Day 221 – May 30th

Today I was due to play beach volleyball…….however did not get home from work till around 10pm.

There is nothing else to say.

Mood for the day 3 out of 10

Day 220 – May 29th

Today was a case of shock and awe……..it was the wine and cheese party and TAC and I am in a state of shock at what I have just witnessed.  The room was filled with pretty women all dressed up however in my opinion most of them look better in there general gym wear as opposed to cocktail dresses, however I digress.  My shock was caused by whom Soo (The Pilates instructor) had brought the party.

In my opinion, Soo is an exceptionally beautiful girl (Although in my opinion looks better in gym gear), she has an easy and outgoing personality and I can see how guys would be drawn to her. As a result I had this image in my head that she would be dating some kind of “Gillette Guy”…………I could not have been more wrong.  Whilst I am sure her boyfriend is a nice guy he is certainly no “Gillette Guy” and he also comes across as a little quiet and shy…………I am in a state of shock that he has landed a “Soo”………….and as direct result am in “awe” of this guy……………..how did he manage to achieve this most miraculous of feats, I have no idea but wish I knew the secret.

It is days like today that I wish I could speak Korean as I am sure this would improve my chances greatly of landing such a women…………I am too stunned to write anything more on this subject.

In other news I have two potential work style set-ups on the horizon my project manager is threatening to set me up with a girl who works for one of our suppliers, whilst a girl in my office is threatening to set me up with someone who works closely with our office………..although to be honest I doubt either will come to fruition.

Today someone in my office pointed out that I look as though I am losing weight, and when I returned home and looked in the mirror it is true I am looking gaunt.  I will have to start my weight gain program on Saturday.

Mood for the day 8 out of 10.  (I am encouraged by the types of guys who land stunning women)

Day 219 – May 28th

Today was a day of tickets, both for the NFL and the NBA………I have agreed to sell some NFL tickets for a girl at work and in return her husband will take me to an NFL game in Toronto. I am confident of success having sold numerous tickets on ebay and craiglist in the past. I have never been to an NFL game before so to say I am psyched about the prospect of possibly attending one would be an understatement to say the least.

The CFL is tedious due to the 3 downs causing numerous changes of possession and whilst I have never been to NFL have been an avid follower since moving to North America some 8 years ago. Hopefully everything will go according to plan, I will find out more when the tickets get delivered some time in July.

As for the NBA, today was my season seat renewal event at the ACC, what a great experience that turned out to be, first up on entering the arena departing broadcaster Chuck Swirksy was on hand giving out signed Bobble-head dolls…….my bobble-head collection at home now stands at 14 and soon I will have to expand the collection onto a second shelf.

On to the seat event it’s self and the staff are extremely helpful and courteous I was never going to give up my existing seats, but I have decided to by a second pair…….not really sure why but when I sat in them I just thought the view was great, whilst they are in the corner they are in row 3 of the upper bowl. So I will now have a choice of either center court row 14 or the corner row 3 I will probably mix and match throughout the year and am pretty confident I will be able to resell the pair not being used or find people that would want to attend. Someone else tried to select the same seats and having been ticket holders for 5 years believed they had a good chance, little did they know the Brit has been a season seat holder for 9 years having purchased my Raptor tickets even prior to moving to Canada.

I wonder how many other people have bought Raptor season tickets prior to moving to Canada…..I would suggest very few.

At this point I think the event is finished but it isn’t as I am taken for a tour of the players dressing room, and have a photo taken by the team photographer in front of the locker of Toronto’s franchise player CB4. I should get it emailed to me in the next couple of days. Whilst in there I took a couple of shots of my own…….take a look at the two shots below, they are not of someones apartment they are section and a relatively small section of the Raptor dressing room……..it is not just bigger than my apartment, but a lot bigger.

I am given some snacks and couple of diet cokes to go and leave the arena, to say that I am impressed about how the “season seat renewal event” went would be a massive understatement.

What else has happened today, no exercise but the agency sent me another women……….get this for a description Laura, 31 years old, slim, blonde hair, Hungarian, fitness instructor…..yes fitness instructor, and she enjoys working out, theatre and dance…………..unfortunatly she is on vacation until June 16th so I will contact her then but in the meantime…………..give this man bib, because I am drooling.

I’ll finish this post now so I can watch the Celtics/Pistons and Penguins/Red Wings……….channel flipping for me.

Mood for the day 8 out of 10.

Day 218 – May 27th

Today was my date with Julie and as with my first meeting with her at the dinner party she was both easy to talk to, funny and generally great to be around we had a dinner that started around 6pm and lasted around 3 hours where the conversation flowed easily from one topic to the next.  Usually in circumstances such as this I would be in a pretty confident frame of mind as I would ask to see her again at the evening’s conclusion……however on this occasion, just prior to the end of dinner the conversation turned to dating.

It turns out that over the last 3 weeks she has been connecting with around 9 different guys from sources as diverse as the dinner party to an online dating site.  Sensing the look of disbelief on my face she quickly points out that virtually all have been boring………..my expression now turns to one of “What the **** have I just made this girl suffer through”.  She is quick to reassure me that I wasn’t one of the “boring” guys and whilst this is good to hear.  Whilst walking her to the subway I ponder the amount of competition that I am up against and am no longer certain that I will get a yes when I ask her to meet again.

I ask regardless, she says yes and I will speak to her in the next couple of days, we both joke that from now on I will be known as guy number 9.  It will be interesting to see where I stand in the pecking order, am I  somewhere in the middle of the pack, am I a medal contender or am I entering this race with a realistic shot at the gold………..at this stage I believe I have great shot at a medal and if I fulfill my potential a shot at gold.

Obviously it is a two way street and whilst after meeting her twice I don’t have any this girl is the greatest ever vibes I certainly want to meet her again in order to find out more.  She is easy to talk to, exercises, has funny stories, has a glass half full kind of attitude and is pretty.  Whilst she does not live downtown, this  based on the other things she brings to the table a minor issue………and at the moment I can’t think of good reason not to want to meet her again.  This pattern of thought is most unlike me……..am I coming down with something, has my mindset suddenly shifted, has maturity finally kicked in.  I will have to ponder these questions.

Mood for the day 7 out of 10.

Day 217 – May 26th

As was always likely to be the case the only event of any real significance today was playing in the final of the squash league at TAC………to use a slogan from the NBA “the dream has died”.  To be perfectly honest after an initial feeling out period, once my opponent had figured out I could not move to the front of the court the match wasn’t even competitive.  

 

Whist lack of mobility was certainly a contributing factor there were in my opinion 3 reason why I stumbled to defeat and I will list them in order of importance 3 (Least) to 1 (Most).

 

3) Lack of mobility, it is very difficult to play squash when you are unable to lunge forward without pain, the bandages and triple socks certainly helped but there was certainly a discomfort and more importantly (especially when combined with my hip woes) a lack of confidence in my movement patterns especially when hitting off the “wrong” foot on the forehand side of the court.

 

Percentage contribution to the defeat 10%

 

2) My Opponents play, the difference between how my opponent played last night and when I schooled him 4 weeks ago was night and day.  My opponent hit some exceptionally tight shots that allowed me to only hit defensive drives and boasts on many rallies throughout the match.  On the attacking side there was one segment of the match where he hit five straight dead ball nicks to take the game score from 2-3 to 7-3 and shift the momentum significantly. 

 

He also hit exceptionally tight drops and had a couple of both back wall and front/sidewall nicks at opportune times throughout the match.  Whilst I would suggest the back wall and front wall nicks can be described as lucky this was only a small percentage and the majority (nicks at the front of drops/kills) were as a result of good attacking shots.  Many squash players class all nicks as lucky however I do not subscribe to that theory, on an attacking shot you are aiming to nick the ball out and whilst it is virtually impossible to hit a straight line dead nick, the more shots you get in the target area the greater your chances will be.

 

Spin, Speed and heat of the ball will always mean there is an element of chance when hitting a nick, however the accuracy of my opponent’s shots certainly meant the deck was stacked in his favor when it came to this aspect of the game.

 

Percentage contribution to the defeat 30%

 

3) My attitude to the game, there was time most recently a couple of years ago when I would have been absolutely devastated by losing in a final and would quite literally fight like a tiger until the bitter end.  If I was going down, I was going down swinging and would keep swinging until literally my body would not allow me to carry on and I would simply stagger off the court and collapse in heap by the back wall. 

 

This is no longer the case, whilst I am disappointed to lose……I am no longer devastated/crushed, I don’t want to say “I no longer care” but can’t think of a better phrase to use.  There are more important things to focus on in live, and whilst I may still play squash to keep fit and for enjoyment, am I at this stage of life likely win a competition that it is of a higher level to those I have won in the past the answer is no. 

 

I have played the best squash of my career at 3 different times when I was around 18 before heading off to university, between the ages of 24-27 prior to heading over to Canada and between the ages 30 and 33 when I was “desperate” to win the club championships at Wellington.  On all of those occasions I was focusing to improve my game by regularly training, outside the court and performing drills/practice routines within it…………….I have no desire to put in the required effort to return to the level of play specified in the timeframes listed above and that is the real issue.

 

To sum up the match as a whole on this particular night my opponent certainly wanted the win far more than I did, he worked harder and I could tell he fought for every rally.  (I’m sure playing in front of his daughter added to his motivation)

 

Percentage contribution to the defeat 60%

 

As I write this my foot hurts, my hip hurts………..but heart appears fine.  By heart I mean there is no overriding sense of hurt or disappointment that I have suffered defeat, if anything the overriding sense of emotion is relief that I don’t have to play squash again for a couple of weeks and can instead focus on other things (Such as Julie).  

 

This shouldn’t be the case, I should be upset, disappointed and crushed but am not and this is the real cause for concern. (Look at my mood for the day) I started playing squash in under 12’s so I was probably around 10 years old and will soon be coming up to 25 years in the game, whilst I already have my squash coaching and training credentials maybe it is time to pursue that a little more and expand my skills as it is certainly an area of the sport I enjoy.

 

I will try and figure out a way to put a poll on my site as to if I should continue to play after I turn 35 (in October), but in the meantime feel free to comment.

 

Mood for the day 7 out of 10.

Day 216 – May 25th

I feel very tired as today draws to a close however it has been a good day, and I will write a more in depth post on Monday. I read something of interest today in that of over the course of life you may meet a couple of hundred women if not more that you will want to have sex this, however of those there will be only 1 or 2 that you will actually want to sleep with and those are the people you need to focus on.

I’ve never really thought of it this way before before will do from now on and will post more on this in the future.

Mood for the day 8 out of 10

Day 215 – May 24th

I am as nervous as a cat in a room full of rocking chairs and the reason is that as opposed to my foot getting better is certainly getting worse…..today I lasted about 10 mins on the squash court before I was forced to concede the match. Tomorrow I have drills and will practice various combinations of blister and toe plasters and today I also purchased 3 new pairs of socks…..I will be wearing at least 2 come Monday and maybe even 3.

If it was any match other than a final I certainly wouldn’t be playing and after Monday will take a couple of weeks break from squash to hopefully heel both the toe and hip.

Following the debacle known as squash, I went to baseball with Garry and whilst a complete game shutout by the Jay’s starter should have been the highlight, it wasn’t the highlight was a pair of women sitting in front of us, when they arrived and based on how they looked I thought they were sisters, but given how they ended up sitting with their arms around each other it became clear they were a couple……….I was desperate to watch them start “making out” but sadly they didn’t………dare to dream, dare to dream.

Following the game we went for dinner at a vegetarian restaurant and whilst the food was great it once again became clear how odd some of my choices in women are, I pointed out someone who I thought was a pretty girl but Garry didn’t appear impressed…….this has happened to me on numerous occasions.

Back home and I chatted with Julie for about an hour…….we will meet on Tuesday so fingers crossed that all goes well…………whilst being home is fine, Detroit is clearly the place to be as whilst I write this the hockey team is playing in the final, whilst across town the basketball team is playing in the semi finals……….I wonder if a day will ever arrive when both the Leafs and Raptors go this deep in the playoffs.

I also decided to go and see Madonna when she comes to Toronto in the fall, I’m not sure how good her new tour will be but based on what happened the last time I watched her live there is every reason to be optimistic.

Mood for the day 7 out of 10.

Day 214 – May 23rd

Today was my annual medical and in general terms things appear to have gone well although I will know more when my blood work comes back in a couple of weeks.  The doctor confirmed I have lost weight and this is not a surprise given my loss of muscle tone, I will work on that the next few weeks.  As for my hip there is some inflammation and the doc suggested some general painkillers and for me to go back if the hip pain continue for a period of time.

It appears to be just general wear and tear and the doc also told me that spinning, weights, squash, general fitness and Pilates are probably a little too much at this stage of life and I should start to take it easy a little more.  I will ponder this advice.

My monster project at work has now taken another unexpected twist that has increased the scope significantly…….I will try and come up with a plan to mange the workload over the weekend.

One thing I won’t be doing over the weekend is seeing Susan, when I got home there was a message on my machine from the agency saying that I had met her before back in 2006 and given the feedback I provided at the time there is no point meeting again.  I honestly can not remember this women and when I spoke to her on the phone a few nights ago there was certainly no sense of dejarvue……however I do have a memory like a sieve.

I probably should have asked the agency the reason I gave at the time but didn’t……..I will speculate that it was either “baby fever”, “FB” or “lack of stories”……I will plump for “lack of stories”.  Given the prospects with Olia appear somewhere between slim and none…….these leaves Julie as the main focus.

Mood for the day 7 out of 10.

Day 213 – May 22nd

I continue to ache and whilst tomorrow is my medical appointment I’m not sure today’s squash match will have done me any good, I coughed up 7 match balls and managed to sneak home 10-8 in the fifth game. My hip aches, my toenail is on the verge of falling off and I have a huge blister on my foot.

It is day’s like today that make me think more and more that this will be my last year of squash.

I am too tired to write anymore and will instead decide to collapse on the couch.

Mood for the day 6 out of 10.

Day 212 – May 21st

Today Chelsea have fallen to absolute crushing defeat to Manchester United in the Champions League……why was the defeat crushing because in the penalty shootout the Chelsea captain has an opportunity to win the trophy but fails to hit the target……..the door becomes slightly ajar and United take full advantage…….it’s a beautiful thing.  Given the time difference the final finished after 1am local (Moscow) time……pretty crazy but I guess TV rules.

As a result of the extra time I missed the first half of my pilates lesson, so had a fairly comfortable half hour session………the left hip is agony once again.  Spoke to the Russian in the evening, however she is difficult to talk to and often answers with one word responses, I will call her again but at this stage am no convinced we will ever meet.

Mood for the day 8 out of 1o.