Sweeping Curve.

Sweeping.  A word commonly associated with cleaning up and (for older readers) Mary Poppins.  However, it seems to be increasingly used in news headlines to describe something move very quickly.  An example last week was that the new covid variant was 'sweeping through the UK'  when the actual facts were 6 or 7 cases have been recorded.  Rain is often 'sweeping across the country' as does the 'latest craze'.  The dictionary reveals that sweeping can mean a movement in a curve, but also 'wide ranging' so I'm not sure how the covid variant was sweeping across the UK. 

Eggcellent.

As Mr Trump contemplates joining Israel in attacking Iran, I'm wondering when to restart running after my hamstring strain.  Like Trump, I have some historical data to go on - the last time this happened to me I restarted too early and it took what seems like ages before I ventured out again, whilst Trump only has to look at what George Bush did with Iraq - and that didn't end well for anyone.  I might try it tomorrow - it's a Friday so we get a healthy dose of cholesterol courtesy of a bacon and egg wrap (other choices are available) and I always feel that a bit of vigorous exercise helps we digest it without feeling too guilty. 

 

Weather You Like it Or Not

I'm not 100% sure about this, but I'll stick my neck out and say that the Yahoo news feed includes a 'breakfast show host interrupts the program to announce xxxxxx' type of story every single day.  There's 2 aspects of this 'news' item that I can't quite fathom 1) why is it even worth mentioning? and 2) who gives a monkeys about it?  It is surely part of a live 'magazine' program to cover new news stories, and if they do, why on earth would anyone else need to know that the announcement happened?  It's a shame they have to lower themselves to report these sort of things as they endeavor to make us click and earn them some commission.

It's the same with weather items.  I read somewhere that one news desk has a target of one weather related story every day.  This will be because we (you and I) have a built in need to know anything about the weather.     

Keep Calm and Drop a few Bombs

Israel have decided to have a go at Iran, which to me seems like a bit of a risk.  By 'having a go' I mean launched about 100 missile/drones at strategic targets.  The US denies any involvement whilst patting Netanyahu on the head and telling Iran to start talking about nuclear disarmament ..or else!  I'm sure Mr Trump came to the ballot box promising everyone he was a man of peace.  There's a chance he was not being quite honest.

I managed to drag myself out for a bike ride this morning, leaving the house around 5:40.  My sore hamstring looks like its here to stay for a while so I need to make the most of warmer mornings/evenings.  Very frustrating that my running is curtailed, we have 2 weeks away late June/early July where I was looking forward to putting some decent miles in.  It might have settled down by then, let's hope so.

Input/Output Switch

 I cycled in yesterday - headwind on the way in was tough (25mpg) resulting in an average of 16.something, but a change of wind direction on the way home meant more headwind.  Not good.  I actually took a longer route home via Brigg.  Crossing the Ancholme does not give me many options, so it's either Brandy Wharf (shortest), Brigg (furthest) or up to Bishopbridge where it starts (or at least before it becomes a canal).  Yesterday's northerly route added more than 10 miles to the journey so I arrived home quite knackered and couldn't stop snacking all evening.  I hope (like to think) that my calorie intake did not exceed calories expended, but I'm not so sure.

Feeling Hamstrung

 Saturday afternoon saw me go out for a run, then having to take shelter part way round under trees whilst the rain hammered down.  I was stood for about 20 minutes feeling bored and only a little bit wet but when I ventured on my way again I could barely move my legs as if I had pulled one or both hamstrings.  I managed to get round the course, but the last couple of miles were miserably slow. 

Quick Results.

Poor Liz Truss.  The Tories are about to issue an official apology for her budget that was going to 'boost the economy', but in reality (not something she believes in, obviously) it tanked with the pound falling to a 37 year low.  She's obviously defending her actions, blaming everyone except herself when it failed miserably.

Meanwhile, Mr Trump is still struggling to get 'deals' from countries he thinks are 'fleecing America'.  The next few weeks will be interesting as we watch what happens there.  Most interesting will be the agreement he will inevitably get with China, where he will be desperate to save face and (hopefully) get a proper deal that both countries agree to.  Cue a smiling handshake type of meeting as they sign the paperwork.  Or not.

Biked home last night at a rather swift average of 20.5mph, which might be my best ever.  Feeling it a bit in my legs today so I postponed my run until tomorrow which fits on well with the weekly Friday bacon and egg butty (or wrap in my case).

You cannot be serious!

 Cycled into the office today.  The weather has not been very friendly to cyclists of late, blowing a bit and not as hot as it has been.  At 6 o'clock this morning it had not got into double figures and having discovered that my arm warmers were safely locked in my locker at work, I had to resort to a long sleeved jacket to ward off the cold.  Luckily, although the wind was headwind for most of the way it wasn't too bad, although my average speed was down to around 17mph.  I'm quite looking forward to a fast ride home taking advantage of a breezy back wind.

According to an economics news article, the markets are 'desensitized' to trade announcements, meaning (I guess) they are bored of Mr Trumps regular tariff outbursts every few days and therefore the traders simply ignore him.  The latest was 50% on steel and aluminium, something that I thought had already been done.  I also read that he (or at least the US government) have been writing to countries reminding them that the initial 'liberation day' tariffs that he announced and subsequently paused will kick in again soon so they had better get round the table to negotiate.  I get the impression that he is not being taken seriously.   

Rain Top.

 I'm trying out my 'do more exercise to make yourself feel fitter' theory, that piles more agony on top of existing aches and pains caused by exercising.  Not too much, but enough to stress the muscles a bit more than they are used to.   This involved a very early 5 miler on top of the 7 miles I did on Sunday.  I plan on doing another 5 miles minimum the day after tomorrow, thereby getting 3 runs in 6 days.  In actual fact, I'm not feeling too bad today, whereas yesterday I felt very tired.  I also had quite a restless night last night which shouldn't have helped but doesn't seem to have had an adverse effect. 

As usual, we get talk of 'drought' and 'hosepipe ban' just as the rain teems down.  Evidently we have 5 counties in the West that are talking up a hosepipe ban, then this morning it absolutely pours down to make sure the conversation switches to flooding. 

Got to Get Up to Get Down.

 An audacious drone attack in a remote part of Siberia was realised at the weekend as Ukraine managed to set fire to about a third of Russia's long range bombing fleet.  Not a bad result for a country that seems to be gradually losing the 'normal' war against Russia.  It's a bit surprising that today's headlines (48hrs after the event) have not featured the news items hardly at all, instead having interesting snippets about the risk of your house burning down whilst you sunbathe.  Oh, must look at that one.

I cycled in to work on Wednesday, then did a 7 miler on Friday and felt absolutely knackered until..about now actually 3 days later.  Don't know what's going on there, and hopefully I get back into the groove this week.  Maybe I have to overcome the fatigue by doing a bit more which is counter intuitive of course. Watch this space.