Running Shoes

And I went running again today. I am fairly pleased that I did the training run as it says on my training sheet (it’s a 20 minute routine with 1 minute running followed by 1 minute walking). Still hurts and I think my cheap trainers have resulted in some busing to the foot. So, if I am to continue with this folly then I shall have to invest in some proper running shoes. I think it will be money well spent but I have no idea what I should be looking for in a running shoe. It is years and years since I did anything like this. Given that exercise is not my thing I do not think that I should be enjoying it as much as I do!

On this day…

2007: Anything You Can Do
2002: Fix My Car
2002: Oh Canada

Oh Canada

Don’t you just love Canada? I do. “Canada took a major step toward legally recognizing same-sex marriage on Friday when an Ontario court ruled that to do otherwise is unconstitutional”. I believe that this is a positive step forward. [other thoughts]

Unrelated but when will these guys start shipping to the UK?

On this day…

2007: Anything You Can Do
2002: Fix My Car
2002: Running Shoes

We just want to stop being ripped off

I am pro-Euro. I think it would be a good thing for the UK to use the single currency and that’s why I applaud the “blonde babes and cross-dressing comedians” who today protested in The Gap about the differences in pricing between European Countries. Let’s see UK prices more in-line with those of our neighbours across the channel. Go Eddie! [Yahoo]

On this day…

2003: Britain’s Net Pioneers

Fool If You Think It’s Over

This morning, I get up and watch F1. This at least relaxes me and, although I am not a Michael Schumacher fan, I do enjoy the fact he’s made history today. Then I go for the first of my training runs. My body (in particular my legs – from the knees down) decide that exercise is evil and I hobble back to the house after the required time.

At this point in the day I am in pain but nonetheless head off to Wimbledon for a picnic and then to see Elkie Brooks in (open-air) concert. She walked on stage and looking bored, giving a lacklustre performance of Fool If You Think It’s Over. But then she warmed up and was fantastic; I never knew she sang the Blues. So, despite my sore legs and the cramped seating, a great night was head by all (even the picnic food was great 😉

On this day…

2002: Try the M11

Try the M11

I feel it was an interesting weekend. Some of it I don’t want to repeat but mostly good fun and the kind of things that should be done at weekends if you slave all week in an office. It started yesterday afternoon when my brother arrived and we spent two hours in a car driving round south London roads to get across the river and on to the M11 motorway. It’s not the easiest thing from South West London and should really start another rant about the state of London’s roads but I am too tired for that! (it’s also good to see somebody else wondered what the strange tower was)

Arriving in Takeley for a family christening and all is well. It is nice to see some of the members of the family who I do not see too often. We had planned to leave around 8pm and head back for SW17 but we were having a good time and partied until 11pm. It’s hard partying drinking only water but I still had a good time.

So, off we set. 10 minutes on the M11 and the radiator overheats, I lose all power on the car and just about manage to get it onto the hard shoulder before it grinds to a halt in the middle of the carriageway. Then, 50 minutes later a bloke from the RAC arrives and, without really looking at the engine because he can tell it would do no use, loads the car onto the back of the truck and me & my brother into the cab for the ride south. Then we hit the Blackwall Tunnel. At 1am (Sunday) we are caught in a traffic queue for an hour as traffic try to negotiate one lane in the tunnel (cue for another rant about London traffic). Eventually, the car is unloaded outside my house at 2.45am (with apologies to all my neighbour who would have been woken up by the noise).

On this day…

2002: Fool If You Think It’s Over

How far is 10K in Miles?

I had a moment of brain failure last night. At some point I was asked if I wanted to run 10K for fun at the end of September. Why did I say “I’ll think about it overnight”? I find myself this morning having paid £10 to enter the Nike Run London event. What have I done? I haven’t run anywhere for 10 years. I even have a policy of not running for a train because another one will come along eventually.

On this day…

2004: The Madness Of Business Travel
2002: A Cool Forty Million

A Non-Existent Dream

After last night’s little rant on the state of the London Underground system, I heard about this morning’s nonsense from the Strategic Rail Authority (SRA) to start charging commuters more to sit on over-crowded, dirty, late-running trains. I guess the plan reasons that charging higher fares means fewer people will travel by train. Surely, this proves that an integrated transport policy for London’s workers remains a non-existent dream. Ken Livingston wants to charge people for driving into central London. The SRA wants to charge more for travelling on trains. How are people expected to get into work? The answer is they will still drive and take the train and it will cost them more – status quo remains. It seems to me that nobody is prepared to do what it takes to sort transport in the South East out. And that still stinks.

So then, I got to thinking about John Prescott’s [John Prescott as Boss of Bosses?] little plan to build more affordable housing in the South East of England (to ease the chronic housing shortage, apparently). Affordable housing implies that this is aimed at people on a lower wage (am I taking a big leap here?). How, exactly, are these people going to get to work in London if train prices rise and roads get tolls? Again, it appears inconsistent and badly thought out. Why not take some of these £4 billion and encourage businesses to move out of the South East to areas where there are too many houses or where there is less congestion. If we’re not careful, the UK will topple over as the South East of Britain sinks into The Channel under the weight of all the people migrating from other parts of the country.

On this day…

No other posts on this day.

London Life Underground

The great struggle to and from work in London is over as another strike by London Underground staff finishes and the tube returns to its normal, over-crowded, hot, sticky self. I don’t think there can be a person in this City who does not believe that the Underground is under funded and appears, at times, not too far from breaking point. Summer brings its own special brand of problems for London’s sub-terrain commuters: hot, sweaty and stuck in tunnels on the way to the office does not make for a contented work force. When will Tony Blair, Ken Livingston and Bob Crow stop using the Underground as a great big political football and start doing something to ease the plight of those who try and use London’s public transport on a regular basis? I, along with most people who have chosen to live, work or visit London, am fed up with the self-serving posturing of the politicians and union leaders. I can’t say if I think the strike was wrong or not but I do know that the very fact that non of the parties involved are currently at a negotiating table resolving all issues and developing long-term strategies for coping with increasing commuter volumes stinks worse than the armpits of that harassed member of the public I will be squashed against tomorrow morning. Please somebody, for the sake of those of us who voted for you and pay for you, sort out the mess. [current tube status]

On this day…

2005: Fans Vote On Qualifying Rules
2003: 40 Days and 40 Nights
2003: Consumers Around Your Product
2003: No More Netscape
2002: 50 things
2002: I say “medieval” – You say “medireview”

50 things

Overyourhead is London-based blogger bloke. He has this list [official site] from Birmingham’s Thinktank. Thinktank is the city’s new museum of science and technology and looks fantastic. I will certainly pay it a visit on my next voyage to Birmingham. The list of 50 things that have most affected our lives in the last 50 years is one of those fascinating lists that I will read and re-read for a long time to come. I can’t decide which affected me most but there was a woman on the radio last night citing 1955 – the invention of the non-stick saucepan – as being fairly important to modern life. As I have never found a non-stick pan that is exactly that, then I would have to disagree.

On this day…

2005: Fans Vote On Qualifying Rules
2003: 40 Days and 40 Nights
2003: Consumers Around Your Product
2003: No More Netscape
2002: London Life Underground
2002: I say “medieval” – You say “medireview”