The ramblings of Keane Ingram

I played squash last night, and I'm really aching today - I thought as I played more I'd feel less achy but last night was the toughest set of matches yet I think. Both myself and Will had new racquets, he had gone for a power based one but I'd gone for a more balanced one. Unfortunately, he seemed to get into the swing of things straight away whereas it took me a little time to get used to the balance of the racquet. I lost my first five games in a row! Normally I start off well, then tire and start losing. However once I got the hang of it I won my last five games, including being 10-0 up on Will at one point (he got me back to 11-2 unfortunately!)

Overall, Will beat me 3-2, I beat Pete 3-2 and Pete beat Will 3-2, so no overall winner this week. We're all fairly evenly matched at the moment.

Once I got used to it, the new racquet definitely made a difference, especially the tension in the strings - my old racquet was 12 years old and had never been restrung so had ver…

I don't know if it's the weather, my lingering illness or just generally now being old (30, I still can't believe it!) but I'm not feeling great at the moment. I'm working under a blanket, as my office is a bit untidy and I can't reach the radiator to turn it on. Reading that last sentence back, it sounds very pathetic! But I don't have the time or inclination to sort it out right now, I have to work, then when I've worked I feel tired/lethargic etc.

I've bought a new squash racquet, mostly thanks to Pete, Will and James who clubbed together to get me a voucher from Decathlon for my birthday. Sadly it's bright orange in places, but it's the one that met most of my requirements. I know I'm never going to be a power player and in fact prefer placing my shots well, so I've gone for a mixed racquet rather than a power-based one, and I've gone for an 'advanced' level one as I feel I'm better than a beginner but not yet an …

Last night reminded me why I loved the Manics so much in the first place.

I don't know if it's just because I'm getting old (thirty now) or if I'm settled down and have less time to devote to music, gigs etc. but the excitement levels pre-gig weren't as high as they might have been even five years ago. The venue too seemed strange considering eleven years ago I saw them in the Millennium Stadium. It definitely seemed like a gig for older people, looking around it was difficult to spot any obvious Manics fans, apart from the ones at the barrier - there were quite a lot of grey haired people about!

The support act were British Sea Power. Hmmm, yeah. I'd seen them once before but can't remember where or anything about them, and this was pretty much the same I'd have to say. They had a violinist on stage but I couldn't hear it anywhere in the mix. I did like their T-shirts though, one said 'Heron addict' and the other said 'I just don't …

Last night we went to see the filming of Mark Watson's new ITV4 programme, Mark Watson Kicks Off. It's basically a TV version of Fighting Talk, and the guests last night were Graham Taylor, Simon Day and Josh Widdicombe. I'd heard Simon Day and Graham Taylor on FT before and they were both very good, in fact Graham Taylor was brilliant, who'd have thought you could get so many laughs out of Wayne Rooney? Josh Widdicombe was pretty good too.

The best bit was that because Anna was invited by Mark Watson through his blog, we not only got to skip the queue at the entrance but also got to go into the green room (which isn't green) afterwards. There's something extremely bizarre about standing in room where famous people are drinking. I'd spent the whole show thinking about which characters Simon Day played in the Fast Show and it was only after we left that I remembered he was Monkfish! He's a lot taller than I imagined him to be.

So after 30 years I finally…

I'm 30 today. Thus far it hasn't been a day to remember, I've been up most of the night due to the young master refusing to sleep.

On Saturday we went out for a meal to La Romantica in Rayleigh. I'd never been before but had it recommended to me by a few people, and I have to say it was really good food, the steak was perfectly done and the sauce had just the right amount of kick to it. There were quite a few of us out and I think everyone enjoyed the meal.

Afterwards we went out to the pub for a quick drink before heading to the Brush. This was to be my downfall, as I was given two shots of Aftershock to down as well as a pint. I seemed to be coping OK at this point, and we headed to the Brush.

Once inside I had the traditional Rodney and had a bit of a dance to Love Will Tear Us Apart, but not long after I headed to the toilets for what I thought was a tactical vomit. After I'd finished there was a knock on the cubicle door, and some bouncers told me I had to lea…

One thing I wanted to mention in my previous entry is that we went to see Rhod Gilbert at the Cliffs, doing his show 'Rhod Gilbert And The Cat That Looked Like Nicholas Lyndhurst'. The support was someone called Lloyd Langford, who is apparently Rhod's flatmate and is also on his new TV programme 'Ask Rhod Gilbert'. He was pretty funny, took a swipe at Canvey which is an easy laugh here really!

Rhod then started and within 5 seconds was having a go at people blinding him with their camera flashes :-) He didn't really calm down from there and spent the whole set being quite angry, but in a very funny way - I was crying with laughter at some points! I haven't laughed that much in a long time.

We're going to see Mark Watson's new TV programme being filmed on Monday, which is also my 30th birthday...

It's been a long couple of weeks, Anna and Nicky have both been ill so I've been pretty knackered. I thought I had escaped getting ill but I've got a sore throat and runny nose so I'll probably get it, just in time for my birthday next week, joy!

I'm sure there was something I wanted to write about but I can't remember at present. My memory seems to be going - I used to be able to remember absolutely everything but these days it's not so good. Not sure if it's tiredness or old age or what!

Yesterday we had the 20 week scan on the new bump (Fernan-dos? We can't think of a good name, and if we did it would probably confuse Nicky so we'll just have to call it the bump), and everything is going well and there was nothing to report.

Here's a scan of baby 2!