Wednesday, 14 June 2006
physio
I went along to the physio this afternoon for my first session on my knee. She applied ultrasound, and some sort of electrical pads that made something in my knee quiver, and some cream that made it all cold for a good half hour. Funky. Back on Friday.
Monday, 12 June 2006
in the wars
Silly boy.
So last night was the chanteloup basketball tournament. Tortue booked me in a few months ago, so as well as really looking forward to playing, I kind of felt obligated to play. I shouldn't have, probably.
My knee was feeling a little better, kind of. It wasn't troubling me to walk, but at the same time I pretty much knew it couldn't take weight. I was resolved to take it easy and not jump into things, and I managed for about a game and a half. In the second game I grabbed a rebound in a crowd and got wrapped up, and it hurt. I slowed down, subbing in and out of the next couple of games. Unfortunately, we made the final, and Jim got excited. We got out on a fast break and Soso threw a nice pass that I really liked the look of. Unfortunately, trying to drag it in, I landed and saw my knee kind of buckle a little, and I went down, well, like a sack of shit. And it hurt. I'm limping today, and its a little swolen. I'm icing it, but my freezer is scheisenhausen, so I'm on a pretty slow cycle.
Doctor Monday morning. Crap on a stick.
Update: Sprained (but not ruptured/torn) LCL ( think, not ACL as I previously wrote), with maybe a pinched meniscus. Anti-inflammatories, ice, and some physio sessions.
So last night was the chanteloup basketball tournament. Tortue booked me in a few months ago, so as well as really looking forward to playing, I kind of felt obligated to play. I shouldn't have, probably.
My knee was feeling a little better, kind of. It wasn't troubling me to walk, but at the same time I pretty much knew it couldn't take weight. I was resolved to take it easy and not jump into things, and I managed for about a game and a half. In the second game I grabbed a rebound in a crowd and got wrapped up, and it hurt. I slowed down, subbing in and out of the next couple of games. Unfortunately, we made the final, and Jim got excited. We got out on a fast break and Soso threw a nice pass that I really liked the look of. Unfortunately, trying to drag it in, I landed and saw my knee kind of buckle a little, and I went down, well, like a sack of shit. And it hurt. I'm limping today, and its a little swolen. I'm icing it, but my freezer is scheisenhausen, so I'm on a pretty slow cycle.
Doctor Monday morning. Crap on a stick.
Update: Sprained (but not ruptured/torn) LCL ( think, not ACL as I previously wrote), with maybe a pinched meniscus. Anti-inflammatories, ice, and some physio sessions.
Wednesday, 7 June 2006
roland garros
Roland Garros is on, and it looks like they might get the top 4 men's seeds into the semis, provided Ljubicic can get past the last best french hope, Benneteau, this evening.
Everyone seems to love Rafael Nadal, but I reckon he's boring. To me, he's pure claycourt, Sergi Bruguera with speed and endurance. I respect that he's effective, but until he starts playing some attacking tennis rather than just waiting for the other guy to hit an errant shot or come to net, I don't see myself enjoying watching him play.
Its just a style thing. So many people say that grasscourt tennis is boring, but I have a suspicion that there is about an equivalent amount of attacking tennis between grass and clay. Its just that in grass, the non-attack time is spent serving and walking between points, whereas on clay its banging the ball back up and down the court without trying to create or force anything. I'd rather watch Ivanisevic than Muster, any day of the week. Perhaps that's because I've served a few balls in my time and reckon I'm pretty good at it, and realise that it has much more to do with technique and placement than with being tall and strong, as grasscourt critics often claim.
Its also partly a preference for serve-volley tennis (dying or perhaps dead with the fall from grace of Henman), although i'm also a big fan of players like Agassi and Hewitt, baseliners who truly play and attack from the baseline rather than defending a few meters behind it, like your classic clay-courters.
Above all, I need to get out and hit some balls.
Everyone seems to love Rafael Nadal, but I reckon he's boring. To me, he's pure claycourt, Sergi Bruguera with speed and endurance. I respect that he's effective, but until he starts playing some attacking tennis rather than just waiting for the other guy to hit an errant shot or come to net, I don't see myself enjoying watching him play.
Its just a style thing. So many people say that grasscourt tennis is boring, but I have a suspicion that there is about an equivalent amount of attacking tennis between grass and clay. Its just that in grass, the non-attack time is spent serving and walking between points, whereas on clay its banging the ball back up and down the court without trying to create or force anything. I'd rather watch Ivanisevic than Muster, any day of the week. Perhaps that's because I've served a few balls in my time and reckon I'm pretty good at it, and realise that it has much more to do with technique and placement than with being tall and strong, as grasscourt critics often claim.
Its also partly a preference for serve-volley tennis (dying or perhaps dead with the fall from grace of Henman), although i'm also a big fan of players like Agassi and Hewitt, baseliners who truly play and attack from the baseline rather than defending a few meters behind it, like your classic clay-courters.
Above all, I need to get out and hit some balls.
for my greater edifilmcation
Still trying to work my way through, or at least into, IMDB's top 250 films. Last night it was quintessential western, with Gary Cooper in High Noon. Classic. Tonight it was quintessential dystopia, with Terry Gilliam's Brazil. Bent, surreal, and very cool.
Despite all my best efforts, I don't seem to be able to advance in my count, though. At one point last year I hit 157/250, but now, even with those two, I'm back to 153. Only one thing for it.
Despite all my best efforts, I don't seem to be able to advance in my count, though. At one point last year I hit 157/250, but now, even with those two, I'm back to 153. Only one thing for it.
Monday, 5 June 2006
no more listlessness
The end of listless Warcraft weekends came, small surprise, via a list. I made one up Saturday morning, with a dozen or so things that needed doing, and managed to cross off half of them or so by the end of the day. I made a DVD up for Em's music needs, cleaned up my bookshelf a bit, mailed off a few letters that needed sending, did my shopping, called Mum and Dad, and finished off the day with a lamb roast (my gravy chops are wanting, it seems). I did still get a little WoW in, but in most reasonable proportions.
Sunday was going a similar way, when I got a text from Sandy to come and hang out at the beach for the afternoon. Perfect plan, since for the first time the weekend had offered up not only t-shirt, but shorts weather. So, I went and lay on the Rennes beach (such as it is) for a couple of hours chatting and getting just a little bit of sunburn.
Sunday was going a similar way, when I got a text from Sandy to come and hang out at the beach for the afternoon. Perfect plan, since for the first time the weekend had offered up not only t-shirt, but shorts weather. So, I went and lay on the Rennes beach (such as it is) for a couple of hours chatting and getting just a little bit of sunburn.
drinkies
I went over to Sandy's place on Friday night for drinkies with the Avenir girls. This time, perhaps for the first time, I was the only bloke there, among a dozen or so from Avenir. Its interesting the change from my Brisbane social life, which was dominantly male to quite a strong extent (caveat: less so towards the end with Julz, Kylie and a few others). Turns out Sandy is off to Vancouver for a year next month, visa permitting.
Wednesday, 31 May 2006
snow...
A first glance out my windows reveals that its snowing. A second reveals that the tree beside, heavily laden with flowers, has begun to unload its burden into the wind, leaving white petals to float past and distract from what I should be doing. Summer is coming.
Tuesday, 30 May 2006
ow
I jarred/twisted/hyperextended/something'd my knee today at basketball. Perhaps I came down and it locked instead of bending, I don't know, but it hurt. I limped/walked/jogged/ran it off, but contesting a rebound it twinged again, so I abandoned and walked back to Irisa. I asked about ice at the cafeteria, but the best they could do was a vanilla drumstick. After 15 minutes it wasn't feeling cold, so I ate it. Far too much chocolate for it to be an effective medical stopgap, I think.
I'm supposed to be playing in chanteloup next Friday, hope this doesn't affect that.
I'm supposed to be playing in chanteloup next Friday, hope this doesn't affect that.
Monday, 29 May 2006
Between countries
In the spirit of May, a month jammed full of weeks shortened by public holidays, I took Wednesday off as RTT to give me a 5-day weekend in Basel with Chris. I caught a couple of trains to Paris and then Basel, leaving Rennes around midday and getting to CH that night. Chris was waiting and we headed back to his place for some swiss bread, french cheese, and australian red.
On Thursday we jumped on a train out to Rheinfelden, just east of Basel, and wandered around there for a while, including across the bridge to Germany for a coffee. It was my first time in that country, and I was struck again by just how easy it is to go between countries in Europe.
This was highlighted in the afternoon. We trained back to Basel, and jumped on a no. 10 tram, which Chris assured me had delights stored at the end of its route. Of course, the 10 has one stop, the second-last, which is actually in France, which meant that in the space of perhaps 3 hours we had passed from Switzerland to Germany, back to Switzerland, into France, and back into Switzerland again. Trippy. Anyway, the delights at the end consisted of a walk up a hill along a track marked with the stations of the cross. Alas, our faith was insufficient, and we made some turns near the end that denied access to whatever paradise awaited the true believers. Typical :) Still, it was a nice stroll.
On Friday it was back to France, on a day trip to Colmar, a small fairly touristy town in Alsace, about 40 minutes ride from Basel. We spent a few hours wandering around the old town, saw the canals and stuff.
Saturday started slowly, and it was after midday by the time we got out. Chris called Anjum, who had bought a new phone, so Chris was obliged to go out and get one for himself, which he duly did. That in hand, we jumped on a train down to Bern, changing in Olten and stopping on the second leg for a walk around Burgdorf, a very pretty, very clean, and above all very quiet little town just outside of Bern, with a nice castle overlooking a river and a newly renovated church. In Bern we made a beeline for Pickwicks and met up with Dave. From there we followed a path I suspect well-trodden by both, to Neal's, Papa Joe's, Les Amis, past Peri and down to Turnhalle. In keeping with tradition, much of the conversation throughout centred on the fairer sex, and it's obvious why. Bern just has a concentration of beautiful women that is above and beyond that of other cities I've been to. Its really not fair.
Ah. Anyway, after all that I caught my trains home to Rennes on Sunday. SNCF did their best to screw me around with delays, but I got there eventually. I think a little time not travelling will do me good at this point.
On Thursday we jumped on a train out to Rheinfelden, just east of Basel, and wandered around there for a while, including across the bridge to Germany for a coffee. It was my first time in that country, and I was struck again by just how easy it is to go between countries in Europe.
This was highlighted in the afternoon. We trained back to Basel, and jumped on a no. 10 tram, which Chris assured me had delights stored at the end of its route. Of course, the 10 has one stop, the second-last, which is actually in France, which meant that in the space of perhaps 3 hours we had passed from Switzerland to Germany, back to Switzerland, into France, and back into Switzerland again. Trippy. Anyway, the delights at the end consisted of a walk up a hill along a track marked with the stations of the cross. Alas, our faith was insufficient, and we made some turns near the end that denied access to whatever paradise awaited the true believers. Typical :) Still, it was a nice stroll.
On Friday it was back to France, on a day trip to Colmar, a small fairly touristy town in Alsace, about 40 minutes ride from Basel. We spent a few hours wandering around the old town, saw the canals and stuff.
Saturday started slowly, and it was after midday by the time we got out. Chris called Anjum, who had bought a new phone, so Chris was obliged to go out and get one for himself, which he duly did. That in hand, we jumped on a train down to Bern, changing in Olten and stopping on the second leg for a walk around Burgdorf, a very pretty, very clean, and above all very quiet little town just outside of Bern, with a nice castle overlooking a river and a newly renovated church. In Bern we made a beeline for Pickwicks and met up with Dave. From there we followed a path I suspect well-trodden by both, to Neal's, Papa Joe's, Les Amis, past Peri and down to Turnhalle. In keeping with tradition, much of the conversation throughout centred on the fairer sex, and it's obvious why. Bern just has a concentration of beautiful women that is above and beyond that of other cities I've been to. Its really not fair.
Ah. Anyway, after all that I caught my trains home to Rennes on Sunday. SNCF did their best to screw me around with delays, but I got there eventually. I think a little time not travelling will do me good at this point.
sport it ain't
Getting back to Rennes after the weekend away, there was a game of boys' basketball on: cadets, I think, which is under 16s or thereabouts. Rennes had apparently won the away leg by 13, meaning their opponents had to win by a similar margin in Rennes. Come the end of the match, the visitors were leading, but clearly not by enough to win by 13. At some point it became noticable that the teams were not trying hard to score, and then the visitors started doing weird things, throwing free throws off the backboard. Finally, someone tried to put the ball in their own basket, in an effort to score points for the opponents, and it became clear that they were trying to tie the game in order to force overtime and try to recover the 13 points there.
Not. Sport. I have never seen anything so ridiculous on a sporting field, and that any coach would allow or worse encourage 16-year-olds to engage in such unsporting behaviour, I find disgusting.
Not. Sport. I have never seen anything so ridiculous on a sporting field, and that any coach would allow or worse encourage 16-year-olds to engage in such unsporting behaviour, I find disgusting.
that was the weekend that was
Friday 10 days ago I rode over to Avenir carrying a suit. Any weekend requiring a suit, a sleeping bag and a bike is going to be interesting, and it panned out that way. Strapping my bike to the back of Nono's car, we drove down convoy-style to La Bernerie, kind of near Nantes, behind Sophie and Agnès. People drifted in slowly over the next few hours: Nanou, Sandy, Audrey Dub, Sylvain, Fred, Francois, Erwan & Manu (the stars of the show), and finally Philippe, Liz & Audrey Paug. Once everyone arrived we all got suited up and had a recreated and somewhat tongue-in-cheek marriage ceremony for E&M, complete with curé, choir, vows, rings and hecklers (la populace!). Things went progressively downhill from there. Dancing, drinking and general debauchery ensued until about 6am, and photos were taken that will ruin lives in the future. We collectively crashed at Agnès' place at La Bernerie and Francois' parents' place at Les Moutiers (or something like that).
On Saturday morning (ok, early afternoon), we headed out on bikes past Les Moutiers along the coast. It was blowing a gale, and the rain came and went throughout the trip, but it was a gentle pace, and pretty pleasant. We stopped for a game of soccer with an inflatable ball that was all the more challenging for the force 3 gale in which it took place.
After looping back to La Bernerie, we took to cars and rolled north to Pornic, for a little acrobranche (high ropes, I guess, en anglais). This place was a little more structured than the previous place we'd been, with runs designated by colours a la ski pistes. After just about running through the yellows, greens and blues, they started to get interesting in the red, with a bike ride across a plank, and some more challenging tarzan ropes. 3 of us (myself, Agnès, Liz) tried the black, which was legitimately tough, with a fairly easy climbing wall, a big tarzan, 2 suspensions that really tested the arm muscles, and a snowboard thing. I got through these last 3, but not honestly, relying on my safety line for each of them. It finished off with a 180m flying fox across the river which got some real speed up, followed unfortunately by a zipline ascent, whose hand-over-hand ab punishment finally convinced me I was done for the day.
Saturday night was a little calmer, most probably because people were still gathering their strength after a long friday night out of their trees and 3 hours of saturday swinging between them. Arnaud tagged in for Fred, though, and kept the team effort high, although he paid dearly Sunday morning.
The slow pace continued Sunday, with good recovery activities like a gentle ride down to the beach, and a few rounds of petanque (bocce for some) in a driveway to round out the day before piling into cars back to Rennes.
On Saturday morning (ok, early afternoon), we headed out on bikes past Les Moutiers along the coast. It was blowing a gale, and the rain came and went throughout the trip, but it was a gentle pace, and pretty pleasant. We stopped for a game of soccer with an inflatable ball that was all the more challenging for the force 3 gale in which it took place.
After looping back to La Bernerie, we took to cars and rolled north to Pornic, for a little acrobranche (high ropes, I guess, en anglais). This place was a little more structured than the previous place we'd been, with runs designated by colours a la ski pistes. After just about running through the yellows, greens and blues, they started to get interesting in the red, with a bike ride across a plank, and some more challenging tarzan ropes. 3 of us (myself, Agnès, Liz) tried the black, which was legitimately tough, with a fairly easy climbing wall, a big tarzan, 2 suspensions that really tested the arm muscles, and a snowboard thing. I got through these last 3, but not honestly, relying on my safety line for each of them. It finished off with a 180m flying fox across the river which got some real speed up, followed unfortunately by a zipline ascent, whose hand-over-hand ab punishment finally convinced me I was done for the day.
Saturday night was a little calmer, most probably because people were still gathering their strength after a long friday night out of their trees and 3 hours of saturday swinging between them. Arnaud tagged in for Fred, though, and kept the team effort high, although he paid dearly Sunday morning.
The slow pace continued Sunday, with good recovery activities like a gentle ride down to the beach, and a few rounds of petanque (bocce for some) in a driveway to round out the day before piling into cars back to Rennes.
Thursday, 18 May 2006
Wednesday, 17 May 2006
strings!
No tennis for this little black duck. I was all keen this morning, but checked my racquet and found its poor little strings broken. I don't know how that happens exactly - I played a couple of months ago and didn't break them! Anyway, its a letdown.
where too much sport...
Basketball last night was good fun. The turnout wasn't enormous - 9 I think - but Sandy came along to help Liz run the training, and probably is better at running drills than Liz on her own, so it was good fun. In the last game of halfcourt I got frustrated with people getting lost on defense and just started trying to score instead of pass, as I usually do. Surprisingly, it worked, and I pretty much scored all my team's points. I don't normally go for that sort of thing, but in some way its nice to know that I can score sometimes.
IRISA basketball got rescheduled to today. Wasn't quite so much fun, partly because we always run the full court, with no subs, and play for between 90 minutes and 2 hours, which is a lot for anyone, and I'm not in the greatest shape. Anyway, it was a bit of a comedown from last night.
Tomorrow's tennis. Franck has blisters and a busted racquet, so its just Seb, Jean-Marie and I. Next week we should be 5, with Franck back and Olivier coming along.
IRISA basketball got rescheduled to today. Wasn't quite so much fun, partly because we always run the full court, with no subs, and play for between 90 minutes and 2 hours, which is a lot for anyone, and I'm not in the greatest shape. Anyway, it was a bit of a comedown from last night.
Tomorrow's tennis. Franck has blisters and a busted racquet, so its just Seb, Jean-Marie and I. Next week we should be 5, with Franck back and Olivier coming along.
Monday, 15 May 2006
weekend going forwards
Quiet weekend.
Played a bunch of WoW, up to lvl29 now, and starting to feel valuable in the parties I join. My profession skills are getting to the point where the economic game is going to start coming into play, too, and I'm going to have to start buying & selling to earn money for a mount at lvl40.
I booked a train to Basel for Ascension weekend. Looking forward to getting away, to hanging out with Chris, Anjum and presumably some of the other Swisslies. To be honest, I'm also looking forward to getting some reading done on the trains - its 8-9 hours of trains each way, which should let me finish off one of the many novels I have underway at the moment.
Today is basketball day. Probably at lunch with the IRISA folk, and certainly this evening with what I'm lead to believe has become a swelling mob of ESC kiddies. Rumour has it that Sandy has been drafted in by Liz as assistant coach.
It's a busy month in some ways. Away last week for the seminaire, this weekend down to the south coast, then to Basel, and I think there's the basketball tourny at Chanteloup the week after that. And yet, the in-betweens are pretty quiet. There's no hanging out at cafés or friends' houses, no group sessions watching whacked-out manga, robot chicken or bad hollywood films, no big breakfasts at café E. I got a call Saturday night to hang out at a bar and watch the last round of the soccer season, but buses and indifference got the better of me before I got there. The solution, my conscience is screaming, is to knuckle down, finish off my SoSyM revisions, get my coding finished and write up my thesis. It all just seems a bit hard, though.
Played a bunch of WoW, up to lvl29 now, and starting to feel valuable in the parties I join. My profession skills are getting to the point where the economic game is going to start coming into play, too, and I'm going to have to start buying & selling to earn money for a mount at lvl40.
I booked a train to Basel for Ascension weekend. Looking forward to getting away, to hanging out with Chris, Anjum and presumably some of the other Swisslies. To be honest, I'm also looking forward to getting some reading done on the trains - its 8-9 hours of trains each way, which should let me finish off one of the many novels I have underway at the moment.
Today is basketball day. Probably at lunch with the IRISA folk, and certainly this evening with what I'm lead to believe has become a swelling mob of ESC kiddies. Rumour has it that Sandy has been drafted in by Liz as assistant coach.
It's a busy month in some ways. Away last week for the seminaire, this weekend down to the south coast, then to Basel, and I think there's the basketball tourny at Chanteloup the week after that. And yet, the in-betweens are pretty quiet. There's no hanging out at cafés or friends' houses, no group sessions watching whacked-out manga, robot chicken or bad hollywood films, no big breakfasts at café E. I got a call Saturday night to hang out at a bar and watch the last round of the soccer season, but buses and indifference got the better of me before I got there. The solution, my conscience is screaming, is to knuckle down, finish off my SoSyM revisions, get my coding finished and write up my thesis. It all just seems a bit hard, though.
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