An update at last

Well folks its a long time between blogs. I been a bit busy, new job working hard at the allotment at the weekend but not playing badminton.
I am now working on two new projects live@edu A Microsoft hosted email solution for education and Share point acting as a portal both good fun, but like all IT projects sometimes you just want to bang your head on the nearest wall.
Badminton is bad news, the knee is not getting any better, this may be my last competitive season with a max of 2 or 3 games but I have found rowing machines

All England Badminton Championship

Just spent an enjoyable week watching the All England at the NIA. I think the NIA is a great venue but the seats and the food are terrible. Junk food for 6 days is more then a person can stand. The one thing badminton fans have in common is that they take exercise and most likely look after their diets. So please NIA more fruit, salads and decent bread please. And as for the seats they are an exercise in torture; they may be OK for a gig but when you are there for 5 or 6 hours for a number of days it is a right pain. For those who don't know the seating at the NIA you cant fit your feet on the floor unless you have very small feet or are willing to have your legs angled under your seat for hours at a time. Or you can put your feet on a 2 or 3 inch high thin separator but that means your legs are at an odd angle and your body weight is not spread on your bum but centred on one part so a numb bum!

English Nationals Badminton

On Friday (1st Feb) is the start of the nationals and the start of a three day badminton watching marathon. If you get the chance I would strongly recommend going, they are held at the Velodrome in Manchester. Not sure if this is the case for the players but for the fans it is a very relaxed event and you can find your self drinking coffee with Gail Emms (who sadly has just dropped out this year) or discussing tactics with a national coach

Help Desk

For my sins today I have been on the Helpdesk, (staff shortage since you kindly ask).
So what do I think of my customers?
They are nice, say please and thank you and just want a little help so they can get on with their work.

There is one major difference form my time as a student. They do a lot more group work and of course they need to talk to their co-workers. So in our Drop-in (just under 190 PCs) there is a steady hum of conversation and I can see how it would annoy some people. On the plus side I think these young people are better at communicating then was my generation and of course jaw jaw is better then war war.

Badminton

Do you folks ever think you are going round in a circle? For the last few months I have working hard in the gym three nights a week to get my knee back in shape so that I can play badminton again. Everything was going well, two weeks ago I played on a Thursday night at the club and had some good games, but on Sunday my knee went again and I back at stage one. Lots of knee pain, lots of exercises and the need to see the physio again. Some times you cant win.

Allotments

My wife and I have a new hobby, we have taken over an allotment. Now when you think of allotments do you think of neat rows of veg maybe with some flowers adding a little colour? I wish ours was like that! Maybe one day it will be, but now its a waste land of brambles grass and very compressed soil. Last weekend we removed a seven year old Birch tree from the middle of the allotment now I love trees and will be planting Apple and Pear trees but I ask you a Birch tree. I have a feeling that our plot has not been worked on for at least seven years. But its taking shape it may take a couple of years to get it into shape but who needs to hurry

Weekend in Cardiff Millennium Magic

As well as playing badminton, all my life I have been a Rugby League fan and a fan of Wigan in particular. So this weekend I and few thousand others will be taking the trip down to Wales to see 6 games in one weekend. We play St Helens our local rivals. Its odd how things go in sport, at one time we could not lose to Saints, but now I think its 5 wins on the trot for them. But with a bit of luck its our turn to win.