Really got out of the habit of updating this thing in the last few months.
Finally know what is wrong with my hips, although it's not a problem as such. The physio reckons I've got hyper-mobile hip joints which means certain muscles in that area have to work harder than usual, hence the pain if I walk a long distance. Physio isn't the answer, instead he said I need to go to the gym and build up core muscle in that area. So I've signed up for the local gym, as it's a good reason to go and goodness knows I need to do something about my weight. When I used to go to the gym back in 2001 my weight was about 12 stone, now it's over 14.
Went back to Berlin again at the end of October with my cousin, had a great time. The weather was a bit grey and cold, and the first two days were rather dismal, but we still had a good time. The skies cleared on the third day so we finally got a chance to head up to the top of the Fernsehturm and after that the weather stayed clear, just rather cold. Also did a little bit of geocaching, only got two, but it's nice to have some international ones in my list. Picked up a little bit more German, which is always interesting. The issues with the S-bahn seemed to be under control while we were there and on one day we just wanted to sit down for a while so we got on an S-bahn train going around the Ringbahn, and did a complete loop. It took about an hour and was quite interesting. Probably going back at the end of March as my cousin and brother want to do the Berlin half-marathon. It would be nice if I could persuade my Dad to come but I don't think he will.
The weekend just gone was off to Cardiff for the Wales/New Zealand rugby game, which was great. We all piled into Rob's car and drove down on the Saturday morning. The trip was relatively uneventful except for hotel car park when a speedbump snapped the exhaust. The game was pretty good and this time we went back to Cardiff Bay rather than go into town and squidge into a pub with thousands of other people. This worked out quite well as we had a relaxed and leisurely meal in Chiquito before retiring. The next day the RAC put a temporary fix on the exhaust and we had a brief wander around the town before heading back.
Not much else to report. After I did the pickguards for the doubleneck, had a go at wiring it, but got stuck. Need to have another go after a nice guy on a bass forum drew me a diagram on how to wire the switch to select between the pickups. Once that's working, it'll need a finish on the body. I'm still planning on putting a new neck on my main Squier Jazz Bass and moving the neck off that to the lower position on the doubleneck as it will match the upper one more and make it look and feel better to play. Was watching a nice neck off a Squier 70's Jazz Bass with blocks and binding on Ebay but it went for too much so the plan now is to get a new Fender licensed Mighty Mite neck as they are affordable but really good for the price. Not sure when I can afford it though.
Up to Reaper Man in the epic Discworld reread marathon, which is quite a good one. Moving Pictures was also decent and I'd forgotten how good Guards! Guards! was.
Got a cold, was sent home from work early yesterday and didn't go in today. It's been the coughing stage today so hopefully will be OK tomorrow. Very frustrating as I was supposed to have the induction in the gym last night and my performance appraisal today.
The Focus is still going OK and gets about 380-400 miles to a full tank of fuel, which isn't too bad. I really wanted a diesel but the petrol one was much nicer overall to drive, not least because the diesel engine was an old-fashioned engine which was really noisy. It has a nice gearshift which has helped as I really have grown fond of automatics. There are automatic Focuses but they aren't very common and there weren't any around at a price I could afford. I did test drive a cheap Astra 1.4 auto but the gearbox was knackered.
The exhaust started blowing last week though - what the fuck is it with me and exhausts?! There's a few other things I need to sort too, a sidelight bulb, the cigarette lighter won't power the satnav and one of the rear tyres looks like a really shitty remould, and I don't do those. The AX had remoulds on the front when I got it and after the tread started to come off one when I was driving, I decided that I don't like them. All will have to wait till payday though.
The track has had the middle scraped off, which has allowed me to bring the Pimpmobile II up to the house, but that quickly showed another reason why I can't keep it. It's absolutely hopeless up there. It can't cope with mud at all and just ends up spinning its wheels pointlessly during the most simple of maneuvers. Just turning it round was a nightmare and at one point I genuinely thought it was irretrievably stuck in the most awkward place possible. My old W123 coped much better, it had much higher ground clearance and I think its manual gearbox helped.
Got the new GTA, Stories from Liberty City. I've already played The Lost and Damned, but the new one, The Ballad of Gay Tony, is more fun, feeling more like the old Vice City and San Andreas days. Done a few missions in it, and it's quite interesting, though some can be frustrating as always. It's hard to adapt back to the GTA way of playing sometimes.
Stuck more things on Ebay, the Eee PC 900, which I don't use any more, and my small collection of WonderSwan stuff. Wasn't expecting much from the WonderSwan auction but there's 5 people watching it, so who knows. The Pimpmobile is back on there too, it really needs to go.
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