All posts by Alistair Lattimore

About Alistair Lattimore

My name is Alistair Lattimore, I'm in my very early 30's and live on the sunny Gold Coast in Australia. I married my high school sweet heart & we've been together for longer than I can remember. Claire and I started our family in September 2008 when Hugo was born and added a gorgeous little girl named Evie in May 2010. You can find me online in the typical hangouts, Google+, Twitter & facebook. .

Stepping Up

Sport

Tonight I turned up at the squash courts for the semi-finals, only to find out that because of the timing of the Easter weekend that it was not scheduled for tonight.

As soon as I arrived and didn’t see the normal swarm of people, I immediately released what had happened. I was however, pleasantly surprised to find two A and one B grade players there having a hit; of course they realised that our semi-finals weren’t on and organised a hit none the less. At the time, both of the squash courts were free so with three players there at the time, the other court was begging to be used, so I asked if they’d mind if I joined them and they were happy to accommodate me.

Across the course of the evening, I was able to play each of the players a few times and it was an excellent opportunity. This has been the first chance I’ve had to have a serious hit with a bunch of players well above my grade, so I looked upon it as a training session and it was invaluable.

I managed to take a game off Murry (A), which was a bit of a surprise but a lot of fun and he got the second one by a much closer margin. The highlight though, which you might consider a strange highlight, was having my arse completely handed to me by Phil (A); who is the top guy in our fixtures and he wasn’t even working that hard on the court. Phil takes pleasure in holding the ball for as long as possible and then firing the ball where ever on the court he chooses. Since he is holding the ball so long, I always seem to be out of position and scrambling to get the ball, which just gives him more opportunity to hold the ball, hit it late and make me run a little more; it’s a vicious cycle.

I felt I played very well tonight and had good control of the ball, most of the time. My serve was surprisingly effective, I really expected the guys to destroy it but that didn’t happen. I was taking quite a bit of pleasure in changing the serve up, high lobs, driving into the wall or straight down the T; kept them guessing just enough. One thing I did feel that was letting me down tonight and it really was letting me down was my foot work. I continue to move on the squash court like I used to move on a tennis court, which while similar in some respects isn’t right. When the ball is moving fast, my tennis style foot work just doesn’t allow me to get my feet and hips into position fast enough to keep the ball tight down the walls when under pressure; so that is going to be something I’ll make a point of focusing on at the semi-finals next week.

Slow Fast Food

Food

I consider myself to be quite a patient person in most instances, however there are certain things that frustrate me no end – one of which happens to be slow service at a fast food establishment.

I understand that from time to time, things go wrong in the kitchen and it takes time to recover. I sympathise when there is an unexpected rush of people and the kitchen is completely overwhelmed; it happens and I’ve experienced it first hand many times. However, when it’s slow all the time, something is clearly wrong.

To cite an example, the Nandos at the Helensvale Town Centre on the Gold Coast seems completely incapable of serving food at a reasonable pace. I’m not expecting the type of service that you’d normally see from the finely tuned machine that is a McDonalds – no, I’m talking about a number under 10 minutes.

In the last three months, I’ve probably ordered food from the Helensvale Nandos four or five times and each time, the speed of service is completely unacceptable. Under normal serving conditions, it takes anywhere from 15-20 minutes however on one occasion I waited for just under 30 minutes.

I realise that in most cases it isn’t going to be the staffs fault and is more likely the management cutting costs by rostering fewer staff on. Of course, the public will only tolerate substandard service for soo long before they simply stop going there. If it weren’t for the fact that you pay for your meal before receiving the food, I’m sure they’d be losing a lot more money from clients walking out the door, being sick and tired of waiting for slow fast food.

Improved Fitness

Life, Sport

Over the last few weeks, I’ve been going to the gym before heading off to work in an attempt to improve my fitness.

When I decided that I’d start working out in the morning, I honestly wasn’t sure how that would pan out for me. It’s fair to say that I fit squarely into the night owl category in terms of sleeping patterns and I haven’t exercised in the morning since I was in high school. After waking up bleery eyed for a few days, my body was already adjusting to the changes and within a fortnight – it was feeling normal to be up and exercising.

A month has lapsed since adjusting to the morning exercise regime and in that time, I have increased all of my cardio work significantly. As an example, when I first started using a cross trainer or elliptical runner, I was feeling the burn after only 10 minutes on level 8 with a stepping speed of about 45 per minute. This morning by contrast, I exercised for 40 minutes on level 15 with a stepping speed over 55 per minute for the entire session.

One of the really nice side effects about improving my general fitness, is that it knocks on into other facets of my life. I’ve noticed after playing a couple of the top squash players in my grade, that I often feel aerobically exhausted and my legs are often quite tired as well. After losing a few kilograms and with the drastically improved fitness, I’m able to really take it up to the top guys in my grade; in fact three weeks ago one of them rolled me in a match and this Tuesday it was a roll reversal!

Next up I’m going to start blending more jogging into my morning exercise routine, in a hope of being in a reasonable state to complete the 10Km run in this years Gold Coast Marathon.

Smile Plus, Just Like A Day Spa Only Different

Advertising, Humour

On the way to work in the morning, I listen to Hot Tomato with Luke, Rob & Renae. Like any good radio network, they have advertising blips that they play periodically and one that has come up lately makes me laugh every time I hear it.

The advertisement is for a Gold Coast dentist named Smileplus (Smile+) and this particular dentist offers, among other things, cosmetic dentistry. The thing in this advert that catches my attention each and every time, is the fact that they inform the user that going to their dentistry is like no other. I’m probably reproducing the wording with inaccuracies, but you’ll get the point of it:

…
Coming to Smile Plus is more like going to a day spa than a dentist, you’ll receive a lavender eye mask, hand massage and music from an iPod.
…

Without me telling you, I bet you can guess which part of that snippet makes me chuckle. While I’m certainly no veteran of day spas and the like, I’m fairly sure that the last time I visited one I wasn’t listening to music on a personal music device that most 12 year old kids have.

I always think of day spas as being a little fancy pants and exclusive, so hearing this Gold Coast dentist associate themselves with an iPod makes me chuckle.

Straying The Path Of Righteousness

General, Life, Sport

It has finally happened, I didn’t think it would – I have been faithful for such a long time but it felt so right.

A week or two ago while at the gym, I was reminded ever so gently that my shoes needed replacing again. I’ve been using Asics sport shoes for a very long time, if I were to take a guess I would say since about 1995. During that time, I’ve been through a pair about once per year or just over. In most cases, the reason for upgrading was that the fabric in the heal of the shoes was wearing through, which is to be expected with a lot of use. I don’t recall ever wearing a sole out or having a blow out, even though the lateral movement from tennis isn’t what an average running shoe is designed to cater for. Despite literally daily use and a solid serving of abuse, they kept on keeping on.

I ventured into an Athletes Foot and stood in my socks on the pressure device and was quite shocked to see that I have even distribution of weight down both legs; apparently not normal at all. My arch is pretty standard, not too low and not super high which gives me a good selection of shoes to choose from. The bloke brought out a pair of Asics, New Balance and Brooks.

I tried them all on, the Asics were very familiar of course and felt really good. The New Balance were a little too narrow and I seemed to get quite a lot of roll in when I stepped, not enough support in the right spot for my size/weight I suppose. At this point, the Asics felt soo much better than the New Balance that I figured I’d end up with yet another pair of Asics; that was completely shot down after stepping into the latest release Brooks running shoe. To my complete surprise, the Brooks shoe was more comfortable in the sole and the width and length of the shoe was even better than the Asics but the clincher for me was the stability it provided when I walked in them – they virtually removed any roll in which I have (not a lot) but that small improvement makes my foot feel so much more stable in the shoe.

In the last two or three weeks since having the new Brooks running shoes, I’ve been giving them a bit of a workout at the gym. I can now quite comfortably jog for 20 minutes without feeling any soreness in my shins and I’m increasing that each week. I would love to keep the jogging up at the gym over the next couple of months and compete (read:finish without being near death) the 10km run for the Gold Coast Marathon in July this year.

In the meantime though, I’m enjoying straying the path of righteousness!