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

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

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

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

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

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

Great expectations -

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

For whatever reason, these gigs live long in my memory, probably because they were so different to anything I had seen before, lots of raw energy and enthusiasm and no ten minute guitar solos!  My favourite line has to be from the Buzzcocks gig when Pete Shelley asked very nicely if everyone could “stop spittin”.  In case you had forgotten or were unaware that was one of the not so nice bits about the early days of the punk explosion.  Not much encouragement for a band to do an encore – shall we go out and get gobbed on or shall we stay put?  Not a difficult choice.

Anyway, back to the Damned.  They did a half hour set to support Marc Bolan and T Rex. Due to the wonders of google and the enthusiasm of the fans, I can confirm that the gig took place on Sunday 20th March 1977 and apparently the tour was for Bolan to promote his Dandy in the Underworld album.  The thought process was that if he had The Damned supporting him it would encourage young fans along to the gigs.  Well that bit worked as we went along pretty much solely to see The Damned.  The band was made up of Dave Vanian, Captain Sensible, Rat Scabies and Brian James and the set lasted just half an hour (Set list – I Feel Alright, Born to Kill, Fan Club, Neat Neat Neat, Sick of being Sick, Stretcher Case, Help, New Rose, Stab You Back, So Messed Up and Fish).  As far as I remember a good old pogo was had by all.

For me punk rock came to life that night – just brilliant.  The band could just about play and what a great load of noise it was.  What they lacked in musicality they made up for with enthusiasm.  To cap it all off when they finished we decamped to the bar upstairs where we met the Captain himself.  He was a nice bloke and seemed genuinely pleased that we had come to see his band rather than Marc Bolan.   We spent a while chatting then got his autograph (on the back of my ticket or at least the bit that the bouncer had left me with) then that was it.  After that we popped back downstairs to catch a bit of the Bolan set,  unfortunately he was a bit “yesterday” for us young punk fans and I am not sure that we lasted until the end.  A bit sad really as it was his last tour as he died in September of that year.  Perhaps we should have paid a bit more attention.   So, New Rose by the Damned (apparently the first single released by a punk band) is going into my selection – but what will come out?

Postscript – Sadly I no longer have my souvenir from the gig.  For many years I kept it with one of my Damned singles but about five years ago I decided to sell my single collection on E Bay so now another fan has the memento.

Have a listen to the song  http://youtu.be/ITa4xHDIC2M

Plastic punk - Amazing to think that at the time of the Damned gig I was 16 (just) and had my “O” Levels looming on the horizon.  Quite a scary thought really.  I was primarily into the music rather than the whole punk look but I do remember that in an effort to get a bit more authentic a few of us hit a couple of jumble sales.  Not a place that you would normally find a teen wishing to retain his or her street cred!  The idea was that we would seek out some suitably “punk” type attire or accessories. Our haul included several rather excellent skinny ties and my personal favourite which was a suitably shabby jacket.  Mum was underwhelmed and I believe that she thought that it was more suited to gardening than to actually wearing out.  The jacket did make it to a couple of gigs but eventually ended up where it belonged – in the dustbin.

Stuck inside these four walls – Another track that jumped out on one of my runs was the classic, Band on the Run.  A complete contrast to the previous track there then.  A brilliant song and also a great album of the same name.  An album that I have purchased more than once.  The vinyl version was pretty much worn out – it suffered from being loaned out to a lot of friends at school – so when so when CD’s came along it was a good opportunity to replace it!  The album was one of first handful that I owned when I became a “serious” music fan.

An excellent album and undoubtedly Mr McCartney’s best post-Beatle work.  After the Beatles he had released a mix bag of tunes, some brilliant, some less so, but after hearing this album I did buy quite a lot of his stuff.  Red Rose Speedway the previous album (pretty good but not up to the standard of Band on the Run) and went on to buy Venus and Mars (again pretty good but not quite there) and then Wings at the Speed of Sound which for me was where it all went a bit downhill.  But Band on the Run is a classic song from a classic album so I want to put it in, but what to take out?

http://youtu.be/S7D65IomNYY

Manics at the O2 - A one-off concert at the O2 last Saturday (17/12) to celebrate the release of their album National Treasures which features all of the singles they have released over the years – 38 songs in total.  The plan for the concert being to play all of these, but not in chronological order.  This necessitated an early start, around 7.45 and a late finish, almost 11.00 to the second.  First time I have seen the Manics and to be honest whilst I know a good number of their songs and have a couple of albums, I would struggle to name more than about ten of the singles.  Still it sounded like a good event so we decided to give it a go.

Turned out to be an excellent evening, there was the odd song that even they admitted was not their finest but the quality of the playing and the enthusiasm was brilliant.  What was amazing was that frontman James Dean Bradfield was able to remember the lyrics to all 38 of the songs – stunning!

Manic Street Preachers Concert Setlist at O2 Arena, London on December 17, 2011 | setlist.fm.

Particular favourites were; Motorcycle Emptiness, Everything Must Go, If You Tolerate This, Faster and A Design for Life.  Overall a really excellent concert and I would certainly want to see them again, although it seems from the press that they are going to hibernate for a couple of  years!

Stereophonics - Last concert of the year was on Tuesday night (20/12) and what a cracker to finish off 2012!  The Stereos at Shepherds Bush Empire, a fabulous small venue where the band were doing three consecutive nights, we went to the second night.  Found out about the gig on Facebook and the tickets for all three nights sold out in three minutes – not bad eh?

It is always a treat to see the bigger bands playing at smaller venues – we saw Snow Patrol earlier this year at the same place – and I have to say Shepherds Bush Empire is rapidly becoming one of my favourite venues.  It is a bit of a squeeze if you are downstairs but you do get up close and personal, and the acoustics are so much better than the bigger venues.  So the Stereos treated us to about 1 hour 45 minutes of their finest songs, a good mix of old and new.  They have been around for 15 years now so they have plenty to choose from.  Probably better known for their more poppy songs like Have a Nice Day and the Rod Stewart cover Handbags and Gladrags, they were equally comfortable, in fact they actually seemed at their best on the more rock orientated numbers.  They came across as a really tight band who are at the top of their game.

Highlights of the set for me were Pick a Part That’s New, Just Looking, I Wouldn’t Believe Your Radio, Step on My Old Size Nines and Dakota.

Almost inevitably (and I would happily have stuck a tenner on it at least) they closed the set with Dakota.  How great must it be for a band to be able to play a gig and know that you have such a crowd pleaser up your sleeve to finish on.  Overall a fantastic experience and a brilliant way to bring 2011′s live music to a close.  After the Manics on Saturday and the Stereos on Tues I am happy to confirm that the Welsh boys know how to rock.  Also I will certainly be keeping a look out on Facebook for more events like this.

Desert Island Discs – If you are interested and want to have a look at my updated Desert Island Discs page follow this link   http://wp.me/P1iuo6-bD

Finally thank you to all those who follow and make comments on the blog – it is always nice to get some feedback.

Have a great Christmas one and all.  Cheers

Interesting flight today, Mrs S had the joy of sitting next to Mr Fidgety – part of the problem being that he was a smoker and obviously had not been able to have a gasper for some time. To give you a flavour of what he was like, he decided to go to visit the toilet just as the food trolley was within sight (about three rows away to be precise), causing chaos when he wanted to get back in his seat and then started getting all agitated as he had not been given anything to eat in his absence.  Do you get the picture?  Next up he found a shoe, or a pair of boots to be more precise, which had worked their way under his seat.  Rather than do what most people would do and give them a healthy kick back, or if you are feeling mischievous then perhaps send them off in a different direction, he decided that the best course of action would be to press the call button and alert a stewardess!  Well it was an interesting exchange, with Mrs S doing her best to intervene and assist understanding on both sides, but sadly she did not achieve much as the next thing we knew the stewardess had bought back a nice pair of flight socks for our man!

I am delighted to report that for some reason, I know not why he subsequently disappeared, not in an Ali Bongo kind of way but more in a “we have found another seat for you further back in the plane where there are no shoes” kind of way.  He was moaning about the draught earlier so hopefully they moved him for that reason.  So now Mrs S has “nested” and has her feet up on his seat and is settling in with her early christmas present – a kindle.  I did not even bother to consider putting my feet up as I knew that was never really an option.  I know my place and that is in my seat, facing forward.

Holiday Diary – Sunday

After about 24 hours travelling we arrived at our Perth hotel around 12.30 am.  Found hotel window had been left open all day / night so not surprised to see rather large (bird sized) moth lurking over our bed.  Decided that neither of us were up for the fight so turned out the light and slept with mouths firmly closed.  Short while after the lights went out Mr moth decided to make a break for freedom through the now closed window.  We bravely opened the window, still with mouths closed, and he finally went on his way and we got some much-needed sleep.

Sunday morning, warm and sunny, we collected our hire car and headed off down south to Mandurah.  After provisions shopping (things seem pretty expensive at the moment due to the adverse exchange rate) we checked in and headed poolside.  Finished first book of the holiday, Dead Mans Grip by Peter James, very good as usual.

Monday - First chance for a run along the beach, so set off at 9.00 am and totally underestimated how warm it was.  Should have checked the weather as today’s top temperature is forecast to be 35 degrees!  As the sun rises not long after 5.00 am it was pretty darn hot by the time I set out.  Ran into a strong wind on the way out which kept me cool, no wind on the return leg so really felt the heat.  Sensibly took a bottle of water with me but after 3 miles this had warmed up nicely and it was a bit like drinking water out of a recently boiled kettle – yum!  Did 5 miles but no more than that and was very pleased to finish.  After that it was a day for total R and R by the pool and the next book off of the pile.

Tuesday - Rain and thunderstorms so a bit of a catch up day,  wrote a few Christmas cards, did a bit of shopping and once the rain stopped I took the opportunity to go out for a late afternoon run along the coast.  Another 5 miles but a lot quicker than yesterday – not surprising in view of the temperature differential.  Shopping trip meant that I was able to pick up the new Pete Murray album – Blue Sky Blue – which was a regular on the CD player for the rest of the week.

Seems the bad weather caused chaos at Perth airport with numerous flights grounded and long, long delays.  Perth airport is not really the greatest place to be stuck at for any length of time so bit of a pain for those concerned.  Front page of Thursday’s paper was pretty scathing about how Qantas dealt with the problem.

Wednesday - Weather improving but a relatively cool low to mid 20′s today so decided to make that essential trip down to the Margaret River wine region.  About 200 km from our base in Mandurah.  On WA roads this is about a 2 hour drive so not too bad.  First stop was at the olive oil factory for Mrs S to purchase her own body weight in olive oil soaps – very nice – and the other find from our last trip the macadamia pesto!  A wonderful concoction but sadly needs to be kept refrigerated so only one jar which will be consumed before we go home – not difficult.

Next up the wineries.  We went for a selective rather than volume driven approach which meant we then had time for a leisurely lunch.  So we decided to go to a winery that was new to us and a relative newcomer itself, Knee Deep in Margaret River, and a couple of favourites from previous trips; Flying Fish Cove which does excellent sparkling wines and Clairault.  We ended up having lunch at Knee Deep which was a great choice as the fish of the day was barramundi - delicious.  The wineries were actually fairly quiet, apparently December is a bit of an up and down month but everything kicks off on 27th December which is the start of the peak summer season.  Apparently I have a long-lost brother who works at one of the big wineries in the area – well at least that’s what the guy at Clairault told me anyway.

PS – Knee Deep turned out to be a really good find.  Polished off a bottle of their SBS (Sauvignon Blanc Semillon) which was excellent – highly recommended.

http://www.kneedeepwines.com.au/

http://www.clairaultwines.com.au/

http://www.flyingfishcove.com.au/home

Thursday - A couple of miles walk along the beach to start the day then a big old flop poolside after that.  Making good progress with the latest book – The Passage by Justin Cronin.   I did nearly give up on it after 200 pages (out of 975) but have persevered and am now enjoying.  Lazy evening on the balcony drinking the Knee Deep SBS and listening to the ocean.  Although I can hear woman on another balcony who has one of those voices that can cut glass.  “Oi keep it down love” he shouts as he runs inside.

Friday - Run this morning and following experience earlier in the week the alarm was set earlier for 8.00 am.  Very quiet with very few people about so a chance to enjoy the views.  A few clouds about so not too hot and good to get the run done before the sun comes out with a vengeance. Then a day spent poolside, sharing with a couple of ducks today who seem happy enough, maybe they are on some sort of duck holiday package?

Saturday – Warmest day so far with temperature well over 30.  Poolside clearly the best option – again!  Finished off the book (The Passage) which I ended up enjoying, well I did enjoy it until I found out that it was the first of a trilogy!  I think book 2 (if he has written it) will have to wait until the next holiday.

Mrs S spotted in the paper that there was a full lunar eclipse so we decided to stay in and watch this from the balcony with of course a nice bottle of the Margaret River wine.  Weather was very clear so some fantastic views.

Sunday - Alarm at 8.00 am and after a cup of coffee to clear the fog time for the last beach run for a while.  Decided to go a bit further, only a couple of extra miles but forgot to tell Mrs S who was ready to send out the search party by the time I got back.  Weather was sunny with beautiful blue skies but it did get blooming hot.  It was great to be running in warm weather next to the Indian Ocean – such a shame it was the last one for this trip but I did make sure I soaked it all in!

Rest of the day was not surprisingly spent by the pool.  Overheard as I was trying to doze (and spoken in a loud grating kind of voice) “what you see is what you get”  I think I will pass on that thank you very much.

Monday - Monday blues.  Blues because it is time to pack up and go home.  Blues because the weather has turned and the clear blue skies have been replaced by steely grey clouds with thunderstorms on their way.  Blues because we have gotten ourselves so nice and chilled it seems a real shame for it to end.  But end it must, at least for a while – no doubt we will get home and start to put money aside for the next trip.  Last day of the holiday is always something of a struggle.  Inevitably there is a change of mood at least for a while, then it is a matter of thinking of all of the things that we have to look forward to when we get home – like Christmas!  We did manage to get some time by the pool and a nice long walk along the beach, so we did not waste the day.  But by 3.00 pm the storms rolled in and we enjoyed (?) some pretty spectacular thunder and lightning.  One particular clap of thunder made everything in the apartment shake at which point we began to hope that the storms would clear by the time we were due to fly out later in the evening.  If it doesn’t then probably a good idea to pack a spare pair of pants!

Final holiday thoughts

SBS - If you are West Australian this is the accepted abbreviation for their most popular white wine, Sauvignon Blanc Semillon.  On a hot sunny day there is no better blend of white wine.  A lovely light and crisp wine just perfect for sipping as you watch the world go by.  The one we got from Knee Deep was a particularly good one.

White Chocolate Malteser ice cream at Simmo’s - If you ever find yourself in Mandurah and want a real treat head to Simmo’s and treat yourself to one of these.  If you don’t fancy a glass of white wine on a hot sunny day this is a splendid alternative!

How to catch an Aussie - Should you ever find yourself in a situation where you need to catch yourself a few Aussies, then all you need to do is build a spa pool, actually you probably don’t need to build one you could probably get away with a sign that says “Spa pool this way” .  For whatever reason Aussies seem to be drawn to spa pools like moths to a flame.  I swear we watched people arrive and check-in and within 10 minutes they were down by the pool and leaping in the spa pool.  Amazing!

http://youtu.be/_cXOesI1Aw0

I have been into music since I was a fairly small lad when some of my early purchases (from Weston Hart in North End) were clearly influenced by top of the pops and included Sweet, Slade and dare I say it the Osmonds  – Crazy Horses in case you were wondering.  As an aside the smell in the record stores in those days was so distinctive – the plastic sleeves for the album covers dominated the air – aaah record shops!  I quickly moved into more progressive stuff as I made my way through secondary school, with the likes of Pink Floyd and Supertramp featuring at that stage.  Then along came punk and that was me totally hooked!  So my music taste is wide and varied, some might even say a little odd, has probably become more mainstream as I have got older, but I still get a real joy out of hearing the songs from my youth, particularly some proper punk.

Over the years I have accumulated bucketloads of music, first of all by way of vinyl, both singles and albums, which over time have been replaced by CD’s or compact discs to give them their full title.  I do still buy CD’s and really enjoy a proper record shop, not that there are many still around, but nowadays I tend to use Napster streaming more and more, simply because it is so easy.  Vinyl has pretty much gone from my life now as I sold the albums and 12″ singles for £1 each more than 10 years ago – in hindsight a stupid thing to do given what was in amongst them, but it seemed like a good idea at the time.  The 7″ singles went to good homes, people who cared, as I sold the majority on e bay raising about £750 along the way.

With the move to mp3 the CD’s have been ripped onto the computer and although I have not gotten around to totting up how many tracks there are I am sure that there are in excess of 10,000 by now.  So lots of choice, how on earth am I going to get that lot down to eight?  Even now in just a few minutes a whole load of songs have thrust themselves into my head and are now shouting “pick me” “pick me” in unison.  I think I will need to have a flexible approach to selection here.  In other words have eight tracks in the eight positions but as I remember more favourites, drop these into the eight and drop one of the current ones out.  That seems like a fair approach.

So with that in mind the following are going to be the ones to join the two already selected to become my initial picks:-

Drive in Saturday – David Bowie

Do Anything You Wanna Do – Eddie and the Hot Rods

Crazy – Gnarls Barkley

Pretty Vacant – Sex Pistols

Under the Bridge – Red Hot Chili Peppers

Blockbuster – Sweet

So there we have the eight slots filled.  Not sure how long they will stay there as I already have another load of tunes rattling around ny head saying “come on I am better than that lot”.  But as they say, at least it is a start.

Link to my Desert Island Discs page   http://wp.me/P1iuo6-bD

Just looking at the list now I don’t think the list will stay looking like it does for too long, I mean no Clash, no Beatles, no Weller, no Stones and what about some of my current top bands like the Stereos, Green Day, Linkin Park and the mighty Foos?  It’s going to be very tough, maybe I should have a specific list just for running?  But I guess that would be to cheat the principle of the whole thing.  At least I know the final eight will have to be pretty special!  Maybe there is a machine that will do it all for me.  I just bung the 10,000 tracks into the top and the machine spits out the best eight at the bottom.  Now there’s a thought……..