A Personal Rant About My Badminton Club
It’s not like me to rant, but some things can just get on your nerves. Last year I was 1st reserve for the 1st team, this year we have a second team, the club secretary told me that as I would be playing in the team, I need to join up straight away. They selected a captain, didn’t offer it to me, although I have been playing in the same club 12 years longer than she has. She then selects the team, I was the only one who had joined at the time, I’ve played once since when someone else didn’t turn up. They still haven’t all joined, they need to, to get affiliated with the Badminton Association, insurance etc. Tonight they played a match, at home, using 2 courts up, 30 people turned up to play on the other 2 courts, which meant games were sparse. They lost their game quite convincingly, then proceeded to join the rest of us to play more, they had already played all night, and now we are still sitting out because they want to continue. I have already mentioned to other club members that I am not happy, next season I will join another club and play against them. I won’t change now as I have paid my membership, and I don’t pay anything till the season end.
Alkaline foods & fruits
I keep reading articles that only give half the information, I eventually managed to link the two. Alkaline foods are anti-oxidants, acidic foods are oxidants, thats it, but the thing that interested me the most, was that during and after running, there is a lot of lactic acid build up in the muscles, eating an alkaline food during/after will help reduce the lactic acid. The acid and alkali cancel each other out. Obviuosly to eat a pile of alkaline foods to cancel it all out is probably impossible, but it does help. There are loads of alkali/acidic foods listed here http://www.thewolfeclinic.com/acidalkfoods.html , my personal choice has been a bunch of red grapes, they are re-hydrating as well, they have been helping me lately.
Travel-dive
I have recently been writing my diving exploits on a dive site called travel-dive http://www.travel-dive.com I will also be writing up any future interesting dives, including all my dives in Thailand, they will be featured as a destination report, well 3 reports actually. One based on some local dive from Phuket, one on Phi Phi and one on the Similan Islandsm which will incorporate Koh Bon, Koh Tachai, Surin & Richelieu Rock. It is all excellent diving, and my reports will also feature photos and video footage.
Keep your eye out for them when I return.
Clearing out the freezer.
I have decided to clear out my freezer before I go on holiday, I have been eating like a king, where did all that stuff come from? Stir fried chicken with soy & onion sauce with salad last night. More stir fried chicken tonight, I have about 2kg of prawns to eat, a pack of ribs, 2 packs of kebabs, 1 pack of sausages, 1 pack of mixed seafood, another pack of chicken stir fry strips, and all in 4 nights. I invited a few friends round on Sunday for a Chili, used up the lamb mince and the last of the frozen veg. I might have to invite them again on Thursday for another meal.
I won’t need to eat for a while, and I am training harder than ever to keep the weight off.
My efforts to keep fit.
I do try to keep fit. I took up running a few years ago, and have managed to complete 6 Marathons and loads of 1/2 marathons and shorter. During the last year I developed an aggravated achillies tendon, which meant if I ran for more than 20 minutes, I would be in great discomfort for the next 24 hours. So I had to leave off running for 3 months altogether as well as backing off my training for 3 months prior. My achillies is now a lot better, and in my efforts to get ready for the London marathon in April, I am running again. This time instead of running 5 days a week, I am going to the gym and swimming as well. During my lay-off I gained weight, I wasn’t eating a lot, and it was all healthy stuff, but it still went on. Now I am back in training, I am not losing it!! In the gym I have to work very hard to get my heart rate up to where it needs to be to burn fat, and swimming doesn’t get it anywhere near where I need it.
I am going to be the heaviest man running London this year. My only hope is to catch a Bug in Thailand and lose a lot of weight.
Fitting a viewing monitor in an underwater video housing
I am off to sunny Thailand next Saturday, I will be taking my own diving equipment, as well as my own digital still camera and my underwater video setup.
My underwater video setup works very well, but I couldn’t afford one with a screen built into the back, they are a fortune. Without it you can only see part of the viewfinder. What to do about that? I was looking around at options, did a search on ebay, and found a 2.5″ lcd monitor. I came home, measured my case, and it would fit, so I bought one, cost about £35 including postage from Hong Kong. Today I had to bastardise the cameras video output wire to shorten it, it was 4ft long and I only needed 9″. The only other problem I had was, when the cables were inserted, into the side, it no longer fitted. So I stripped it down, soldered in a cable with a plug for the power, and directly soldered the video cable straight to the camera, cut a hole in the back to pass the wires through, and now it fits. While it was in pieces, I removed the speaker and the transistor that powered it to reduce power comsumption. I am running 10 NIMH cells in a pack, and cant change them once they are under water, and they will have to be swtiched on before I close it up.
It now all fits and works. Just got to make a bracket to keep it in place.
It does work quite well, it looks better in B&W though. At £35 a lot cheaper than the £650 official option.
Hello World! I Exist!
My first ever BLOG.
Most of my comments will be about things within my knowledge/experience/interests.
These will include:-
Scuba Diving, underwater photography & videography, tec diving, some simple stuff and some hairy stuff.
Running, mainly long distance, as well as some other sports events.
Computers, a hobby really, but I seem to get on with them.
I have many hobbies, all of which will get featured in one way or another. I think I live an interesting life, I’ll let you decide.
Why the title of paralell lines? It has nothing to do with Blondies album of the same name. During our lives we may never meet or cross paths, we lives our lives in paralell to millions of others without even knowing they exist, this may be the only time you will ever come across me, but now you know I do exist.