No problems this morning, other than I found that I slept on my arm and now have a perfect imprint of Pikachu on the bed sheet. I guess you sweat out ink at night, I paid for that, didn’t want to lose it. Work was fine I guess, spent a lot of it waiting for data. Cleaners turned up, the one which left, didn’t. Walked Sasha in mostly drizzle. Went for a walk this evening and it was actually quite pleasant if a little chilly. It’s certainly getting darker earlier now which is always a sad time of year.

Started very early this morning. Had breakfast and coffee so I could fire up the bowels. All went according to plan, fully excavated. Drove down and parked closed to Gloucester Road. Walked down to Ben Boston’s place, arrived half an hour early. Ben was already there setting up. I waited on the couch. Called in on time, well, I say in, but really its just the other side of a partition. Asked to stand side on, he sat in a chair and started work with a Sharpie. Twenty minutes later and he was done. Took my original design that Rob did and transformed it into a masterpiece. Got the Suspension Bridge and balloons in as well. I had a pee break and then we got started. Well he did, I just sat there. It was an odd sensation, not what I was expecting at all, wouldn’t say it was painful, a couple of places tinged a bit. Took about an hour to do the outline, even managed to get in the Severn Tunnel. Had a short break and then he cracked on for four hours in total. Reckons there is another three hours to do. Came back home and went back to work, so got a good half day in. Walked Sasha.

Here’s the result:

So started this morning breakfast and coffee. Walked Sasha, tried to get out of the midday sun. I’ve had so much factor fifty on my left arm it’s probably doubled its value. Oddly did some work for an hour and a half, had to prepare an analysis which I did, which is already being moaned about. My own time well spent as usual. Did the accounts, had lunch and then headed out. Spent over an hour in Queens Square looking for a certain Pokemon, managed a whole two of them. Found a few other interesting ones around town though. Nice afternoon I guess. Finally got enough Magicarps to evolve. This evening I sat down and threw a lucky egg and did an evolving session. I now only have twenty-three entries to fill in my Pokedex. Okay, there are 146 but three are not available in the UK.

Tomorrow is going to be a very interesting and life altering day. As I’m spiralling towards death at a hell of a rate of knots, no time to regret anything, plus at the end of the day, I am a bit of a showoff.

Started early with breakfast and coffee. Walked Sasha. Then headed out to Shirehampton in search of a certain Pokemon. Wasn’t long before I met up with some fellow geeks, two guys and a girl. We were soon all walking round with our phones being warned by golfers about stray balls. These guys thought I was twenty-four, I liked these people. I needed six, bought caught seven with time to spare. New friends added to Facebook. Headed home. Got picked up and went to BBQ at my sisters. Nice chilled out vibe there today, good conversation, few games of pool, good times. Nice day, no complaints.

Started this morning with breakfast and coffee. Read the paper. Then took Sasha out for a reasonable walk. Had a quick lunch, there was a little shower of rain but not much more. Then I headed out to Downend again. Parked in the park and set off. Caught a few Charmanders then started fallowing a chap around who seemed to know all the spawn locations. We got chatting, he was a bit odd, but confessed he’d lost over a stone by walking round, so full congratulations to him. He needed another six but had to head off to a wedding. We also met up with a uni student (he was quite cute), and together we worked as a team, covering about five square miles between us, waving at each other when a new one appeared. We also met up with some ‘lads’ later in the day, people I’d probably normally avoid. Nice as pie. One was huge, he could have taken me and uni guy out with one swing of his buttock. We all got chatting, all about Pokemon. No one felt uneasy, no one felt threatened, everything was just fine. We were all standing around holding hundreds of pounds of technology, we were joined by a couple of young kids, multiple generations of people, all very ordinary, all getting on ‘just fine’, through the mutual love of a very simple game. If it’s done nothing else at all, it’s brought a very odd combination of people together. So Nintic, if you’ve done nothing else, congratulations on making the world a slightly better place.

Work was oddly fun today. After finishing of battling with shaders I decided to write a new anti-aliasing system, whats more it even appears to work. Sometimes I get things right, just not very often. Took Sasha out for a longer walk today, only had time for lunch before it was off to the gym. Had a few beers in the evening with my sister. As the aircraft is out of action that kind of knackers my weekend up somewhat.

Finished off all the shaders today, thankfully. Hopefully have a quick play with something new in the morning. Walked Sasha and it started raining so cut it short and went to the bank and put a cheque in, yes they still exist and also picked up mother’s battery. It’s got a three year warranty so will far outlive her. Went for a run this evening, it was due to rain but stayed clear until I was about ten feet from the door so timed that just about perfectly.

Today was spent on shaders again, I think I have one more day on it and I’ll be done. It’s mind numbingly tedious but has to be done. Nice out again today, walked Sasha. Wanted to get out this evening, drove round Downend trying to find a field, got there eventually. Only managed to get one Charmander, yet I need about thirty of the bloody things. Still, I have a plan that should just leave me about eight short of a complete set, not sure what I’ll do about those. Oh, and it was spitting with rain which was quite annoying.

I’m going to stop now as apparently it’s hurting his head.

Can’t complain about work, well actually I will, it was fairly tedious and went for an early dog walk due to a data build. Beautiful very hot day. Had to vanish early evening to get stuck in traffic and go to the Glenn Hospital on the downs. Got there with ten minutes to spare. Saw Mr Katsimihas. First thing he said was that he knew exactly what was wrong with me. Which is a bit of a result since this has been going on since April. He showed me the X-ray which showed a deformity in the spine (I blame mother for that), my L4/L5 vertebrae are pushed together and not free moving. Also I have a very large herniated disc above it, it was fascinating to see this on the MRI image, he could scroll between body slices. He asked how it was now and of course it’s getting better. He was surprised as it was one of the biggest leaks he’d seen and said I should be in tremendous pain. He’s recommending a bit of physiotherapy, but apart from that, just keep doing what I’m doing and don’t try and bench press any cars.

Afterwards I walked across the downs trying to pick up a couple of extra Rhyhorns but only managed to get one. Then a voice called me over, a man with a small boy. I recognised the face shape but I’m bloody useless with faces. Thankfully he introduced himself, it was my old school friend Gareth. We reminisced that it had been all an awfully long time ago. I made a pinball table in CDT, he made a G-clamp, I always aimed high. That was with Mr Elsbury, he was a strange old man, just had a stroke, if you wore white socks from PE he would make you stand in the sink and sing. You couldn’t get away with that these days. We both complimented each other on our abilities to grow old disgracefully, I’m sure it will be another thirty years until we see each other again.

Started a bit late but managed to get stuck in pretty much all day with no real issues. Walked Sasha in the bloody drizzle and light rain, which was annoying. Walked to Combat, it failed to rain, although it was always looking like it. Came back and did more work.

Not sure if my mother wants her car fixed so she can get out and about again, or just so she can take Sheila shopping and charge her for it. Everyone is just waiting for her to pop off now, so we can all move on.

Last week of celebrity big brother, it’s been a strange one, but Bear really is a tosser.