Win Win Win

No .. not some Buddhist philosophy .. just cricket .. though in reality it should, based on the last 3 games, be draw, lose, win ... but that just hasn't got the same ring has it ... !

Went to the first home 20/20 game of the season last night ... and we actually won. Notts have the WORST record of any side in that competition .. let's hope the tide has turned eh !
Had a beer afterwards with my friend Sarah aka Mousey Thatch .. I thought she'd been quiet during the match .. hadn't even done the Mexican wave when it came round .... which is unusual for her .. though not for me .. mr Grumpy.

Anyway .. turns out she'd been dumped by her boyfriend back in New Zealand where she's been on and off for a few years .. don't think I've ever seen her so upset .. so did my amateur counselling thing .. I really should do it professionally .. seem to do quite a bit of it .... !! Anyway .. hopefully she'll be ok .. just needs to stay strong ... There's always a temptation to mention Buddhism at times like that but it does seem like 'preying on the week' so to speak .. maybe later !

OK .. brain dead now ..... but guidance for today below struck a bit of a chord with me !!

SGI President Ikeda's Daily Encouragement for June 29
The important thing is to advance brightly and strive to be victorious at each moment, right where we are; to begin something here and now instead of fretting and worrying over what will happen. This is the starting point for transforming our lives.

It's a fine day ..

It's a fine day .. looking out my window
At the world out there
thinking I should breathe fresh air ..

It's a fine day .. gonna pass me by
unless I get out there
looking in my window at me

It's a fine day .. looking at my old self
watching TV glad I'm out here
looking outside myself

blah blah etc .. bit of a jazz rap kinda thang (very kinda !)

Anyway .. that's the idea but at the moment is 1.15pm and I AM still in here typing instead of getting out there !

Always knew it would be a slow day though and had planned it to be really so no biggie ... Am actually progressing a bit though as I had intended to do 15-20 mins chanting this morning but did around 50 in the end. I don't know why I forget each time but I really start to feel the effects of the chanting kicking in after about 20 mins which is why it's pretty stupid of me not to do more. Someone once said it's like those snow storm things .. you shake them when you start and it takes time for the snow to fall so that everything's clear .... Oh well Honin Myo and all that !

It will be a challenge though as I have now ordered Buffy season 5 along with a cheapo mp3 player .. well about time I got down wid da kids huh :-)

One of the reasons for getting the player was a link sent to me

http://www.mediamasters.co.uk/dg/insp/

which has buddhist podcasts etc .. could be quote useful !

Anyway .... food calls then a bit of a tidy then I'll be out there, looking at the world .. tra la la etc etc .... :-)

mmm what pic should I put here today .. something useful, inspiring or ...........
















SGI President Ikeda's Daily Encouragement for June 24
You must be strong. There is no hope of winning in this chaotic world if you are weak. No matter what others do or say, it is important to develop your ability and then put that ability to use. Strong faith, of course, is the best means for drawing out one's inner strength. You each have a very important mission, and I hope you will awaken to and be proud of that mission.

Life's a Void (if you don't leave the house).

Which is kind of where I've been this week. Been a strange kind of week .. largely dull nothingness punctuated with commas of boredum and irritability. Even the Buddhist practise has taken a bit of a hit this last week .. been a bit on and off.

Probably won't even get out for a beer this week though that's good as I decided at the end of last week that I eat far too much crap and have started on a big 'eat lots of veg (and a little bit of fruit)' campaign .... Luckily enough .. I love me greens me :-) ... So far so good .. even starting to eat breakfast which previously had been something like a round of toast at mid day ... probably not a good idea.

Probably a sad thing to confess but I was inspired by the weetabix ad .. and it's actually really nice .. weetabix, yoghurt, fruit (usually sultanas .. I'm lazy) all topped with some honey .... how bleeding healthy is that eh !!!

Funny where inspiration comes from isn't it .... Also decided today to kick start the buddhist practise and make some changes in my life .. and when did I decide that ? I'd love to say it was whilst doing copious chanting but it wasn't .. the revelation hit me during my second Buffy episode of the morning .. thinking .. I need to get a life !!! So that's it Honin Myo (Starting from Now) ... and it starts with a hair cut in a short while .. bit of a tidy up of those tufty stray hairs on top of my balding head (ok it's already bald .. I need to hang on to something :-) ...

I did however receive an e-mail from Amazon today .. I have a £5 that has to be spent before the 26th so looks like Buffy series 5 is en route :-)

















SGI President Ikeda's Daily Encouragement for June 23
Jesse Owens, who won four gold medals at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, later remarked that one's inner life is the true Olympics. Life itself is an Olympics where we strive each day to better own personal records.

And you thought I'd gone ....

Thought it was time that I finally posted again .. also because I'm feeling weary and putting off doing some work ... it's that Monday morning feeling especially when my loud strangely voiced neighbour decided to have a LOUD conversation with someone right outside my bedroom window at 7am !!

So, as you can tell, there's an element of grumpiness about today so I'll be avoiding people where possible :-)

So what's happened since last Wednesday ?

Well, firstly cricket .... It looked for quite a while as though Notts were about to lose again but a slow century from David Hussey, his first half decent score of the season, and a quick 50 plus from Graeme Swann gave us a lead of 80 runs going into the second innings. Not enough to avoid us having to bat again ..... you'd think !!

I was umming about leaving to watch the England game but decided to stay .. and what a good choice ... Notts bowled them all out for 46 runs .. Charlie Shreck taking 8 of the wickets .. quite spectacular though it doesn't say much about Middlesex's chances of staying up ! Anyway, the win has scraped us just above the relegation zone so let's hope it kick starts the season a bit !

Other stuff since Wednesday .. MMMMM not a deal really ... went out on Saturday and Sunday nights .. fairly subdued though and not a lot to report. I'll edit if I remember anything worthwhile to post !




























Charlie Shreck - The Peter Crouch of cricket !

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrain !!!!!!!!!!

Jeeze am I pissed off with the weather .... All last week when there was no cricket (with the exception of Sunday), the sun came out and was really sticky and humid. Yesterday at the start of a 4 day match I decided to work in the morning then pop down in teh afternoon ... Got there and watched about an hour when .......















Yep ... it pissed down ALL afternoon ....... Mind you .. Notts could well lose again despite playing a poor side so might well actually be glad in the end.

Don't know what's the matter with Notts right now. Same team as last year and this year they haven't won a game and could well get relegated if they don't start to turn things around ... suspect their confidence is shot ... Still .. at least we'll have a local derby against Derby and Leicester next year :-)

Other than that .. work, dull, world cup etc etc .... Argentina the best side I've seen so far.

Groooan

God .. I'm completely fading in this heat ... maybe it's a gradual wearing down from waking early but I really can't be arsed to do a sodding thing. Did manage to work most of the morning but there's just a lack of oxygen about ... It has rained hard though so maybe that will freshen things up ... !!!

Oh well .. back to the sofa !

Engerland

Ok .. so today is going to be soooo lazy ! I had intended to sleep in this morning but woke a little before 8am. My leg feels really sore too which puzzled me but then I remembered watching some of the Isle of Wight festival on TV and recerting back to my drumming days .. on my legs .. ouch !!

So .. the plan today is that I've laid in bed watching an old Buffy DVD .. must order season 4 soon! .. Gonna tidy the flat in a few mins then have a walk to fetch teh paper etc then settle down to the England match this afternoon .. no idea for the evening .. probably more TV .... Suspect I'll feel pretty tired as I was drinking last night .. went outside the Playhouse as it was warm .. though was a bit chilly at the end ... nice to get outside though !

Not a lot ...

That's pretty much what has happened since my last blog .. I've basically been working with a bit of a swim every now and then. At least they do seem to be sorting the pool out .. well .. after poisoning people anyway !

Think I've finally caught up on a lot of little bits and bobs work wise so now I need to get on with a new designwhich I'm a bit late starting ... Need some inspiration so heading into town now armed with some design books and will have a coffee in the sun (I hope !).

Got a meeting with Jazz Steps early this evening .. part of which is the new site I;m working on:

http://chant4.co.uk/jazzsteps_2006/ - front

http://www.chant4.co.uk/jazzsteps_2006/inner.html - sample inner page


feel free to slag it off ... I'll ignore you anyway ;-)

later

Gweener than Gween

Yesterday was a green day, though thankfully not in the David Ike kind of way ... well, at least I didn't see any lizards (though there were some strange people indeed :-).

Quite a nice chilled out day really and pretty sunny apart from a shower ... my head is pretty red though this morning !

Had quite a bit of interest on the stall and 6 people who already want to come to buddhist meetings so that's pretty good.

Anyway .. too early to use my brain so here's some pretty (and not so pretty) pics from the day.

At Last !!!

I've been feeling pretty shattered and drained this last week .. continuingly fighting tiredness. It's all a bit sad that this probably stemmed from drinking last week end ... A whole week to recover !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anyway, this morning, I finally managed to sleep in and didn't wake until 10am ... felt really shattered initially, but after a semi doze I felt in that land of mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmwarm bed ... finally forced myself out to make a cuppa and watched a DVD of Le Boucher which was a freeebie with the independent ... pretty decent film .. so finally got up about 12.30 .. just in time to do a few bits before I settle down to watch teh footie on TV> Typical though, the sun comes out and I decide to stay in .. oh well !!

MMMMmmm that's better

Feeling a bit more relaxed today .. maybe I should lay off the Greek Coffee and espresso ... Didn't hit any orange robe Buddhists yesterday (as if I ever would :-) ... Actually only got there for an hour and pleased that I did. It was so dead - think I saw about 2 members of the public in total and the others were Buddhists .. and not many of them either. Actually made you realise that, despite being one of the lesser well known in this countries, we probably have a lot more helpers. There was one guy on all day from the Friends of the Western Buddhist Order where as we had several different people throughout the day ... I guess the other Buddhists were nice but they did appear and sound like they'd eaten nothing but brown rice and lentils for the last few years lol.

Anyway .. going for a swim now and hopefully crack on with some more work this afternoon. Am out for a beer tonight .. hopefully it will be warm enough to sit outside ... most likely the Playhouse bar.

So far .. so bad

Oooooh .. I'm in a real ratty mood today ..... did some weights, had a swim and walked to and from town yesterday ... and that, combined with the after effects of the weekend, seemed to really tire me big time.

So .. this morning, I was looking forward to a nice lie in and a late start, only to be woken by the postie bringing me some Buddhist stuff to display on the stall our Buddhist Group are having at the Green Festival this coming Sunday ... Couldn't get back to sleep either so got up and did some work which just wasn't going well at all ... THEN parcel force delivered a load of business cards here which were supposed to be delivered to Kent, so I had to sort that one out .... and now I've just had one of those damn annoying automated phone calls ... grrrrrrr

So that's it pretty much for today I think .... not going to be a productive day so I'm going to have lunch and watch Neighbours now, have a quick soak in the bath then head off to the Council House to help out at our stall for the Buddhist Day there ... Looking forward to a good argument with other Buddhist groups .... especially if they're wearing orange and have changed their name from Wayne to reverend Garanga or something ...... Tolerant ... me ???? Yeah right .. grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr :)