Observations of an occasional runner
I just thought I’d draw your attention to the links in the right hand column… there are some really interesting sites and I’ve just stolen another cool one from my brother’s blog about some kayakers who are on a road trip in a vegetable-oil powered van… it’s a great read!
As are both my big bruv’s blogs, by the way, accessible bottom of the left column on his site!
I’ve never liked the smell of nasturtiums, but my, oh my, aren’t they gorgeous! Not sure what the leaf is from (a violet?), but that’s a bit of a looker too! Both are courtesy of my folks who, as you may have gathered already, are extremely green fingered!
We had a little debris in the garden yesterday morning, consisting of two fireworks that had landed on the lawn. Both had embedded over an inch into the ground and would, I suspect, have given anyone standing in their way a bit of a headache… or worse if they had been looking up at the time!
I’ve been working with the guys at Qype and they have very kindly given me a link on their blog site.
Qype is a brilliant concept, whereby you and I can write reviews of the local places that we love, in order that other people can find these gems.
And when you’re going somewhere new, it’s easy to work out what to see and where to meet, eat or sleep.
It’s really well developed in Germany and although still relatively young in the UK, it’s already a useful reference tool, added to which it’s great if you like meeting new people!
Check it out and let me know what you think… you might even find a fab new place to go just around the corner from you!
Why, oh why is it so confusing? Spring forward, fall back. Nice & simple.
Of course, if it’s late and you’re tired (and having watched the film Babel, emotionally drained!) and you have it in your mind that you’re due to lose an hour’s sleep, it’s a simple mistake to make. Going the wrong way.
Compound this with presumably having nudged the alarm to 6.20am in the process and you end up waking up at… er, 4.20am instead of the intended 7.30am!
Only the fact that it is dark gives the game away. Trying to explain that gaining an hour involves putting the clocks back is oh so difficult too!
I’m not a popular bunny!
Two minutes.
In the scheme of things, it’s a really little thing to mar the otherwise extremely positive experience of a washing machine. The problem is, it’s the last part of the experience, so however good it was up until that moment, this is the feeling you take away with you. It’s so frustrating that I often forget to empty the machine for hours.
What an earth am I going on about?
My Hotpoint Ultima machine beeps, loud and clear, when it has finished. Except that one of the designers thought it would be funny to, having grabbed your attention and drawn you to the machine, keep you waiting for two minutes before they allow the door to unlock. Barred by a little keyhole symbol!
Two frustrating minutes.
‘Ha ha, Gotcha!’ it screams. Or maybe, ‘this is to show you how safety conscious I am’. I don’t know, it doesn’t speak my language!
Why not beep when the machine is ready rather than two minutes early?
Kurt at Run has just emailed me to say he’s managed to get hold of a pair of Woolen Thorlos for me – to keep my toes warm through the winter. Man! I just love that shop! Review to follow when the weather turns cold.
PS if your toes are jealous, speak to Kurt…
Many of you know my kayak-mad younger brother Nigel and I’m sure you will join me in wishing him a very Happy Birthday!
He is very lucky to be a well travelled young chap, visiting, amongst other places this year, China, Mexico, New Zealand, Sweden, Scotland, France, USA etc, not to mention starting off at my place and spending at least some time in his Seattle home town.
Those people who do know him will, I feel sure, be amused by this picture of him… for those who don’t know him, at least yet, I think this is the last recorded time he wore a tie.
Picture courtesy of Peter Foster, 1967.
Happy Birthday Bro!
We all lurve gadgets and most of us have a selection of redundant kit from various generations sitting gathering dust, while we proudly sport the latest model. There is no doubt, however, that the latest kit is totally awesome and Nick’s Garmin Forerunner 305-8RR II is a case in point here.
Not only does it read your heart-rate, but it has a satellite dish that enables it to work out your global position, your speed, the distance you’ve run, the calories you’ve used (how does it do that?), your body weight, the amount of urine you pass en route, a sweat meter… in fact it’s so fully loaded that it will even find its own way to your computer to download files. Just awesome!
Unless, of course, you forget to charge the battery, in which case it’s pretty er, useless. Though why not lugging this fairly heavy wrist-weight around should make Nick run slower, I can’t profess to understand.
But there you have it.
My Gore-tex jacket made its first outing this morning and whilst it was only drizzling, saturation would have occurred quickly without it. The going underfoot was slidey in places, making it challenging & fun, but the mud was not yet deep enough to grab your shoes. The long grass en-route had reached 100% humidity though so it felt a little like running through a puddle… in socks.
Overall I calculate, long-hand and without the benefit of space-race technology, that we ran six and a half miles in exactly one hour… making a speed of, er… 6.5mph. I’m no heavier than I was, but Nick did stop for a five-minute pee and the toast consumed has not filled my stomach so I clearly used… more calories than however many are in that.
Strangely, although we were both running more slowly than normal, it was far faster than I wanted to run… in short, sitting here a couple of hours later, I am knackered.
Don’t tell Nick though!
We caught up with Dai in Brighton for coffee and conversation about the latest technological developments in education, before heading off to Brighton Marina for supper and a film. The marina is excellent at the moment… it seems to have progressed in waves, getting quite depressingly tired between moments of excellence, but right now there are a more than 20 capacious places to eat, a stack of shops, a David Lloyd gym, a casino… the list goes on. Oh, and a cinema, of course.
Oh my, WHAT a film!
The Kingdom, directed by Peter Berg and starring Jamie Foxx and Jennifer Garner, is based in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia after a terrorist bomb shakes a compound for western workers. With it’s complex post-911 / east-west / inter-cultural tensions and stunning performances from the cast, the action is relentless and the plot gritty and scarily believable. Overall, it’s a very thought-provoking film and left us slightly dazed! Five stars!