The ramblings of Keane Ingram

It's been a very cold weekend, we've not had much of the snow the rest of the country has had but the heating has been on! We've not done much really, we went to Leigh on Saturday afternoon to try and find some Christmas presents but had no joy, yesterday I took Nicky to B&Q to get some draught excluders (which seem to have made a slight difference, hard to tell really!)

Other than that, more of the same really. The build up to Christmas has started, will have no excuses come December for not putting up the decorations etc. Most of our shopping has been done (Anna is very organised when it comes to present shopping!) so just a few odd bits to get online left now.

Last night we went out to the cinema for the first time in 20 months - the last film we saw in a cinema was Watchmen,  just before Nicky was born.

We went out for a meal beforehand, to Charlie Choy's, which wasn't particularly good. For most of the meal there were only two occupied tables in there, which for a buffet means the food isn't refreshed very often. There was a decent range of food available but it was average at best. They did do Anna a stir-fry from scratch though, and did me a fresh garlic naan. The dessert was OK too. Don't think we'll go back there in a hurry though, I've got a really dry mouth this morning.

Then we went to the Odeon, which hasn't changed at all since the last time I went there (must be about 11 years ago?) I'd booked to see a 'digital' viewing which promised better sound and a clearer picture, but I can't say I noticed much of a difference. The film itself I thought was really good, it was pretty bleak and di…

I went karting last Saturday with Will and a few of his friends. There were 7 of us altogether, I only knew 2 of them but it was still fun. We were doing a sprint meeting, which consisted of 15 practice laps, 15 qualifying laps and a 30 lap final. I knew when one of Will's friends bought his own helmet and overalls that we were racing for 2nd place, after practice I was 3rd fastest and felt fairly confident of a podium, but I got held up a little in qualifying and only managed 4th place on the grid.

The final was pretty good, as for most of it 2nd, 3rd and 4th were bunched up together, but I finally made a move for 3rd with a few laps left, there was a little bit of contact but I was on the inside so I think it was fair? After that I had a few goes at 2nd but he was too good at blocking, and I didn't really have time to attack, plus I was trying to fend off 4th!

I was pretty happy with 3rd considering, although only the top 2 places got trophies! We then got the laptimes and I…

I meant to say yesterday that it would have been Dad's birthday. I did think a bit about him yesterday. I rarely get time to think these days what with Nicky but was a little bit sad.

I guess I must just be unfit, because my legs are really aching after playing squash last night. I thought I was getting fitter, but maybe because the games are getting harder and longer now I'm having to exert myself more. I suppose eventually I must get fitter, right?

I really struggled last night though, for some reason I just didn't feel as able to move around the court as I'd have liked, so I only drew 1-1 with Will and Pete and beat James 2-0, even then they were all close games. Whilst we were there, there were some club games going on. We watched some and it was like watching the Premier League in comparison to our Sunday League games. One of the kids we heard was fourth in the UK at Under-17 level, and he was only 15. The games were brilliant to watch, although I feel distinctly amateur now!

Other than that, not much is new. I've started reading 'The Merry Wives of Windsor' on the Kindle. It definitely seems easier and quicker to read on the Kindle, ma…

X Factor just becomes even more of a joke as the weeks go by. However the saddest thing is that I still watch it, although most of the time reading peoples' tweets about it is more entertaining than the programme itself. The idea of an 'Elton John' week was I guess a response to Elton John saying that the programme is rubbish, however the programme makers have only proved him right. The singing was almost completely awful, none of them have the so-called X Factor and whoever wins will no doubt be going the same way as Leon, Shane, Joe etc. At least Katie is still in, it wouldn't be half as much fun without someone to dislike so much.

I've been reading more than normal recently - that is, more than normal since Nicky came along. I finished Mark Kermode's autobiography a few days ago. It was entertaining but I had hoped for something a bit more exhaustive, it wasn't really that long and there wasn't that much that I didn't already know. I can't be…

If that's the case, why am I aching so much this morning after playing squash last night? I guess one explanation is that as we all improve, the rallies last longer and we have to work a lot harder in each game. I was quite lucky last night though, in the sense that as I won my first game I always had a rest after every game, whilst the others sometimes had to play 2 in a row. But even so, my legs are pretty tired today.

I had been aching beforehand so I didn't think I was going to play too well, but I beat Will 11-0 in the first game :-) Overall things went pretty well, I beat Will 2-1, James 3-0 and Pete 2-1. So my overall scores since we started are now 21-15 against Will, 25-7 against James and 18-8 against Pete.

Apart from squash, I'm feeling pretty stressed at the moment, work seems to be piling up, which is good in the sense that I like being paid, but it's all quite stressful stuff with deadlines...

Now, I've known for ages that the X Factor is quite unlikely to unearth some genuine music talent, but I still watch it for the entertainment value (go Wagner!) and the soap-opera element with the judges bickering. I know this is all staged for my benefit, yet the nonsense that is going on to keep Katie Waissel in the show is ridiculous. In a way I'm glad she's kept in, in a way, because at least she's entertaining and I need someone on there to really hate!

Had a quiet weekend at my mum's house. We bought a few fireworks to set off in the garden, but I don't think Nicky was too impressed, he would seem excited at some and then demand to go inside! He definitely didn't like the rockets. Probably a good thing we had decided to do that rather than go to a proper show.

Squash last week wasn't too good as I lost again to Will 3-2. He's starting to get better which is annoying me! Overall I'm 19-14 up against him, I'd really like to increase that…

There's definitely something about being a parent that makes you annoyed at things you previously didn't mind too much. This weekend just passed was annoying in the evenings because some locals decided they would set off fireworks. Normally I'd have just thought nothing of it, but when we're trying to get Nicky to sleep it's extremely frustrating! Plus it was the wrong weekend anyway - at least we expect it this weekend, but last weekend it's purely annoying.

On the other hand, I have always despised Halloween as being a way of teaching children how to beg, and would previously just sit in with the lights off pretending to be out. But we bought some chocolates just in case, and we turned it into a game where when the knock on the door came, we'd get Nicky to go to the door and scream when he saw the outfits. He really seemed to like it, so now I'm torn. He's still not going to be allowed out trick or treating though!

I finally finished reading Bleak…