Walk, drive, turbo, gym, gym (and run), run (plus white arms and pay-as-you-go acceleration)

Still in the Lake District, on Monday we took a trip out to Castlerigg stone circle (I believe it wants to be like Avebury or Stonehenge when it grows up – it’s about 4,500 years old but has stunted growth in comparison) and then on to the Bowder Stone. Bowder is an old version of ‘boulder’ so it’s the ‘boulder stone’ – no too imaginative but it is pretty big and impressive.

An easy day but still raining – it makes you wonder where all that water goes … ah yes, it’s called the Lake District. True it has lots of lakes (actually, linguistically, only one as the rest are ‘meres’ and ‘waters’) but in a parallel universe it could easily be called the Hill District – I’d love to try a bit of (gentle) fell running one day.

We left the lakes late on Tuesday morning after a terrific few days with excellent friends. We were lucky enough to have had a decent run back, despite seemingly interminable road works and speed restrictions. I can’t help but think that nearly 2000 miles in 4 days spread over just 9, is a bit much – but both trips were very enjoyable.

I got on the turbo on Wednesday for 30 minutes @ 28.5kph (17.7mph) and went to the gym on Thursday. Back to the gym on Friday – I managed 5km on the treadmill (under 28 minutes but it felt harder) and then 30 minutes of weights. I use the treadmill rarely and the session reminded me why – it’s rather boring and it takes quite a bit of willpower not to stop because stopping is very attractive and would be all too easy.

On Saturday, as if I hadn’t had enough driving to last a long time, I drove the Kingston-upon-Thames to see our older son and his girlfriend who are soon off on a 4 month sabbatical from their jobs. They are heading off to Central and South America, New Zealand and some Pacific islands. My wife joined us later on for supper and we saw both sons for lunch on Sunday, after I had a run in the morning down the Thames Path – a bit over 7km (4.45 miles).

It won’t be quite as worrying as when he went to SE Asia, Australia, New Zealand and Fiji alone, aged 18, during his gap year – but parents are allowed to worry whatever the age of their children, aren’t we?

Spurred on by the ‘run another’ blog, I’ve signed up (emotionally) to the 100 press-up (or push-up) challenge. Six weeks to get to being able to do 100 press-ups in one go. This might end badly.

Interesting stuff this week

1. African wise words: Love is a despot who spares no one

2. BBC News website: Tans are out

Waitrose (a UK supermarket chain) has changed a part of its Christmas advert that showed two farmers comparing sun tans, after it was criticised by skin cancer patients. Critics said a section of the advert glorified sun tans and failed to highlight the dangers of sunlight.

Without for a moment minimising the importance of protection from the sun and the misery of skin cancer (indeed, all cancers), where does this end? Some adverts show people jumping into the sea – sadly, there are drownings every year, some adverts include cars and they are very dangerous things that have caused loss and injury to thousands of people.

3. BBC News website: Back to the moon?

The 100m-tall Artemis rocket has blasted off from the Kennedy Space Center as part of Nasa’s mission to take astronauts back to the moon.

Humans could stay on the Moon for lengthy periods during this decade, according to a Nasa official after Wednesday’s launch which was described as an “historic day for human space flight”. The official added that habitats would be needed to support scientific missions.

Habitats will be needed to support missions on the moon – clever people those NASA officials

4. BBC News website: Pay if you want to go faster

For an annual cost of $1,200 (£991) excluding tax, Mercedes-Benz will enable some of its US electric vehicles to accelerate from 0-60mph a second faster. Critics say that Mercedes is asking payment for hardware already installed in the car – and on which it presumably already made a profit margin when the car was bought.

In July, BMW announced that customers could pay £25 per month to unlock heated seats and steering wheels in some of its cars and last year, Toyota announced it would charge some drivers $8 per month to remotely start their cars using a key fob.

5. BBC News website: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s rural retreat up for sale

A former rural retreat of Sherlock Holmes author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle has been put on the market. Conan Doyle owned the property at Brook near Lyndhurst and regularly visited from 1925 until his death in 1930.

Holmes Under The Hammer?

(Apologies to anyone who doesn’t know the daytime house auction programme)

Drive, clean, gym (run), drive, walk, scramble, ride (France and the Lake District), plus fraud, foie gras and turtleneck sweaters

We set alarms for silly-o’clock on Monday 14th November and were out of the house shortly after 4.30 to drive to the alps.

We were a bit nervous as, the previous week, ‘stop oil’ protesters had caused a few days of rush hour traffic chaos by climbing onto overhead gantries and so blocking the M25 motorway. They said they were calling a temporary truce to the action – we hoped the early start would make sure we were safe but we didn’t really relax until we had passed through the battleground part of the motorway.

We got to the tunnel in time to be put on an earlier train and we rolled out into Calais just after 8.30 (our time, 9.30 theirs). The journey is about 713 miles (1147km) door to door and, after the break for the tunnel, we pushed on without trying to set any speed records – but stopping only once. Thirteen hours after setting off, we arrived in Les Carroz.

I had felt a bit foolish the previous week when I’d taken the car, in a very mild 12℃ (54℉), to swap its normal wheels and tyres for the winter set. For years I battled with snow chains – which are truly the Devil’s own work. One fight too many, in the dark, with dirty, wet and freezing hands and soaking sleeves and trousers convinced me that winter tyres were the way to go so a change of car brought a set of steel hubs with winter tyres a few years ago.

There was no sign of snow on any of the roads and it was fairly mild, even up the mountain, but I was relieved when I remembered that some alpine regions (including the Haute Savoie where we were) now make winter tyres mandatory from 1st November to 31st March.

As always at this time of year, most of the village was shut. The things that can be relied on are the two supermarkets (though not necessarily with fully stocked shelves or full opening hours) and one or two restaurants taking it in turns to open.

Every year, we do the trip to check the apartment prior to the ski season, so we spent time cleaning and replacing – I took running kit but never got close to using it. Normally, we take 5 days for the trip but only had 4 available this time which made it a bit of a rush with so much driving, but it was a great change of scenery and very enjoyable, even with the return 713 miles on Thursday (at 61mph and 62.9mpg for data lovers).

On Friday I went to the gym, rather bleary-eyed but the weights quite well and I also did a sub 5 minute km on the treadmill to stretch my legs.

After that we got ready for trip number two and set off for the Lake District (again very early) on Saturday – a mere 260 miles (nearly 420km). Another delightful ritual, this one a weekend with the two couples that we ‘do’ the Lakes and Bournemouth with each year. We got away early enough to miss the traffic that often builds up around Birmingham and arrived in Ambleside before 10.

We went out onto the fells by midday and took on Stickle Ghyll and then Pavey Ark, a challenging route above the tarn. From the car park it’s more of a random stone staircase on the way up to the tarn which was reasonably hard work but it was somewhere between a scramble and almost climbing above there around Pavey Ark. Coming down was probably even harder and we ended up descending the last bit to the car park using mobile phone torches which was very testing. Only about 5 miles but with the equivalent of climbing around 160 flights of stairs.

On Sunday I borrowed a mountain bike and our host and I rode to Tarn How’s and joined the others (who, sensibly, drove) on a lovely walk up Black Crag. The ride there was only about 6 miles but very hilly and tough in cold wether walking kit. After the walk we had the short ride to Coniston for a late lunch – flatter, but by then it was raining.

After lunch we rode back to Ambleside in the gathering dark – only about another 8 miles but hilly again and raining stair rods so we were soaked almost immediately. Not completely lovely – but what can you expect of the Lake District in November … and the rain didn’t manage to spoil a great day in excellent company.

Interesting stuff this week

1. African wise words: The quarrel of lovers is the renewal of love

2. BBC News website: Reality edges in to advertising?

As ever, many Christmas TV ads conjure up sentimentality, nostalgia and joy but as the cost of living soars, some retailers have opted for a more muted approach to their campaigns this year. John Lewis said its advert, featuring a foster family, was less about buying things and more about kindness.

Retailers have to strike a balance between recognising that consumers are facing financially challenging times, but also acknowledging that people still want to have a brilliant Christmas, particularly after the past couple of years during the pandemic.

Marks and Spencer’s advert cuts to a table set with a huge spread of festive food and Sainsbury’s advert also ends on a display of a vast festive buffet. Such indulgent and expensive-looking scenes have drawn criticism for being at odds with the more modest offerings many families will be able to stretch to this year.

3. BBC News website: What’s the price of fraud?

10 months ago, Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes was found guilty of defrauding investors. Her company was once valued at $9bn (£7.5bn) but now it’s a byword for corporate fraud.

She, claimed the start-up could diagnose hundreds of diseases with just a few drops of blood. That wasn’t true and in January a jury concluded she had deliberately misled investors. She was convicted of four counts of wire fraud – with a maximum sentence of 20 years.

Her legal team was arguing for 18 months of house arrest while the prosecution wanted a 15 years in prison and an order to pay back the best part of a billion dollars to investors. The judge had a big decision to make and Silicon Valley executives will be watching with interest.

She has been sentenced to over 11 years in prison

4. BBC News website: Death of the world’s oldest primary school pupil

99 year old Priscilla Sitienei started developing health complications after attending class on Wednesday. She, and her 12-year-old classmates, had been preparing for final exams set to start next week.

She started learning to read and write – an opportunity she never had as a child. At first the school turned her away but soon understood how committed she was to learning.

5. BBC News website: Truly, a man of the people

There will be no foie gras served in royal residences, a letter from Buckingham Palace to animal rights campaigners has confirmed. King Charles is understood to have been a longstanding opponent of the food, made from the liver of a duck or goose, that campaigners say is cruel because of force feeding.

That’s force feeding of the ducks or geese, not the palace guests

6. BBC News website: Well, that’s the energy issue sorted

The governor of Tokyo has urged city residents to wear turtleneck jumpers this winter to reduce energy consumption. Workers at city hall will be told to set an example by adopting the jumper.

Ms Koike said “They’re warm and overall energy consumption is reduced so we can link it to lowering CO2 emissions,” she said.

7. BBC News website: One man’s pheasant is another’s unicorn

Some 140 years after the black-naped pheasant-pigeon was last sighted by scientists, researchers have “rediscovered” the rare bird. In September, a team captured footage of the species deep in the forest of a tiny island off Papua New Guinea.

It felt like “finding a unicorn”, said expedition co-lead John Mittermeier.

Turbo (x2), gym, run (x2), (plus football, the metaverse and, sadly, it’s terminal)

A quiet start to the week with a painful right foot (again). That ruled out a run and the Monday swim doctor session but I got on the turbo – just 30 minutes for 13.5km (8.4 miles)

Having hurt my foot recently through an ill-advised long walk in ‘work shoes’, I blistered it again on Saturday after nothing more than a day wearing a pair of trainers that have caused no problems whatsoever in about 450km of running. The foot became a bit red and puffy – a low level infection?

On Tuesday we went for our Covid seasonal booster jabs, having waited as required after we had Covid itself. My foot was improving but was now feeling more like I’d dropped something heavy on it (which I hadn’t). I remembered that, to bodge the fence in Bournemouth last week, I had my foot under the gate to lift it so I could latch and bolt it to the broken fence post. I think that probably bruised my foot – and the blister on Saturday was a random and unconnected bit of bad luck.

So, no great dramas on this occasion but it’s always the small toe on my right foot that causes the problems (it was the site of the only blister after the summer’s 100k ultra) so it needs watching.

Nothing for it but another session on the turbo on in the evening – 45 mins @27.2kph (16.9mph). Not that long, not that fast but the third day in a row and plenty tough enough – possibly not helped by the Covid jab?

I didn’t feel any obvious bad reaction to the jab but I didn’t sleep that well and felt shattered on Wednesday, so I did very little (one of the luxuries of retirement). I slept nearly 11 hours Wednesday night (another luxury of retirement) and felt a lot better.

The sport recently has been spectacular with World Cups going on in the women’s and men’s rugby league, the women’s rugby union and the men’s T20 cricket. A phenomenal performance on Thursday saw England’s cricketers into Sunday’s final (fingers crossed for the weather in Melbourne), with the women’s rugby union team in their final on Saturday (in New Zealand, against New Zealand – we are favourites but I’m very nervous as they are improving all the time and we seem to have hit a plateau).

Off to the gym later on Thursday for a good hour – I can still feel where the jab went in on Tuesday, but even the arm machines were fine.

With the foot problems and no run for a week, I expect Friday’s should have been ‘shorter and slower’. I scored one out of two with my ‘longer and slower’ decision but I had an enjoyable run along the farm tracks to Eaton Hastings and back – just over 11km (short of 7 miles) but well outside 6m/km. I hadn’t intended to go fast – but nor had I expected to go that slow.

Disappointment at the women’s rugby as England lost the final to New Zealand by just 3 points having played three quarters of the match a player down after an early sending off. Thus ends a 30 game winning streak – what a time to lose it!

I thought about a turbo session on Saturday but couldn’t find the motivation so had a day off. With low expectations for exercise next week, on Sunday I did the same run as Friday – just over 11km (nearly 7 miles), but this time at under 6m/km.

A funny old week in many ways – a bit of injury, a bit of illness (and/or reaction to the Covid booster), decent gym sessions, OK on the turbo, poor with the first run and not great with the second. All part of life’s rich tapestry …

… and just time to confirm that England won the T20 Cricket World Cup. Of course, we didn’t make victory over an excellent Pakistan side at all easy, but we got there.

Interesting stuff this week

1. African wise words: When one is in love, a cliff becomes a meadow

2. BBC News website: Sporting commitment or just the football red mist?

Ten players were sent off as Racing Club won an Argentinian Champions Trophy final that ended early because Boca Juniors had only six players on the pitch.

Each team had a player sent off in the 95th minute after an argument, while another Boca player was dismissed for a second yellow card five minutes later. However, Carlos Alcaraz’s 118th-minute winner was the flash point for the major incident when he celebrated in front of the Boca fans. The Boca players surrounded him, grabbing him by the ear and throwing the ball at him.

The referee sent off Alcaraz along with five Boca players, including one of their unused substitutes, and a player who had been replaced earlier. An unused Racing substitute was also shown a red card.

3. BBC News website: Billions being spent in metaverse land grab

Nearly $2bn (£1.75bn) has been spent on virtual land in the past 12 months, as people and companies race to get a foothold in ‘the metaverse’. It is confusing but there are actually many metaverses and until one platform starts to dominate, or these disparate worlds join together, companies are selling land and experiences in their own versions.

In Sandbox, one of the crypto metaverses, Adidas, Atari, Ubisoft, Binance, Warner Music and Gucci are just some of the multinationals buying land, and building experiences to sell and promote their products and services.

Gucci has also built in Roblox which is seen as one of the most mainstream of the fledgling metaverses. Gucci Town has had more than 36 million visits in the year since it was launched, while Nike Land has recorded more than 25 million in 11 months. In Gucci Town, players can buy clothing for their avatars with real money. In Nike Land they can get T-shirts and shoes for avatars with points earned by playing games.

The thing I agree with most in all this (and perhaps the only thing I really understand) is the statement “It is confusing“

4. BBC News website: Football World Cup approaches

This week the disgraced former head of world football said that awarding the World Cup to Qatar was a mistake. Really? The bidding was for a (N. hemisphere) summer world cup but after its award they suddenly discovered Qatar is hot in the summer so it was moved to winter.

More importantly, there are concerns about human rights, the treatment of foreign workers building the competition infrastructure and Qatar’s treatment of LGBTQ+ people, as same-sex relationships and their promotion are criminalised, with punishments ranging from fines to the death sentence.

A Qatar World Cup ambassador has just told a German broadcaster “[Homosexuality] is haram. You know what haram [forbidden] means? I am not a strict Muslim but why is it haram? Because it is damage in the mind”.

The world football governing body (FIFA) recently wrote to the World Cup teams urging that football should not be “dragged” into ideological or political “battles”, conveniently ignoring the fact that it was them who created exactly those circumstances.

Qatar’s World Cup organisers have said “everyone is welcome” and no-one will be discriminated against, but the Qatar 2022 chief executive has also said the government would not change its laws on homosexuality, requesting visitors “respect our culture”.

Everyone is welcome … but some are more welcome than others?

5. BBC News website: Sadly, it’s terminal at the terminal

Born in 1945 in Iran, Mehran Karimi Nasseri flew to Europe in search of his mother in the late 1980s. Expelled from countries including the UK, the Netherlands and Germany for not having the correct immigration documents, he ended up making the airport’s 2F Terminal his home in 1988, inspiring the 2004 Tom Hanks film, The Terminal.

He was given the right to live in France in 1999, but stayed at the airport until 2006. He ended up returning to the airport a few weeks ago, where he died of natural causes, an airport official told AFP.

6. BBC News website: KFC (Kindly Forgive Catastrophe?)

In Germany, the fast food chain sent an app alert, saying: “It’s memorial day for Kristallnacht! Treat yourself with more tender cheese on your crispy chicken. Now at KFCheese!”

‘Kristallnacht’ was a Nazi-led series of attacks in the country in 1938 which left more than 90 people dead and destroyed Jewish-owned businesses and places of worship. It is widely seen as the beginning of the Holocaust.

The message, heavily criticised for its insensitivity, was later blamed by KFC on “an error in our system”.

It beggars belief

7. BBC News website: Just as we thought it was safe to back in (on) the water …

A cruise ship carrying 4,600 passengers and crew has docked in Sydney, Australia, having sailed from New Zealand. About 800 passengers had tested positive for Covid-19 by halfway through the 12 day cruise.

Gym (x2), run (x2), turbo (x2), Robert Zimmerman (x1 – there is only one)

My foot was still sore on Monday so I went to the gym, instead of running. It was a good hour although children from the nearby school arrived for a pretty chaotic session.

In the afternoon I got a call from the garage to tell me that the car had passed its MOT. It had failed on the emissions test and (surprisingly) the new catalytic converter hadn’t solved the problem – which left me wondering if it was destined for the great car park in the sky. However, a couple of mis-functioning glow plugs had, eventually, been diagnosed and the plugs and a new wiring harness injector (whatever that might be) fixed it in the twinkling of … 11 days and a few hundred pounds.

After a new timing belt earlier in the year (at nearly 130,000 miles) I’m now in the typical quandary of whether I should keep it or get rid of it while the going is good. I know something else will go wrong and I’ll then be wondering whether to throw good money after bad.

My foot had been improving all day so I decided on a gentle run (3.7km) to collect the car. Without enormous enthusiasm I went to book the swim doctor session in the evening but, apparently, no substitute had been found for the usual teacher so I had no choice but to put my feet up for the evening. What a shame!

Tuesday’s weather was dismal, I did paperwork and could raise enthusiasm for nothing more than a session on the turbo in the late afternoon. Just 30 minutes but a little faster than recent efforts at 29.4kph (18.26mph).

In the evening I got a call from a neighbour in Bournemouth to say that a section of our fence was looking rather worse for wear thanks to some very high winds. No great surprise as I have already bodged repairs twice but when I got there on Wednesday it turned out to be a different fence post that had snapped. I managed another bodge but I think this is nature’s way of telling me that the thing needs to be repaired properly.

I took my kit but it was still blowing a gale and by the time I’d cut up a load of the branches I’ve chopped off over the years – I did three trips to the dump (not quite finishing the job) so running was a very unattractive proposition. After a wet drive home I was beyond any exercise so I had the joy of working on all the family tax returns.

I got straight into running kit on Thursday morning but when I looked out it was raining heavily so I demonstrated my total lack of commitment and headed to the gym instead. A good hour, except for being descended upon by another class from the school – I do need to learn the times for their gym attendance. I went to a funeral in the afternoon, supporting my wife who is a friend of the deceased’s daughter.

With the bike shop in abeyance, pending the availability of the new premises, I ran on Friday morning. The Garmin recorded 7km at @5:21/km. I planted some new hedging and prepared for the concert in the evening.

As it was the ‘Rough and Rowdy Ways’ tour, it was no surprise that the music came from that album (luckily I really like it) … not a single ‘Dylan classic’ on the playlist. Having been a fan for over 50 years, this was my first (and probably only) chance to see him live – on the couple of occasions he stepped away from the piano, he looked very frail but there again, he is 81.

How to describe it? Just the great man and 5 backing musicians; no staging; no light show or video; no support act; not a single backing vocal; no interval, just a few minutes short of 2 hours played straight through; no showmanship; no audience engagement (until a short half-hearted bit at the end).

All very much on Bob Dylan’s terms … and it was magnificent! I was, strangely, quite emotional.

Afterwards we drove to London. I went to our older son’s place on Saturday and painted skirting boards. We’re making good progress. I took running kit but on Sunday it was raining on a Biblical scale. I believe Noah was Googling to find out the length of a cubit in centimetres*. We drove back home and I did the turbo in the early evening – 30 minutes for 13.94km (8.6 miles) – and I’ve hurt my foot again.

*45.72

Interesting stuff this week

1. African wise words: The eye never forgets what the heart has seen

2. BBC News website: Mutiny over the Bounty

Mars’ ‘Celebration’ tubs contain a range of mini versions of their chocolate bars. A survey of people aged between 18 and 65 suggested that 18% would feel irritated to find only Bounty bars were left in a tub, while 58% believed it would lead to a family argument. A limited run of “No Bounty” tubs will go on sale at 40 Tesco stores in the run-up to Christmas.

Polling suggested the sweet is popular with older consumers, with 38% of over-55s choosing it as their preferred bar.

3. BBC News website: Solar farms in space?

Work is going on in various parts of the world to develop a plan to harvest solar energy from space and beam it down to Earth using microwaves. The solar energy collected by the satellites would be converted into high frequency radio waves and beamed to a rectifying antenna on Earth, which would convert the radio waves into electricity.

Each satellite could deliver around 2GW of power into the grid, comparable in power output to a nuclear power station. It could be happening as soon as 2035 and, in theory, the approach could supply all of the world’s energy needs by 2050.

4. BBC News website: Oiling the wheels (and greasing the palms) of the oil industry

A UK subsidiary of mining giant Glencore has been ordered to pay more than £275m, in fines and confiscation, for bribing officials in African countries to get access to oil. The company paid $26m (£23m) to officials of firms in Nigeria, Cameroon and Ivory Coast between 2011 and 2016. Prosecutors said employees and agents used private jets to transfer cash to pay the bribes.

In May, the firm agreed to a $1.1bn (£900m) settlement in the US over a scheme to bribe officials in seven countries during the course of a decade.

I love the mention of the private jets – as if that makes it worse

5. BBC News website: Nick Kyrgios settles legal case with spectator

Kyrgios, the world number 22, was competing at Wimbledon in his first Grand Slam final when he complained to the umpire about a fan, saying she looked “like she has had about 700 drinks”. The fan instructed solicitors to bring defamation proceedings.

Kyrgios has now apologised for the comment and is donating £20,000 to the Great Ormond Street Hospital Charity, a charity chosen by the fan.