About a couple of hours after posting yesterday I got a message to say that I'm not needed for the competition in Hawick on the weekend. The reason given was something about not having enough teams and so they've cut down on entries and the team I was in has been scratched.
Yeh, some excuse. I think they read my blog and decided they didn't want an outsider, with stickers on her bowls to prove it, who is playing in third position on Friday wandering into the Hawick club and perchance picking up their trophy. That would definitely put the cat among the pigeons so to speak. Or in my dreams might be more appropriate!
Thursday, 25 November 2010
Wednesday, 24 November 2010
A member of the club
Today I went for practice for bowls at Tweedbank Indoor Stadium, where I've become a member. I've actually played there twice before, once a practice session on my own, and the second one I joined in what's called a Hat game, where everyone just gets allotted a team and position on the day. Prior to this I played in Inverness Indoor probably about 8 times in all and that was some years ago.
The Hat game I was in I did ok, in fact after about an hour I was beginning to get the hang of it and the consequence of that was that when I signed up for a competition on this coming Friday, I was put in at 3rd, which is the position for experienced folk! The woman who did this dastardly deed said they all thought I'd played loads from my performance at the Hat. Yeh right... I think they just want a fall guy.
Anyway, I thought I'd better get in a bit of practice and so because I had an hour to spare today I went of to Tweedbank to give it a go. To my horror there was a Scottish game going on and there was only one rink left at the end. The guy who's in charge told me to go and play with no problem in spite of my telling him my prevalence for delivering my bowl on the wrong bias. He just laughed. Well not for long!
Within five minutes I'd had to go and retrieve my bowl a couple of times, so he came and gave me club stickers, so now I'm officially a member of Tweedbank Indoor Bowls Club and have the bowls to prove it.
The only problem is that I'm due to play in a competition in Hawick on Saturday, as one of the Gordon people was short a team player and he's a member of Hawick Indoor Bowls, so I've been allotted honorary Hawicker membership. I'm not sure he'll look very kindly at my new allegiance and my bowls might have to be stripped of their new resplendent red stickers pretty damn quick!
The Hat game I was in I did ok, in fact after about an hour I was beginning to get the hang of it and the consequence of that was that when I signed up for a competition on this coming Friday, I was put in at 3rd, which is the position for experienced folk! The woman who did this dastardly deed said they all thought I'd played loads from my performance at the Hat. Yeh right... I think they just want a fall guy.
Anyway, I thought I'd better get in a bit of practice and so because I had an hour to spare today I went of to Tweedbank to give it a go. To my horror there was a Scottish game going on and there was only one rink left at the end. The guy who's in charge told me to go and play with no problem in spite of my telling him my prevalence for delivering my bowl on the wrong bias. He just laughed. Well not for long!
Within five minutes I'd had to go and retrieve my bowl a couple of times, so he came and gave me club stickers, so now I'm officially a member of Tweedbank Indoor Bowls Club and have the bowls to prove it.
The only problem is that I'm due to play in a competition in Hawick on Saturday, as one of the Gordon people was short a team player and he's a member of Hawick Indoor Bowls, so I've been allotted honorary Hawicker membership. I'm not sure he'll look very kindly at my new allegiance and my bowls might have to be stripped of their new resplendent red stickers pretty damn quick!
Monday, 22 November 2010
So nice to be right
About 5 years ago there was a really interesting programme on telly at Xmas, it was all about traffic flow, and showed how one person braking first thing in the morning could cause a hold up later in the day. It was absolutely fascinating.
Well my contention is that one policeman can cause complete havoc by trying to help.
Have you ever noticed that when you're caught in a traffic jam, as long as it's not on a motorway, is very often caused by someone directing the traffic? Well today pretty much proved my theory when an accident happened almost right outside our house.
Of course I missed the whole thing and was only alerted to it when my Beloved came home after an afternoon of food shopping to say, 'Didn't you hear it?' Sadly the answer was no. Not sure if this was because I was at the back of the house or that I'm getting even deafer than I already know I am, but no matter. Essentially a car was pretty much totalled by a tractor on the crossroad that is our village. The tractor went on to total the village flower display.
Anyway, I took the dog out for a walk while the ambulance was still hanging about, but all those caught in the accident were standing around smoking fags and so all seemed to be ok. The traffic was flowing, and there was no problem. By the time the dog and I got back to the house, a policeman was in charge of keeping the traffic doing what it was supposed to do and the whole high street was completely blocked in all directions. The policeman was huffing and puffing and waving his arms and seemed to be enjoying his moment in the spotlight. The traffic was at a standstill.
Point proven I think.
Well my contention is that one policeman can cause complete havoc by trying to help.
Have you ever noticed that when you're caught in a traffic jam, as long as it's not on a motorway, is very often caused by someone directing the traffic? Well today pretty much proved my theory when an accident happened almost right outside our house.
Of course I missed the whole thing and was only alerted to it when my Beloved came home after an afternoon of food shopping to say, 'Didn't you hear it?' Sadly the answer was no. Not sure if this was because I was at the back of the house or that I'm getting even deafer than I already know I am, but no matter. Essentially a car was pretty much totalled by a tractor on the crossroad that is our village. The tractor went on to total the village flower display.
Anyway, I took the dog out for a walk while the ambulance was still hanging about, but all those caught in the accident were standing around smoking fags and so all seemed to be ok. The traffic was flowing, and there was no problem. By the time the dog and I got back to the house, a policeman was in charge of keeping the traffic doing what it was supposed to do and the whole high street was completely blocked in all directions. The policeman was huffing and puffing and waving his arms and seemed to be enjoying his moment in the spotlight. The traffic was at a standstill.
Point proven I think.
Sunday, 21 November 2010
Gaming strategy
Yesterday I had a bit of a 'day off'. That meant not doing very much at all apart from a bit of washing and a bit of reading and left the evening for Strictly etc.
In the afternoon I decided I would have a go at Bubble Island (yet again) as I've been trying to finish it with limited success for the past few weeks. The final stage is an absolute bitch, and in order to help you on your way, the game gives you flags and if you use them then you can slow the game down which makes it a whole lot easier. Problem is they cost you. Well they cost 'coins' which you get by playing (minimum coins), by spinning a daily lottery (quite a few coins) or paying (maximum coins).
Well I'm afraid I never pay. Any game that demands payment is not for me. I don't vote on any TV voting thing either as years ago, during the first Big Brother, I voted for someone to win, Anna the ex nun, and she lost. What a waste I thought, and have never voted again. Especially as the phone voting system seems to be just a way of those who don't need it, to make a profit out of those who do, under the guise of giving the masses a choice. Have you ever seen the papers after a final?
Anyway, I made a decision a couple of weeks ago to do the daily spin and amass so many coins that when I went for the win, I'd use them all up in one go and beat the game. And yesterday afternoon, I decided I'd have a go at starting at the beginning of Stage 10 and see how far I got, as I thought I needed to have 20,000 coins to play with to make it easy on myself and I only had just over 15,000.
And so I started, and bizarrely, without having to touch my pot of gold, I actually made it to the end. It now says 'Game Mastered' by my name!
The only problem is I now have all those coins in my amassed collection and nothing to put them to use with. I think the only answer is to play again.... oh noooo.
In the afternoon I decided I would have a go at Bubble Island (yet again) as I've been trying to finish it with limited success for the past few weeks. The final stage is an absolute bitch, and in order to help you on your way, the game gives you flags and if you use them then you can slow the game down which makes it a whole lot easier. Problem is they cost you. Well they cost 'coins' which you get by playing (minimum coins), by spinning a daily lottery (quite a few coins) or paying (maximum coins).
Well I'm afraid I never pay. Any game that demands payment is not for me. I don't vote on any TV voting thing either as years ago, during the first Big Brother, I voted for someone to win, Anna the ex nun, and she lost. What a waste I thought, and have never voted again. Especially as the phone voting system seems to be just a way of those who don't need it, to make a profit out of those who do, under the guise of giving the masses a choice. Have you ever seen the papers after a final?
Anyway, I made a decision a couple of weeks ago to do the daily spin and amass so many coins that when I went for the win, I'd use them all up in one go and beat the game. And yesterday afternoon, I decided I'd have a go at starting at the beginning of Stage 10 and see how far I got, as I thought I needed to have 20,000 coins to play with to make it easy on myself and I only had just over 15,000.
And so I started, and bizarrely, without having to touch my pot of gold, I actually made it to the end. It now says 'Game Mastered' by my name!
The only problem is I now have all those coins in my amassed collection and nothing to put them to use with. I think the only answer is to play again.... oh noooo.
Friday, 19 November 2010
More from the OU
The alternative forum has, for some reason, disappeared from existence. No-one knows why, no-one knows who, no-one knows where. And so, after 24 hours, another alternative forum was set up and I was extremely relieved to be invited to join. And the same online camaraderie and support is now in action again.
But then, an interesting thing happened on the Student Cafe forum. We were told by our moderators that we wouldn't be allowed to post on that forum from 4.45 pm today until Monday, because both of them are away for the weekend. Which I have to say sounded a little 'parental'.
So one of our number on the alternative forum waited until 4.43 and posted something a little on the subversive side. It remained for all of 10 minutes when the whole thing was deleted, not even blocked. It was very funny in that schoolboy kind of way, you know, getting one over on your teachers, or at least that's what you think and then at the last minute they manage to get their own back.
You can tell what my school days were like.
But then, an interesting thing happened on the Student Cafe forum. We were told by our moderators that we wouldn't be allowed to post on that forum from 4.45 pm today until Monday, because both of them are away for the weekend. Which I have to say sounded a little 'parental'.
So one of our number on the alternative forum waited until 4.43 and posted something a little on the subversive side. It remained for all of 10 minutes when the whole thing was deleted, not even blocked. It was very funny in that schoolboy kind of way, you know, getting one over on your teachers, or at least that's what you think and then at the last minute they manage to get their own back.
You can tell what my school days were like.
Wednesday, 17 November 2010
Banned from the OU
Tonight was an evening with my OU colleagues, held in Inca, a bijou place in Bruntsfield in Edinburgh, where us writers in the supposed making met with our tutor, Ray, who's actually quite a star. Very droll, very dry, and impressively well read and immensely helpful. And then I got home to a message from the OU to say I'd be removed from an online forum.
Now I need to go into a bit of history here: the OU offers us students an online cafe, where we can post our scribblings, our thoughts etc etc. However, about 3 weeks ago there was a post that omitted in the subject line that the content was 'strong'. There was a complaint by one of our number and the transgressor had a virtual wrist slap by the ever vigilant moderators. So the friend of the transgressor decided to start a different cafe. One where you had to ask to go and be accepted and where there were no holds barred. I couldn't bear to be left out so duly asked, and was accepted. It is actually full of extremely erudite, very good writers, and anything goes. And I've found it a place full of online cameraderie and sometimes very funny indeed. And tonight when I got home I was barred from entering and told the guy who'd set it all up had decided that I didn't belong.
My paranoia set in and weirdly found myself feeling rather bereft. Why had I been banned? Hadn't I sworn enough? Hadn't I been rude enough? What was the problem?
It turns out that everyone has been thrown out. A computer glitch or an OU masterplan? More to come on this methinks.
Now I need to go into a bit of history here: the OU offers us students an online cafe, where we can post our scribblings, our thoughts etc etc. However, about 3 weeks ago there was a post that omitted in the subject line that the content was 'strong'. There was a complaint by one of our number and the transgressor had a virtual wrist slap by the ever vigilant moderators. So the friend of the transgressor decided to start a different cafe. One where you had to ask to go and be accepted and where there were no holds barred. I couldn't bear to be left out so duly asked, and was accepted. It is actually full of extremely erudite, very good writers, and anything goes. And I've found it a place full of online cameraderie and sometimes very funny indeed. And tonight when I got home I was barred from entering and told the guy who'd set it all up had decided that I didn't belong.
My paranoia set in and weirdly found myself feeling rather bereft. Why had I been banned? Hadn't I sworn enough? Hadn't I been rude enough? What was the problem?
It turns out that everyone has been thrown out. A computer glitch or an OU masterplan? More to come on this methinks.
Monday, 15 November 2010
What a bit of kit!
Today I unwrapped my Ion Profile usp turntable which I bought online from a company called Firebox. I know I could probably have got it a bit cheaper but they were so helpful and it was free p&p. Anyway, that's not the point. The point is it is a brilliant bit of kit!
I can now play all my old vinyl, lp's, ep's, 45's and they can be played through the computer sound system or downloaded onto iplayer with one click of a button. It was all so easy that even I managed it. So watch out if you come and stay, you might be forced to listen to all my good old fave's.
Dylan rules... OK!
I can now play all my old vinyl, lp's, ep's, 45's and they can be played through the computer sound system or downloaded onto iplayer with one click of a button. It was all so easy that even I managed it. So watch out if you come and stay, you might be forced to listen to all my good old fave's.
Dylan rules... OK!
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