Just now and then, something major comes along. An FA Cup final ticket, a new computer, the amputation of a limb, a wife, that sort of thing. I have a feeling in my lower back that Chi Running might be the latest big thing. Lower back? I’m leaving the sensation there rather than transferring to the more conventional gut because I already have a resident back ache from this morning’s practical introduction to the art, and I won’t get away with two corporeal twinges in one post.… READ MORE.... …
Blog Posts
As chic as Switzerland can be, the lack of Timothy Taylor’s Landlord is a critical design fault. I was reminded of this during my six-day London fun package which, apart from the funeral, the Guardian weekend writing workshop thing, some hospital visits and a two-day work conference, included a few nights in the pub to renew acquaintance with friends human and friends liquid.… READ MORE.... …
Hell is other people and their fridges. Me and mine included, I’m sure. I am subdued. Welcome to damp suburban London. Much as I love the city of my birth, I will never feel affection for these featureless outer stretches, where the nineteen fifties never quite escaped. Being carless isn’t helping. In the last two days I’ve trailed around Harrow and environs on the bus and overground train.… READ MORE.... …
It was a yoghurt of two halves. The first began full of hope, but petered out. The lower reaches of the pot remain uneaten, and the doctors are shaking their heads. Perhaps strawberry isn’t one of her favourite flavours. Or wasn’t. Maybe her bags really are packed this time, and she doesn’t have time to waste. Who knows? Not me, not the medical staff.… READ MORE.... …
I bought an iPad a few weeks ago: my first ever bite of Apple merchandise. Is it true that Apple has a person, or perhaps a department — heck, let’s make it an entire business unit, one should believe everything one hears about Apple — devoted solely to enhancing the experience of removing the cellophane on the iPad box? I hope so, because I thought of her/him/it a few minutes ago as I… removed the cellophane on the iPad box, deciding as I did so that they hadn’t earned their corn.… READ MORE.... …
I have less than 5 seconds to hold your attention before you drift off to less challenging destinations. Quick, let me put this to you: You’re in a new car, or a hire car. Or perhaps you have just stolen a car. Or it could just be an old car you are driving while very drunk. You pull into a gas/petrol station to fill up.… READ MORE.... …
Remember when I used to give training updates? No, nor do I. Here is almost another one. Little to report. And anyway, I’ve never been convinced that the training regime of a rotund, indolent, middle-aged plodder can be of interest to anyone outside the psychiatric profession. Some say they find encouragement in this sort of thing, but I suspect that any comfort or motivation to be found here is more a case of “There but for the grace of god go I”.… READ MORE.... …
Excuse me while I adjust these twenty-twenty hindsight goggles. They are causing me some discomfort. An old boss of mine used to say, in response to a mention of the H word: “Hope is not a strategy”. I should have listened to him. The 2012 Hyde Park 10K was strongly reminiscent of the 2010 iteration, and it needn’t have been. The two years separating the races could have been better spent ensuring that I had more than hope to rely on for an improved experience.… READ MORE.... …
Here we are again. It’s usually with a sigh that I consider New Year resolutions, but this time around I feel strangely relieved. I need to break the downward Dolcelatte and Barolo spiral, and the appalling chaos and depravity it produces in a small community like, well, my apartment. The approach of 2012 is as good an impetus as I’ll get for a while.… READ MORE.... …
Ugh. Post-nebbiolo cranial throb. I lay in bed and considered the day ahead. The trailer didn’t promise much, so I arrived at a decision to do nothing more strenuous than a spot of keyboard tapping, and later, to spend some quality time with the TV remote. A modest blueprint indeed, but with the lake barely visible through a curtain of blustery rain, no less than such a day deserved.… READ MORE.... …