Mahinda’s Little World

Okay, after killing my beloved little Honda, Direct Line gave me a maximum of 14 days with a hire car.

The insurance covered me for a dinky little Daewoo…a Matiz I think…but I was given the choice of two slightly meatier motors* for just £2 a day extra:

• Corsa - silver, manual, no air conditioning
• Micra - powder blue, automatic, air conditioning

* Okay, so I could have treated myself to something nicer, but I decided that £28 for the two weeks was quite enough.

I looked up to the skies. The sun beat down upon my upturned face…

"I think I’ll have the Micra, please."

I figured that I’d rather stay cool than look cool. Anyway, it had a CD player ("…player player player", as the song goes, even if it didn’t have leather seats or look anything like a Jaguar).

Now, speaking as someone who’s often observed the tendency for Micras to be at the front of 62% of Peak District traffic queues (tractors make up just over 30%), I could probably say that I’m not really a fan of the cutesy Nissan offering. However, I was pleasantly surprised - it was very roomy, full of little cubby holes and clever features, e.g. a back seat that could shift forward if more boot-space was required - guess which position I had it in!

The 4-speed (I counted them, but never actually checked) automatic gearbox did its best with what it had (i.e. a rather small engine) and the handling was very crisp indeed. You could chuck it into bends and it did reasonably well. One strange thing was the way that the steering goes superlight at low speeds - I almost fluffed up big-style the first time I reverse-parked, thanks to not realising this at all.

Still, a powder blue Micra is about as camp a car as you can get. What exactly is the smiley for "slightly limp-wristed"?

The woman wot lives next door was quite amused, too, calling it "cute". Now, if that doesn’t administer the kiss of death to any masculine aspirations a car may have, I don’t know what does.

Oh, it’s only fair as well for me to recommend Enterprise Car Rentals to anyone and everyone - they were absolutely excellent, and genuinely seemed interested in my convenience, rather than how much money they could squeeze out of me. That goes down to them offering me trade rates on alternative cars, cheaper petrol (as opposed to being caned if you return a car without a full tank), and general happiness. It comes as no surprise that, apparently, they’re something of an international gold standard for customer satisfaction.

So, what’s happened during the last few weeks..?

Housemates

We’ve got new housemates! I’ll have to tell you more about the hunt later.

S____

I met up with a lovely girl, whom I shall call "S", in the Red Lion one Sunday afternoon. An interesting mix of the spiritual (reiki, etc.) and scientific (post-doc geologist), with added belly-dancing to boot! Actually, that last line probably makes it pretty easy to identify her if you know her. Never mind…

So, I thought we got on rather well, despite me being somewhat drunken (ooops*), and I tagged along with her, her housemates and some friends last Wednesday when they all went bowling.

* It was a sunny day, I’d met Alsion for a pint beforehand, and I just didn’t realise how much I was drinking.

I had a good night, and got along with everyone. We somehow ended up in the Stockport branch of Brannigan’s on karaoke night!

We actually arranged to meet up on Thursday too, which was nice. Unfortunately, S had a bad migraine so cancelled - her "I can hardly type" email was so disjointed that my work spam filter ate it.

Then I got an email on Friday that said, amongst other things, that S thought we’d never be more than friends. She enjoyed my company but that was about it.

Oh well. She was a good one, too

Tennis

I even managed to get a few games of tennis played. The discovery of (albeit lumpy) grass and clay courts at Fletcher Moss Park, for merely a modest insult, came as something of a revelation!

MUCH more fun than the lack of fence and metal nets of Fog Lane!

We were on the clay courts on Adrian’s birthday - a fairly low-key birthday evening that comprised a bit of tennis and then a few drinks in The Didsbury. We’d planned on going for the grass courts, only to find that the buggers had set up an open-air theatre in them for the evening - grrrrrrr! That explains why they’re so damn lumpy. It turned out that Sarah was taking Pete for a surprise date at said play - Romeo and Juliet, I believe. Oooh, very romantic

I got a new racquet (thank you, JJB Altrincham 50% off closing-down sale!) and used it with great glee. I’m definitely getting better at tennis…mind you, there’s a lot of room for improvement!

Hockey

The usual stuff in Platt Fields, of course. Skill levels have been on the increase, and I’m finding it a bit of a struggle at times. Attendances of late have been small, so it’s been quite like the old days of Platt Fields hockey - much like the first season, it’s been bone-dry "pitches" and 4- or 5-a-side. Fun, but knackering!

It has, however, been getting a bit dangerous. As people are developing more skills and hitting ability, so uncontrolled and lifted shots are becoming more commonplace. As there’s been little or no coaching, there are a lot of bad habits. I’ve tried recently to get people pushing (or slap-hitting) the ball around, to the extent of banning full-blooded hits except on goal-hits, and it seems to be working.

Whether that persists through to September, when the grass gets longer and wetter, is a different matter.

Also on the cards has been the summer 7-a-side mixed tournament at Belle Vue. I’ve been playing for Sale, of course, and had a pretty good summer - not sure exactly how I do it, but there’s been a strong correlation between me being on the pitch and us not conceding goals…which is nice.

Tuesday was finals day, and we had two matches. The first, against Salford Uni, was fairly even. The first half saw us go 2-0 down, through two breakaway goals. I came on for the second, and we drew it back to 2-2, before going out 4-3 on penalties (it went to sudden death). Grrrr!

The 3rd/4th place play-off for our group was next, against a Trinity side that we’d dominated in the group stages. They’d gone out on penalties too, to an Urmston (I think) team featuring a big ginger lad who, although an excellent player, was a bit of a twat. I’d been quite looking forward to taking him on, but it wasn’t to be. Anyway, I played the whole game, and put in my best performance of the summer. We won 2-0, but it could have been eight!

Shooting

Still getting the hang of my new rifle, and the general post-weekend tiredness is really affecting my eyes. Well, "eye" if you want to be pedantic. I seem to be between 93 and 97 at the moment. I really want to be 95-98 though. It’ll come. Hopefully.

Si’s also started shooting with us, bringing the MUGSS contingent up to six - me, Clare, Tim, Paul, Jonathan, Si. Eeek!

Kayaking

It’s all gone a bit sports report, hasn’t it?!

I went kayaking for the first time, courtesy of work, at Trafford Water Park. I seemed to do okay, with one exception - no matter how hard I tried, I just couldn’t go in a straight line! My dominant side would vary every few strokes - sometimes, I’d be paddling with my left side only and STILL be turning left. All very bizarre, but I reckon it’s more to do with balance in the kayak than the actual paddling.

Definitely fun though, and it even sorted out my monster hangover - in great Mahinda tradition, I turned up with a carton of fruit juice and a very sore head, it being the early afternoon after the morning after the night before…which was a classic Tenby Towers barbecue…

Barbecue

We had a barbecue to see off the three girls, Little Helen, Tall Helen and Lynda, all of whom move away this month. Lynda and Little Helen to Nottingham, and Tall Helen to live in a cosy little flat with her boyfriend, Jonathan.

Rather than inviting the world and his wife (and MUGSS!), it was kept a fairly small affair - I think we had a total of about 25 people walk through the door, with probably no more than twenty or so there at once.

The garden was cleaned up brilliantly by Housemate Andrew, along with Tall Helen and Jonathan (who pretty-much singlehandedly dismantled Steve’s Big Green Monstrosity*), and a good time was had by all.

* The Monstrosity. Ex-Housemate Steve fancied himself as a bit of a DIY expert and, being a Civil Engineer, we had little cause to doubt him. So, he decided to build a bike shed to house his, Stubie’s and my bikes. It was going to fit into the "alleyway" bit of the garden, and he was using materials (offcuts, etc.) filched from the construction site he was managing. Unfortunately, it was someway off Steve’s original vision, being too large to fit into said section of garden and, well, a bit rickety really. It had been occupying a fairly large portion of garden ever since. It came apart fairly easily, in the end. No great surprise there

Aided by Lynda and Little Helen, I made potato salad, dozens of beefburgers (half chilli-and-garlic, the other half herby, with loads of rosemary, thyme and parsley), thymey veggie skewers and Encona-marinated chicken skewers. I think it’s fair to say that the food was excellent

The weather, unfortunately, was not. After two weeks of solid sunshine, it decided to rain. Fortunately, Al had a tarpaulin in his car…and then went home to fetch a gazebo! With Tall Helen’s string of lanterns, it was all very jolly indeed - our back yard somehow managed to acquire a fantastically Bohemian atmosphere. Or maybe that was just the Pimms!

Pimms. MUCH Pimms was consumed, with the two Helens preparing jugs of the stuff. I was very much on the beers, too, and an awful lot of wine was added to the mix.

It was all fairly civilised until about 1am, when it turned into a raucous kitchen party. Not sure how, given the size of our kitchen, but it did. Tall Helen was on fine form, which is always…interesting, and New Housemate Paul (who moved in just a few days ago now) was spectacularly drunk, along with Housemate Andrew. Lynda and Little Helen weren’t far behind at all, either, and neither was I!

A bottle of Vana Tallinn was brought out, and promptly consumed. Several people are blaming that for the ensuing extreme drunkeness.

I ended up in bed around 4.30am, utterly sozzled. All in all, another legendary Tenby Towers party!

Another Barbecue

After the kayaking trip, I went home and cycled over to Adrian and Emma’s place for Emma’s birthday barbecue. All very jolly - I had some left over burgers from ours, and more beer was consumed.

We ended up playing Cranium (good) and Kaboodle (bad).

Cranium was brought to a premature end basically because one of the barbecue guests was utterly trollied. I cannot remember her name, but she was an intensely annoying drunk who seemingly reverted (I don’t know what she’s like sober, so I’m giving her the benefit of the doubt here) to a five-year-old state. To say that she was a little grating is like saying that Quasimodo wasn’t exactly a handsome chap.

Anyway, Emma, Nick and I formed one of the three teams, and we were winning at close of play. I’ll fail to win a game of Cranium one day!

Kaboodle, on the other hand, is a game that I really didn’t like. A card game aimed at the younger market, it’s like a cross between rummy and old maid. Basically, there are 12 Kaboodle cards (or something like that), each with an animal, a colour and one, two or three dots. These are dealt out on the table, face up.

You then get dealt cards that (mostly) have one of the three properties, e.g. "green" or "fish" - there are also wild cards and cards for taking/resisting other people’s Kaboodle cards. You take turns to draw new cards, and if you have any sets of three that match a Kaboodle card, you can exchange them for that card, which then goes in front of you.

You can also use a "take" card to steal another person’s Kaboodle card. They get the chance to resist you with a "resist" card, but only if you don’t cunningly finish your turn first.

The game ends when the last Kaboodle card is taken from the middle.

In practice, it’s a game of luck followed by who’s the quickest and cunningest at stealling other people’s cards. Not my sort of game at all