Declan Byrd's Personal Site

Lots of processing this week. I didn't appreciate how much writing helped with that and giving my thoughts somewhere to go instead of bouncing around my head like a game of pong. I had two basketball sessions. The first on Monday was more about showing up than a desire to play. My head was elsewhere and it probably showed when I was on the court. I was in a much better head space for the second session later in the week. Made lots of shots which put me in a good mood. We went out for dinner at…

Content warning: pet death. Starting with the sad part. Had to say goodbye to Bruno on Saturday. He came to visit on Friday morning and despite being all smiles and wagging his tail a lot, he didn't seem his best self. I feel fortunate that I was able to spend that time with him when 24 hours later a scan at the vets resulted in the decision that no pet owner wants to have to make. Shocked, grieving, and spent most of the weekend in tears. So, yeah. It's difficult trying to write about the rest…

Content warning: pet death. We had to say goodbye to Bruno yesterday. I can't really explain how much I'm going to miss Bruno. There's empty space that he would normally occupy. We had him since he was a puppy and we could not have loved him more for the 13 years he was with us. I'll miss all the times he would roll over to have his tummy rubbed, the speed at which his tail would wag when he saw me, the awoos and the songs he would compose with his squeaky toys. But most of all I'll miss seeing…

A total of four basketball sessions this week. After mentioning in my notes last week that the rims were not perpendicular to the backboard, they replaced the rims at both ends of the court in time for the back-to-back session at the start of the week. So much better when the rims aren't being held to the backboard using cable ties. The other two sessions on Tuesday and Thursday were the most enjoyable. There were less people at those sessions so there was more court time and more opportunities…

Due to sports hall availability there was only one day of basketball this week, so I decided to do back-to-back sessions on Monday. Three hours of basketball in total. I've been complaining a lot in previous week notes that I have been having trouble scoring the basketball. It was slightly better this week, but there should be an asterisk associated with that. Neither of the rims at both ends of the court were perpendicular with the backboard. One was tilted slightly higher, and one was lowered…

We thought we'd finally fixed the root cause of one of the problems around the house that we mitigated a couple of weeks ago. Nope. Somehow the problem persists and we're back to the drawing board to decide what we want to do about it. This has been occupying more head space than I want to allocate to it. I had two evenings of basketball this week. Didn't warm up properly because I was late finishing work on both evenings. Made just one shot through both sessions. Managed to get some garden…

Had a better time at basketball on Monday. It was a fairly low bar, so after a made a lay-up off the first possession I'd already surpassed my own expectations. Was slightly concerned that the sports hall might have been a furnace with high temperatures throughout the day but there was a very pleasant cross wind created with all the doors open. I also had Monday off work, but didn't really make the most of it. I had one job to do that required waiting for a phone call, and so I waited nearly…

No injuries at basketball this week. Instead, my frustrations centred around my own inability to get the ball in the basket. I had Thursday and Friday off work. I didn't have concrete plans for the time off, but I'm glad I took it. I'm not sure how I would have coped this week otherwise. Finally got to the source of two different problems around the house. They weren't the easiest to trace but one has already been fixed and the other mitigated. Becka and I took a trip into Brighton to watch Toy…

The basketball scrimmage that I had at the start of the week threatened to put me in fowl mood. A sharp sudden pain in my ankle put an end to my session and my first reaction was that it was not good. I seem to have got lucky and only rolled it which was a relief. I would have been incredibly annoyed if I had done any further damage. I'm really struggling to hold an interest in the world cup. I've so far fallen asleep by half time in two of the games, and these are considered the "earlier"…

Started the week with a basketball scrimmage. The intensity levels seemed to fluctuate quite a bit throughout the session, which also meant it was difficult to find consistency. I've been sporadically playing Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga on the PlayStation. I'm not a big fan. The open world has too much going on. But like most of the other Lego games, they don't require intense levels of concentration and are somewhat relaxing. It's still better then the Hobbit game that got left…

I don't cope well in warm weather, so wasn't surprised that I struggled through the heatwave this week. I was very grouchy, didn't sleep well, and not sure how I functioned throughout the week. We had Bruno staying with us for most of the week. He also wasn't too keen on the temperature. I was very grateful for the Meaco Sefte fan that I ordered a few weeks ago in anticipation of warmer weather (just not so soon after ordering it). It took less than 24 hours before I ordered a second one -…

I had a basketball scrimmage to start the week. The sports hall was very humid so it was a challenging environment to play in. It took me a while to get going and then started making shots. I didn't stay for the whole session and left early to try and get home at a reasonable time. The Professor Layton games were some of my favourites on the Nintendo DS. Because they designed the game for it to be played on a touchscreen, they also happen to work very well on mobile. I had been playing…

The basketball season may have ended, but I had a scrimmage to start the week. It's unusual for these sessions to continue past the season's end as the sports halls are normally set up for exams. Seemed to be a real mix of age groups that attended which meant there was a lot of misunderstandings on the court. Becka and I went to Into the Blue for dinner on Wednesday, which coincided with the 9th anniversary of when we first started dating. Wednesday just happened to be a day where we both had…

A shorter working week due to a bank holiday. Not that the additional day off work was used to be "productive". It was like the late hours of a Sunday evening expanded out into a day. I attended a basketball scrimmage that evening, but I was deliberately putting in the minimum amount of effort required. With only one game of the season left to play the most important thing was to not get injured. So I played very half-hearted defence, didn't really run very much, and if anything I was only…

Felt like my week was overwhelmed by work. Had extended working hours for most of the week due to deadlines and then had some work responsibilities over the weekend too. A big basketball game on Thursday, as I played for Worthing D&D White in the second leg of the Basketball Sussex/Surrey Basketball Plate semi-final against Oxted Rhinos. We had a 13 point lead from the first leg and won the second leg by a score of 85-70. I didn't get court time until the second half and found it difficult to…

I had two evenings of basketball. Monday was a scrimmage. The court was available earlier than usual, so it was a 2 hour session instead of 90 minutes. I was enjoying my basketball in that session and making shots. Thursday, I had an away game for Worthing D&D White at Oxted Rhinos. I tensed up during the hour long drive to the game and couldn't get loose. I shot the ball terribly as a result and only managed to make 1 free throw despite being fouled on an attempted 3-point shot. My teammates…

I had two basketball games this week with mixed results. The first game was the second leg of the plate quarter finals against Worthing D&D Hustlers, where we had a 23 point advantage from the first leg. I didn't get on the court until the fourth quarter but still managed to make two three-pointers to finish with 6 points as Worthing D&D White won 90-76 That has set-up a two legged semi-final against Oxted Rhinos. I didn't get any court time in the second game against Eastbourne Neptunes and…