Archive for December, 2007

So today Wife’s Parents arrived on the plane from Gerona. With the whole of that side of the family together, and having spent Christmas in the company of a very agreeable vegetarian (that’s Ms VonSmallHaussen to you), it was time to cook the turkey. The thing is, a 13lb bird takes time to cook ....
Read more »

This morning I managed to haul my butt out of bed in time to work on my training plan for 2008 AND take Huge Dalmatian for a walk AND get to the gym in time for my last spin class of 2008. All this on top of having been woken up six times last night...
Read more »

. . . I’ve got a little something in mind for New Year’s Day. Let’s just say that high tide’s at 09:30, and the forecast is for only small waves. Workout: Type: Swim Date: 12/29/2007 Total Time: 00:14:00.00 Distance: 595.46 m Average Pace: 2:19.81/100m
Read more »

I was out for a short run on Boxing Day with Huge Dalmatian. This was kind of a warm-up for the Pudding Run . . . and because even though it was technically only a fun run, I still had the “Oooooh! It’s race day!” feeling that’d got me out of bed far too...
Read more »

Boxing Day - I’ve no idea what it’s about, or where the name even came from. I mean there’s at least eight derivations for it listed on Wikipedia, which although it may be a good source of general knowledge, isn’t actually the font of universal truth. What I do know is that the North Shields...
Read more »

We’re getting toward the time of year where people start thinking about New Year’s Resolutions. Normally like oaths taken in haste, these often spring from the hangover on the first of January, perhaps with a certain degree of OMG . . . NEVER again. This year, I’m turning over a new leaf, and I’ll ....
Read more »

I feel a little like Frankenstein. My beautiful creature has turned on me . . . using my own methods. I’d agreed  to go running with Daughter yesterday. But after a fairly late night on Saturday, I wasn’t really in the mood. Try telling that to a six year-old. At ten to eight, she bounced into...
Read more »

We arrived only just in time for Daughter’s swimming lesson on Friday . . . which meant that I could jump straight into the roped off lane to put in some lengths. After the previous week, where I’d shown that distance doesn’t seem to be a problem for my shoulder, I decided to push the...
Read more »

This is a paraphrase of a headline from The Times from some time in the 50’s or 60’s. The original was “Fog in Channel - Continent Cut Off“, which I guess speaks volumes about Britain’s sense of its place in the world fifty years ago. Anyway, although Heathrow’s been fog-bound for 24 hours, the weather...
Read more »

Every now and then my ISP (originally called Blueyonder - now Virgin Internet) goes AWOL. My routine download speeds of around 4-6Mb/s drops to a 100kb link. And this on a cable connection. Very frustrating, and not conducive to writing long prosy posts. I used to get worked up about this, and start fiddling with...
Read more »