24.10.06

Wrestling with clay - 23/10/2006

Was a quieter week with the come down from this big campaign evident in our workload. We still had stuff to get on with but it was a welcome chance for a breather without the ever present pressure of the campaign. Hit the swimming pool again that night. I steeled myself for an assortment of annoying slow coaches in the fast lane but there were very few. The coming winter and maybe the fact that it was half term for some seemed to keep quite a few people away. Indeed at one point I was the only one in the lane. It made me push as hard as I could but the four weeks absence was being felt by my lungs that just couldn't seem to inflate with enough air. I felt reassuringly tight and invigorated after the swim so it was good to have gone back.
Watched Spooks again which was entertaining for a Monday evening. It is a shame that when it first started the agents at MI5 just had to contend with tackling the nasty bad guys like racist thug groups, disaffected soldiers or international terrorists. Now though it seems they have to contend with all the above plus a government that contains not one decent redeeming member within it. If this is sold abroad foreign viewers must think we don't have a single honourable politician left.
Ordered some printed T-shirts during the course of the week. One, which was an idea from a regular reader to my site, says "Just waiting..." on the front and "...for you to make the first move" on the back. It might make some readers in a club of it smile, though one of my friends thinks it a little arrogant and gives the impression I'm saying 'form a line'. I see it as more self deprecatory myself. The other one is a cue from one of my observations and says "Potential sex addict" on the front and "If only I could get enough to know" on the back. As with all of these they are just meant as a bit of fun and potential ice breaker/conversation starter. Hell I've had more approaches when I'm wearing a messaged t-shirt than when I'm not. I'm currently toying with one saying "I'd rather be home wanking" but I fear this might be a little too far.
Didn't hit the gym on Wednesday and chose instead to spend some time with my bro after our little weekend spat. It was the first night of a few days off for him and I oversaw him preparing a spaghetti bolognaise from scratch. We chatted and drank some coke and it was an enjoyable meal bar the disappointing garlic bread. What is it with garlic bread that the more you spend the worse it is? We got some nice 'taste the difference' ciabatta garlic bread and it was woeful. We observed the correct time, heat and placement yet it was dried out and unappetising. From now on I'll return to the 89p garlic baguette's dripping with garlic butter. I tried to eat less bearing in mind I hadn't hit the gym but it was hard when the food was so nice.
Armin was really good on Thursday night and it spurned me on to download some more trance mixes for my nano. Downloaded two more ASOT's along with a two hour mix by Sean Tyas. This is the guy who did that awesome remix of Lost in Love - one of my all time favourite dance tracks and his set contained some real blinders. It's been a good few weeks, nay month or so since I've written up this journal with some fresh, new foot tapping trance.
Got some tickets for the Euromillions whose jackpot has now swollen to over £64million but still didn't win. Nobody else did either, which is comforting, so next weeks jackpot could be as much as £75million. Thoughts of winning this and how I would spend it are a particularly favourite place that my mind likes to go before eventually signing off into sleep.
Hit the gym hard again on Saturday and the mixes on the nano really helped. I still love the other stuff but it is harder to take your mind off the running when you know exactly the next track coming in. Making up your mind whether you like something or wanting to replay it keeps your mind off your aching limbs, which is never a bad thing. There were a few nice women in there but maybe this is because I went slightly later (more late afternoon) than I normally do. It sounds shallow and chauvinistc but eye candy in the gym can be both distracting from what you are doing and also motivating to make you push that little bit harder. After last week's time in the sauna I'm finding it a lot more bearable and now enjoy the sweating fug of the steam room followed by the drying but more body core warming heat of the sauna.
My brother had done an overnight delivery job and I agreed to pick him up to save the other guy he was doing it with having to run him all the way back to mine. I waited in this hotel car park and while I did I contemplated how fascinating I find them. You just can't help but wonder who the people are that are staying over. Are they down for a wedding, a business meeting, an illicit meetup or just going out locally. You just want to know their stories. It was only a Hilton but I love the idea of paying to stay in somewhere different, maybe because I've not done it a great deal, and find the idea of hotels really exciting and interesting.
Watched Brotherhood again after I'd fed my bro up. He swore he would be able to stay awake to watch it even though he hadn't been to sleep since 6.00am on the Friday morning. I said we could defer to another day but his stubborn-ness said no and he seemed to really enjoy it which was great. We were up early-ish, ok 10.00 the following day as had promised to go down and help my friends brother (the one where we do the paintball) with work on this huge driveway that he is putting in. He's had to dig down through a load of clay and we were prepping this sweeping drive and circle with a fabric membrane to help when untold amounts of bricks were dumped in it to provide a hard foundation.
The day was pretty shitty and I knew we would get dirty. I wore my combats as I thought they would be the hardest wearing and maybe the easiest to clean afterwards. I also wore my digger hat, the one I'd bought for paintball but couldn't use as it wouldn't fit over the mask. Full combats, digger hat, orange gloves and wellington boots - I looked pretty cool! The work was entertaining, tiring but all good natured. I got wet or should that be damp reasonably quickly but the body responded fairly well and brought temperature up to a comfortable level. It was one of those dilemmas in dressing for. If you didn't move around you would be cold but if you put too many layers on would be too hot if you did start exerting yourself.
The clay we were working in was amazing stuff. You'd plonk your foot in it, something or someone would distract you and then when you came to pull out your boot moments later it would hardly move. At one point I feel backwards onto my arse which was hilarious and another time my brother had to come and prise my boot (with foot still inside) out of the clay with a shovel. He had it worse though as when we were rolling out the membrane he stepped backwards, then stepped again but managed to pull his foot completely out of the boot and back down into the clay before he'd realised what he'd done. His poor foot was covered in clay but he rammed into back into the boot and carried on like a trooper. I certainly managed to get dirty. Carrying bricks and small lumps of concrete to secure the membrane down meant I inadvertently held them to my chest, which naturally covered that in crap, along with that on my arse and what was up my trousers from the regular sploshing and squelching. I managed to go completely through the fingers of the gloves as well as spray clay across my face. We stopped for lunch at one point and then ploughed on until sundown burning off any excess calories. The digger performed very well with the brim ensuring the rain didn't completely soak my head but rather slide off the sides. It did though force the brim down over my ears making me look like a bassett hound.
Thankfully we'd taken a change of clothes and getting into them added it's own brand of humour. You reach that point where you are dirty and wet through yet your body has still found this warm statis which you know you are going to have to break to get into some clean clothes. It's like your body has grown comfortable with the dirt and damp yet taking it off will prove almost more jarring. There is also the added problem of trying to disrobe and not get your fresh clothes just as dirty. My mates brother offered us some dinner which my bro and I would happily have accepted but I think my mate just wanted to get home. It's understandable as he'd been with his folks the previous night and I guess wanted to get back to his gaff in prep for the coming week. Family meals, where everyone sits down and tucks in are, I'm sure, commonplace for him but for bro and me they are rare and I think we probably notice and appreciate them even more. I think maybe it's that warm, loving family thing which we can pick up more than say someone who has always had it. There's a kind of safety and peace and maybe even an insight into what really a proper life should be about. We had good fun and it was a great way to spend a sunday. It burnt some calories, we had a laugh and who doesn't like getting cold, wet and dirty now and again.
Drove home and I could certainly feel the effects of the rain on my face along with the rim of my hat which felt like it was still on, long after I'd taken it off. We ummed and ahhed about what to have for tea and decided to stop in at Noodle Time. It was ok, but my bro was disappointed with his choice and the food was ultimately unsatisfying. A classic indicator from me of this fact was walking in at home and immediately looking at the Pizza Hut menu to see what creation we could have got for the same money. When I eventually felt the eyelids getting heavy, I slept well.
Thanks for checking in, talk soon.

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