetFox. We spoke about cricket and cycling and whatnot.

After brunch MLW, the Captain and I set off for Crammond. We crossed the causeway to the island and walked clear across the island to the Firth of Forth. Adventure abounded. It was a long and winding road and we had to rely on our native guide on the trek. At least this was the Captain's view. The far end of the island had a) more bunkers - we went in them all, b) lots of broken glass which we avoided c) what looked like day two of a weekend camping and drinking and dancing party (The Captain did not care for the loud noise - I was impressed by the quality of the stereo d) a great view of one of the islands made to look like a battle ship and used as a decoy.

This prompted a discussion of the battle of Jutland (it being the anniversary this weekend), British naval strategy during World War One - the blockade of Germany, starving the Germans, not losing a battle being more important than winning one. This was followed by the German bombing and submarine campaign in the Second World War directed at blockading Britain. Then we talked about the Captain's great-great-granddad who had fought in the Boer War which took us to concentration camps. Marathons reminded us of the Graeco-Persian wars. Later the Captain wanted to know about a war that had happened since he was born - so Syria. All in all not very jolly but he was fascinated and kept asking questions. Including asking me how I knew so much about things.

We went out for tea to a Chinese buffet. Very nice as these things go. Buffets are easier with the Captain because he can eat straight away and can look after himself. The spicy aubergine stood out for me.

MLW was babysitting so I read the Captain some stories and then watched a bit of television before reading an interesting book about Homer. So far it is very much about the emotional experience of discovering Homer but pretty light on facts or theory. I'm sure we'll get to it, but so far the author likes Homer.

The bad news came at the very end. Woke up very early on Monday to a message from my sister. She had spent the night at A&E having cut her hand very, very badly on a broken glass. This sucks for all sorts of reasons beyond the obvious. The news today is that she has probably escaped permanent tendon damage but will need an operation on Thursday.

Current Mood: happy
Current Location: Jutland
Current Music: Hearts of Oak are Our Men

The now traditional weekender post.

This weekend was the Captain's sixth birthday. That occupied most of the run time.

On Friday night I was pretty tired after work and going to the gym. I watched the last episode of How I Met Your Mother and had an early night.

Saturday, MLW was singing all day. The Captain and I went to football in the park then by bus to Rugbytots.

I'd usually take the bike but after the gym I find I can't carry the Captain that far on the bike. I worrly slightly that I'm losing exercise but I expect as my cardio-vascular fitness improves the bike on the Saturday will start to work again. However, there is a more fundamental problem. The Captain is now pretty much too large to go in the bike seat but can't quite manage the cycle to Rugby on his own. Fortunately the bus service to RugbyTots works well with the timetable. I'll miss the ride.

Rugby was good. The Captain suffered slightly from his reputation as a competitive bruiser. He tripped and landed heavily on a pal of his who was sliding in to score a try. The coach didn't see the trip and gave the Captain a reminder about being gentle. The Captain responded to it well I thought. He'd usually protest his innocence but he shrugged it off this time.

Home via the shops to get some lunch and an early birthday present.

Saturday afternoon - the Captain and I watched the rugby on TV / played with his iPad / built his new lego.

The Wales - Italy game was too much of a blow out to be enjoyable.

The Scotland - Ireland game was strange. Some questionable refereeing. I thought he'd attempted to make a point about fluency and quick ball so eagerly he'd unbalanced the game. Sexton's attempt to fake significant injury in order to have Dunbar sent off was frankly unforgivable. I now fully endorse any and all attempts to physically contain him by any team in all circumstances - including any New Zealand vs Lions games. It was not a classic Scotland performance. We usually lose by a) getting stuck in mid-field and losing to the sole try of the match, b) having a few interception tries or a blatant refereeing error go against us or c) forget how to do any two of the basics of rugby but this time we managed to lose through our own over aggression and ill-discipline. This is what it's like to be French.

England - France - by then I largely didn't care but I enjoyed watching the rugby with MLW and a curry. France are too unfit to win a game let alone the Six Nations.

Overall, I was pretty pleased with Scotland's performance. Some good periods of game management and far, far fewer errors. I'm not sure it's a Six Nations winning team but it is a better team then we've had for a decade.

The Captain had a friend arrive for a sleep over on Saturday night. They did not go to sleep until 10.15. Such is the way of these things.

Sunday was the big day. Up early for some lego fun. The party was at 10 in a trampolining venue south of Edinburgh. The party went well. The kids enjoyed it. The Hurricaine Simulator was a surprise hit. The parents of the children in his class are pleasant. All good and all done by lunch time.

Home with his friend to open presents then an early birthday tea at a Chinese buffet. I got to read the bedtime story - Chapter 18 of Danny the Champion of the World.

A bit of Sunday evening television - catching up with George and Arthur, a dramatisation of the involement of Arthur Conan Doyle in the George Edalji case which lead to the establishment of the Criminal Court of Appeal.

Current Mood: celebratory
Current Location: Party Central
Current Music: Happy Birthday, now in the public domain