So Here it Is....

It's Christmas in 3 days time, but more importantly we had the shortest day yesterday so I'm happy about that.  The only thing is that it seems to take quite a few weeks before there's any noticeable difference in the length of the days.  I have a holiday booked for the first 2 weeks in Feb, so when I return I hope Winter will be well behind us, as far as the short days go at least.

I have a niggling sore throat at the moment that hasn't kicked into a full blown cold like it usually does, although it's much worse late evening.  I'm hoping it keeps at bay or goes away for the festive period, but I fully expect it to het worse before it gets better.  I've had no running or cycling for a few days now and its taking a bit of mental toll.    

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

 The greatest of all time?  That's been a typical question asked during the world cup.  I guess it's been asked at every world cup, I mean, there's a lot of air time to fill nowadays.  The more channels there are, the more programs have to be created, the more utter cr*p has to be spoken to fill the programs that have been created to fill the schedules of the channels that have been created.  You get my drift.

We've just come out of a prolonged cold spell where external water taps were frozen for over 2 weeks.  Average temperatures have hardly risen above 1 degree during that time but were a heady 10 this morning- it felt positively balmy.  Our house takes a while to get 'up to temperature' when I switch the heating on, so it's surprising that the big wide world outside can change so quickly.  I might even bike in this week.

 

Cold Comfort.

 It's the football world cup at the weekend - Sunday I think - where France will beat Argentina.  The reason I mention this is that my interest in football is passing at best, and although I can join in laddish conversations about certain things, footy is not my area of expertise so try and stay on the peripherals of this sort of thing.  However, when the world cup comes around,  I find myself drawn into the intricacies of  team selection and what formation is best to beat team X, ..but only if it involves the national team.  So what does this prove? that I'm a diehard xenophobe?  ..or too nationalistic?  I'm not sure really, just that I like to support my local team, no matter how detached I am from them.  I even cheer for the Scottish curling team at the Winter Olympics.

I've managed 3 early morning runs this week - 21 miles in total.  It has been quite a cold week with minus temperatures for most of the time.  It was minus 5 yesterday morning, but luckily no wind to speak of so I didn't need to get my tracksters out to replace the shorts.  I did have 4 layers on my upper body though. 

Royal Outing.

 Harry and Meghan have released the first 3 episodes of their 'drama' which allegedly will reveal some juicy information about the way the royal family and staff behave and treated Meghan etc. etc.  Unsurprisingly, it contains nothing of interest to anyone except those of us who always want to know the smallest details about anyone, let alone the royal family.  Predictably, the press have filled goodness knows how many pages of absolute nonsense about it, quoting 'palace sources' or 'a friend of XYZ' and to press home how aggrieved we are al feeling - how it's an insult to the Queen's legacy.  Luckily, its only 6 episodes so they will have to disappear back into their rabbit hole and dream up another way to make money then hype it up to reveal - nothing yet again.

I look at life from both sides now.

 They have just announced that a new coalmine will be opened in Cumbria to supply coke for the steel industry.  Evidently we currently import this from South Africa.  This has, of course, kicked off a great deal of debate regarding the climate change effects, global warming etc. etc.  I don't have a strong opinion on this either way, but I do have a strong opinion that it is really, really difficult to decide which is the right opinion.  On the one hand we want to reduce/stop the use of fossil fuels that exacerbate the global warming situation, on the other hand we want to make sure we optimise what we are using to minimise the effects of CO2. This is a great example of where both sides are right/wrong. 

Going Swimmingly Well.

 I'm becoming a bit of a grouting expert.  In this particular case, a limestone flooring grouting expert.  Of course, what I mean is that 'expert' is relative to what I was a week ago when I started it which was rubbish, so any improvement is a massive jump.  I probably underestimated the grouting part of the 24 square metres of flooring job I had to do.  The tile laying was quite physical for a weakling like me but fairly straight forward, but I've found that the grouting needs a good technique to get it looking right and staying in right place to reduce the amount of cleaning I need to do.  A bit like swimming v. running - anyone can run and some can run fast, but swimming fast and efficiently takes a lot of technique.

Highway to Hell.

 They have finally opened the road that I normally take to the office after 9 weeks.  That's 9 weeks of a detour that takes around 10 mins extra each way, so about 45 days @ 20mins,  900mins, so about 15hrs if my maths is correct (which it is because I verified it on a spreadsheet).  That's a lot of wasted time, and of course multiplied by everyone that uses it whether they travel 10 or 100 miles it's still 20 minutes per day so in short - quite a lot of time.

I have a bit of a bee in my bonnet about the highways at the moment, since I reported a road issue a few weeks ago - a major subsidence where we have to make sure we don't catch the bottom of the car, but they replied back that it wasn't bad enough, but that I could report it again if it got worse.  It's not so bad in my car which is slightly raised, but the Mini is impossible to drive over it without making sure one wheel is on the high bit of the road, the other of course ends up on or nearly on the grass.   Even writing this makes me annoyed that they think it's suitable to cars.  ..so that has made my mind up I'm going to put another report in.

Tanked Off.

 I drove the last 10 miles to so into the office without using any fuel.  Amazing I hear you say, was it downhill?  I have to confess that I probably did use some fuel, it was just that my 'miles to empty tank' indicator was showing zilch at about 10 miles to go.  I guess it would be quite difficult to build the correct algorithm that could calculate miles to go with all the variables it would have to take into account - current consumption v. previous consumption are the basic inputs, but it has to make some sort of decision based on a time period.  I read somewhere that the VW group 'current fuel consumption' calculation is based on the last 35 metres, which seemed to me to be a bit of a short distance to use, but using a longer distance would average it out too much.

Anyway, 100 quid took me just over three quarters of a tank which a bit depressing.  

Back to The Future

 It's a wet old day today.  Not surprising given that it is Autumn and Winter looms large.  We are told to prepare ourselves for a cold early winter, followed by a milder second half.  I'm writing this now so I can refer to it in a few months time to see if it comes true.  I'm always very sceptical about forecasts of any kind - weather, economic, fashion, where an almost limitless lists of experts predict the future and we then repeat it as if they actually can see into the future..

Everything you wanted to know but were afraid to ask.

 'Everything you need to know about can't remember her name's love life', so ran a headline on Yahoo today. I genuinely can't remember her name, but I think she is/was an England football player.  Thanks goodness Yahoo thought this was useful putting this on the 'news' feed otherwise we would have spent hours trying to find out.  Seriously though, why do news outlets drive their reporters to make up absolute tosh in the hope of someone clicking it?  (I didn't, by the way in case I managed to finance future articles).

Running news now - I have half heartedly set a target to do a marathon next year and still debating how seriously I  should take it.  I'm a bit cautious about overdoing my dodgy knee, it's already a bit sore when I'm trying to get to sleep, but at the same time I need to up the miles to see how bad/good I feel when I do it.  Currently running up to 8 miles quite comfortably although not more once a week, interspersed with 5 or 6 milers.  Early days yet, so I will put off a decision until the new year.

Steady As She Goes

 So, Mrs. Truss is consigned to the back bench, and I can't see her winning any more competitions that reply on a vote.  Our new leader Mt Sunak seems to have 'steadied the ship' as they say, if by 'steadying' we mean 'averted one disaster but steering inevitably towards another'.  Time will tell.

On another matter, one of the many thing that continue to surprise/shock me is the rise and rise of 'influencers'.  Weird really.  I struggle to see why companies think its money well spent paying these people.

Cool Runnings.

Hats off to son-in-law #1 who completed the Yorkshire marathon Sunday without the normal shedload of training usually associate with this type of event.  He managed to also keep it a secret from his family, much to everyone's amazement/amusement.  It just goes to show what can be achieved if you set yourself a target.

It's made me think a bit more earnestly about entering a marathon next year.  I had wondered about doing a fairly local one at Skegness which is back on the calendar after a few years absence.  However, it's in March which to my mind at least, is only just round the corner.  It's not, of course, so I need to talk myself into it.  I did a 9 miler on Sunday and another 4 this morning (so I'm half way there).  I'll see how I feel in a few weeks time - I might be able to talk son-in-law into doing another one.  

Hidden Talents.

 Dear oh dear.  These were King Charles' first words when he met our venerable Prime Minister Mrs Truss.  She's turning out to be exactly what I thought, which is 'not very good', sounds like Charlie thinks the same.  I could use other words, but the firewall might block the post going out.

I can't fathom out why she has so many supporters in the government.  The Tory leader's election process starts with the MPs, and they filter the good from the bad and (in theory) they should have a better idea than most people what they are like 'in real life'.  Seems to me they didn't do a very good job this time, so I can only assume they know something we mere mortals don't.

Snowing?

 A couple of weeks into her reign, and Mrs Truss has set the country alight by having her chancellor announce a huge range of tax reductions that will result in huge borrowing.  The markets don't like it, and with a strong dollar making the pound 'sink to an all time low' it seem a bit bleak on the economic front.  I'm not in the 'bleak' camp though, markets are as fickle as anything and a few days of negativity is quite normal.  I could well be wrong and we will be plunged into a financial crisis for years to come, but I don't think so.  I wonder if any of the market traders are a similar vintage to me, who remember 15% interest rates, money very hard to come by and industrial unrest a way of life.  If not, no wonder they are all panicking, having had it so easy for the last 20+ years.

I'll take the register today.

So, Ms Truss has surfaced as the leader of the Tories and hence leader of our great country.  Unfortunately, she doesn't fill me with much confidence but I suppose as usual time will tell us what she and her lackeys are really like.  She reminds me too much of a rubbish junior school teacher to take her seriously - nothing against junior school teachers of course, but how many of them become prime mister?   I'm hoping she soon realises what a difficult job it is and packs it is, but realistically she will probably last until the next election where the Tories will have a humiliating loss and she will have to resign.

In the meantime, there will be plenty to chortle/scoff at until that time.

Hedge Fund.

 Hedge cutting.  Yes, not the most interesting subject, unless you're a hedge cutter and even then if you've been doing it for some years I expect the novelty wears off pretty quickly.  I've been doing it on and off since we moved to where we are now, so around 27 years but fortunately its more a necessity rather than a job to prevent them getting out of hand.  Some are doing a job i.e. holding the horses in, whilst others are merely to look good so I this year I have endeavored to hack back the 'looking good' ones back to a more manageable height/width to make it easier in subsequent years.

The trouble is, is that is it physically hard work doing this.  I don't have a tractor, so have invested in a long powered trimmer which makes short work of the frilly, fluffy sticking outie stuff, but is quite heavy for a weakling like me.  My latest acquisition is a reciprocating saw which takes most of the hard work out of cutting the larger bit of growth that the trimmer or lopper struggle with.  So, I sweat a bit less, but get sore arms but still takes an awful long time.  Last weekend I hacked just over 100m down in about a day, although clearing up after me took about the same time and I haven't burnt it yet.  I also have a list of other jobs that need doing whilst the weather is reasonable so might be a matter of prioritizing or seeing if our local man with a tractor can do a bit for me.  

Just Kidding.

 I'm in a bit of a quandary over money.  Do I spend it, or save it.  Over the years, I've never had much in the way of savings, and if I did, it didn't last long.  Now that I'm getting towards the end of my working life (a few years to go mind!) I've been able to put some dosh away for luxuries, and there is the crux of the dilemma - it's a luxury.  One of my more common thoughtful sayings is that 'the easiest person to fool is yourself' and nowhere is it more true when it comes to justifying buying something.  I've spent a lifetime trying avoid luxuries when 'that'll do' has been common place.  This has applied to holidays, cars, tools, clothes and in fact nearly everything I've had to spend my heard earned money on.  There have been exceptions of course and as I get older I kid myself more often that 'it's only money'.

So, do I buy an expensive motorcycle helmet or not?  By 'expensive' I'm talking around the 400-450 GBP mark rather than my existing helmet that was £80.  I need a matching pair of course, because I've just about persuaded my other half to tag along on her proviso that she has a decent helmet to wear.

..so I need to find some old stock.  

Power Up!

 The price cap set by Ofwatt (or whatever they are called) are changing the frequency of price cap changes from 6 to 3 months.  This has sparked outrage from a consumer group (can't remember who) which think the government needs to help those in need; invest in green, cheap energy and other well intentioned actions etc.  A dose of realism might calm him down, but I doubt it.  In the 'old days' I don't remember this issue being such a big problem as the price went up and down although the price is quite high at the moment so a % increase does have more effect.  I have no idea what the solution is, and in some way Putin's war in Ukraine might speed up the switch to renewables which has been dreadfully slow overall even though have have been some notable investment in e.g. wind turbines.

Because the issue is global i.e. global warming, then we need to think of global solutions.  I would like to see big investment in solar powered power generation would have to be linked around the world to feed those with less sunlight available and ability to follow the sun.

  

Theoretically Speaking

April was my last update on this platform, and I can't remember why I stopped writing but I should really kick things off again to get things off my chest.

Occasionally, I hear myself sounding feel like a grumpy old man, and this got me thinking how you become a grumpy old man.  I like to think that I'm quite an open minded cup half full type of person who embraces change as much as the next 30 year old so I reckon the key word is the 'old'.  

By old, I'm talking experienced.  'Grumpy experienced man' sounds much better but I can't imagine it will catch on.  The 'old' conjures up thoughts of senility, past his best, over the hill and a general impression of being not much use to society so can be tolerated - but ignored.  An old man with little experience of life, (and by this I mean the couch potato types who possibly have had a relatively small number of jobs, lived in discreet areas for all their lives etc.) would probably not be known as the grumpy old mad because they don't feel as aggrieved as others who might have had a much more varied lifestyle and who, in later years, lament the passing of these times as they sink into a more passive way of life and let anyone know how good it was in the old days if they care to listen.

It's just a theory though.        

Trust Me, I'm a TV executive.

 Piers Morgan v. Donald Trump.  What a load of hyped up rubbish.  Trumps allegedly walked out of an interview with Morgan and this is being used to publicise the soon to be broadcast event on a commercial TV station.  They must be laughing all the way to the bank. 

Onwards and Upwards

 Zoom is to introduce improvements to 'elevate' user's experience.  Elevate.  Honestly, did the thesaurus come up with that one?  If it did, it needs revising.  I can see why they picked it, you can't possibly have 'improvement' in the the same sentence, so they probably picked something like 'raising user's experience' which eventually became 'elevate' to stand out from the crowd.  Well, they certainly stand out now.  

I picked up a motorbike yesterday, a nice 2012 BMW R1200RT ('tourer' in short) from Nottingham.  I rode it back a bit apprehensively, given that I haven't owned a bike in 41 years.  Fortunately, no harm came to anyone, or the bike (my worst fear) so I'll be out practising on quieter roads this week before I venture into any other busy cities.  

Heated Argument

 Today see a huge increase in fuel costs for households due to the price cap change where suppliers are told the maximum they can charge.  This has prompted the inevitable 'the government should do more' headlines from most media outlets.  'Eat or Heat' is a nice catchy headline, (which would probably result in 'eat').  At least we have a choice, spare a thought for those without either of those options.  One of the problems with this sort of thing is that it is always clouded by the bandwagonners who will shout about the heat or eat choices, but be calling Granny on their Apple iPhone 10 whilst watching a Sky subscription channel... or those that visit food banks and then get an indian takeaway the following day.  I'm not saying for 1 minute that these examples are the norm, it's just there are too many people like the above and it undermines the arguments of those who are genuinely in need of attention.  Anyway, must get back to cutting some firewood.  

What's the Point?

 The government proudly announced that electric charge points would exceed petrol pumps by 2030.  Hang on though, we're hardly comparing apples with apples here.  A pump is in use for about 5 minutes, a charge point for an hour or so, probably more if you want a full 'tank'.  Just another hyped up statistic that is fairly meaningless.  A better stat would be to add in the number of charging points in homes.

Tomorrow Belongs to Me.

 I can't imagine what the end game is going to be in Ukraine.  The biggest factor will undoubtedly be that Russia wants to have some sort of control over the country, and that just seems such an extreme position (in keeping with starting the war) that I can't see any compromise ever going far enough to satisfy that. 

There are newspaper reports that suggest an internal 'coup' taking over power from Putin might be in the offing, but that must be pure speculation.  I can't see that, and history does not show that dictators get overthrown that easily, if at all.  Putin appears to silence any criticism never mind about insurrection so we should not hold our breath.   

In other news, I have had a rubbish cold/flu type of infection since returning from holiday but hopefully on it's way out.  Haven't cycled into the office for about a month, but plan to tomorrow. 

What's in a Name?

 Lewis Hamilton is obviously feeling left out of the limelight, but he's back in it as he announces he is changing his name to include his mother's maiden name.  I haven't got the time/patience to read the ins and outs of it all, but I'm sure he has a good reason, and is only too willing to tell the journalists.

On the Ukrainian situation, there's a distinct pro-Ukrainian 'we're winning the war' feel about Yahoo's news selections.   Articles about blowing up tanks, Russian troops going home etc abound, but I get a feeling it's more a case of extrapolating one or 2 incidents and assuming it's common place across the country ..although I hope I'm wrong.

Poo Tin.

 Its a funny old world isn't it?  Just when you thought everything was settling down after the covid stuff, up pops Mr Putin to throw a spanner in the works.  We're on day 19 now of his attempted takeover of Ukraine, and it shows no sign of disappearing from the headlines. I can see it going on for years, eventually ending up with a puppet government a la Belarus and then going back to a democracy in about 20 years time.  Alternatively, I might be wrong.  I hope I am, but the red army is not known for losing wars despite the mini videos of Russian tanks getting blown up.

I've just had 10 lovely days in the Dom Rep, winded and dined in a 5 * hotel etc.  Very nice.  Of course, I need another holiday after 1 day in the office, but that will have to wait until May I think.  I've picked up a bit of man-flu in the last couple fo days, about 1 day after landing, so likelyhodd is that I picked it up off the plane.  It was the last day of mask wearing on TUI airlines, so that made my day - the outward journey was pants with a mask on for 9 hours. 

Weighty Times.

I have now kicked myself into restarting my running after a very stop/start first 6 weeks of 2022.  I'm just over 2 kg above my 'normal' running weight of 82kgs, so I need to at least get down to 82 quickly and the only way I will be able to do that is to put some miles is.  I did the village loop of just over 5 miles this morning, and because the weather is poor this week (and therefore cycling will be difficult) I'll be doing the same tomorrow, rain permitting.  Our holidays start 28th Feb in 2 weeks time so will be interesting how near the 82kgs I will get.  I always struggle to restrict my food intake, but I'll give it a bit of a go.

In the meantime, Russia hasn't invaded Ukraine yet, or at least not the last time I looked at the news.  

Time to Reflect.

 I was 7 when the Aberfan disaster struck and 116 children were killed by a landslide of slag and earth taken out of a nearby mine.  Because I was around the same age as those killed, it had a profound effect on me that still affects me whenever the subject crops up.  I read this morning that a clock retrieved from the rubble of the school has been donated to the museum in the town.  The poignant part of this story is that it stopped at 9:15, the precise time the landslide struck the school.  It says so much.

Getting Plastered

 It's already 1 month into 2022.  Amazing how time flies when you're getting older/busy/not aware (delete as applicable).  We have 10 days in the Caribbean early March, rest assured that time will go even faster.

Running and cycling has slowed down considerably in 2022, especially the running.  I think it's partly due to overdoing December, and partly because my focus is currently on getting the stable conversion finished off, or at least making some progress on it.  Currently plaster boarding out, which is not too arduous but quite time consuming.  I'm also learning about window reveals.  Very revealing.     

Bulls Eye

 2022 has arrived.  Not with a bang, but with nice warm weather, which enabled me to get the miles in on the bike without being unduly cold at the end of 2021.  I passed the 5000 miles target by 2 miles, and the 1000 mile running target by 1 mile.  That's my biggest cycling year ever, so pretty pleased with that.  It's now day 5 of 2022 and I've only managed a 5 mile run.  I needed a rest.

Life with Covid goes on of course, no rest day there.  I have a holiday abroad booked for the end of Feb, and hoping any travel rules are relaxed or not needed by then.  I will probably have to put up with a mask for 9 hrs, but that's not so bad.