We woke up last Thursday to a broken window. Bit of a shock. None of us heard anything! Now, it is fixed. A bit like the NIN albums!
Broken
Fixed
The new window is currently the cleanest part if the house.
Excellent Equipment
Recently I have bought some running equipment. See my previous posts about losing weight, getting fit and running. I have been so impressed with these items that I have decided to “big them up” on my website.
Firstly I needed some headphones and so after a little browsing of the Amazon website I settled on the Sennheiser MX 680i earphones. I already had a pair of Sennheiser earphones for work and so I value the brand. The earphones are splash-proof and have the iPhone integrated remote. They are great.
Now that the winter is closing in I need a torch that i can use while running. That means looking at Petzl but Silva also make head torches apparently, I thought they mainly made compasses and navigation equipment but you live and learn. I did some online research and settled on the Silva X Trail Plus. This has a 140 lumens main beam, wide angle LEDs and a rechargeable battery pack. I love it. I can run safely at night and see where I am going and the state of the terrain. Brilliant. The specification is a bit cheeky though. It claims the light is 100g and it is, but the head band, and battery pack are not included in that calculation. The battery is carried on a waistband so it’s not really a problem.
Check out my routes on this web page: http://t.co/npRiLuoZ
Paralympics
On Saturday the 8th of September the Parish family went with the Whites to watch the Paralympic Road Cycling at Brands Hatch. It was a baking day and the racing was already underway when we got there. We weren’t allowed to take our drinks into the venue and we weren’t allowed to take in some dinner knives I had packed for cutting our bread but they did let us take our pop-up sunshade which was nice as the sun was scorching that day.
We set up camp on the bank overlooking Clearways and Clark Curve and could see the cyclists every 15 minutes or so as they completed another lap. The children didn’t really understand what was going on and the adults couldn’t really watch what was going on because they had to look after the children.
None of this mattered as the atmosphere was excellent and we all had a lovely time. The children did get slightly over-exposed to the sun though and I still feel guilty about that. #2 son has now walked on the gravel trap of Clark Curve and stood on the tarmac of the Brabham Straight which is very pleasing to know.
This is the view to the start line of Brands Hatch with the track set up for road cycling.
This is the view looking back towards Clearways with the track set up for the paralympics road cycling.
Early Morning
Although being woken at 5:20 this morning was a bit harsh thanks to #2 we had a lovely time playing. I took this shot once #1 had woken and I saw the fog settled over the fields in the south of our grounds!
Rip Off
So, while watching the Paralympics last night there was an advert for a weekly magazine that gives you the parts and instructions to build a toy warship. I can’t remember which one it was. I didn’t even see the “introductory” price offer. What staggers me most is the total price you would have to pay to finish the model.
£5.99 times 135 issues and you get a grand total of £808.65
Now even in these financial times I reckon you could buy a real warship for that price!
Chance
I’ve been watching Human Target on Blu-Ray with WW. It’s, surprisingly, a well constructed and brilliantly scripted tv show. It’s a little quirky but funny and subtle. Anyway, in episode 3 of the first series the main character, Christopher Chance, says:
That sounds like a tomorrow problem.
This is a wonderful way of looking at particular issues and it’s something I’ll be saying in the future, possibly tomorrow.
UXB
There were interesting times in Eccles over the summer. WW went for a run one evening around the sports field but was stopped by some youths claiming they had found a bomb. She was rather incredulous about this but they insisted and said they had called the police. She decided to run elsewhere.
When WW got home she explained what had happened and we didn’t really think much more of it until . . . .
About 9 that evening there was a LOUD bang. It shook the windows in the house. It didn’t wake the children though which was good.
WW ran back down to the sports field to see half the village looking at nothing and asking the police what had happened. When asked why we weren’t told that they were going to detonate the bomb the police replied “because you would all have come to watch and it would have been far more dangerous.” Fair point.
This bomb wasn’t as loud as the two I heard when I lived in London. Check out this post here.
4 Meals In A Day
I accidentally ate four meals on Monday 13 August. WW and I took the boys to Mote Park in Maidstone and let them play in the playground. After we fed the ducks at the lake we went and ordered some food. My order was as follows:
Two sausages and chips and a sausage roll and chips please.
My intention was to buy chips with two sausages for #1 and the the sausage roll and chips was for #2. What I received was two plates of sausages and chips and an adult plate of sausage roll and chips. All in all far too much food for my children to eat! Obviously I just helped out and ate the adult plate of food. As it happens WW and I had already planned what to eat later in the day and so I had:
- breakfast
- lunch
- accidental tea
- dinner
This is a little extreme and when I looked at my calorie count for that day it was 3041 kCal. Even with a run I was over my daily target.
The Limits of My Tolerance
After a day spent at a major theme park near London (Thorpe Park) I have to announce that I am officially disappointed with my body’s physiological reaction to rides. I have known about this reaction for many years (since I was about 14) but I have never really analysed it much before.
Many years ago I spent lots of time in the Air Training Corps and during that time I got some Air Experience Flights in a DeHavilland Chipmonk. After my first go the instructor always asked if I wanted to do aerobatics and, of course, my answer was yes. Every time my reaction was to turn a gentle shade of green and feel very sick and disorientated for about 3 hours afterwards. Eventually I would become very hungry and then finally I would be ok.
When on a trip to the Kennedy Space Centre in 2004 I experienced time in a multi-axis spinner designed to throw the best of the best out of kilter. With me I experienced about 4 hours of green and sickness with clammy skin and finally I grew extremely hungry.
The most recent trip to Thorpe Park confirmed that I am useless at roller coasters and similar rides. It’s such a shame as I do enjoy myself, it’s just that I feel like crap for ages.
Shame.
Poor Design
Here’s a picture of my toilet seat. It’s a special one with two seats. A seat for adults and a seat for children that attaches to the lid via a magnet.
This communication regards the poor design of this seat.
After my children’s bath I sit on the seat lid to dry #1. If you see the supports that transfer my weight force through the seats onto the toilet you will notice that they are NOT aligned. This results in a moment affecting the adult or lower seat. Over time and with my weight force this results in the lower seat bending and breaking at the point indicated. It’s a lovely seat, but it doesn’t take much to design it properly.
