I woke at around 6 this morning and listened to the rain swishing the new gravel drive. As I sank into bed last night I promised myself to get up early and run. It didn’t happen, but I managed the next best thing. Working locally these days, I was able to wangle myself an extended lunch break – enough time to pop home, get changed, run 4 miles, shower, change back and return to work without anyone noticing I’d been gone a bit longer than usual.… READ MORE.... …
Month: July 2005
So. John Tyndall is dead. Founder of the British National Party. I met this horrible man once. No, twice. I was at the Battersea Beer Festival one year (about 1988/89) and got talking to a middle-aged Asian guy. We got on quite well, had a bit of a laugh. He was really quite pissed, and I probably wasn’t far behind him.… READ MORE.... …
I didn’t run again in Germany. I didn’t really run today either, despite my GPS watch reporting a 12 miler. It’s getting slightly worrying. For the second weekend in a row I’ve set out on my long run in very strong heat. On both occasions I’ve managed 4 steady miles before having to stop for a breather. From then on, it’s been stop-start all the way.… READ MORE.... …
Dusseldorf, by all accounts an elegant city nestling in an elbow of the Rhine, has been home for three days now, but I’ve not seen much of it. What I have seen plenty of is the interior of Mercedes taxis – invariably driven by heavy-set, grouchy Turks who abuse me when I question their choice of route. Trilinguality and tranquility are out the window when confronted by their dishonesty, and they revert instead to some threatening hybrid of German and Turkish.… READ MORE.... …
Running a marathon through its streets has given me a bond with Chicago, whether I like it or not. (And as it happens, I don’t mind…). On a freezing morning a couple of days after the marathon, I went for a wander up Madison Avenue to the magnificent Chicago Tribune building, in search of a newspaper. You can read about it here.… READ MORE.... …
Life goes on. It was around 10:30 this morning that I first heard about the bombs on the London Underground and the Russell Square bus. For a couple of hours, there was a sense of shock around the office – not helped by the lack of hard news. Rumours of further attacks and mounting body counts kept the internet humming for most of the morning, before my capacity for grotesque wonder was fully charged, and it became time to do something else.… READ MORE.... …
You almost have to feel sorry for Monsieur Chirac. Almost. Compared with Blair, he’s not been having a great time of it recently. Unpopular at home; losing the vote on the EU constitution; failing to wring a concession from Blair over “the cheque”; Blair delivering that barnstormer of a speech to the European parliament about the need to modernise and grasp the opportunities of new technology, while Jacques made himself look old and dinosaur-like by defending the indefensible, outmoded Common Agricultural Policy instead; the Battle of Trafalgar celebrations; the backfiring remarks about English cuisine; the UK leading the debate on Africa and global warming; the UK hosting the G8 conference; the UK starting their 6 month chairing of the EU Commission; and now, today, the final humiliation: the 2012 Olympics snatched from the jaws of Parisian victory by yet another inspirational tub-thump by his irritatingly young and articulate adversary from across the Channel.… READ MORE.... …
I don’t believe in astrology. Perhaps this is a Cancerian trait. God and the stars; tarot cards and alien abduction – emotional Big Macs for those who need their hunger satisfied, and quickly, without the inconvenience of having to think for themselves. Low hanging fruit for those who don’t want to have to reach too far. There – I’ve put my cards on the table.… READ MORE.... …