Oslo - a success

My trip to Oslo was a success; it would have been even better if it had snowed while I was there, but it had snowed recently and it was very pretty. I didn't take the photo, but that's the National Theatre (I think) and our hotel was very close by, and the scene looked just like this. It's such a shame that Norway is so expensive, otherwise it would be a great holiday destination. Put it this way - I paid for dinner for myself and my colleague: we went to a steakhouse, and had a starter, main course, side dish and one and a half pints of beer, and that came to £100.
I guess if we want snow and pine trees we'll just go to Siberia instead!

Swap Night

It's Thursday night and we've decided to make it this week's "Swap Night". We tried this last week for the first time, to give Olga a full night's undisturbed sleep. She feeds Lara around 9-10pm, then goes to bed, and I look after the later feeds using expressed milk. Tonight I've "topped her up" around midnight and she's sleeping, and hopefully that will see her through till 4am, I'll feed her then, and that should be good until 7am when we'll go and wake Mum in the spare bedroom.
I'd go to bed straight after her midnight feed but Dirty Harry is on ITV4 and I just can't resist watching it to the end. I did miss the "Go ahead, make my day" line though. It's nice to see bits of San Francisco I recognise from our 2005 holiday.
We had the same thing last week, we watched the Nicholas Cage film "Honeymoon in Vegas" (NOT the one where he tries to drink himself to death!) which had scenes in Vegas and Hawaii that we remembered. He used a phone in Waimea on Kauai next to the statue of James Cook that we have a photograph of!

Colin Croft

I recognise the name Colin Croft more from his commentaty stints on TMS on the radio rather than from his playing days (here's a photo from Spring 1981, l-r Andy Roberts, Michael Holding, Colin Croft & Joel Garner). I met him on Wednesday night, as he's coaching at our pre-season cricket nets! Littlewick have joined forces with one of our rival clubs to share the cost of running nets, as both clubs had trouble getting enough people to attend in their own right. I don't know how they did it, but they arranged for Colin Croft to come and coach us! Littlewick still only contributed 6 players, and White Waltham brought 17. There were people of all ages and shapes, and I don't think any of us were expecting to be jumping around and running up and down a sports hall bouncing basketballs, but that's what he had us doing for the first 20 minutes as a warm up. We were then split into two groups, and his assistant took one group for fielding drills, and the other group went with him to do bowling and batting in the nets. By the time I got round to batting he switched roles to take the fielding drills, so he couldn't stand back and admire the cover drives, pulls and straight drives I executed with the kind of mistiming you can only achieve when you try batting for the first time in 4 months. Actually, one or two did come out of the middle of the bat, and my judgement for leaving deliveries was good too, so I'm thinking I might fill the new gap for an opening bat for the second XI this summer. Seeing as we've got a West Indian fast bowler as a coach, I might try and get over my bowling yips and give that another go too!

I Am Legend

I went to see the film I am Legend on Tuesday after work; it was pretty good, I like almost all Will Smith's films, and much like watching 28 Days Later, it was strange but fun to see the streets of a city you recognise while they are deserted. The film does well to avoid the usual Hollywood temptation of shoe-horning a love story into a plot where there doesn't need to be one, although there is one bubbling under the surface (they couldn't possibly make a film without any trace!). A couple of bits stick in the memory though, being a new-found dog lover, you couldn't help be touched by the fate of his dog, Sam (I'll not give too much away though!) and it made me think about Mishka, but then there's the car.
There are two sports cars I adore - one is the blue 1967 AC Cobra in another of Will Smith's films, Bad Boys, and the other is pretty much any Ford Mustang. I've rented two Mustangs during trips to the States, I just think they're great.
Well I am Legend has the best of both - the 2007 Ford Mustang Shelby GT500:

The basic model starts at just $40,000... well, I can dream!

Things I've Liked and Not Liked

An update on Arriva Buses - they were in my bad books again for making me wait 25 minutes one morning this week, but then in the evening I had to run for the bus home. If I was being cynical, I would say that the bus was early, which is even more unforgivable than it being late, but seeing as I did actually catch it, and I'm not cynical, I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and say that it was exactly on time :-)

I also can't decide if I like being so busy at work or not. I've had one of the busiest weeks I can remember this week, mostly getting ready for my trip to Oslo on Monday and Tuesday. Obviously it's good to be busy rather than have no work to do, but this has almost been too busy, given that I would have preferred to get home at 5.15 so I can play with Lara a little, rather than 7pm and then I have to bathe her straight away and put her to bed. It's interesting work, which helps, and challenging, and I'm on top of it, which makes the hard work worthwhile. But then I would prefer less work and more time at home!

I like that I can do some of this work from home, which means I don't have to go into the office at the weekend, well, not until tomorrow. Modern technology - couldn't live without it!

Football update - I like that Bury are drawing 0-0 with Southampton at half-time, and I also like that the online commentary has just left the microphone on so I can hear the half-time entertainment at the ground, as if I were there, without the hassle of getting cold or queuing for my pie! Lara & Olga are here listening too!
In a masochistic way I like that Havant are giving Liverpool a game at Anfield, it was so predictable!