Wimbledon 2007

Someone up there is looking out for me after all!
After the torrential rain that we have had for the past week or so which continued until yesterday morning, I thought that my tickets for Centre Court at Wimbledon were going to be such much wated money and effort this year. It is 4 years since Mrs DeeJay and I have been lucky enought to get an allocation of show court tickets that we were really looking forward to it this year, especially as our seats were in row E, only 5 back from court side.
As I said, it was absolutely bucketing it down in the morning when we set off for our 2 hour trip which took nearly 3 hours thanks to the rain and the accidents (2) that it caused on the motorway. To be exact it was the maniacal driving in such conditions that actually caused the accidents, not the rain itself. Any way I digress, we arrived at Centre Court only a few games in to the first match between Janko Tipsarevic and Fernando Gonzales which was a tremendous 5 set battle. That was followed by a poor unsuspecting (or maybe she was expecting) victim in the shape of Milagros Sequera to fall prey to Serena Williams mighty serves and volleys. Although it was great to watch Serena, the 6-1, 6-0 result was a true reflection of the standard of the match.
Before leaving Centre Court, we were then treated to a virtuoso performance by 'robot' Roger Federer against Marat Safin. We truly thought that we were in for at least 4 sets if not five, but despite some amazing shots and particularly serves from Safin, Federer disposed of him in a 6-1, 6-4, 7-6 (7-4) three set act of perfect tennis.
A good meal on the way home saw us arriving home well and truly ready for bed at about half past midnight.
Roll on next year, luck in the public ballot for tickets and hopefully another pair of ring-side seats.

Blog Rating

Goodness me these guys must be more prudish than I am.
I cant understand why I should earn a PG rating

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Mingle² -

Oh Winston, I couldn't have said it better myself!

Thursday Jokes

Patient:
Doctor, Doctor I've broken my leg in two places
Doctor:
Well I suggest you don't go to either of them again

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Doctor:
Mr Jones, you really must stop masturbating
Mr Jones:
Why Doc?
Doctor:
Because, I'm trying to examine you!

Sorry folks, feeling in a very silly mood tonight

SEVERE WEATHER

Last night we had some very heavy rainfall and thunderstorms.

Mrs DeeJay was due to be late home and I was responsible for preparing dinner. At 7:30 p.m., one exceptionally close crack of thunder along with immediate lightning succeeded in knocking out our power, just as I was about to serve. Damn that was lucky.

We proceeded to have a candlelit dinner while waiting for the power to be switched back on. By 9 p.m. it was still off and we decided that trying to read by candlelight was not really working for us and so we went to bed. We soon found something to do that didn’t even need the candles!

Before going to bed I had to disable the intruder alarm that was continually beeping at us to let us know that there was a power failure – Yes I know dumbo that’s why we have lit candles. Also the smoke detectors were complaining so I had to temporarily disarm them. We also tried to remember which lights we had switched on (they are not all rocker switches so it wasn’t obvious). At 1:30 a.m. the power was restored. How do I know it was 1:30 a.m.? BECAUSE the radio came on and 3 lights that we had not switched off as well as the alarm kindly informing us that it was OK again now. Bloody technology!

Blog Stats

I rarely look at these as they are not very detailed (tightass won't pay the extra to get them!), but I usually keep an eye on the SLOWLY rising total. Until that is today when I spotted that I am approaching the 500 hits mark (well still 30 short). So I thought 'that seems to have shot up suddenly) and I looked at the 7 day history. 39 hits last Friday - where did they come from, I usually only average about 8 or 9.
Maybe I am going to have to look for more detail and see why folks are getting me on their searches.

I've been tagged by Furtheron over at Further on up the road. This is a meme sponsored by OptimistLab. Thank you Furtheron for the tag. It is quite spooky that you should do this just at a time when I desperately need to raise my vibes as you know I am most definitely am not in a good place right now.
Here are the rules...more details on OptimistLab's website:

1.Write a new post about your five favorite tricks for “Raising Your Vibes”.
2.Link back to OptimistLab and the person who tagged you at the top of your post.
3.Give your attention to five (or more if you want) deserving bloggers by picking one high-quality post by each blogger.
4.Tag these bloggers by going to high Vibe it, (a news sharing site), and submitting your “Raising Your Vibes” post and the five posts you picked.
5.Tell each blogger you picked that they’ve been tagged either through email or by leaving a comment.

How I Raise My Vibes

Several other's reponses to this meme seem to have similar traits of very personal or solitary ways of raising vibes. I guess this is probably similar to meditation which I have tried in small degrees through Yoga. I must get back to it again it really does help.
1. Gardening
Especially on my allotment. I just love the solitude with the glimpses of wildlife when I am the only gardener there. The very fact that I can see the fruits of my labours, even in the fallow season when improving the soil, gives me a tremendous lift.
2. Motorcycling
Once again although this is most times not a solitary activity as of course there is always other traffic around, it is a personal challenge to ride quickly (not fast) but safe and to anticipate all road conditions and hazards. My advanced riding instructor always recounted to me the number of times riders had told him he was 'lucky that the traffic conditions were just right for him say on the approach to a roundabout'. His counter to that was that he made the conditions right by anticipating and arriving at the right time!
The end of a good ride has me walking on air.
3. Reading Blogs
There are two reasons why this helps me.
Firstly there are so many blogs containing inspirational material and that make me realise there are always other ways to look at life's problems.
Secondly, I am always finding that there are others out there who are coping with issues far greater than those that I am finding in my life. This in itself gives me an automatic lift through the metaphoric kick up the ass!
4. Reading
I am not exactly an avid reader but have always got a book 'on the go'. I don't seem to favour any particular genre, mixing between accounts of daring exploration of the mountains and seas, through biographies to historic novels. Once again a somewhat solitary recreation in which I can always lose myself and find something inspirational to raise my vibes.
5. Music
Varying from classics to rock depending on my mood, music always changes my current feelings and attitude very swiftly. I favour instrumental even though I cannot play a note myself, but some vocals can move me also.

Now for tagging 5 others:
Furtheron has made this somewhat difficult as we tend to have many common blog reads. I wonder what that should be telling us about our life attitudes?
I would have included Shellz whose 'Self Talk' post I have mentioned here before and also Tabula Rasa/Multiple Synchronicities and Sclerosis for the same reasons that Furtheron mentions. As in 3 above, Andromeda makes me feel so small when I consider the way in which she has tackled her difficulties in life.
So in no particular order I tag :-
Dave at Flight Level 390 for his amazing photos and his ability to take us mere passengers into his world of flying with posts such as Taxiway Charlie and Two Old Guys
Liz at Finding Life Hard for her down to earth and homely (to say nothing of her Raisin Bread recipe) posts,but more importantly for her low key writing about her religion without it being in your face. makes me think often with posts such as 'Well God what are you going to do?'
Cynnie at Waiting For Life to Start. I know that she has gone offline for a little while but this should give her something to think about on her return. Dear Cynnie has such a wacky outlook on life that I can never wait to see what she has posted next such as 'Sometimes I Do Live In Paradise'
Suzanne at CUSS. I often feel that I am not supposed to be at her Blog as it is a very female site, but once again her wacky outlook on life such as in 'Showerin' at the Car Wash Yeah' always lift me.
I have just realised that many of my regular reads are folks who are very artistic with a high incidence of writers and also the truly artistic final tag
French Toast Girl who inspires me to increase my skills by her tremendous talent. See her daily posts in May.

Job Vacancy

On the way home last night from our motorcycle club ride out for Fish 'n' Chips I spotted a job ad on a blackboard outside a pub

WEEKEND CLEANER WANTED

Anyone know how to clean a weekend? I like mine as dirty as possible :-)

Incidentally the ride out was a 100% success. There were 15 of us, some with pillion riders and we covered about 100 miles ending up with fish and chips at a superb chippy in Whitstable (actually I think it is really in Tankerton) called The Seychelles. They were so pleased with the increased trade that they gave us free coke as well. The weather held and the promised rain never arrived. I think I saw a dozen drops on my visor as I rode home.

Photo Friday

I thought for a change I would follow the trend of many of my favourite blog reads and just post some pics today for no particular reason than I have them here to post.

If I do this again I will do it from my home PC instead of the one I am using at work (I'm obviously NOT working - but it is lunchtime so that's OK) because I have so many more photos there than the few I have to select from here.

So here is a random selection that has taken my fancy to post today.
Some hurricane pictures - scary! I'm glad we don't get them here



Some of my two babies!



And finally some from last year's holiday - I wish I was there now


ENJOY!

Gardening comments

Thank you very much for all of your comments regarding my gardening posts.
I am pleased that you like these and I thank everyone for their kind comments about the state of my garden.

I would like to explain for the non UK readers that the 'garden' that I have been posting about is what we call an allotment in the UK. I have seen these in France as well, but I do not think it is a very wide spread international custom.
An allotment is usually a small piece of land, owned by the local council and rented out to local residents at a peppercorn rent - mine is £5 p.a.!!. These pieces of land are usually parceled up into small lots of about 20 feet by 60 feet primarily for the cultivation of vegetables.

It is this allotment which is in the village less than a quarter of a mile from my house that I have been posting about. My real garden which is part of the property on which my house is built, with the exception of a small greenhouse in which I rear some of my seedlings that are destined for the allotment, is totally reserved for my flowers and shrubs and is somewhere that I can relax.

A Gardening Weekend

Well, the weather was ideal for it and the damned slugs have had a great feast on much of my emerging crop, so I decided I should commune with nature this weekend and replace the carrots, cabbages and parsnips and also plant out cauliflowers, radishes, dwarf beans, sweetcorn and leeks.

Sunday afternoon was particularly pleasant as I was the only person at the allotments and there was friend the robin to keep me company.

The potatoes are coming along nicely and the fruit bushes are showing signs of a reasonable crop to come. The runner beans are looking a little sad but they were late going in and I let them grow too leggy in the pots.
Mrs Deejay decided to join me after all the bending and digging was done to harvest some of the spinach for dinner. Well OK she did cook the dinner, except for the chicken which I barbecued whilst imbibing the obligatory glass (or two) of wine.