Can’t you hear, can’t you hear the thunder?…….

London Prepares - It is 11.15 pm on Thursday evening and I’m on my way home from London on the train, feeling a little weary but glad I made the effort.  On my way back after an excellent evening at the “Pringle” or the Olympic Velodrome to give it its proper name.  Managed to get (courtesy of the lovely Mrs S who spotted the opportunity last week) a couple of last-minute tickets for day 1 of the Track Cycling World Cup event, part of the London Prepares series, which are essentially test events for the Olympics.  This is the second one of these I have been lucky enough to go to, the first being the beach volleyball in Horseguards Parade way back last summer - here is the link http://wp.me/p1iuo6-6y  just in case you want to have another look at the photos.  Tonight saw the first event to be staged at any of the big three venues at the Olympic Park, the other venues being the main Stadium and the Aquatic Centre.  This was the first session so it was qualifying for the Team Pursuit – three riders over 3km for women and 4 riders over 4km for me.  In both events you have to get three riders to finish, so in the mens event you typically see one get dropped after about 3 km – bit of an expert now me.

A great night and a real thrill to see some live action at one of the Olympic venues.  Quite surprised that the capacity is relatively small – somewhere between 4 – 6,000 which makes you realise how lucky we are to have won some tickets to go to the real thing in the much maligned (by me included) ballot.  It was interesting to see the teams warming up in the centre of the venue, a lot of warming up seems to be involved and some of the competitors seemed to be working harder in the warm up rather than the race itself!  The atmosphere when the Team GB riders were on the track was absolutely electric and when the men’s team posted a sub four-minute time to take the top position by some margin the place went wild.  It was around four minutes of sheer excitement, definitely one of those times to make the hair on the back of your neck go!

Sadly in both events Team GB did not ultimately top the leaderboard, qualifying second in both case, the women to Canada and the men to our old nemesis the Aussies.  This means that they will be in the gold / silver final which comes up later over the weekend.  Pleased to report that on Friday night the women did indeed win Gold and in a new World Record time – fantastic result!  The main event is obviously still to come but I am sure that all teams want to get some early bragging rights.

It was interesting to travel through the Olympic Park as whilst the main venues all look as if they are just about done, the site still seems to have much to do.  No doubt it will be completed on time but at the moment there seems to be plenty still to do.

Long overdue remakes - I was thinking the other day, dangerous I know but I did it just the same, about a couple of old TV series from days gone by that I reckon must be due for a re-make as move blockbusters.  I don’t know maybe they have and didn’t in fact block-bust so to speak?  the ones I am thinking of are Land of the Giants that had two series and ran from 1968 – 70 and Time Tunnel which had one series in 1967 -8.  Remember them?  If not have a look at the links to jog your memory.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_of_the_Giants

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Time_Tunnel

Like most American series with the notable exception of Lost – the finale of which in any event was a crushing disappointment that did not justify the effort of sitting through six series – the characters were left in some cliff hanging situation, in readiness for the next series that never came as viewers interest had waned and ratings tumbled.  Flash Forward and the Chicago Code are the most recent ones that hacked me off as I was looking forward to series two!

Of the two I mentioned earlier I think Time Tunnel was my favourite, I always looked forward to the next episode to see where our heroes had turned up and what would be thrown at them.  They always seemed to find themselves at some defining moment of history, I now realise that was so that the makers could use footage from one of their movie catalogue as fill in.  I believe that they did a good amount of cutting and pasting rather than go the expense of their own filming.  The Time Tunnel itself was a fairly basic special effect but then again it was the 60′s so what did we expect?  I did stumble across this series some time later when it was being repeated and when I saw the quality I did wonder why I liked it so much but in the world of CGI and HD with 3 D surely it would be a winner?

As far as I can remember Land of the Giants was shown  early evening on a Saturday night and was the classic lost in space type of adventure.  Set in the near future, 1983 to be precise, it was about the adventures of the crew and passengers of a futuristic space airliner thing that went into an electrical storm and then crashes on another planet where the inhabitants are like humans but are 12 times larger!  So they spend their time avoiding capture by the giants and fighting small rodents with safety pins and that type of thing.  At the time I absolutely loved it, but I think the writers ran out of ides and having read Wikipedia I don’t think the broadcaster helped by showing the episodes in some random order.  It was also written with big people (adults rather than giants) in mind so I guess the audience wanted for than a 7-8 year old who thought the whole thing was pretty amazing.  But in the world of amazing special effects perhaps another one that would do well from a Hollywood remake?  Or is that just me remembering them through rose coloured spectacles?

And in readiness for the summer when they come and take all our Gold Medals!!!http://youtu.be/MeG-hNXXy6I

You better run……

Two beginnings – It happened on my drive home from work on Wednesday evening.  Just a normal day in the office, I was keen to get out for a run that evening so I left the office promptly.  As an aside I did indeed go out for a run later that evening and it was absolutely blooming freezing, one of the coldest runs that I can remember.  Anyway back to the journey home.  It seems whatever time you leave Central Reading you are guaranteed to spend some time queueing in traffic, so there I was sitting there waiting for some movement up ahead, listening to the Simon Mayo drive time show on Radio 2 (yes, I’m afraid that I have reached that Radio 2 age).   After a bit of chat Simon put on a Chris Rea song, can’t remember which one but that is not too important.  A minute or so into the song it happened.

That was the moment when something happened to the time space continuum thingy, you know the one they go on about a lot in Dr Who.  It only lasted for a few seconds but it was pretty clear that something odd had happened.  The airwaves were empty for a few seconds – dead air I think they call it – then time slipped back, not by much, only a minute or so, but we were back at the start of the Chris Rea record.  Now you don’t need to be an astro physicist to work out that something pretty strange had happened but it seemed like no one else had noticed it.  I looked around at the other drivers to see how they responded  but they seemed completely oblivious.  Maybe a bit like in the series Flash Forward (criminally cancelled after series 1 leaving us on a cliff hanger) I am one of a very small group of people who are unaffected by such incidents when time stands still.  Simon Mayo tried to laugh it off and make out it was a technical problem of some sort but clearly the BBC are in on it so we can discard his explanation.  Anyway I just thought you should know so that you can be on your guard.  Consider yourself forewarned.

Snow grump - So it’s Friday and we have had another dump of snow overnight.  Not as much as last Saturday night but enough to cause a bit of disruption.  I will declare my hand straight away, I am in the snow haters camp,  I can’t stand the stuff and as Mrs S points out I get very grumpy when snow is forecast.  I haven’t always been a snow grump, in my younger days I enjoyed the snow as much as the next child, but living in Portsmouth the reality was that didn’t really get an awful lot of the stuff.   Now that we live up-country in Berkshire we do get some fairly heavy snowfalls every winter.

So why don’t I like the stuff?  “It makes everything look so pretty” I hear you say.  OK I will give you the it makes things pretty point, but beyond that I just don’t see anything else that is positive.  It makes getting to work something of a tortuous exercise – by road or rail it makes no difference.  It causes chaos to everyone’s travel plans, not great if you are trying to get away on holiday.  At a personal level it is a complete and utter pain as we have a sloping drive which means lots of snow clearing and large amounts of frustration as I try to get the car off of the drive.  It makes getting out for a run nigh on impossible for a while as the roads might get cleared but the pavements remain icy and the car drivers are not very good at sharing!  I know, I know I am a bit of an old moanie but you have to accept it can be a bit of a pain.

Basket rage – Found myself in Tesco’s recently, over the last weekend in January. The date is significant because the place was heaving, probably because we had all at last got paid following the Christmas splurge and the long wait was over.  As I say the place was packed and was reminiscent of a scene from the Living Dead with people just strolling around aimlessly with their arms stretched out in front of them.  Anyway having filled my basket with goodies I made my way to the checkout and lo and behold it happened again.  I reckon that there is a little bloke that lurks around supermarkets and waits by the checkouts, just so that he can get to the stack of shopping baskets ahead of me and flip one of the handles back across the basket.

It must be true because it seems like every time I get to the checkout and put my shopping onto the conveyor belt, I then have to re-arrange the stack of baskets before I can add mine to the stack.  A small inconvenience you say, but it happens every time!  Honestly how difficult is it to put the handles on the basket in the correct position so that the next basket slots neatly into place?  The answer it seems is that it is in fact incredibly difficult, almost impossible – obviously a very tricky manoeuvre that one has practice many times before getting it just right.  Or could it be that we are just plain lazy or CBA (can’t be arsed).  Sadly I think it is most likely the latter.

Superbowl side effect - Around this time last year I posted a blog that was entitled Madonna, Gnarls Barkley and tight calves.  It was one of my first efforts at blogging and dates from the time when I thought I would just post blogs about running.  That was shortly before I got some pithy feedback from my brother-in-law which changed my approach to the world of blogging.  This was something along the lines of “quite interesting but the bits about running are a bit boring”, so that’s pretty much all of the content then!  Anyway the reason I mention that at all is that during half time at the Superbowl it seems Madonna provided the entertainment and at some stage during the proceedings Cee-Lo Green aka Gnarls Barkley made an appearance.  All very well you say, but what is the point.  Well it seems that a number of people then googled Madonna and Gnarls Barkley and stumbled across my blog post.  As a result this post has received well over 50 hits and is now my most viewed post .  Hopefully one or two may have read more than that post otherwise I doubt they will be back.

Things I wish I hadn’t said -  We were watching a weather forecast this week when I came out with this snippet of wisdom “You can’t freeze sea water because it’s got salt in it”.   Cue one of Mrs S’s quizzical looks closely followed by a loud thud as the penny dropped (accompanied by me saying to myself “Oh bollocks I have done it again”).  I then tried to backtrack, with “Oh yeah I guess you can, think of Antarctica, icebergs and all that stuff, but this was of little avail.  Ah well it must have been a hard day at work….

By the way many thanks to all of you who helped me reach the 2,500 “hits” this week.  It is genuinely very much appreciated.

Finally…. http://youtu.be/SDTZ7iX4vTQ

In your hippy hat……

Everywhere and nowhere - Driving back from a trip down to Pompey last weekend and enjoying a bit of Jack fm on the radio (not much talking or adverts so right up our street!) when up pops the old standard Hi Ho Silver Lining.  If you are of a certain age you will know all the words to the song and will find yourself joining in even if you try desperately to resist.  The reason most of us know the song so well is that it tends to be the track that the DJ uses to finish off the evening especially at weddings or a birthday party.  Obviously if it is Christmas time then Slade and Merry Christmas will be used instead.

So having established that the song is associated with the end of a party when most of us will have enjoyed a few scoops, I think it is fair to say that collectively we may just have let our hair down a little bit when joining in with the song.  Some of us may even have experienced that morning after when we can remember dancing to the song but perhaps not all of the detail?  Not an exhaustive list but perhaps we may have found ourselves doing one or more of the following?  Air guitar to accompany the chorus, a bit of frantic arm waving, a sort of Irish jig thingy involving lots of linked arms and stuff, some punching of the air, a hokey cokey sort of linked arms in a circle thing and obviously the singing along (actually probably better described as plain old shouting), almost certainly out of key and using the famous “la, la la” insert when you forget the words.   I think I can safely say “guilty” on all counts but in my defence I was not alone, I was not flying solo, there were plenty of others with me.  Or at least that’s the way I remember it.

Dance with me - To continue the dancing theme, when I was in my early teens, my sister (one and only sibling and a few years younger) started to have ballroom dancing lessons and over time became rather good at it, sufficient to get various medals along the way.   Now being that bit older and going through the grunting and arm hanging by the side phase (a la Kevin and Perry) I decided that this was not for me and that my dancing skills could best be honed by attending one of the local church youth clubs and learning how to dance in a rock n roll sort of way.  You have to remember that at this time Showaddywaddy were at the peak of their fame and there were plenty of retro rock n roll tunes around the charts – well that’s my excuse and I am going to stick to it.

So it was at this youth club that I learnt the intricacies of how to do what we knew as “heel toe”, so called because it involved a lot of heel and toe action.  Basically the idea was to bounce around the dance floor balancing on one leg and then the other, while with your non balancing foot you alternated between putting your heel down then your toe.  Quite straight forward really.  Normally you would perambulate around the dance floor, backwards most of the time I think.  The faster songs were a bit more challenging and you could build up quite a speed.  This particular dance could also be used for some of the quicker Northern Soul songs that were around at the time – Footsee by Wigan’s Chosen Few was a real crowd pleaser in this respect.  Remember the song?  Picked mine up for 30p at the 2nd hand shop!  http://youtu.be/KCkm1ZAQQPY

At the sort of discos that me and my mates attended we were always able to persuade the DJ to dig deep into his collection to find something suitable for us lads.  Typically this would be Bill Haley’s Rock Around the Clock, or possibly a Buddy Holly song.  Within seconds of the needle hitting the groove we were up and demonstrating our technique.  In our heads I am sure we felt that our dancing would make us irresistible to the young ladies who in reality much preferred the disco grooves of the likes of Rose Royce and Sister Sledge.  Maybe if we had thought things through a little more we would have followed my sister to the ballroom dancing lessons so that we could learn to jive – a dance suitable for two perhaps providing a bit more opportunity?

I can remember actually being quite excited about being taught how to do the heel toe dance and it featured in my fairly modest repertoire for many years, but sadly time marches on and the knees will no longer allow me to demonstrate my prowess in this area.  My dear family always seem very pleased to remind me about my heel toe dancing at the Beresford Road street party to celebrate the Queens Silver Jubilee, whenever this is raised it always brings a smile to Stuppsy seniors face.  In my defence I think my dancing came after a small beer to celebrate the occasion so I suspect my efforts were a little out of time.

Thinking back to my last blog when I touched on a few fashion highlights I omitted to mention those wonderful shoes which we knew as “wedges” which were a close relative of brothel creepers.  The sole consisted af a “wedge” so no separation between heel and sole just a 2″ wedge of crepe which was perfect for those heel toe dancing opportunities.  Ah happy days!

Like dolphins can swim - As I was galloping around in the bitter cold at about 6 am on Wednesday morning, I had another one of those moments when I found myself lost in music.  You may have guessed the song already?  It was Heroes by David Bowie, who as you may know is indeed one of my heroes, so much so that I bought three different versions of the song – English, German and French.  No idea why it was important to have all three versions but nevermind I decided it was.

The song includes the line “I, I will be king and you, you will be queen” and goes on to suggest that we can be heroes just for one day.  So being that it was 6.00 am and I was trying to find ways to keep my mind occupied and forget about the fact that my bits were in danger of freezing off, I wondered what it might be like if indeed I could be king for a day.  I think initially most of us would happily say “great where do I sign?”, however, I don’t think it would be long before we began to wonder “what have I done?”.  Maybe we would enjoy the moment and have a great day of excess or enjoy the pomp and splendour.  I doubt any of us would enjoy living our lives in the goldfish bowl, the intrusion and living our life out – even for one day – in front of the media and all the crap that brings.  Even if we had the most amazing day, what happens next?  We go back to the life we had and spend the rest of our lives wishing we could have the moment again.  A bit like getting upgraded to first class for a long haul flight and then having to go back to travelling in economy thereafter.   After a bit more thought I decided that for most of us our wedding day is the time when we get a little taste of what it might be like to be king and queen, the centre of attention, the stars of the show – just for one day.

So in the end I decided that being king just for one day was over rated and I didn’t think it was for me.  But if I could swim like a dolphin, like dolphins can swim, now that’s a different story……

Paris update - Paris Marathon is now 70 days and the training is ramping up with the weekend long runs increasing in distance.  This weekend it was 18 miles which I did this morning (Saturday) so as to avoid the snow that has been forecast overnight.  I was actually quite pleased with my efforts this week and last week too, as I managed to maintain 9 minute mile pace throughout and this week finished in under 2 hours 40 minutes.  This was despite the freezing temperatures albeit that the sun was shining and it was great to be out and enjoying the day.  The weeks seem to fly by so I am sure it will not be too long before I am writing about the event itself!

And finally – for those of you who want to re-live a few of those special moments  – just click the link and put on your hippy hat     http://youtu.be/avP-8i_YEO8

Just a matter of time ……

Desert Island Update – Mentioned a while back that the Gorillaz song On Melancholy Hill was worthy of consideration to be one of my eight choices for Desert Island Discs.  Trouble is each time I think of a song that I would like to put in, there is inevitably the need to pick one to leave so as to balance it out.  Always difficult but I guess a certain ruthlessness is required which in some ways is no bad thing as it means that the final eight songs do have to pretty special – at least to the person choosing them anyway!

So why this song?  My taste in music has always been fairly wide and varied taking in a rather broad church.  That said I have always been a bit of a sucker for a song with a bit of a hook in it, something that lifts it out from the pack and enables it to drill itself worm like into your brain.  This is one of those.  An uncluttered simple song with some thoughtful lyrics, benefiting from Damon Albarn’s vocal.   A song that I always enjoy hearing and almost inevitably brings a smile to my face.  If I am out on one of my long runs (such as this weeks 15 miler) it always gives me a lift even if I am feeling completely spent.  So much so that I normally play it again as it always seems to be over too quickly.  On some levels I would liken it to Kids by MGMT, another song which has a very simple hook that worms its way into your brain – sometimes simple is best.  So I think it really must go in.  Now the difficult part – what to take out?  To find out you will have to have a look for yourself  on my Desert Island Disc page http://wp.me/P1iuo6-bD  Or just have a listen to the song on You Tube  http://youtu.be/VcNyhCXNvQE

Dedicated follower of fashion - Heard something on the radio this week where listeners were invited to provide details of their personal fashion disasters.  Some very amusing ones came forward.  The one that made me laugh out loud was the one involving the Nan who brought a favourite shell suit to an untimely end when she decided to iron it!  Not a particularly good plan.  Made me think about my own fashion statements over the years.  Having been a teenager in the 70′s there are certainly some rich pickings.  You only have to watch the weekly re-runs of Top of the Pops on BBC 4  to get a flavour of some of the terrible choices we made in the pursuit of fashion.  Oxford bags and Birmingham bags to name just two!

So much to choose from with so many highlights, or should that be lowlights?  Difficult to remember what order they came in, but here are a few from the smorgasbord.  There was a time when the order of the day was a pair of two-tone tonic trousers, matched with a Ben Sherman shirt and finished off with a pair of brogues or loafers (which had to be “tipped” on the heels of course) worn with either white or red socks.  The trick with the trousers was for them to be taken up sufficiently so there was a decent gap between shoes and trousers so as to reveal a goodly amount of sock.  A bit like buying a pair of trousers that are two inches shorter than normal, not something that most of us would do but in the interests of fashion the rules clearly change!  If you were going to finish this off properly you would go for a harrington jacket – sadly I didn’t have one of these.  Overall a look inspired by the mods and skinheads I believe.  I have just googled harringtons and tonic trousers and I suppose I should not be surprised to see that they are both readily available for those looking for that authentic retro look.

Then there was the massive flares, the wider the better, teamed with platform shoes.  I am amazed that I never broke my ankle wearing platform shoes – especially during the regular sessions of British Bulldog.  Nothing quite like charging across the school quad at full tilt in a pair of platform shoes!  I can remember a particularly spectacular pair of platform shoes, which with the benefit of hindsight were pretty dreadful.  They were creamy coloured and at the time I thought they were pretty darn cool, the dogs in fact.  I just hope that there are no pictures tucked away that could come back to haunt me.  Honestly, how on earth I persuaded my long-suffering Mum to support my request for said pair of shoes is beyond me.  I think by then I was fully aware that I was colour blind or colour challenged to use current terminology, at least I hope I was, otherwise I will just have to hope that the colour has faded in those old photos.

One photo that sticks in the mind is from my early teens when we attended a family wedding.  I was in a fairly smart suit (probably my first in fact) maroon I think, which was teamed with some rather splendid platform shoes, a shirt with a massive collar and a big old 70′s Sweeney style tie.  Hair was relatively long too and no doubt once again I thought I looked pretty darn cool.  Also in the picture is my great granddad who would probably have been in his late 80′s at the time and whose attire was rather more traditional.  God knows what he must have thought when he saw me - the young whippersnapper in the strange clothes.  A treat to behold indeed!

There was a brief period of time when shirts with large cartoon characters all over them were considered a bit special.  If I remember correctly there was a shop in North End called Uncle Wally’s which had a bit of a reputation for being the place to go to get these shirts.  The one that sticks in the mind and a clear favourite (in other words the one that everybody had) was a white shirt covered with one inch high Homepride Flour Graders, you know the ones with the black suits and black bowler hats who went round saying things like “graded grains make finer flour” or something similar.  Not surprisingly he even has his own web page!  http://www.homeprideflour.co.uk/history.htm  I struggle to remember what other characters were on the shirts but they were almost without exception a bit garish.   To make matters just that bit worse I think it was the norm to finish off the ensemble with a nice tank top.  I don’t see any sign of that particular trend returning anytime soon – thank god.

Old and grumpy, who me? - As one gets a bit older one tends to lose a bit of perspective and it is the small things that start to annoy.  A few things from this week that will illustrate the point.   Prompted by a recent quote from my desk calendar (see previous post) Me and Mrs S were sat watching the old Paul Newman movie Cool Hand Luke which dates back to about 1967 and has actually stood the test of time very well.  Anyway there was a lot of smoking going on in the film so I turn to Mrs S and say “I suppose if I had been born 50 years ago I would be a smoker”.  Cue quizzical look from Mrs S, followed by sound of penny dropping and a “Oh yeah, maybe I meant 60 years ago then”.

Later that evening we were watching something else during which a fairly elderly woman was referring to her mother as “Mummy”.  There followed some debate about when one would normally drop the “my” or ”dy” on Mum and Dad.  I think we reached a conclusion that for us it certainly happened some time before we moved from junior to senior school.  I don’t remember a specific lesson when we were collectively told that it was time to move to the shorter terminology for our parents but  it just seemed to happen. Perhaps there was and maybe there are a few people out there who simply missed that particular day at school and have carried on in blissful ignorance?  Who knows.

On Sunday morning I spent a good few minutes on my hands and knees outside Waitrose crawling round one of the special car parking spaces for parents with children.  As the footpath to the store alongside a couple of these spaces was blocked by abandoned shopping trolleys I was convinced that there must be something written in the small print in the space advising that anyone using the space is able to just abandon their trolley once they have emptied it.  Couldn’t find anything.  So there must be another explanation, such as I am in a hurry and haven’t got time?  The trolley bay was about 10 feet away!  Unreal!  While I am at it just a couple of further observations (a) if your children are in their teens I don’t think the spaces are intended for you (b) if you have kids but don’t actually have them with you then that doesn’t count either.

Another quote – I know, I know, you thought that my desk calendar with all the quotes had gone away.  Well it is 2012 now so how come?  Well I was tidying up a bit and found a couple of my favourites that been tucked away somewhere safe.  This one featured on 19th July and is apparently a Roman proverb which goes something like this, “Fortune takes away nothing but what she also gave”.  Pick the bones out of that one as they say.

And finally – This song by the Black Keys is high on my running playlist at the moment.  Comes from a great album called El Camino which is well worth giving a spin. http://youtu.be/VcNyhCXNvQE

Ring! Ring!

Birthday – Reached a milestone this week.  The blog celebrated its first birthday – hard to believe a year has passed since I took the plunge.  Then again looking back there has been a lot of water under the bridge.  When I set out my thinking was that it would be a running blog, so that was how it started off, however it soon morphed into a much more general, some might say random, blog.  To be fair, there is still a running element, well most of the time anyway.

Writing the blog is something that I have enjoyed, I have a routine of sorts, which is that I write out the blog content long-hand, typically on a train journey (sometimes on a flight) as a way of passing the time.  I have to say that it does make a journey pass quite quickly especially if the old brain is churning out the nonsense!  The trouble with this is of course that at some point it has to be uploaded.  This is the bit that I sometimes struggle with, it inevitably takes longer than you think and then there is the uploading of the photos and finding the links.

There have been 65 posts in the first year, I have no idea how many words, but that must be quite a lot.  No doubt my English teachers would be a little taken aback a how prolific I have been over the year as I was never particularly imaginative with my essays which had a tendency to run out of steam and end with the old chestnut of “and then I woke up”.  Over the year the blog has around 2,230 views or hits which I find quite amazing.  Obviously some people may end up on the site by mistake and quickly navigate themselves away, but hopefully some stay and read what they find.  Many thanks to all those who follow, those who have signed up for e-mail notification when a new post is published and to all those who have taken the trouble to post a comment, or given feedback, it is great to receive and always much appreciated.  Please keep reading commenting and giving the feedback!

I tend to prefer to look forward rather than back but if pressed I reckon my favourite post of last year would be this one from back in September http://wp.me/p1iuo6-7z

Olympic update – We are now well and truly into Olympic year and the newspapers seem to carry some sort of olympic story every day.  This is only going to increase as they get closer and closer.  Lets hope that they manage to live up to expectations and all the hype.  The start is less than 200 days away and as the expectation mounts the pressure will be building on our Team GB competitors.  Hopefully the media will choose to stay positive rather than move to the destructive stuff that has been the feature of the last football and rugby world cup campaigns.  It would be such a shame to waste such a great opportunity.

The ticket fiasco is a different story.  This rumbled back into view this month when we were offered the chance to buy and sell tickets that had been allocated previously.  For some bizarre reason the organisers totally underestimated the number of people who would want to buy tickets and it seems that there was a huge mismatch with about 1,000 tickets for sale and 250,000 potential buyers.  At the time it felt a bit like a game of battleships where you know they are there somewhere but they are bloody difficult to find!  I can’t imagine that there were too many people who wanted to give up tickets, maybe those that unexpectedly got some of the top price tickets?  Perhaps one way to solve the dilemma is to do something similar to spot the ball.  Anyone who wants to buy the tickets gets a copy of the seating plan for the event venue and have to guess which seats are available by marking them with a cross and advising the maximum price they would be prepared to pay.  If no-one guesses correctly the next nearest wins.  In the unlikely event of a tie break then the person willing to pay the most would get the tickets.  Simple really, can’t believe they haven’t thought of it.

Friend dilemma – Phone rings at 3.00 am waking you up from a deep sleep.  Hard to focus, brain still only half functioning, who the hell is calling me at this time?  First thoughts?  As the fog clears you probably arrive at a two options:

1.  Bound to be bad news.  Or if not then……

2.  Someone with your number programmed into their phone has accidentally dialled your number.

In the light of the two options I guess that most of us would be a bit annoyed by option 2 but in the long run would probably be grateful that it wasn’t bad news.  As an aside, sincere apologies if you are the poor person that I recently called when I was out for a run on holiday in Oz.  Stopped to take a photo and noticed that a call had been made without me realising.   No name came up with the number so I honestly don’t know who it was.

Back to the call.

“Hello mate, it’s  xxxxxxxx” (You can put your friend’s name in here)

“Oh hello, do you know what time it is?

“Yeah mate, so sorry, but I really need your help.  You’re the only person who can help me”

Long pause – seeking to clear head and get some thinking time

“Oh right – what help do you need?”

“I’m in a bit of bother and I really need your help.  I’m in xxxxxxxxx (note – essentially a far-flung place e.g. Vietnam / Thailand / Mexico).  Can you come out here to meet me?  I know you will need to take some time off work but you’re the only person who I know can help.  I promise that I will reimburse you.”

You recognise the caller, it’s a friend, not a family member and you take a long pause before you respond.

So how would you react?  Would you rush to their aid as requested? Would you drop everything to be there for them?  Tricky?

I reckon that the answer to this will hinge upon the word “friend”.  No doubt you want some clarification about what type of friend they are – right?  Are they an old school friend, a work friend, a friend from the pub, a Facebook friend or a long forgotten person you once met on holiday?

For most of us, our initial reaction (once we have shaken the sleep fog from our head) would be to want to try to help our friend.  However, the lengths that we are prepared to go to will undoubtedly depend on what type of friend we consider them to be.  Most of us would not undertake any sort of scientific analysis, we would just know the friends that we would do our best to help in this scenario – to use the concert terminology they would be from our “golden circle” of friends.

So how many friends would make it into your golden circle?  Probably only a handful of what we consider to be our very close friends.  Does this number grow as we go through life or do we reach a certain point when the number peaks, after which it declines as we lose contact or just move on?  Tricky question?  One to ponder.  Tried it out on some friends and Mrs S at the weekend – reckon if I was the one making the call I would be in big trouble!

I have no idea why this little dilemma popped into my head but this occurred when I was out for my second early run of the week.  It was prompted by the opening of the Clash song The Magnificent Seven – “Ring! Ring! It’s 7.00 am”.  Strange because I wasn’t actually listening to it at the time and it says 7.00 am rather than 3.00 am.  I guess that’s just how my mind works.

You Tube clip of the song  http://youtu.be/ijiazWlawUY

Ahoy! Ahoy! Land, Sea and Sky

Head empty, head full - Tuesday morning and the alarm goes off at 5.30 am.  Time for the first of my two midweek early runs – 5 miles.  Black coffee essential before setting off.  Not liking the dark morning but it seems brighter than normal outside.  Head empty and as I set off I wonder whether I will get some inspiration for this weeks blog.  Running seems to free up my mind and the sights and sounds stir up some long forgotten memories along the way.  On the midweek winter runs it is dark so the sights are minimal and it tends to be the sounds, provided by my mp3 player which provoke the grey matter.

Mind tent - For whatever reason my mind was somewhat over active this morning.  The thoughts and memories began to rapidly accumulate and as I pounded the pavements it became a bit of a struggle to try to hang on to them.  A bit like on It’s a Knockout when the competitors try to run with a bucket full of water, you just know that they will lose some along the way.  As I travelled along I remembered this weeks episode of Sherlock when our hero demanded to be left alone while he went into his “mind palace”.  In the scene images from his mind appear on the screen and by waving his hands he moves them about or discards them – a bit like my palm pre phone!  As each new thought or memory popped up I imagined myself having a similar ability and started moving them about, discarding the rubbish ones and keeping the good ones, accompanied by some flamboyant hand waving along the way – good job it was still dark!  As I entertained myself doing this I decided that my equivalent would not be as grand as a palace like Sherlock’s, but something much more modest say a mind tent.

Gentle start -  Legacy from an achilles injury about 18 months ago is that I start off with a brisk walk of about half a mile, which is intended to get the blood flowing and me in the mood for exercise.  As I set off the first thing that came into my head was a section of the book I have been reading called ”Engage”.  This is the story of Matt Hampson the Leicester and England Under 21 rugby player who suffered a catastrophic neck injury which left him paralysed from the neck down and reliant on a ventilator to help him breathe.  Matt’s attitude and approach to life following his accident are inspirational but at times I have found the book quite a difficult read.  For example the section that had stuck in my mind related to the various people who Matt encountered who had suffered similar injuries to him.  Many of these had suffered their life changing injury in what on the face of it was a relatively minor incident, and had just been unlucky.  I took a bit of a time out and gave thanks that I am in relatively good health and able to enjoy the opportunity to get out and start the day off with a bit of exercise.

Moon fox beagle – Still dark but as mentioned it was certainly a bit brighter than usual.  The sky was clear and the moon (not quite a full one) was shining brightly in the sky.  I looked back down and a caught sight of a fox was crossing the path a few feet ahead of me.  Becoming a more common sight on my morning runs, population on the increase I wonder?  Keeping myself to myself I marched on and picked up the pace, in a world of my own, getting myself in the zone. I glanced down again and caught sight of something coming towards me and nearly jumped out of my skin – was it another fox?  No, nothing like that just an overweight beagle!  I reckon even I could have out run that one.

Learn the words – Into the Valley came on and this triggered a “two for one” memory selection with the little man in my brain popping the lid on two memory cans and releasing them almost simultaneously.  As the memories developed I realised that there were some common threads that connected them, well a little bit anyway.  This song by the Skids was one of the few songs, Born to Run is another, where I have gone to the trouble to get to know the words in any great detail.  If you listen to the song – try the link at the foot of this post – you will appreciate that Richard Jobson does make it fairly difficult to work out what he is singing about.  Perhaps this is a deliberate attempt to get you to read the lyrics – who knows!  At one stage he even has a la, la, la section so maybe the words were so complicated even he could not remember them.  Anyway I do remember that at the time I did take the time to learn the words so that I could sing along whenever I played the track.  It seems that they are still in there somewhere as when this track appears on my mp3 I find myself once again joining in.

The reason that I got into the Skids was that way back in the autumn of 1978 they supported the Stranglers when they played a gig at the Portsmouth Mecca.  A boys night out and an opportunity to wear our “punk” clothes – ex army trousers from Ben Grubb’s army surplus store and the jumble sale jacket.  This was the Stranglers ”Nice and Sleazy” tour on the back of the Black and White album (amazingly their third album within about 18 months).  It was a cracking evening – they were at their peak and riding the crest of a punk wave, putting on a great show.  The Skids were support band and they really impressed.  A relatively short set but enough for them to get a number of the Stranglers fans onboard.  Not a punk band in the same way as the Damned perhaps a bit more new wave .  They could play pretty well and if I remember rightly their stand out songs were Sweet Suburbia, Saints are Coming and Charles – don’t quote me on that as the memory on that is a bit scratchy.  A great evening and a couple of fine live bands.  I have to be careful not to be too enthusiastic as the future Mrs S (my then girlfriend) still reminds me that she remains hacked off that she was not allowed to join us boys for this particular night out – clearly she has a bit of a long memory!  Speaking of which I am still in trouble for not remembering to Sky+ the first episode of the new series of Sherlock.

So the other memory that was triggered went back to when I was in the 6th form at school when for some reason some of us were allowed to go 10 pin bowling as an option for our weekly games / PE lesson.  I suspect that this was a way of trying to encourage us to do something vaguely sporty rather than just go home.  The bowling alley was pretty close to the Pompey Mecca and after we had completed our bowling session I think we did a bit of shopping which included me picking up the newly released 12″ version of the Skids Wide Open EP (which included the track Saints are Coming).   A lovely red vinyl collectors item which, once again, I no longer have   So there was indeed a loose link between the two memories.

The above did occupy my mind for a while but on the run there was still time for a load of other stuff, hence my comment about an over flowing bucket!

David Bowie and his Glass Spider - Always a big fan of the Thin White Duke, albeit that his creative peak is some way in the past.  Some time during the 70′s (a bit vague on the date) when I was earning a few shillings doing a Saturday job I ordered his entire back catalogue of singles from the Co-op record department.  Also tracked down the French and German versions of Heroes along the way as well.  In hindsight perhaps a little obsessive as I already had virtually all of the tracks on the various albums I owned.  Anyway I never got to see him live until some time later when we went to Wembley for one of the gigs on his Glass Spider tour.  What a crushing disappointment.  Ranks as one of the worst concerts I have attended and was a massive let down.  I don’t know why, it just wasn’t very good.  I can’t remember it too well but it is most certainly in the bin marked “rubbish concerts”.  Still love his music and many of his songs are on my running mp3.

Song #2 – Great track from Blur which always gives the run a bit of a boost and ample opportunity to do some air guitar.  I wonder, is it good enough to go into my Desert Island Discs?  http://wp.me/P1iuo6-bD  (Follow the link to my Desert Island Discs page).  No probably not.  Love the song but not that much.  But on reflection maybe Mr Albarn’s other band Gorillaz may have something suitable.  What about On Melancholy Hill, now that one might just be good enough.

Enjoy this You Tube clip of the Skids and Into the Valley (great haircuts) - have a go at writing the words down as you go along .  http://youtu.be/9udxbvHiqGw

This is what we’re gonna do …….

Great expectations - On our way into London for a big night out to celebrate New Year and the arrival of 2012.  Hopefully this will include an early dinner (the place we planned to go to Livebait is apparently closed) followed by a trip to the theatre to see Priscilla Queen of the Desert, the last show of its run in London, hopefully followed by the fireworks.  All this intermingled with some champagne along the way!  Promises to be a fun night out.  This will be followed by a shopping expedition on New Years Day itself.

So, New Year’s Eve, a time when we tend to look forward with some optimism to what the following year will bring and when we make promises to ourselves about how we are going to improve our life in some way in the year ahead.  Normally these promises will involve living more healthily, so that is eating a better diet, cutting down on the booze, going to the gym all that kind of stuff.  Sometimes just to top it off, the cherry on the cake so to speak, we even go so far as to set a specific goal to go with all those promises.  Mad lot aren’t we?  Unfortunately not many of these promises or goals make it past the end of January and are left discarded by the side of the road in the “that wasn’t very realistic” or “I don’t know what I was thinking” bins.  Strangely that doesn’t seem to stop us going through the same old thing at the start of the next year.  Maybe we have short memories or perhaps we just get intoxicated on that whiff of optimism each new year brings with it.

So, have you made any promises or goals?  As I write this I am still giving mine some thought – normally I arrive a definitive list when we travel home after the New Year festivities.  The last couple of years I have written these down in an effort to get myself more committed to the cause.

Paris Marathon - We are travelling into London with our Aussie friends R & B and their lovely daughters N & M.  Lucky people are off to Paris when they leave London on Monday and this reminded me that I really need to get organised with my training plan for the Paris marathon which takes place on 15th April.  If you do a spring marathon there is nothing like seeing January looming into view to provide you with a bit of a wake up call!  You spend the last four weeks of training tapering down, so what this means is that I will need to have my last long weekend run (probably about 20 miles) under my belt by around 15th March.  I did 10 miles on Christmas Eve and will do 11 miles when we get home on Monday and I normally build up at rate of one extra mile a week until I hit the 20 mile mark.  I am a bit tardy when it come to working out a formal plan but I am pretty good at getting into a routine so I should be ok in terms of time to get to the mileage but I really  need to get my arse into gear.  I plan to do the Wokingham Half Marathon during February so I need to factor that in as well.  Perhaps one of my resolutions should be to prepare my Paris marathon training plan?

Mission accomplished – Now travelling back home on 2nd Jan.  Fantastic time was had and I think the evening as a whole exceeded our expectations.  This was despite our dinner plans being disrupted as Livebait had indeed closed, a victim of the these troubled economic times, it was part of a chain which failed in November.  All was not lost as we found a more than able substitute in Fish! at Borough Market near London Bridge.  Dare I say that the fish and chips actually surpassed those that we were expecting at Livebait?

Initially the weather was very mild so we decided to walk to the theatre – a chance to shake of a few calories (a token effort anyway) and clear some of the champagne from the head.  This was a good shout as London at night never disappoints.  Then it was theatre time and Priscilla.  A show that me and Mrs S had seen twice before and one which we thought would be ideal for New Years Eve – such a feel good show.  Purely by fluke it turned out that this was in fact the last show of the London run so what was already a party atmosphere was made all that more special.  The end result was that the atmosphere was electric from beginning to end with the audience applauding and cheering their favourite characters and anticipating certain scenes and lines.  The cast was clearly moved by all of this, and particularly enjoyed the long standing ovation at the end of the show.  I have certainly not experienced anything quite like it with audience and cast having a ball.  All in all it was a cracking night out at the theatre.

We later joined the throngs along the Strand – perhaps less busy than the last couple of years – and with 15 minutes to spare found our way onto Blackfriars Bridge where we had a pretty good view of the fireworks, well initially at least.  After a few minutes with the wind blowing in our direction , the smoke drifted our way and this did mean that our view was a little less impressive but great fun all the same.  Having been up for the last few years this was probably our best vantage point, so far anyway.

Resolutions – So what did we end up with for our New Years resolutions?  With a certain sense of déjà vu mine revolve around losing some weight and having a  more healthy lifestyle.  What that boils down to is eating and drinking more sensibly with end result of losing a bit of weight.  So to put a number on the weight target – to get under 14 stone would be a good outcome.  Last year I made a conscious effort to cut out beer – there were some occasional lapses around holidays and marathon completions.  The result was positive in that I managed to shake off about 10 pounds, albeit over the festive break I suspect a couple of these have seized the opportunity to jump back on board!  Hopefully when the healthy regime is restored normality will be restored.  It is a nice feeling when you can once again fit into clothes that had just got that bit too tight, so there is plenty of motivation to get back into the groove.

On the running front I hope that by getting the weight down a bit more I can successfully complete the two marathons that I have entered in 2012 – Paris in April and Berlin in September.  Currently my PB stands around the 4:10 mark so I would be delighted to break the 4:00 mark this year.  I have also entered a couple of half marathons and will be aiming to get my PB under 1:50.  This would mean getting close to my best ever time of just under 1:46 which I achieved over 15 years ago.  Apart from that I just hope to stay relatively fit and healthy so that I can get the most out of 2012.

New year, new calendar – The end of 2012 means the end of my desk calendar with the daily quotes.  Not always that interesting but occasionally throwing up a little gem that was worthy of sharing.  The good ones (or at least in my opinion the good ones) normally ended up in my pocket being carried around until I re-discovered them and sometimes shared them on the blog.

So for the last time – or maybe not if some old ones turn up – a quote from the 2011 desk calendar.  This one goes all the way back to 1^st December and is another from a Paul Newman film, this time Cool Hand Luke “Sometimes nothing is a really cool hand”.  First reaction was to laugh but if you sit and think about it, the line could be interpreted any number of ways and is perhaps particularly relevant in the light of all the excesses that we indulge in over the festive period.  One to ponder maybe? I am off to check out Amazon to see how much Cool Hand Luke is on DVD.  Maybe the person who created the quote calendar has a financial interest in Paul newman’s movies?

You can but hope – Before Christmas I read an article entitled “Chistmas Pudding touts” with equal feelings of disbelief and annoyance.  I found it hard to believe that we had arrived at a point when people would go into Waitrose, lie to the staff (some guff about needing them for their daughter’s wedding) so that they could get their hands on their entire stock of Heston B’s special Christmas puddings, only for them to be put on E Bay later that day at £100 a pop.  I suppose it makes matters worse that there were seemingly enough stupid people out there to make this worthwhile.  I am sure that these people consider themselves to be entrepreneurs but really?

So why mention this now?  Well I take comfort from the thought that these “entrepreneurs” could now be knee-deep in unsold Christmas puddings wondering what the hell to do with them.  Unlikely I know but it made me smile to think about it.

Run friend – Quick running update.  Managed to maintain my training schedule over the festive period including 10 miles on Christmas Eve and 11  miles on 2 January.  In amongst the midweek runs was a rarity, a run with one of my mates.  Doesn’t happen very often so something to savour.  This one was even rarer as it was a run with my mate Rog from Oz. We shook off the red wine fog and did a 5 miler around the country lanes of Warfield – a bit further than his normal runs so a great effort. So nice to have a bit off a chat on the way round rather than the normal music.  All in all excellent.  Happy days

Happy New Year to all, hopefully you will realise your dreams and goals in 2012.

http://youtu.be/7NZ04BG7TfA