Free Weekend

There are plenty of negatives to it, but I'm a glass half full kinda guy. One of the bonuses of having my marriage break down is the spare time I have all of a sudden been gifted. I'm sharing custody of the kids, and that means every other week I get a free weekend. Totally free. No one to please but me. It's been years since I have had that kinda freedom. So, what did I do with my free weekend?

Normally such freedom would mean me heading out on my motorbike to enjoy the stunning scenery and mountain ranges in the general locale, but that's not possible since someone knocked me off it a couple of months ago and she still sits on my drive with a hole in the side of her engine waiting for the Insurance company to pull their finger out. There is another reason I didn't do that this weekend, but that's down to me being a wuss. It's bloody cold here. Especially in the mountains. Well, relatively. I have been in the south of Spain for 6 years now and my blood must have thinned enough for me to start feeling the relative cold. It's only about 10 degrees here, which isn't 'too' bad when in the UK, but here, it's nippy. So that kind of confined me to the house aside from a couple of strolls down to the port to grab some take away food.

In order, my weekend went like this. Friday evening it started with the gathering of munchies, collation of booze and tabletop Call of Cthulhu roleplaying. A really fun session that saw the return of my burly woodkeeper ' Cutter' to the fray. Although he didn't actually get up to much as he is very much more the brawn than brains of the group and it was a particularly cerebral session. He seemed to be in the background a bit as a result, but he'll get his time to shine again soon I am sure! He did get to use some of his legendary tracking skills though up in Derbyshire, where he was hunting what we think may turn out to be a Werewolf. I'm sure there will be some chances for him to get physical though soon, the session was left in a real cliffhanger! That session ended late (I'm an hour in front of the rest of the players), so I logged in to EQ2 for about an hour, then watched some TBBT and went to bed.

Saturday was an early start and I went and got the food shopping. My ex was in need of a bit of kid free time to clean her house, so I had them for a couple of hours and grabbed some lunch. After dropping them off I locked myself up in the house, did some laundry and cleaning and then it was game time. I kinda hopped between games for the most of the afternoon,but I think I broke my DIRT2 addiction. I have now, finally got to grips with DIRT3. One of the problems with letting DIRT2 go is that it was just so bloody amazing. The feel of the cars and the differing surfaces was very intuitive and it just felt 'right'. In contrast I had found that DIRT3 seemed a little bit too 'unruly'. I know it is supposed to be realistic on advanced level, but I have driven some of these cars in real life and on varying surfaces. The controls seemed just too raw. But, I have since slowly come to terms with them and am now really starting to enjoy the game. The graphics are amazing even at hyper speed and now that I have gotten used to the twitchy controls, I'm starting to appreciate the different nuances of the vehicles too. In addition, it's nice to have a challenge. In DIRT2 I pretty much finish about 5 or 6 seconds ahead of the competition. In DIRT 3 I still can't win every race and some of them I get the distinct feeling I am just about dragging my ass through. I'm getting better though. Sorry DIRT2, but DIRT3 is now commanding my driving game time.

That evening a short walk down to the port for an Indian takeaway (with a quick added beer with my mate Pete), ended with me back at home, feet up watching 'The Dark Knight Rises'. I really enjoyed it. It did seem a bit long in places and it would have been nice to see a bit more super tough Batman rather than beaten down old crippled Batman, but it was nice to see the challenge of Bane. That's one tough dude! One comment, I loved Banes accent and dialogue. Funny and brilliant at the same time. I recommend a watch if you've not seen it. Oh, I guessed who was going to be 'Robin' in the next film about 2 minutes after the character was introduced. Not too subtle. One comment about Michael Caine's role in the movie. The role is a good one and I have enjoyed him in that character for the last couple of movies. But, it just seemed a little 'over' acted this time round. Still worth a watch though. If I had to give it a percentage it would be about 75 ish.

Sunday a/m was a late get up. I woke early enough, I was awake about 8 am, but aside from getting out of bed to make myself a cup of lovely Earl Grey rosey lea, I didn't actually 'get up' until about 11.30 am. I caught up with my watching of 'The Office (U.S)' episodes (I was about 4 behind). When I finally dragged myself out of bed and had showered, I plugged in my iphone's music and headed out for a walk. Although cold it was lovely and sunny and it seemed a shame to waste the day. About a 5 mile 'Soundgarden sponsored' walk ended up in the Port and at my old haunt 'The Dolphin' cafe  for a coffee (where I go to chill and write my novel). I chillaxed there for about an hour. Whilst I was there something weird happened. I was chatting to the owner who is a very beautiful woman about my age, who although from the UK must have Latin roots as she looks completely Spanish with big brown eyes and olive skin. Whilst we were chatting she kept touching me. It wasn't an 'ongoing' conversation. It carried on whenever she walked past, for a couple of minutes each a time. But every time she came over, she either rubbed or touched my arm, letting her touch 'linger' each time she did so. Both on arrival at my table and when she left. I am SO stupid when it comes to reading signs from the opposite sex, but I'm reckoning she might have been in to me. Which causes me a problem. I'm staunchly moral in how I conduct myself in my life and I'm pretty sure she is married, which means I wouldn't go near her in that sense. So that causes another knock on problem. That's my creating space. It's where I go to sit and watch the sea and the palm trees and relax my mind so it can create and head out on the journey of writing. I really could do without that space coming with any baggage. Perhaps if I ignore it, the situation will go away. Who knows, I may be wrong anyhow. Of course there is another angle to look at this. I only 'think' she is married. I'm not sure why. She doesn't wear a ring but I have been going there for years and there has to be a reason I conclude that she is. But it's not a 100% certainty. If she's not married or seeing anyone, then maybe. Who knows. LoL. Can you tell I'm not that bothered about getting in another relationship? ;)

That afternoon saw me head back home (another good 3 mile jaunt..went home a bit more direct) and after doing some chores I again powered up the PC and played some EQ2. Once again I didn't really get to experience the new expansions (well I know AoD is old but it's still new to me) as I was helping out some guildies. Didn't really matter, what did matter was the fact we had an absolute riot. So much in fact, before I knew it it was about 8pm and the process of getting everything ready for work the following day was required. So, I hammered that out, then spent the remainder of my evening playing GTA-San Andreas (nice bit of semi-vintage gaming) and catching up on my TBBT, Modern Family and New Girl. I don't even recall the New Girl I watched. The next thing I knew is that the alarm was going off this morning and it was time to get up and shower.

That was my weekend. Lovely, relaxing and totally about me. My one regret? I haven't yet managed to hook up with Jahf on voice chat. There's no escape! I'll catch you this week dude!

Oh, and thanks to my Bro for his warm welcome back to me to the world of bloggage.

Be well.