Weird weather

I know it's incredibly British and incredibly boring to go on about the weather, but I was genuinely shocked to see snow in October.

As I've said before (several times probably), I love snow. I do, however, wish it would fall at the weekend when you can go for a walk and enjoy the winter landscape, rather than on a weekday when you have to drive to work. Still, snow is snow, and seeing it in October was a bonus.

Speaking of the seasons, my garden is now almost empty. I've dug up all my potatoes (there's plenty to keep us going through the winter months), while my tomatoes, courgettes and aubergines are now finished (the cold snap this week was the final nail in the coffin). My chili peppers have been fantastic this year, especially the dwarf ones, which are so hot, half of one is enough to make your eyes water.

My swedes are almost ready, and I have one or two cabbages that managed to survive the caterpillar onslaught but the main focus of my work over the next couple of weekends will be digging the garden over in preparation for next year - providing we don't have any more snow.

Gym etiquette

Going to the gym is a funny thing. Until a few years ago, I wouldn't have contemplated going near a gym but, after some gentle persuasion from my wife (and some encouraging comments such as 'don't worry, that happens to everybody when they get a certain age'), I took the plunge and have been going to a gym fairly regularly since.

If anyone else is being made to feel guilty about not being fit enough, the gym's not as bad you think. I was terrified of lots of super-fit, muscle bound types making me feel inadequate. However, most people are like me - they're simply trying to ease their guilty conscience about eating or drinking too much.

In fact, the worse thing about going to the gym is their insistence on providing full length mirrors in front of the running machines; believe me, the last thing I want to see after a 20 minute run is my own sweating, purple reflection.

Anyway, the point of this very rambling introduction is to bring up the subject of how to behave in the gym. As a relative novice, I'm still learning but I've already observed a few rules for beginners that should be obeyed at all times.

Firstly, you must always try to avoid using the machine next to somebody else - you really don't want to be too close to somebody while you're exercising, it's just not nice.

Also, wear suitable clothing. This is a very important consideration but can be overlooked. Shorts that are just too, well, short are unacceptable. Also, and without being too graphic, beware of emblems on T-shirts as they can prove very painful after a 20 minute run (I'm speaking from experience here).

Thirdly, keep looking straight ahead when using the machines. Occasionally, something will catch your eye on one of the TV screens (invariably showing 'pop' videos aimed at teenagers) and you will, at best, stumble and at worst fall off potentially leading to serious injury. Also, looking round the gym while exercising invariably leads to eye contact - not a good thing.

Finally, and most importantly, always remember to use deodorant before visiting the gym. Believe me, exercising is a traumatic enough experience without having to put up with personal hygiene issues as well.

So there we are, my beginners guide to the gym. I doubt that exercise will ever be fun (fun is spending time with Melissa (soppy but true) drinking, eating and playing Pro Evolution on the Xbox) but by observing these rules it might at least be bearable.

PES update

Having managed to spend a bit of time playing PES 2009 over the weekend, I'm impressed.

The Become a Legend mode is, potentially at least, brilliant and I even managed to get on the bench for my club Aston Villa (or West Midlands Village as it's known in PES) yesterday.

The game itself looks pretty good and the players bear a distinct resemblance to their real-life counterparts. It also plays very well and, leaving aside the Fifa vs PES debate for a moment, scoring a brilliant goal after putting together a flowing move is still hugely satisfying.

So is it as good as or better than Fifa? I don't know. All I know is that it's still a great game. My brother - who wants to be known as Baz or Barrald in any future references on this blog - has promised to visit in the near future with his copy of Fifa so we can compare the two games properly. For know though, PES is plenty good enough to keep me occupied.

Behaving like a geek

I don't consider myself a geek. I admit, I own a games console (recently upgraded from Playstation2 to Xbox360), and a PC which is used for internet and music, and very little else.

However, once a year, I behave like a complete geek - and all because of a football game. It's not something I'm proud of, but - try as I might - I can't do anything about.

The game concerned is Pro Evolution Soccer (or PES as its known to its followers). I've played every version of this game (were now on the 2009 edition) and its predecessor, International Superstar Soccer, since it was launched back in the days of the Playstation1.

I can, quite literally, lose hours playing this game, which still gives me a tremendous buzz when scoring or pulling off an unlikely victory.

This year has been problematic, though. PES' arch-rival, Fifa, has improved considerably over the years to the point where many gamers and critics are citing it as the best football game available.

I have never bought a Fifa game, preferring instead what I consider to be realism of PES. However, by all accounts, Fifa 09 is incredibly realistic - realistic enough to convert long-time PES fans, including my brother Barry.

He's been trying to convince me to buy Fifa this time round and, I admit, I was tempted. I've even searched the web for reviews comparing the two titles but, due to an embargo, there were hardly any reviews of PES 2009. All I could find were fan sites - and, quite frankly, they were scary. I thought I liked the game but I have nothing on these people; they obviously live and breathe the game.

Anyway, the upshot of my deliberations was that I found myself in Asda at 6.20am this morning, in the embarrassing position of having to ask one of the helpful assistants for a copy. I'm sure she gave me one of those 'sympathetic' looks most of us reserve for train spotters.
I haven't had chance to play the game yet. When I do, I'll let you know if it's any good.

Apologies... on behalf of my wife

I've been asked to issue a public apology to the gentleman who was nearly run down by my wife recently.

To put readers in the picture, we were leaving our drive with my wife behind the wheel when she started to pull out, only to realise - as I shouted 'stop' as loudly as possible - that a man was in front of our car.

The man had been jogging with his dog and was sprinting past our drive when the near-miss happened.

Of course, it now transpires that the whole incident was entirely my fault. The view out of our drive is obscured by a large hedge on the right hand side and Melissa had asked me to keep an eye out for cars.

As she started to edge forward, I said 'stop' - or words to that effect - but she ignored me. It turned out that stop wasn't descriptive enough. Apparently, I should have said 'stop, pedestrian' and she would have stopped. Instead, my warning was 'too vague' to be of any use.

So there we are. What started out as an apology on behalf of my wife has now turned into a personal apology. So, to the jogger whose exercise was nearly halted very abruptly, I'm very, very sorry and will try to be more descriptive with my warnings in future.

What happened to autumn?

It's been a while since my last post on here. In that time (just over a month), our wonderful British weather appears to have skipped autumn and gone straight in to winter.

Last week, I was in Pwllheli and the weather was fantastic. Admittedly it was a bit chilly in the evening and first thing in the morning but, during the day, it was glorious. At one point we (Melissa and I) were sat on the beach with a picnic and I was contemplating going for a swim - I kid you not.

Like most British people, I'm obsessed with the weather, and this week I've been keeping my fingers crossed because one of my best friends, Chris Bellingham (better known as Bubbs to friends and family) is finally doing the decent thing and getting married to his long-time partner Louise.

The wedding takes place on Friday and - unfortunately - the weather doesn't look like obliging. Indeed, some weather forecasters are even talking about snow over the Scottish mountains - as long as it doesn't venture as far south as Chirk, I'll be happy.