Swimmingly Good.

So I got to do my swim - about a mile in around 35 minutes, so that's about par for me.  It absolutely hammered down with rain just before I got there, but luckily the sun came out and it was a very pleasant half an hour in the cool (but not cold) lake.

I dragged myself out for another early run this morning - only 5 miles though.  I have a week in the South of France from tomorrow where I'll be trying to up my mileage in the sun. The weather looks good for the week so I'l be pleased to get rid of the wet English Summer.

Meanwhile, the political stories keep coming and coming with plot and intrigue in both the Labour and Tory camps.  The latest news is that Boris JOhnson will not stand for the leadership, thereby wrong footing everyone who said he would.  Looks like his pal Michael Gove has put his name forward so it will be interesting who prevails between him and Theresa May.

Lake Likely.

I will refrain from EU talk today.  Not there isn't any, but it's too, well.. political.

An early morning 7 mile run today set me up for the day.  The sun was already fairly high at 5 o'clock, and I felt quite good for most of the distance, despite a pit stop at about the 5 mile mark.  Unfortunately the rain kicked in mid-morning and my planned lake swim after work will be difficult to get motivated for.  'Ah, but you're going to get wet anyway!' I hear you say.  Its true, but it's the transition bit from nice warm, dry clothing into a damp wet suit and walk a 100 yards or so from the changing room into the lake on cold, damp tarmac.  I'm pretty sure I can resolve to do it, but watch this space tomorrow.

European Visits.

The stock market has gained a bit of ground back after yesterday's losses, and the world in general appears to have calmed down a bit as the shock waves from brexit peter out.  I'm sure there will be some more ripples along the way, but hopefully some stability and order will return.
Meanwhile, not so calm in the EU parliament with a gloating Nigel Farage having his day in the limelight.  He might be a dick, but he's stuck to his task well over the years.  I guess his biggest problem now is that he is out of a job - you can't fight for independence when you already have it.  Same goes for the Referendum Party setup some years ago.

On a more personal matter, I managed 1900m of swimming last night.  I chose this over the second half of the England v. Iceland footy match and it looks like I made the right decision.  I have 2 triathlons to get up to speed for - a standard distance in July and half iron distance in September.  I need to get a bit more running in, but next week in France should help with that.  If the sea is warm there's no reason why swimming should suffer either.

Exit Signs.

We now have Regrexit, Brexit + any other made up word that includes 'exit' in our dictionaries as the fallout from the EU vote hots up.  Stock markets appear to have been quite shaken by the result, and even today the pound has gone to a 31 year low against the dollar.  I'm no economist, but that doesn't sound very good to me.

Of more interest to the amateur observer, is the political shenanigans gathering pace.  It looks like we are going to get Boris as PM, albeit until the next election, but any opposition is getting watered down as the shadow cabinet resign or are sacked as Jeremy Corbyn comes under pressure to resign.  He has huge support amongst the unions and ordinary party members so this will amount to nothing in the short term, but probably add another chink to his armour.

There have been some loud mutterings about a second referendum, notably with a petition that was ironically setup by a leave supporter trying to hedge his bets that they would lose by a small margin and try and trigger another vote.  This petition is now endorsed by about 3 million remain supporters much to his annoyance.  Talk of another vote seems to be way out of line - what will they say if it's close again?  'Best of 3!'

However, the biggest debates/arguments/fights are going to be taking place with our erstwhile European friends as we try and strike deals and agreements to replace the existing.  Boris has already indicated that we don't need to invoke 'Article 50' that starts the 2 year exit talks until we have agreements.  This looks to be a bit of shrewd manoeuvring on his part, but not very subtle.  I can't see that going down well across the Channel, but I guess we'll see a lot more of this sort of thing.

Educated Guess

Well, how wrong can you be?  As wrong as I was, clearly.
My predicted big win for the 'inners' was way out, with a significant (although not overwhelming) majority for the leavers.
The political fallout is in full swing with Dave Cameron inevitably falling on his sword.  One commentator thought it was down to uneducated people voting to leave, and educated voting to stay in.  This does nothing to help move us forward, but at least I now know I'm educated.  Thank goodness for that!

Strike Rate.

So, EU voting day has arrived and I popped in early to put a cross in the 'Remain' box.  Either result will produce an avalanche of 'expert comment' by anyone who happens to be passing the TV/Radio studios, most of it will be total rubbish, but I'm more intrigued by how/if the Tory party will regroup as it tries to live with the outcome.  I'm fairly sure that Boris's tactic are partly driven by his personal political ambitions, although he comes across as quite an enthusistic 'outer' with a passionate line of arguements, with the obligatory extreme views dressed up as caring for the UK's future.
Although I'm a remainer, I will not lose too much sleep if the outers get their way.  At least we'll have something to talk about for the next 5 years or so as we gradually extricate ourselves from the clutches of Brussels before realising we should have voted to stay in.

I know there a lot of people in India -  around one and a quarter billion according to latest figures, and according to official figures 2500 of these were killed by lightning strikes in 2014.   A storm earlier this week claimed 57 lives by lightning strikes, most of these being farm workers.  The farmers are now calling for the government to do something to prevent this but I think that the government will find this quite difficult given their record on other crisis such as trying to alleviate poverty, but they do give £4,000 to every victim's family so that's alright then.

Euro 2016

I read that the FA is 'unsettled' by Roy Hodgson's team choice against Slovakia, where England dominated the game but failed to score.  The media decided this was a good excuse to fill countless inches of space decrying his decision, so I'm not too sure if this report is kosher, or just another exercise in manager knocking that we tend to go in for in the UK.  Whatever it is, reast assured that a bad result on Monday will not go unnoticed.

The EU election is tomorrow, so this is the last day the politicians and anyone else with a strong view get to advise us where to put our cross.   In the Guardian, John Barnes wades in with a swipe at Nigel Farage, although most of the population under 45 will never have heard of him (John Barnes, that is).
My own voting whim has swung around a little, starting off as a dedicated Europhile, moving across the border to slightly Eurosceptic, but eventually (as of today) back on the remain side of the fence.
I intend to vote tomorrow, and await the result with interest.  I predict a majority will want to remain, and probably be about a 60/40 split.  But we will see if my total guess turns our correct.

Expertly Done.

I had the misfortune to be listening to the 'pre-match build up' on Radio 5 yesterday evening.  I could have switched it off, but I was busy pulling up ragwort in the field and my radio/phone was tucked in my pocket and difficult to get to.  Or maybe I wanted to listen to an hour of drivvel masquarading as expert analysis.  The bis issue was team selection, not something that worries me normally, but these guys were really losing sleep about the poor decision to lave Mr Rooney out of the team, when (as one listener pointed out) last week they were suggesting that Mr Rooney should be dropped.  In the end, England drew but went through to the knockout stages therefore allowing them to justify their complaints whilst breathing a sigh of releif they would be staying in France for a few more days at our expense.

Politically Biased

As the EU in/out debate hots up (we even get a chance to vote this week!) My Farage accuses Mr Cameron of exploiting the sad death of an MP to his advantage, thereby using the sad death of an MP to his advantage.  That's politics - twisting the same argument for your own gain.
Whether the British public notice or give a jot is probably irrelevant now, but although the outcome is predicted to be close according to the pollsters, I can't help but think that there's enough sensible people who want the status quo - however bad that might appear to be.

World Class.

Miss Great Britain has had her title taken away after an 'encounter' on the TV show Love Island.  Evidently the decision was taken with regret due to it not being in keeping with the position of Miss Great Britain.  I'm not sure what they expected of the girl, but obviously sex on TV was not one of the characteristics they expected of the lovely lass.

Meanwhile, middle distance king Sebastian Coe is getting some bad press about his various dealings within the murky world of athletics administration.  No surprise there, and it will be interesting how he handles the Russian doping issue as Rio Olympics looms large.

Game On!

I'm probably being a bit naive or out of touch with reality, but I did not know what eSports was until I read that Sky is to air the first 24hr eSports channel.  Is it just me?
To enlighten those dinosaurs such as myself, the channel will add' sigificant mainstraeam TV exposure to the fast growing esports ecosystem'.  Ah!  so it's an ecosystem.  For a moment I thought it was some sad losers in their bedrooms.

Unfortunately, I am writing this with the self satisfied smugness of a man who has just spent 5 days in the French Alps cycling over 400 miles and ascending over 6,000m (not all at once you understand), so I can quite nobily say that outdoor sports are a good thing.  I've never been one for what we used to call PC games, but ther again we didn't have an ecosystem, so who knows what might have been?

Read My Lips.

The new(ish) mayor of London, Sadiq Kahn pledged bfore being elected that Londoners 'would not pay a penny more for public transport'.  Unfortunately, he forget to mention that it would only apply to single journeys and all others would go up, probably more than they would have done to pay for the others that have remained the same.  This only serves to highlight the skills of a politician - the ability to say one thing but do the exact oppostire whilst keeping a straight face.  Unfortunately, the more blatant it is, the more we distrust politicians, so should he have made the pledge?  It would be interesting to analyse what impact it had on the voting, but probably impossible to say with any certainty, and the U-turn (or partial u-turn anyway) will be long forgotten when the next election comes round.  Whatever the impact, he should have been a bit more careful with his words.

Picture This.

Poor old Axl Rose (a singer, I think) wants to remove less flattering photographs of himself from the web. At a recent concert, pictures seemed to convey that he was a bit porky, and that is a problem for him - the pictures that is, not the weight 'issue' evidently.
I think we all sympathise with him a bit, although most of my embarrassing photographs were on slides my dad took when I was a hairy teenager so I think I'm safe whilst they are in my mother's custody.

In cycling news, a human rights group has urged the UCI to ban any Bahraini cycling teams taking part in UCI events.  This would scupper the planned formation of a Bahraini team run by Crown Prince Someoneorther (can't remember who) who has allegedly performed torture, rounding up of slightly naughty people etc.  I can;t see the UCI doing anything, but I suppose it garners a few headlines for the human rights people so that's not a bad thing.  If the UCI banned teams with dodgy owners/sponsors I don't think there would be many teams left.

Kitted up

I have a few days cycling in France starting on Friday.  Not that this is very noteworthy, but this trip has highlighted a few things that I am finding difficult to 'control', specifically my aim to take a bike in excellent condition and the quality of the components thereon.  I have replaced the chain, tyres and brake pads, and I have successfully resisted the temptation to install a new rear mech.  I am only going for 5 days, so why am I spending money/time swapping kit I probably don't need to?

Sugar Me.

Some commentators are taking celebrities to task for only endorsing high sugar, low nutrient foods.  There must be exceptions, but there is really no surprise that this happens, and just like the proverbial chicken and egg, which oen came first?  Was the high sugar content drink unpopular until Beyonce put her name to it?  ..or did it become popular when she endorsed it?  Surely the highest profile celebs will only go with the highest paying brands, which must be already popular to be able to afford these people.  Therefore, my scientific conclusion is that it is an unfair complaint ot aim at the celebrities (which is, for me, a rare favourable review of these folk).

Deep in the Woods..

They have found that poor lad in Japan who was left in a forest as a punishment - a sort of extreme naughty step - after 6 days.  The media have printed/displayed pictures of a cheeky lad making strange hand gestures that probably mena something to the Japanese, but just make him look more cheeky, hence making it easier for his parents to justify his long naughty step episode.  Cries of 'he looks like he deserved it' can be heard in every home.  The Mirror helpfully told us it was a 'bear forest' just to make us feel better.

In EU news, David Cameron braved a live audience to debate the very interesting in/out arguements.  A student declared that she '..knows waffling when I hear it'.  You cant beat a bit of stating the obvious, but she will eventually realsie that this is politics where waffling, obfuscation, mis-truths and bull$hit is the norm.

Money. It's a gas.

I read that someone is trying to live a year without spending anything - nothing except food and bills.  I suspect that 'bills' can include quite a lot of items, but good luck to her as she seeks out new things to do that don't cost anything.  She is 6 months into the experiment, and the most notable thing is that she has given up trying to do what she used to do for free i.e. blag tickets etc.  I wouldn't have thought of doing that, and she has realised its probably a pointless, and frustrating job.  I wonder if it could be done by a more rural dweller instead of a Londoner.

Marshmallows.  Have you ever cooked them?  I haven't, and until I read about the technique in The Guardian I have never contemplated it.  Odd that, how I often muse over how I could rustle up some foodstuffs, but I can honestly say that cooking/baking (?) a marshmallow has never crossed my mind.

Life's a Gas.

The Guardian have written an article about how leaving the EU will affect gas prices.  The leading photograph is an electricity meter, so either the picture editor selected the wrong picture, or the change will be quite significant.

Meanwhile, club goers have taken to using a 'Dance drug', which in actual fact if you read the small print is ecstacy, so I could do with a bit of that.  My dancing is pretty awful.

In Australia, an MP has admitted to eating an elephant he shot in Zimbabwe.  The whole elephant?  Wow.