Haven't done much cycling with Small Boy. For some reason, he decided that he wanted to go cycling and wanted his stabilisers (training wheels) off. Fair enough. Took him to a nearby park where there is space for such activities and gave it a go. He got the hang pretty quickly but I noticed that his bike was ridiculously small. Yes, I'd let him grow out of the bike before teaching him to use it.

This morning, went to Halfords - yes I know I should be supporting independent bike shops, but they had a sale on. Was able to get him a much larger bike for not very much money at all. I felt that things like gears would be an unnecessary complication at this stage. I will go to a proper shop and get him a proper bike for the next one.

Anyhow, having the right sized machine made it a lot easeir for him when we went back to the park this afternoon. The only problem is, I have to run to keep up - and I'm not really built for running. He's also a bit nervous when he sees people coming and tends to slam on the anchors rather readily.

Anhow, the whole mission was successful. Next time though I am taking my bike so I don't have to run.

In other Small Boy sports-related news, his cricket club seem to have managed to teach him how to bowl (he bowls left handed, bats right - as my dad does). So I also went to a sports shop yesterday and got him a cheap-but-proper bat and one of the junior cricket balls they use (heavier and harder than a tennis ball, but much kinder than a real cricket ball). We have been practising in the garden but my habitual neglect of the lawn means that the bounce is a little unpredictable.

Generally SB would rather be doing outside, sporty stuff than playing computer games, but he needs to be given the chance. I blame the parents.

In work-related news, not sure if this big enhancement will really be going live Wednesday. The problem is, due to all these people wanting to to UAT/training, we just haven't had time to actually test it properly. The actual logic part works fine - we had enough people in UAT sessions to put a realistic production workload on it - but the supporting crap needs testing well - which, historically, has been a weak area. I have written some test scenarios (another thing that isn't my job) but we've only worked through about half of them.

An early start on Wednesday would've suited me as well so I could slope off to this funeral in the afternoon.

Charlie Brooker can sometimes be entertaining, but this article hit the spot for me. Unsurprisingly. It also has something in it for the Dawkins haters. Anyway, will be setting the Evil Sky+ box for that one.