Songs

You'll probably recognize most of these, but I guarantee there is at least one that you didn't know the name of.

Furniture

Yes, I need some new furniture.  No, it shall not be from this Star Wars-themed collection.

MLB London Series

So, baseball is coming to London this weekend.  Sure, why the hell not.  It’s not like anybody in the UK gives two hoots about baseball.  We’ve got cricket – so why would we need an even more boring variation of that, essentially glorified rounders.  What is most surprising is that it is 2 regular season games between 2 rivals and 2 of the biggest names in the sport – the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees.  It will be interesting to see what kind of attendances they get – I cannot imagine it will be many, maybe just the curious and the American expats.  I’m not even sure if anyone in the UK even knows about the games – are they being aired anywhere on UK TV?  If you think American Football has too many breaks between action for adverts and suchlike, just wait for the agonizing monotony of a professional baseball game.  Let’s cut to the chase, baseball is not – and never will be - popular in the UK.

Yay

Look what I won today!

Hmmm, why have I cropped out the plaque on the trophy from this photo?  Let’s have a closer look at that:

Runner-up?!  This is a participation trophy.  A first loser’s trophy.  I should throw it away (but I won’t because, and I can’t emphasize this enough, IT’S THE FIRST TROPHY I’VE EVER WON!!!!).  Considering my finger injury, I should be grateful I got a bye in the quarter-finals and a favorable draw and result in the semi-finals – though the final (against my nemesis) wasn’t even close.  That is what makes it so disappointing, right before the injury I was kicking his ass regularly.  With the injury, my game is definitely hampered.  I think it’s going to take a while for my finger to recover and get it’s full dexterity back – but hopefully I’ll be ready to win the next tournament.

5th July

Next week is Independence Day - 4th July - which this year lies on a Thursday.  In a surprising, and surprisingly generous, move our new CEO has also declared Friday 5th July a company holiday.  So now we have a long weekend to look forward to - which is nice!  As far as I'm aware, this is unprecedented - it's never happened before in all my time in the US.  And giving all the employees an extra day's holiday can't be cheap for the company.  I approve.  Maybe our new CEO actually cares about his employees.  My only regret is that he only made the announcement this week, far too late to book and make plans to go away somewhere for the weekend.   

Breakdancing

So breakdancing is apparently going to become an Olympic sport in 2024.  For reals.  What the f*ck?  Either I’m getting too old, or that is just plain ridiculous.  How the hell do you not make that entirely subjective – how many times can you spin round on your head in 1 minute?  How many full worms can you do in 5 minutes?  Is there like some kind of competitive dance-off?  I despair. 

Cube

I'm not one for excessively decorating my cubicle, but considering I am in that one place for about 40 hours every week then some personal touches are not unwarranted:

Note the Lego figurine, the Palace scarf, the GB car sticker and a postcard of the Queen that someone sent me as a joke.