Snow

Today I have mostly avoided being childish and have generally lacked the urge to go and play in the snow. Because it's been snowing today - and last night. We woke up with a light covering, not enough to inconvenience us here.

The unusual thing was that, in addition to snow in November - which is something I have never seen - it was the first time I can ever remember having seen it snow an entire day. It wasn't necessarily consistently heavy snow, often a light flurry. But it did snow the entire day, having snowed most of the night. Impressive stuff!

It's forecast to continue most of the night and we'll see how it looks tomorrow morning! It's meant to be colder tonight so it might settle a bit more ...

Postponed Due To Lack Of Players

So this evening was supposed to be football, but as you can tell by the fact that I'm blogging a little before 8pm, there was no football.

The reason for this was actually not the biting cold - at least, I don't think so. The day started with ten of us, which soon dropped to nine when Matt was stuck on the other side of London due to a tube strike, and Steve had a bad back over the weekend. Tom was also wavering due to wanting to avoid any potential snow on the way home as he has a longer journey.

So at 7 and one wavering, we checked that everyone else attending could make it. 4-a-side is just about manageable, and in the cold noone minds the extra running involved! However, two further people were selfishly off ill. A third had hurt his foot over the weekend so counted himself as barely a half. Discounting the wavering Tom, we were down to 4 and a half people.

Of the remaining, I was not fancying the cold, and at least one is notoriously unreliable. We decided that postponing the game may be the most sensible option. We'll see next week if these were genuine excuses or if it was just a fear of the cold and that all these injuries and illnesses have magically healed themselves in the meantime!

Personal Manifesto

So after my comments the other day, it seems only appropriate for me to follow up with a simple 'what I would do' by way of response. It's not so much exact counterpoints but instead a couple of my own philosophies.

Choice should not be trumpeted as an alternative to a high quality, adequate service being provided. Choice between two unpalatable options does not represent an improvement.

Benefits were designed as a safety net for those in need. While any system is vulnerable to abuses, condemning anyone attempting to claim benefits as workshy scroungers is inaccurate and unproductive. Exploiting those who are struggling and attacking the vast majority who genuinely need support is craven politics of the very worst kind.

Sometimes foreigners are decent people. Opposition to immigration has become a form of acceptable xenophobia. Bowing to this opinion and encouraging it is political cowardice.

It's not much to start with. But it'd be a nice start. Politics should be about rising to the ideal, setting a higher goal, about championing the best as opposed to spreading fears of the other. It should be about the boldness to defend what is right, not the temptation to hide what is wrong. It should inspire.

We're still waiting.

Tough On Headlines, Tough On The Causes Of Headlines

This evening I was reading the Evening Standard on the train on the way home, which despite my reluctance I usually end up doing. This featured more depressing stories to cheer me up.

As my American wife prepares to submit her visa application to be able to join me in the UK, I read that the government will soon be introducing new restrictions and checks on spouse visas, requiring that the UK-based spouse has a certain amount of money or income. As someone who is currently going through what is honestly a nerve-wracking and terrifying process dominated by uncertainty, new introductions here in a bid to cut 'bogus marriages' are honestly soul-destroying.

The saddest thing is, this won't stop bogus marriages. It won't reduce them. People who want to get them will still get them. In this urge to sound tough on immigration, all this government is doing is stopping people who love each other being able to be together.

Honestly, if that's what my country now is, it's not a country I want to be in.

Monday Report

As usual on Monday, I am in to the blogging routine. I haven't actually posted anything since Thursday - most remiss of me I know. Since then it has been Rachel's birthday - having now reached the age of 24. Carisa, you'll be delighted to know that I did pass on your birthday wishes. We went out for a pleasant meal on Saturday lunchtime at a pub-restaurant on the other side of Woking.

This weekened I have spent most of my time trying my best to contribute what little I could to help my wife who was having a trying time this weekend with illness in the family. I never really add in very much I think, but I do try to help where I can and add my support! Hopefully things will get easier for her this week.

As Usual

Today I was back on the 'getting up early' routine, i.e. my normal time of day after a couple of fortuitously later starts. I have to be honest, it was considerably more enjoyable getting up an hour later and having the option of multiple trains minutes apart, as opposed to the one train per half hour. I did just make my one train today, but it involved running.

I arrived home slightly later this evening after a detour into town to pick up something for Rachel's birthday, what with that being tomorrow and all. Exciting stuff.

Shorter Commute

So this morning - and in fact tomorrow too - I was in London for a meeting at the start of the day. Bizarrely, despite it being further away, I was able to get up later. The fact that the meeting didn't start until 10am was helpful here, though, but I was there before 9:30am despite not leaving home until 8:15am.

The latter was surprisingly entertaining too - it was nice to get up a little later! It gave me an insight into what it would be like to live closer to work and be able to have a shorter trip. I have a feeling I'd quite enjoy not having to be up until 7:30 every morning, instead of having to be leaving the house at the same time!

Weekend Report

This weekend marked a slight variation from my usual routine. On Friday a few of us from work went for one of our now occasional gaming nights - essentially a group of guys from IT playing lots of games and suscribing to stereotype.

As this time it was Tom's turn to host - this duty operates on a semi-random basis - we headed to the sunny location of Gillingham. As this is a not insubstantial trek from our glorious workplace in Raynes Park, we were also staying over the night and returning to civilisation on the Saturday morning.

The majority of the time we were playing the new blockbuster that is Call of Duty - Black Ops. I'd not played this before, but it is quite impressive. I was not so impressive however, but it was a good game! We also played Halo: Reach and the amusing Kinect - the competitiveness in this one was terrifying. Mainly from myself!

For those of you who are not familiar, Kinect is one of those motion-sensor games. I was competing in what was probably a pentathlon, and after a strong performance in the 100m, abysmal failure in the javelin, I came back strongly with world record performances in the long jump, discus (which I dominated) and the 110m hurdles to just finish second due to my javelin collapse. I think the fact that I was the only one not drinking and had a slight coordination advantage may have had something to do with it though!

Old Haunts

So on the way home this evening after poker, I was tapped on the shoulder on the bus. While my first instinct was to think 'this is not going to be good', it turned out to be someone I once knew from school. This surprised me entirely - firstly, he remembered my name. I also remembered him, which impressed me. We chatted briefly in a non-specific way about people I didn't really remember and how things change in many years.

Odd to see someone you haven't seen for probably 10-15 years.

Eventual Meet

So I have many times pointed out how difficult - despite the fact that we are busy, but not abnormally so - how difficult it is to organise meeting up with friends at home. So having returned nearly three weeks ago, the Friday just gone was finally a mutually convenient time for a few of us to meet up.

There was a spanner thrown in the works by that most traditional of enemies, the cement mixer. This spanner - to continue the metaphor - fell off a bridge onto a train in Oxshott. Despite making light of this dangerous and serious event, it also meant that my journey home was delayed by about half an hour due to the knock-on effect on all of the Waterloo lines.

On eventually making my way home, we ended up heading out for a meal. This was good, as I had managed to organise a date only, not actually any plans. We ended up having an extremely long meal (Chinese, since you ask) which was very good, and some enjoyable conversation, commentary and discussions. All in all, a good evening!

Play Suspended

So this is going to be a revolutionary early blog from me on a Monday - for one main reason. There was no football. Inspired by my Monday night commitment that I always seem to have, I am still blogging nevertheless.

The reason for this was due to insufficient players. Nine players became eight, and was then seven when we realised one of the planned attendees was off ill. Nine and eight are just about okay to play as a five-a-side game, but seven is a farce. Instead of humouring this farce, we instead opted to move the booking to next week and hope for better luck with the numbers then.

This weekend I had a mostly relaxing time and a very enjoyable time on Friday night as well with home folks. I will comment on this further at another point to spin out my limited blogging material a bit more.

All The Twos

Lacking an interesting title for this blog, as I always tend to, I was amused by noting that as I was starting this the time was 22:22 - that cheered me up! A few things I probably should make note of at least.

Last Friday I managed to catch up with Ollie, which was an exciting event. He was back down in Woking for the day only, and happened to be in a nearby pub in the evening. As the only way to announce your presence now is to make a comment on Facebook, he did such - and I happened to notice this. Being as it was a mere ten minute walk, I actually made the effort to wander up and say hello. This was an achievement that I thought was notable.

This evening I have been out for an enjoyable curry and a relaxing evening with folk from work, which was all very enjoyable again. Good food, comical conversation and generally pleasant time. If only this could be replicated for each entire workday for the rest of the week, it would make things more entertaining!

Finally, I'm concluding on a more sober and poignant note. Yesterday marked nine years since my mother passed away. It seems shocking to me that nine whole years have elapsed, and while it is easier to deal with now, it's still hard. Recent events have obviously shaped this for me. She wasn't there to see me get married. She was never able to meet the woman who is now my wife, and see how happy I am. To see my other triumphs, stumbles or just general daily non-events. It's something I do think of frequently, but on days like yesterday it's much more notable and focused.