Strictly..and the winner is...

I can't believe I'm driven to write about this, but Strictly is quite interesting.  I don't know what it is that makes me like it - could be the sparkly costumes, the expanse of naked flesh, the talented dancers or is it just that it's really good entertainment?  I've taken a shine to Louis and Flavia, mainly because he impressed me at the Olympics and also I quite fancy Flavia.  Louis is not bad either. Just joking!
I'm sure he's going to win, because he's a real nice guy, closely followed by Kimberley of Girls Aloud fame who's also not bad, but I always remember her close up at one of their gigs where they popped up on a mini stage right near us, and I thought she looked a bit ropey.  I sound a bit fussy I suppose, but heck, I am.
Results soon, and I will be genuinely upset if Louis isn't at least in the top 2, preferably top.  I'm not sure it's fair to compare it wth other reality shows such as X Factor where amateurs try and grab fame and fortune but everyone does, so my take is that the 2 shows are completely different due to their competitors.  One has amateurs wanting to find fame with judges trying to grab their own slice of  attention to boost their own ego whilst the other has 'real' celebs already good at what they do and judges who know what they are talking about and do not (usually) pay to the audience.  Talking of judges, I've also been impressed with Darcy Bussell - a really talented dancer with an intelligent, yet entertaining comment to make.  All in all, a jolly good family show.
And the winner is (wait 10 minutes)...Louis and Flavia!
What did I tell you?  I think I have something in my eye....

..but not as we know it.

It's the end of the world today, so here's my run down of this momentous occasion for any extra torrential civilisations to find.  I hope it gets backed up.
08:00  Arrived in the office as usual.  It's a dress down Friday, which means for me I have changed my black pullover for a brighter sort of turquoise.  Some here are in jeans, fancy tops etc.  No sign of the end yet.
08:15  I'm told that it ends at 11:11.  He's prone to making extravagant statements though, so I'm not convinced.
09:00  Had a couple of chocolates from a festive time of Heroes.  These are miniature versions of e.g. Mars, fudge etc which are quite tasty, but have given me indigestion.  I won't be much bothered about that when the world ends.  I think I'd better get a round of tea/coffee in, it might be my last time.
10:00  Finished my bacon and egg bun - the usual Fat Friday thing.  Not that good really, too much fat on the bacon.  It's my last meal, I was hoping for something special.  I wonder what the typical condemned prisoner eats?  The thing about food is that its just a fleeting enjoyment, and sometimes has bad after-effects (especially if you're the prisoner).  Mind you, I guess that's the same with anything you enjoy - when it's gone, it's gone.  The target is happiness, brought about I suppose by enjoying things continually.  I mean, you're not going to stay happy if you don't enjoy something are you?
Still no sign of the end.
12:00 Nothing, not even a shudder.  Oh well, we'll just have to wait until the next end of the world.

Get your tickets here!

Olympic tickets data has just been released, evidently it took one of the London councils a great deal of prising to get this, then it confirms their worst fears - a lot of tickets were given away for free!! Shock horror, what sort of right minded Olympic organiser would do this abominable thing?? Well, all of them I guess, if it means being able to stage an Olympics at a reasonable cost to the taxpayer.  What did they expect?  Higher priced tickets?  Lower prices but higher funding from the taxpayer?  There really are some short sighted people out there.  My guess is that they are still miffed about getting turned down for ticket allocations and can't see the big picture.  Why can't they all be sensible like me?

Back of the net...

I can't remember if I've already shared my thoughts with you on this one, but no matter, it keep coming back and will probably crop up again.  It's the obsession about football in the sporting world.  Now, when I say 'Sporting world' I mean the press, who, I would have thought, try and project what the nation thinks.  Therefore, lots of footy talk in the media = lots of the population wanting to read about it.  But for me, there's far, far too much.  Part of this issue is the 'phil space' type of journalism that creates news items where none exist just to fill some space in the paper/media outlet and footy seems to be capable of loads of non-stories.  The journalists pick up on some random tweet or post-match statement and before you know it, they have concocted some far fetched scenario that is half believed by about half of the population.  It's the same with on-line media.  One of my daily trips is to visit Yahoo, who (I think) use Eurosport as their sport provider, and it is absolutely full of trifling football stories from home and abroad fit mainly for the bin.  A glance at the daily sporting headlines sees 7 football stories before you reach a cricket story (not about the Indian test series, but the Aussies), and then a few more footy before there's a mention of the SPOTY winner Bradley Wiggins.
Anyway, enough of football, I'm obviously just as bad!

Fool yourself.

So, Yorkshire is going to host the start of the 2014 Tour - which is pretty good news.  I might even get on my bike and watch it, although I guess I'll be fighting over the space with thousands more.  I went to the start of the Tour of Britain at Scunny.  Not in the same league of course, but quite interesting as a biker, but I don't think that a) the race has the credibility of Le Tour, and b) Scunthorpe hasn't got the credibility of anything.  Unless you live there of course, and you probably have a slightly different point of view.  This view of your own surroundings seems to fall into to two distinct camps - the 'best place to live' camp, and the 'worst place to live'.  The former advocates must be either tied to a local job with no hope of moving out and therefore simply putting up with their lot, or genuinely perceive the local environment to be more than acceptable.  Whenever I hear from folk who have emigrated, I always hear the 'should have done it sooner' phrase, as if we are all mugs for staying put and should be heading for the embassy for a visa right away, but we have to put context around that remark - I mean, they decided to move out there in the first place, they must have pretty dissatisfied with their original location, and everyone has some local pride/ego that would take some knocking if they admitted 'well, it's alright, but we wish we hadn't moved'.  So, take those people with a large pinch of salt and if you're satisfied with your lot, then don't let others talk you into something else.  As I am sure you know, the easiest person to fool is yourself.

Shop until you drop.

I see that the Guardian had created an internet site that lists 'best local shopping' or similar.  A quick perusal confirms my first thoughts - it will be London centric, although there are a few 'middle England' shops listed in Manchester and the like, although nothing East of the Pennines in my neck of the woods and hardly anything North of the M62.  I wonder if I should add any of my local shops although my favourite is the armchair and t'internet.  Does that count as local?

Here we go here we go...

The end of football, according to the Daily Mail.  I wish!  It seems that with the recent racism scandals, coin throwing on Saturday at Ferdinand and general unrest on the terraces, the Daily Mail has come to the conclusion that the end is nigh and we had better get used to it.  What a load of tosh. If only part of it was true, and what has changed in the last 30 years?  Almost nothing as far as supporters go, but monumental changes to the way the game is commercially organised.  ..but it only goes to show that footy has always attracted 'the wrong crowd' whether we like it or not.  For me, football is a take it or leave game, the same as most sports actually.  Because you encounter quite  a few keen supporters during a normal day, then it's only polite to keep one's self informed so as to make polite conversation.  Take my colleague in accounts.  He's ridiculously keen on Leeds United (something I seem to find wherever I work) and I can either humour him with soundbites I happen to espy in the news e.g. I see Leeds let in a goal at the weekend... and let him fill me in with the rest of the match report which can kill a few minutes, or I could try the 'how did Leeds do at the weekend?' type or opener, which would get the same result, but I don't think he would bother with all the detail he does now that entertains me, so I try the former tack, picking up as much info as I can be bothered to about the aforesaid team and instead of nodding I even interject with an intelligent comment or two.  Or at least I kid myself I do.
I would do the same if there was an avid hockey, basketball or cricket fan.  When I was working with a lot of off-shore support guys in India, I suddenly found myself an expert on cricket rather than an enthusiastic onlooker.  So there you are, I'm a bit of a fake really which is probably reality for most of us, so if you're one of the die-hard enthusiasts ready to start a conversation, please give me some warning so I can do my homework.

Eyes Wide Open

Movie trailers are usually pretentious, overly dramatic, overly long and (usually) avoided by yours truly.  However, I spotted a trailer for one of my favourites Nicole Kidman in Paperboy.  When I say one of my favourites, it's not as if I have a list of them, adding/deleting depending on what they do, it's just that Nicole (and others) are always worth looking at.  It's not a girl thing either before you jump to conclusions (although it does influence the 'list'), I have non-girls on there as well such as Matt Damon, but I must admit it is dominated by girls. Kiera is another one, up there with Nicole and at the moment, no one else springs to mind although there's Jack Nicholson and that English bloke who I always forget - is it Hugh Jackman or similar?  Anyway, I watched the Paperboy trailer with a slutty Southern Nicole dominating nearly every scene (or did I just imagine that?) and it's about a reinvestigation of a murder case in the deep south as far as I can see, so there's a white v. black aspect that sets the tension.  But the one thing that surprised me was the credits at the end - 'Starring someone, someone else, someone else again' then 'With Nicole Kidman'.  'With'??  It seemed to me that it was implying that she was just an 'extra' brought in to give the film some star act but not really taking part - something that the trailer definitely did not give an impression of.  I might go and watch it just to see. Although I doubt it.

Great Expectations

'We always expect the unexpected'  - a quote from the Voyager team who are still monitoring the 2 x Voyager spacecraft launched in the 1977.  I bet they were not expecting anything at all in 2012 when it first launched.  I was just leaving school, setting out into the big wide world, expecting nothing at all as it turns out.  There's not much still around that was built in the 70s, except rubbish house designs of course.  They really are poor aren't they? Absolutely no imagination, just bricks and windows with cheap concrete roofing tiles.  I don't know why the planners were duped into accepting these as 'normal' nhusing design - but I guess they just evolved from the not so poor, but still pretty rubbish of the 60's. Notice my bracketing of housing designs into convenient decades?  That interests me as well - it's such as artificial timespan to use it's quite meaningless, but easy to understand for your average human, which is why, I guess, I used it above.  A bit like the monthly rainfall figures - a day or 2 either side of the month start/finish and the stats might be widely different leading to completely different conclusions. 'Worst January since records began' etc.  What a load of tosh.  'Worst rainfall over an artificially create timespan' more like.  Not quite so catchy is it?
..but to get back to the Voyagers, if we could, but we can't, because they're millions of miles away nearing outer space.  I think they are remarkable objects of engineering, partly because they have gone where no man has gone before (I like that phrase), and partly because they are still going strong, or relatively strong anyway.  I wonder when we will lose contact with them?  I read that the radio signal takes 17 hrs to get back to earth, which in itself is pretty good -  I often don't get a voicemail notification for a couple of days.  The technician chaps interpreting the signals must get a bit bored though - I mean, 35 years of looking at the same daily updates must make it difficult coming into work.  I wonder if they double up as Mars Rover technicians as well?  I hope so, because if they didn't they would get pretty cheesed off about those guys.  A bit like someone who can't afford a new iPhone 5 and has to carry on with his antiquated iPHone3.  Well, almost.

Bah, Humbug.

We're into December now and that festive, fun-filled time will be upon us very soon. Not my favourite time of year it has to be said.  It's probably the amount of money that disappears from my bank account at this time of year that make me feel less festive than I should.  I wonder if I had a year of nil spending I might even enjoy Christmas.  Hmm. I should try it.
The newspapers announce that today will be the highest online spending day of the year and will surpass all records to date.  Interesting.  I suppose they extrapolate the annual spending trends and assume it will increase, so (assuming it does indeed increase), they could announce that next years monday 2 weeks before christmas will be the biggest ever! Wow! I'm positively gob-smacked!
Mind you, the article was probably only a space filler that no-one will verify, and how would you verify it anyway?  When I was at Boots, the accepted 'big stat' was that sales of perfume on Christmas Eve accounted for 25 - 50% of annual sales, depending who you talked to.  I hope someone in Boots knew the correct answer.

Moustache - Goodbye!

So, the last day of November and my magnificent moustache has to bite the dust tonight.  Actually, it's not very magnificent and I'm not doing it again.  It doesn't look good  -although I don't want to sound vain, it's just not right, if you see what I mean.  By 'right' I suppose it's what you get used to.  I read somewhere that your face is instantly recognisable, which is stating the obvious really, but what they were trying to say was that if you make a change to your face (e.g. grow a moustache) then you make a significant change to your appearance, not a minor one.  Taking this argument further, it means that other changes - losing one arm or leg, breast enhancement etc would not be viewed as such a major change. So, in conclusion, if you want to change your appearance, don't waste your money, just go for a moustache. ..unless you're a woman, in which case go for the boob job.  I always notice that anyway.

Cryingair and Leveson

Pricing strategies - a marketing man's dream, exemplified by Ryanair.  They continually take it to new heights, often copied by others as much as they dare.  ..which is why I never give them any of my money.  Last year, I paid extra to fly with a rival airline (Monarch) to avoid Ryanair.  I don't know how they manage to sleep at night offering a ridiculously low headline price, and then slapping countless additional charges on to pay for what I think of as standard items.  Unless my memory is playing tricks on me, I remember they used to offer a discount if you booked on line, but now they charge extra for the privilege!  The latest wheeze is to put an additional charge on for 'website costs'. What???! what about staffing costs?  MDs salary? Office building, Company car costs? etc etc. Will they itemise every single overhead ?  Even more reason to stay away from them.
Mind you, they seem to make money, so they're doing something right and my whinging is only putting a small dent in the profits!

It's Leveson report time at 13:30 today (in about an hour as I write this).  The major debate is how to regulate the press - self regulated or some independent body backed by laws.  I can't see how they will go for the 'legal' option without sacrificing freedom of speech, and if you suppress that you suppress all sorts of things you need to be able to report on.  However, I have a great deal of sympathy for those that have had their private lives intruded upon...but this is balanced by those who have willingly colluded in having their own private lives intruded upon intentionally to gain some free publicity or free advertising.  I cite the likes of Jordan etc. who would be nobodies without press attention.  I guess we have so far relied on each newspaper's judgement on what should and shouldn't be published, and that decision process seems to have aimed too low.
Enough of this serious stuff - let's see what the main man has to say about it.

Risky Business!

There's an interesting discussion between the insurance companies and government going on.  It's got even more pertinent after all the recent rain and flooding.  My understanding is that the insurance companies don't want to be burdened with high risk - something that is inherent within their business surely?  I guess it's the relative costs involved.  With flood damage, they rip out anything that has been wet - carpets, kitchen units, skirting, doors etc. etc., and even replaster in most cases ..and that 'replace everything' policy is probably partly to blame for them not wanting to pay up for everything.  If they limited the replacement policy to essential damage (can you have such a thing?), then the cost of repair would be less, less risk, and so on.  I should mention here the building trade that must have made a tidy profit from other's sufferings (I'm not including the insurance companies in that statement, because it's their job, not their life) - they have metaphorically rubbed their hands at such rich pickings. 'New skirtings? No problem madam, why don't I go up the stairs at the same time?  They'll never know'..and surely that rotten door frame was affected by the flood water? Leave it with me'.  Of course, I just made that scenario up, but I'm sure it's going on.  And what about the assessors?  Their job is to go out, assess the damage and report back to their insurance bosses that x and y need doing at great cost. The issue here, is that if they found very little needed doing, they would gradually reduce the amount of work they themselves would do as they found less and less work for the insurance companies to manage, the insurance companies would reduce their need for assessors.  It's just a very convenient money laden bandwagon that as many people of possible jump on, and those that are not on it complain.  If it's government money, even better!
The latest cyclocross results move me up a couple of places into 7th overall in the 50+ league (out of 17).  There's only a couple or races left, and I might get another place higher barring mechanical mishap.  I can't believe now that after the Ormsby race when my chain jumped off and knackered my rear mech I was seriously thinking it wasn't for me and I'd be better off keeping to the roads.  It just goes to show how 'feelings' are transitionery and try as might, we always struggle to put them into perspective.  It could be that the way I feel now about cylocross (good fun, enjoyable etc) is actually a false state of mind, and theose earlier thoughts (no fun, not enjoyable) are my true feelings? Now there's a psychologists dream scenario.

Cyclohell

So, Vettel becomes F1 champion splashed on most sports pages today.  Big deal.  There's plenty of other sports news though - anti-semantic chanting at Tottenham, anti-Benitez banners at Chelsea. 
We must be due another enquiry soon.
There was nothing like that yesterday at the cyclocross at Bardney.  A howling, icy gale; a boggy field and puddles up to the bottom bracket combined to make it a memorable occasion.  It's what I always thought cyclocross should be - like a cycling equivalent of running cross country.  No let up to your efforts and a feeling of real satisfaction when you've finished.  Of course, you soon forget about the cold wash of brown water that covers you from toe to chest (with an occasional facefull) when going through the puddles. Did I say puddles? more like small lakes after the rain of Saturday night.  The fields round and about were saturated, and the fields we rode across were likewise.  The results show a second place for yours truly in the 50+ vets, but well down (36th) overall.  That's my best showing so far, more because of low numbers (65) than any real performace improvement - although I don't think I'm getting worse.  It's Winterton next week which (I guess) will be under suitably wet conditions given the forecast.

I've got Friday on my mind..

Well, it's Friday and that's supposed to signify a welcome return of 'The Weekend'.  It hasn't actually gone away, it's really a brand new weekend never, ever seen before, so actually it can't be a return, more like a 'welcome to the new weekend'. Whatever it is, it's usually better than the week.  I have a cyclocross race on Sunday which should be fun after all this rain.  I notice it's forecast rain all Sat night and through Sunday morning, so I'm expecting plenty of sticky bits where we'll have to decide whether to ride or run.  As a 'runner', you would think I would be better than riding, but that theory ignores the dismounting/mounting factors that can (and have) influenced decisions about this sort of thing.  Take last week for example.  I dismounted for the telegraph pole, only to hit my hip on a tree when remounting and the next lap caught my tender parts on the seat when I jumped back on.  Not nice, especially the second time.  Having said all that, I'm much better than I was at the start of the season a couple of months back, so jumping off/on is a slightly better option in some circumstances.
We're also going to see Grease on Saturday night which I'm hoping is going to be good.  I do hope they have live music - they should for 35 quid a ticket.  That's one of the more enjoyable aspects of live theatre - live music. I don't remember what we went to see and the music was recorded, I felt quite ripped off, which is not unusual for me, but more ripped off than usual.  Talking of which, what makes you feel like you've been ripped off? Is it the relative price you've paid for an item versus your disposable income?  Is it price v. expectation? price v quality?  etc.  I'm not too sure, maybe the price v. expectation which is (depending on the purchase) a pretty poor calculation when I think about it. e.g. how do I know the profitability of the theatre production of Grease?  If they are scraping along with minimal profits, and all income is swallowed up by the production, then why should I think it's a ripoff?  Mind you, I can't imagine any advertising showing income  v. expenditure to help me make a decision, but it might be useful.

Local is good.

Formula 1?  I used to be really interested in it.  The tactics, technical intricacies, the sheer speed, split second reactions, the crashes (of course), but most of all the desire to see my 'favourite' win, in much the same way as I always glow a little when Grimsby Town win, I do when, say, Jenson Button wins. Well, he's English isn't he?  It's a local thing.  If Europe were playing in the SuperDooperChampions League of Continents, most Brits would support Europe.  Wouldn't they?  I know you always get the oddball supporting Australasia due to some 'but they're technically better' reason, as in F1 where you seem to get quite a number of Lewis detractors, and think e.g. Alonso is better.  Now, I'm not going to get into a Lewis v.v Alonso argument, but isn't one of them English and therefore 'local'?  Surely that trumps 'better'?  Well, it does in my book, although I can see why others differ. it's just that they don't add the 'local' weight to the argument.  Take the Champions League, I even end up supporting Chelsea for heavens sake!  If it ends up Manchester V Chelsea, the it's Manchester all the way.  I'm trying to think of an occasion where I broke this 'supporting local' rule, but can't.  Anyway, back to F1 and how my interest has waned.  It's all to do with selling the rights to Sky and how Bernie Ecclestone and his beancounters must have rubbed their hands on getting an increased fee, whilst at the same time saying ti was 'for the fans'.  My ar$e, it was for themselves.  Where it used to get 5 million viewers on a Sunday afternoon, it now gets 1 million, and BBC are left with a shoddy, late highlights program with rubbish commentators and poor presenters.  Not that presenters are that important (although the BBC probably think they are), it's the commentating team of boring David Coulthard and the know nothing other chappie who I can't remember.  Bring back Martin Brundle.  At least he knew what he was taking about.  The only bloke worth listening to is Gary Anderson who used to be technical director for one of the teams, although I'm not sure which one - I guess he got sacked because he was too old.  I mean, he's only just older than me.  Over on the radio, they've hired Jamie Alguesari (probably spelt incorrectly) who continues with the annoying driver habit of stating the bleeding obvious, predicting both obvious outcomes of a race, followed by 'to be sure'.  That 'to be sure' seems to be a standard F1 phrase used by everyone in F1.  I never hear it in any other sport, to be sure.

Weather you like?

Rain, and more rain, weather you like it or not. Ha ha!
Didn't go for my run last night - too wet, too cold, too tired.  I have a theory that our bodies are shutting down for Winter, a sort of mini-hibernation.  My wife seems to be backing this theory up by falling asleep around 9 o'clock every evening, something she never did a month ago.
..or maybe we're getting old.

Poor condition

Payments to police by editors of the Sun.  Who would have believed it?  I would never have believed they would be prosecuted, the payment thing I always assumed was going on all the time, although it didn't occupy my mind an awful lot.  It's quite surprising to me that you (me) can get worked up so much about something that you knew was an issue, but was just out of your consciousness for years and years and then WHAM! it's in everybody's face and you have a really strong opinion on it - or not as the case my be.
Take vested interests.  Yes, take them - that's what we're programmed to do, to better oneself by whatever means necessary tempered by one's moral code which in itself is merely a lifelong conditioning based on your upbringing and 'who you hang around with'.  Lining your pockets with oil shares whilst pushing climate scepticism is one example (Peter Lilley), and there's countless examples in politics not confined to any one party, it's just, well, normal.
Talking of conditioning, what about the lady who (allegedly) stole £85 from my daughter's purse and then had the barefaced cheek to get the £85 out her own purse after she had swiped it, and say "It's not me cos I've got my £85 here".  What sort of conditioning has she received to be able to give that sort of barefaced lie, keep a straight face and think (correctly unfortunately, in this case) that she would get away with stealing another persons hard earned cash.  God job we don't all get that conditioning, that would make for a difficult society.  Mind you, we'd all be more careful where we left our handbags.
Tuesday night is running night.  I use the term 'running' now I've cracked the 9 minute mile barrier.  I always think that anything over 9 minutes is jogging.  It's a sort of athletic snobbery.  Hopefully get 8 miles in, but we'll see.  I felt tired all last week, and although I got 7 in on Tuesday, I didn't do anything the rest of the week except for a swim.

X marks the spot

Police Commissioners - what a larf.  I can understand the good intentions behind it, but to think the ordinary man in the street (I think I can count as one of those) is going to go out of their way to vote for them is a joke.  No wonder they are saying this is a low turnout - I'm surprised anyone bothered at all.  Mind you, there's always a few folk thinking they know whats best for us and will go and vote.  You just hope they outnumber the nutters.  Heck, they might even be the nutters.

Freesheets

Free newspapers - whoever would have thought such a thing.  I remember going to a seminar in the early 90s where someone suggested companies had to give away free content to stay competitive in the web-enabled world. I reckon newspapers have had to give away more than most, given that the Guardian (one of my favourites) loses goodness knows how much every week.  In actual fact, I don't know why anyone who is themselves web-enabled (i.e. has easy access to the web) would want to buy a newspaper anyway - what's the point of getting your hands dirty?  Some, like The Times have a free area and a 'pay-wall' behind which lies the in-depth 'expensive' articles, although I haven't tested this so it might be just as bad...which brings me onto the BBC.  Because of the all-encompassing nature of 'media' nowadays, the BBC has naturally strayed into web broadcasting in line with all other media outlets, and this, more than any other medium, conflicts with competitors.  Personally, I like the idea of a funded, independent BBC even if it is in direct competition with commercial media companies like News International.  It's always been like this anyway - ITN was up against it almost from day 1 of the TV days, so NI's biggest problem should not be the BBC, but it's own commercial rivals jostling for space in the big web wired world.  The Express has recently bought Channel 5 - not a major issue, but shows that traditional newspaper companies have to diversify or they will definitely die.  I'm convinced that newspapers will soon only exist in print form for niche markets or be free, full of adverts in both cases.
Getting back to News International, I notice that it draws a lot of it's news items (On Sky News) from American news agencies.  I guess they share the info with Fox News, and probably helps them with US advertisers in the on-line Sky News (which is the only one I access).  I notice the same with Guardian Online which has ticker-tape headlines with more than a fair share of breaking news stories from the US, so I guess the strategy is to make it more appealing to the US audience.  Either that, or 'breaking news' is limited in the UK.   Mind you, I do think that the 'Breaking News' titel isover used, and often stays with a story for quite some time, well after it has 'broken'.  I wonder what rules they use to tag a story as Breaking News (BN from now on) - when all new stories are BN.

Ah well, as long as I can get access to UK news somewhere I'm not too bothered.  ..as long as it's free!

Oil be having you

Just a quick one today.  Forgot during my lunch hour, so I need to get back to business shortly.
I'm well into Movember - moustache is taking on an embarassing colour - which is mainly grey as you would expect.  Despite me turning up my nose at the charity moustache thing I succumbed to it, although I haven't registered anywhere, preferring to do it just for a laugh.  When I look in a mirror I'm not too impressed, but what the heck, only a couple of weeks to go.
58.2p per litre for heating oil.  Bargain.  Not.  My regular 1000 litres comes today, I'm sure t was about 9p when I moved in 15 years ago.  At least we don't heat many bedrooms now so I have seen a reduction since the kiddies moved out.  But not in electricity which is odd, or maybe that's gone up a huge amount as well - in fact I'm sure it has.  Anyway, suffice to say that keeping yourself warm and washed is not a low cost activity.  Luckily we have a wood burner in the lounge.  I've looked at one for the kitchen, but blimey, they (Grange Reproductions) wanted about 3000 quids to put it in.  No way.
I haven't ruled out me putting it in, but money is a bit scarce nowadays.

Stat is right

'Lies, damn lies and statistics'.  I love that quote, said to be by Mark Twain who quoted Disraeli but (according to Wikipedia) there's no sign of Disraeli using it.  Whoever said it, it really does sum up statistics.  Take today's episode..I just published some telephone stats and within half an hour I had a grumpy employee asking what I was doing.  She obviously was not impressed, but the issue is that she didn't look at the overall scene, instead she concentrated on her part of it, how it could be perceived and how it reflects on her without looking at the big picture.  I'm sure I'm now classified as a 'liar' as per the quote.  She'll have to get over it ..... or not.
Cleaned my bikes last night.  The road bike was worse than I thought (after it's 53 mile evening jaunt) and the CX bike not so bad cos it only did a mile before puncturing.  I'm wondering if I need to get a new/better back tyre.  If it was a piece of flint, which I'm sure it was it happened so fast, then the tyre might be damaged.  I had that on my road bike earlier this year and kept getting punctures probably because the split in the tyre nipped the innertube.  It's Nettleton CX this coming Sunday so don't know if I should sort the tyre out or not.  I'll probably leave it to late and end up with another puncture.
Hopefully do a longer run tonight.  My (much) better half is out until about 7:15, so we have a late tea and gives me an hour+ to get a run in.  I tried out some new earphones last week and they were very good.  Didn't fall out due to the fact that they hook behind the ears although heading into the wind was a bit noisy so I had to turn it up.  I listen to podcasts such as Front Row, Friday Night Comedy and other (mainly) Radio 4 stuff that I'm never in to listen to.  Podcasts are really quite good.

First Impressions

So, George Entwistle resigns.  Just to remind ourselves, this was the Director General of the BBC.  I put this because in a few weeks/days/years he will be a nobody, which for him is a shame because I expect he was quite chuffed to get the DGs job.  He could have been there for years and years, retiring with a fat pension and plenty of after-dinner invites.  I always thought he was a bit off myself - not very personable, although why I get that impression I don't know  Its not as if I know him, just an impression.  Very important, impressions.
Which makes me ponder - what impression do I give?  What I'd like to think of myself is, I'm sure, vastly different to what others see in me.  ..but I've never been one to try and change who I am.  I mean , if you did that you wouldn't be who are you are, you would be someone else and that someone else would actually be you, so you haven't changed at all.  Maybe that's what they mean when someone says 'I'm a like a new man'.  Or is that when you come out of the closet?  Whatever it is, it's not for me.  Some days I get very enthusisatic about e.g. writing a report, and think 'Ah, this is the new me, burying myself in this report'.  But it doesn't last, although I do like to get things like that out of the way, but just by being 'me'. Just be yourself, I say, whatever that is.
It was a cyclocross at Woodhall Spa yesterday.  I recce'ed the course relishing the ups and downs of some of the hillocks, got going and got a flipping puncture after a mile.  Not even a full lap!  I wasn't overly impressed but what can one do?    You can have a spare bike in the pits, that's what.

70's nostalgia

Philip Schofield is in the news today - handing the PM a list of alleged paedophiles.  'Not proper journalism' according to a couple of MPs, well, what do they expect at that time of the day on ITV?  It's like saying Newsnight doesn't have enough jokes. Of course, it's more stuff about who did what to who 30 odd years ago.  I suppose we have to go though the motions, but nothing will become of it. If there's anyone living implicated they will probably wait until they're dead beofer publishing a report that says 'They're dead now'.  The thing is, it was all my boyhood role models - Gary Glitter, Jimmy Saville, Dave Lee Travis etc.  Not that I was enthralled by them, especially not Dave Leee Travis who I thought was an egotistical nerd, but they were part of the celebrity landscape.  I did harbour fantasies about coming on stage like Gary Glitter, eyes bulging, milking the applause to the openeing bass drum sounds of 'Do you wanna be in my gang'.
It's the Woodhall Spa cyclocross race on Sunday which (I'm told) is a good venue, so we'll see.  The last one at Hubbards Hills was good, but hard work.  Hopefully it will stay warm, it was 12 deg C yesterday.

Dribble

Cream cakes - very satisfying. Unless you have 2, then you feel a bit like you've overeaten and some regret creeps in.  I asked someone going to Tesco to get a few cakes - Cooplands was more convenient as it turned out - so I'm 15 quid lighter and everyone is walking round with cream over their chin.  I think Tesco would have been cheaper, but what the heck.
I ran just over 8 miles last night, that's the furthest since my return from the dodgy knee.  I was going to say 'since my return from injury' but that would sound like I'm professional which I am definitely not.  It was a slow 8 miles at an average edging towards 9 min miles but no bad affects.  In fact, I might do another 8 tonight, or possibly a ride in the dark - which I'm not very keen of, but I guess I can pick a quiet route into the Wolds somewhere.  Thing is, I'm not sure my front light is charged up now I think about it.  If not, it'll be a run.
I used my new iPhone earphones last night, listening to the Front Row weekly podcast.  They have some good interviews and some not so good.  Boring in actual fact, but last night's was reasonable.  The talk show chap - can't remember his name now- who took over from Jonathon Ross on the BBC was asked about prep for his new series etc.  Quite Interesting.

The names' Bond...

I was trying to access this blog last night - from the caravan but Wifi access was non-existent so failed miserably.  I was babysitting from 7.30 to 11 whilst they went to the cinema.  Bond, James Bond.  We went to see it on Sunday night, an excellent film although not a cheap night after you're bought the obligatory bucket of popcorn and a coke.  Small version of both were just under a tenner.  Still, we haven't been since goodness knows when so it's a bit of a treat.  No Lovefilm or similar for us.  The only other time I get to watch films without being distratcted is on longhaul flights, not that they're very common, but more common that going to the cinema interestingly enough.  It's probably not that interesting, but it's an interesting comparison given the fact that I'm not impressed by cinema pricing (well under 20 quid for 2 x tickets) compared with a longhaul flight to e.g. the caribbean priced conservatively at 2000.  That could buy us quite a few films, even if we splashed out on the VIP seats.

Friday foughts

Another day, another 10 minutes to while (wile?) away.  It's Friday, so thoughts turn to the weekend.  We're baby sitting for daughter number 3 tonight, well, not for her, but for her children.  2 of them whilst mum and dad enjoy themselves at some ball or other at Forest Pines.  I don't suppose they will be back until well midnight or so, so I had better take my glasses and a magazine - I don't expect much on the TV.  As it happens (now the, now then) we are not doing much this weekend which makes a change so I might get out on my bike both days.  We have a family meal booked for Sunday lunch but that should not interfere much.  My mother is coming along (which is a rarity) so at least we'll be treated to some add views on things.
Talking of biking, it's so dark in the evenings I can't see me getting out at all furing the week.  Not sure I want to chance it in the dark although I've got some decent lights and a reflective jacket.  I've done a couple of runs this week as well as 1500m last night in the pool.  I should try and get some early morning exercise in, but despite me thinking I'm a 'morning person' (see earlier entry), I'm no good in the mornings for that sort of stuff, I just can't get motivated.  I must remember to take that triathlon traiing book to Sophes tonight, there must be some tips in there for cramming exercising in.
It's interesting how you can read a book expecting it to help you do something that is totally in your hands e.g. running at 6 in the morning.  How the heck can any book motivate you to get out in the freezing cold dark, damp morning just to get a bit fitter.  I'll read it anyway, just in case.
Thinking about it, if I go out at 6, get say, 5 miles in which takes me around 40 mins, warm up/down for 15 mins, I'll not get out the house until afer 7, so I have to actually get out at about 5.45 whcih means getting up at at least 5.30 to get dressed, make my sandwiches etc (if required).  Hmmm, no wonder I don't do it.

Phil Space...

Movember.  What a crass word, but it's commendable that some might want to do something for charity.  Most people I know just like the attention - a bit like Children in Need japes like shaving your head etc. 'Look at me, I'm great', when actually I'm thinking 'what a "£$%er'.  I don't like to swear here, although I would if I was speaking.  It's just that writing something is sort of  'final', you can't backtrack on the written word (just ask those Twitter users who embarass themsleves).  Whilst speaking something, you can quickly inform listeners you didn't actually mean it, although you probably did but your following few words can minimise the impact.  Safe to say I won't be growing a moustache, in November or any other month.
I've been contemplating creating a 'technical blog' to run alongside this one, but will I get enough time to do it? Can I be bothered? Am I capable of such a thing? Why do it?  The last question is easy - I saw an advert for technical bloggers - so the idea is that I would get paid.  How good would that be?!
I've noticed over the last few years the rise of the blogger replacing journalists.  It could be more prevelant in technical journals, but I'm not sure.  The think that annoys me though is the increasing use of Twitter as input to news items both on the TV and in the press.  Why we want to know what a celebrity has stated about a particular newsworthy incident is beyond me.  And taking my earlier point about the written word, how much credence can we put on a short Twitter statement that probably took all of 20 seconds to write on the spur of the moment.  That's not to say some journalists take a similar time to write articles, but they are professionals.  Celebrities are not to be taken seriously at the best of times, least of all when it comes to comments on e.g. a missing child, serious crime or similar.
I just think that it's an easy space filler for editors now they've sacked all the proper journalists.  Mind you, newspapers are on their way out anyway, which is why I think we'll be left with a massive BBC news outlet (and asociated 'magazines'), a very small number of large commercial offerings such as Sky News and a few niche outlets catering for the nutters amongst us.  Where Daily Mail readers will migrate to I have no idea, but hopefully they will stop thinking middle England is stuck in the early 20th century.
Right, beter get back to work and think about that technical blog option.

Ticking away

Well, it's the last day of October already.  Clocks went back last weekend which mean I had to adjust our 2 'manual' clocks i.e. those with old fashioned hands.  I wonder if we will ever get rid of those?  Anyway, the kitchen clock needed moving but in doing som the clock unit think at the back decided to come unstuck somehow to the detriment of the whole clock working thing. I set to work with a knife (to take the hands off) and some supglue to stick the unit back onto it's mounting.  Sticking went OK, hands back on but I noticed last night it's stuck at 7.30, so I guess my hands need putting on a bit differently.  I have previous with hands. In an earlier life I was an instrument mechanic where some of my time was spent calibrating gauges of the aforesaid handed variety.  Putting the pointers back on the exact position was fraught with difficulty and not one of my favourite jobs.  I guess they're all digital now.  I wish my clocks were.
Dark evenings are not my favourite time of the year. If that makes sense, which it doesn't, but I'm sure you knoo what I mean.  Those people that say Autumn is their favourite time of year are obviously retired ir work shifts.  Travelling to/from work in the dark is decidedly depressing.
I'm trying to shake off the winter/autumn blues with a resurgent running regime.  After £60 well spent at a physio who found out my running style was causing my knee issues I have had for over 2 years, I have managed to gradually increase my running distance with no adverse affect on my knee at all.  Evidently I was pointing my right foot outwards, landing on the heel and rolling inwards (pronation I think it's called) causing all sorts or nasty twisting in my knee resulting in subluxation pain.  It was basically moving my kneecap a little causing it to move in the wrong place.  Suffice to say it flipping hurt.  The goods news is that with me consciously twisting my leg so that I land in a straight line it doesn't hurt at all, and that is/was the best news this month.  I managed just over 8 miles last night.

Frogs..

Well, here I am again.  It's a bit of a surprise to me anyway if not anyone else.  I think of myself as a 'morning person', whatever that means.  In my book, it's someone who likse to get things done in the morning, an 'eat a frog before breakfast' sort of person.  Reality is probably different, it's just that I want to get messy jobs out of the way as early as possible so I can have an easy day.  In actual fact, I probably do my best work at night.  Take last night for instance, I even laid in bed reading about firewalls, contemplating what we should buy for TEL.  Mind you, it didn't really help, simply reinforced what I was already thinking that everyone has their own subjective opinion based on what they have bought themselves.  I mean, you're not going to say "I bought a Firkin 3487 because it's rubbish" are you?  More likely, it will be "The Firkin 3487 is absolutely brilliant, and by coincidence I happen to have one".
I like to think I can make an informed decision, but usually it's down to cost.  Can't see any reason why this decision will be different.  Anyway, must get on with creating a spreadsheet demonstrating what you get for your money to aid the decision making.

First cut is the deepest..

First, let me explain.  I often felt like I should be writing a diary, but never ever got round to it.  Alright, I added a few notes in an appointments book for a couple of years, but not anything that could be called a diary.  We used to write diaries at school - 'What I did last night' was the starter for 10.  Of course, it would never be 'what I did yesterday' because then the teacher would realise what we thought of her/him.  I don't remember which teacher insisted on diaries, all I remember is that it was quite a problem finding something to put in them each day.
Which brings me back to this.  I don't suppose it is a diary as such, although I suppose you could say it was.  I guess we'll have to see how it pans out.  If it goes the way of most of my whims, it will be just that - a whim, petering out in a few days/weeks/months until it's just a distant memory of 'why the heck did I do that?'.

To make sure I have some pertinent, recent information, I should write about my Tuesday night incident on my bike.  This is the real reason I'm starting this, but hopefully I'll get that down later.
The bike incident.  I was whizzing down Nettleton Hill - the one that joins up to the Viking Way is how I always describe it if I get a puzzled look, although that often gets the same response.  If you don't know it, it's one of the steepest roads in the Lincolnshire Wolds, which might make you think it's almost flat, but I was up to 38mph (according to my Garmin 310XT - other sports watches are available) when a red tractor and trailer appeared from the slight right hand curve of the hill.  Brakes went on, shudder started, brakes went off a little - phew, I can get past. Eeek! as I slotted past the tractor, another tractor and trailer coming out of a farm track - you know, the one where gravel always runs out of when it's rained a bit, and it quickly dawned on me that I needed to apply the brakes again.  The biggest problem with this was that I was running on gravel thrown off the verge by the recent rain and my braking was having almost no effect.  With almost no thinking time, I made the decision that the only way out of this was to try and get up the track the tractor was coming out of and hope there was enough room to slow down.  Unfortunately, the track was just that - a track and turned at almost 90 degrees, so although F1 cars might have benefited, my skinny tyres were useless both turning and stopping me.  At the last moment before I hit the fence, I must have gripped that little bit harder on the brakes, I crashed to the ground and the next moment I was lying there wondering what the flip had happened.  I stood up totally unscathed save for a small cut on my shin.  My bike was upside down a couple of yards up the track, and also unscathed as far as I could tell.  I felt very relieved.
The tractor driver came ambling towards me (he wasn't a light man) with a concerned look, and we both patted ourselves on the back for coming out of it in one piece.

So, my conclusion?  Don't try and go fast down this hill (without someone in front).