Oh Kay Google

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We’ve recently come into possession of a Google Home, and now we have added a Google Chromecast.
I’m still learning about what it can do – it’s certainly not intuitive – and there do seem to be some limitations on what it will allow me to do as a G-suite user. And possibly because I’m in South Africa as well.

But we’re getting there, and we’ve got the basics sorted. Next job is to treat myself to a smart bulb or two and lighting up the neighbourhood. Remotely.

It’s fun, but it will also be good for security and for illuminating the beagle.

Beagles love being illuminated.

Not in London

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I’m not in London, but if I was in London, I would be going to the 6 Music Festival. Not today, obviously – it doesn’t happen for another six weeks, so I very much doubt that they’d let me in to any of the venues just yet.

Previous 6MFs have not quite done it for me, with a few decent acts (and by ‘decent’, I mean bands or artists that I like – I do realise that this is very subjective) and then a lot of fillers (and by ‘fillers’, I mean bands or artists that I don’t really like – I do realise that this is very subjective).

This time around though (for me, I do reali… oh never mind) they’ve really hit the mark. I’ve been doing some rudimentary calculations, and I could happily listen to at least two-thirds of what’s on offer this time around.

But there’s an awful lot of good music there, and although I’m not in London, I am looking forward to listening to some great stuff from the festival.

Don’t forget to follow my Inspired By 6 Spotify playlist.
Great music (like that above). Regularly updated.

Post-match reaction

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I always watch these videos. I never share them. But this one I am sharing, because it’s one that I will go back to from time to time.

Sheffield United manager Chris Wilder speaks about our 0-1 defeat to Manchester City last night:

Quotes of note:

You’ve got two clubs there tonight that are a million miles apart. One’s spent about a billion pounds and the other one is on its own journey, which I’m not embarrassed about… and we’ve gone toe to toe with them and left everything out there.

I thought they were excellent, outstanding. I thought every part of the football club was outstanding tonight.

And he’s right. It’s not often I feel this proud after the Blades lose. We went down fighting. We tried our best, but sometimes, your best simply isn’t enough and this was one of those times. Manchester City are undoubtedly the best team we’ve played or will play this season. The fact that the scorer of their only goal is probably worth more than our entire squad put together gives me some solace, even if it gives us no points.

A draw would have been wonderful, a win amazing. But we’ve clearly raised ourselves for this run of Big 6 games over the past month. We now need to keep it going as we head into a run of matches against the rest of the Premiership.

Onward and (hopefully) upward.

Both ends

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It seems to me that I may have been burning the candle at both ends.

I’m tired and there’s wax everywhere.

It’s purely self-inflicted: the 2 hour time difference back to the UK means that at the moment, the football starts late and finishes very late. That means that I get to bed later still and yet the early morning school wake up still needs doing each day.

I could give the football a miss, but then also, I couldn’t. Last night’s games were too exciting to go to bed, and then there’s that difficult FOMO feeling as well. Since I’m not playing football at the moment, I need to get my fix somewhere: and that includes my social fix as well. 20 years ago, I could have watched alone and then written an email or blog post about it, but now, I can watch alone and then we can agree on just how bad the referee is with near immediacy on Whatsapp.

It’s not the same as going down to the pub and having a pint, but it is cheaper, safer and a whole lot less effort. Do we connect in the same way across a network as across a table? Probably not, but then I don’t think that the two are mutually exclusive. So sure, I use social media to communicate, but I still talk to people*.

It’s the FA Cup this weekend, which means less to me than the league, but I’ll probably watch some games anyway (and chat about them with friends). However, that fixture pile-up means that there is league football on three nights this week. I’m not quite sure how I’ll survive with so little sleep, but I’m still going to give it a go.

Just as soon as I’ve cleared up all this wax.

 

 

* when I have to

Back to it

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I hurt my back at the end of November and – because I’m old now – it’s taken a long time to get right. As a measure of just how long, I don’t think it’s quite there yet. But nearly.

Still, with that as a reason, and my Dad’s visit as a handy excuse, I’ve managed to avoid most forms of strenuous exercise for almost 8 weeks now. Add to that all the calamari, beer and burgers I’ve been enjoying during his stay, and well… there’s some work to do.

I have a couple of inches to lose and a couple of kilos that they can take with them.

This morning (with my Dad still only over Algeria), I went for a slow, hot run. The speed was simply because I couldn’t go any faster, the heat was because it was a hot day.

It didn’t break any records, save for perhaps being the most overdue run in recent history. The back seems to have held up and there have been no immediate after-effects save for quite a lot of tiredness.

Watch this space for more updates as the weight comes off and the fitness increases. Or not, if I decide not to exercise or not to blog about it.