Seville! Walk (lots), dip (x2), run, turbo, plus power, hippos, printing and bags

We stayed in London on Sunday night after watching our younger son run the Marathon. On Monday we drove to Gatwick to fly out to Seville for a few days – somewhere neither of us had been (Seville that is, not Gatwick).

It was early evening when we got to the hotel, we had time to unpack and have a look at the local area – and find a very good tapas bar. We’d booked a city walking tour for Tuesday morning and that was very good indeed, taking in places like the Alcazar, the Cathedral, the University, old tobacco factory and Plaza de Espana.

We walked about 10k, had lunch and then went to the river to round it up to about 15k. I think they could make more of the river – we weren’t tempted by a river cruise. Seville is lovely and walking is by far the best way to see it – its central area is a maze of narrow cobbled streets with a great mix of history and architectural styles.

We walked again on Wednesday – over 16k and visited the Museo de Bellas Artes – mostly 16th and 17th century art – and very enjoyable if you like your art predominantly religious and Spanish. Yet more excellent tapas and lovely cold beer.

I ran in the late afternoon – only a bit over 6k but it was great to have another run in a foreign city. It was still pretty hot (c26℃) and not that easy heading out to the river and back along narrow, busy and cobbled streets, dodging into the road and back to the pavement. Despite that I appear to have run faster than I have for some months.

Our hotel was right by the rather splendid Plaza de la Encarnación with the impressive huge wooden structure the Setas de Seville. It was a small hotel built around a moorish(?) atrium, in a tiny backstreet but with a plunge pool on the roof – perfect after the run or a day’s walking.

We walked again on Thursday before heading back home via an early evening flight. We arrived back and just had time to do some unpacking before getting to bed a bit after midnight. I did wake in time for the gym on Friday morning but took an executive decision, turned over and went back to sleep. I did make it to the bike shop.

We loved Madrid when we visited last month – but both loved Seville even more. It was really vibrant, buzzing with cafe culture, compact enough to walk around comfortably – and great weather. Such a shame to leave the air conditioning behind in Spain and return to the central heating at home.

I planned to run on Saturday but it was cold and wet. I wimped out, instead I watched some of the snooker from the turbo trainer – 30 minutes @30.1kph.

On Sunday I went up to the cycle park to take another children’s training session – chilly but not too wet and, as always, rewarding.

Congratulations to the England Women’s Rugby team for their sixth successive 6 Nations Championship and third successive Grand Slam. If only they can keep it going to next year’s World Cup.

Interesting stuff this week

1. African wise words: Love is like a baby: it needs to be treated tenderly

2. BBC News website: New to me – the offshore power ship

Residents of Sierra Leone have described their frustration at the blackouts which have plagued the country in recent weeks with power cuts hitting cities including the capital, Freetown.

Most of Freetown’s power comes from a Turkish ship floating off the country’s coast. It has massively reduced electricity supply to the city – from 60 megawatts to 6 megawatts – because of unpaid bills. Karpowership is one of the world’s biggest floating power plant operators, with several African states relying on it for electricity.

3. BBC News website: Even hippos are getting in on the gender confusion

A zoo in Japan has confirmed that a hippopotamus thought for seven years to be a he is, in fact, a she after a DNA test was carried out after zookeepers noticed that 12-year-old did not display typical male hippo behaviour.

Gen-chan arrived in Osaka from Mexico in 2017, and customs documents at the time said she was male.

4. BBC News website: Must take a lot of paper

A giant 3D printer, which is big enough to make a house, has been unveiled at the University of Maine. It beats the university’s own record for the world’s largest polymer 3D printer – the new printer four times bigger than the previous machine.

The Factory of the Future 1.0 (FoF 1.0) can print objects 96ft (29m) long – approximately the length of a blue whale.

5. BBC News website: Handbags and glad rags?

The US competition watchdog is taking action to block fashion accessory giant Tapestry’s $8.5bn (£6.9bn) takeover of rival Capri. Tapestry owns handbag makers including Coach and Kate Spade, while Capri’s brands include Michael Kors.

The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) said if allowed, “the deal would eliminate direct head-to-head competition between Tapestry’s and Capri’s brands”.

Together, the firms employ about 33,000 staff globally but the FTC argued the deal could reduce wages and their benefits. Coach and Kate Spade are known for what their parent firm calls “accessible luxury” handbags – quality leather and craftsmanship products at affordable prices.

I appreciate that this is a very male comment, but how can a handbag firm be worth £6.9bn?

6. BBC News website: While most of the world moves in the opposite direction …

Iraq’s parliament has passed a bill criminalising same-sex relationships with jail terms of between 10 and 15 years. Transgender people could also be sent to prison for between one and three years under the new law.

Supporters of the changes say they will help to uphold religious values in the country while rights groups say they are a further black mark on Iraq’s record of violations against LGBT people.

Those who promote homosexuality or prostitution, doctors who perform gender reassignment surgery, men who “intentionally” act like women and those who engage in “wife swapping” will also face prison terms under the new legislation.

Swim, turbo (x2), gym, London Marathon (spectating) plus athletic courtesy, fake news and accidental divorce

The exercise week started on Monday with the usual swim doctor session in the early evening. There weren’t many people there so I had a lane to myself – that was great apart from the fact that it’s not possible to take a rest by pretending that you’re waiting for others to get out of the way. 1100m swum.

I got on the turbo on Tuesday. Feeling a bit guilty that I hadn’t got out for a run earlier, I pushed on for an hour @27.5kph.

On Wednesday I drove to London to let people doing a gas safety check and an energy efficiency assessment into our sons’ flat. Both visits went well but it took about 7 hours worth of driving and waiting around so no enthusiasm for any exercise when I got back in the evening.

With slightly warmer weather arriving, I mowed for a couple of hours on Thursday. I managed to reduce the cut height which is a sign that I’m just about getting on top of the task – but I’d welcome a dry spell to slow the grass’ growth rate.

Turbo again in the early evening – a surprisingly hard 30 minutes @29.7kph.

As ever, Friday saw an hour in the gym and then three in the bike shop. It rained, saving me from the plan to run the mower over some of the grass again, lowering the cut and collecting the cuttings – thank goodness I did it all yesterday.

I was going to run with my wife on Saturday. She’s had two massages on her dodgy knee which has responded well but she decided not to risk the run in view of the likely walking when we go to watch our younger son run the London Marathon on Sunday. I was going to run but decided against it as my knees were a bit sore from the gym. I wonder if I need to think about changing my gym day to have a day off after it, before the weekend run?

The London Marathon is a great event – I ran it in 1998 and 1999 but have failed to get a place in the ballot despite entering almost every year since.

Our son had picked up a couple of bugs since February (the curse of being a teacher?) with resulting lost training but he went into it, not to chase any particular time but to enjoy the experience. Thank goodness he got the sub-4 hour monkey off his back when we ran the Rotterdam Marathon in 2019.

We drove up to London later on Saturday and managed to see him twice during the run – once along The Highway (just after half-way) and then near the end. As part of his Christmas present we had got him some running kit – and, as a surprise, I gave him the running vest (washed and still in perfect condition!) I wore in the London Marathon in 1999. It was great to see him run it in the vest I’d worn 25 year previously.

We saw him along the Highway (just after Tower Bridge) and then on the Embankment at about 25 miles, before meeting up after the finish and getting something to eat and drink at the Zedal Brasserie just off Piccadilly Circus. With limited training behind him he did a great job in running it in 4 hours 33. A fine performance and a fine day.

Yes, my entry to the ballot for a place in 2025 is already submitted.

Interesting stuff this week

1. African wise words: We desire to bequeath two things to our children; the first one is roots, the other one is wings

2. BBC News website: No, I insist, after you

Organisers of the Beijing half marathon are investigating allegations that three African athletes deliberately allowed China’s star runner He Jie to win Sunday’s race.

Camera footage appears to show the two Kenyas and one Ethiopian pointing to the line, slowing down and waving He Jie past – he (or ‘He’) finished one second ahead of the trio, who tied for second place. World Athletics said that they were aware of the investigation being conducted and that the integrity of the sport is their highest priority.

Update: The top three (ed – sounds like top 4 to me) finishers of the Beijing half marathon have been stripped of their medals. It was claimed that the three Africans were running as pacemakers but none had been registered as such, so their actions breached the rules.

3. BBC News website: China shuts down influencer’s accounts over fake story

Ms Xu, a top Chinese influencer, claimed that while on holiday in Paris, coffee shop staff handed her two empty homework books that belonged to a Grade 1 student named Qin Lang. She promised to take the books back to the boy in China.

The story went viral and sparked a search for the boy across the country and gained millions of views. Ms Xu’s videos were so widely shared even state-affiliated media reported on the topic.

In a video posted Friday night, she has apologised for “polluting the internet”. Chinese authorities have taken down the accounts and Police said she and her company face administrative punishment, which could range from a warning to detention.

As fake news goes, this seems pretty mild (and a bit weird)

4. BBC News website: Ahhh – back to important things – an animal story

A Queensland couple rescued ‘Molly’ the magpie when it was a chick in 2020 and amassed more than 800,000 Instagram followers with whimsical pictures and videos of the magpie interacting with their Staffordshire terrier.

The ethics of keeping a magpie as a domestic pet were questioned and the relevant government department said the magpie had been “taken from the wild unlawfully with no permit, licence or authority”. Molly was surrendered to the authorities.

This sparked a public outcry in Australia, with more than 150,000 people signing a petition to secure Molly’s return. Now the couple have been granted a special licence to care for the magpie which was held by wildlife authorities for six weeks.

5. BBC News website: ‘Til administrative error do us part

A couple were divorced in error after a staff member at a law firm accidentally opened the file relating to the couple, when applying for a divorce order for a different client.

Three days later the firm applied three to rescind the order but the judge dismissed the application. He rejected the wife’s arguments that the order should be set aside, as her solicitors were “generally authorised to act for her and the court was entitled to accept the application for the final order made by them as being validly made on her behalf”.

Sounds like a bad decision to me

6. BBC News website: Yet more AI issues

The creation of sexually explicit “deepfake” images is to be made a criminal offence in England and Wales under a new law. Under the legislation, anyone making explicit images of an adult without their consent will face a criminal record and unlimited fine.

It will apply regardless of whether the creator of an image intended to share it, but if the image is shared more widely, the creator could face jail.

Swim, turbo (x2), gym, run, plus climate, presidential respect, faint praise, art and tourism

We were heading into a gentle evening last Sunday when the village Whatsapp group started to glow red hot at about 17.30 with people reporting the strange behaviour of their power – not outages as such but reduced voltage so that some things would not work and others only worked badly.

We were still OK (which was odd as we are ‘downstream’ in terms of the route of the supply) but that ended promptly when it cut out entirely a couple of hours later. Another 3 hours before it was restored – thank goodness I’d sent my WordPress post earlier. Who knows what global chaos might have been caused if I’d been late.

The swim doctor session on Monday evening was good, another 1000m of front crawl. There are times when I think that if I could get motivated to swim more than once a week, I might improve – and there are other times when I come to my senses.

I washed a couple of the cars on Tuesday – a futile job for someone living in the country but both were showing a certain tinge of green … and neither is a green car. The day continued the wet and very windy theme so it was the turbo in the evening – 30 minutes @ 30.5kph. More elbow room than the last few months as Alex and I cleared three olive trees, a lemon tree and many geraniums out of the conservatory last week.

Yet another pretty horrible day on Wednesday so it was back to the turbo in the early evening. A slightly easier 30 minutes @28.4kph.

On Thursday we went to the funeral of the former partner of my brother-in-law’s brother-in-law, in Surrey. She was a lovely lady, still in her 40s, who had battled cancer for many years. A mixture of horribly sad and very uplifting.

A pretty good gym session on Friday morning, then the bike shop. Later, a mowathon – the lawns, paddock and verges got a timely cut as the very wet weather, and the current warmer days, have combined to give the grass an unwelcome growing spurt.

On Saturday you could almost feel that Spring is coming. I ran just over 13km – I don’t think I’ve got it right with the run the day after the gym session. Across the various machines, I think I lift over 17 tonnes in a session at the gym, (plus sit-ups and planks) most of it with my legs which don’t recover that quickly.

I went to the cycle park on Sunday to run a children’s training session. I was on the team looking after the children who could already balance and pedal. A very disparate group which made it quite tough but they all progressed which is great.

This evening we have a meeting up with good friends for supper and to continue watching the first series of ‘Vigil’. It will be a good evening.

Interesting stuff this week

1 African wise words: He who does not know one thing knows another

2. BBC News website: Musk gets a Brazilian?

A Brazilian Supreme Court judge has opened an inquiry into Elon Musk after the multi-billionaire said he would reactivate accounts on the social media platform X, formerly Twitter, that the judge had ordered to be blocked. If X fails to comply with the order, it will be fined 100,000 reais ($19,774; £15,670) a day.

In his decision, Justice Moraes wrote that Mr Musk had launched a disinformation campaign against the Supreme Court. Mr Musk posted that the restrictions had been lifted because the court order was unconstitutional and called for Justice Alexandre de Moraes to “resign or be impeached”.

3. BBC News website: First climate warrior victory in court

A group of older Swiss women have won the first ever climate case victory in the European Court of Human Rights. The women, mostly in their 70s, said that their age and gender made them particularly vulnerable to the effects of heatwaves linked to climate change.

The court said Switzerland’s efforts to meet its emission reduction targets had been woefully inadequate. The ruling is binding and can trickle down to influence the law in 46 countries in Europe including the UK.

4. BBC News website: We’re listening, Mr President

Eight members of a Ugandan music band have been arrested for complaining that the president’s speech at the weekend was too long, local media report.

The complaint by one of the band members was seen as an insult to President Yoweri Museveni, who was speaking during the 50th wedding anniversary celebrations of former the Prime Minister and his wife on Saturday night.

The band members are alleged to have said “Rutabandana Waturusya Rugahamuzindaro”, which loosely translates as “over speaker, we are tired, leave the microphone”, the report added.

5. BBC News website: When the tribute goes wrong

Manchester United have confirmed the departure of football director John Murtough by mutual agreement after 11 years at Old Trafford.

Co-chairman Joel Glazer said: “After 11 years of tiresome work for the club, John has mutually agreed with us that now is the right time to step aside and allow the new football leadership structure to be put in place.

‘Tiresome’? Perhaps he meant ‘Tireless’?

6. BBC News website: But is it art?

A modern art gallery in Germany has fired an employee after discovering he had hung his own work in an exhibition.

The 51-year-old employee in the gallery’s technical services team described himself as a freelance artist and had drilled two holes in a wall in an empty passageway to mount his painting in the hope of achieving his artistic breakthrough. In addition to his employment being terminated, he has also been banned from the gallery.

7. BBC News website: Tourism, boon or curse?

Activists have begun a hunger strike on the island of Tenerife, in protest at what they see as the destructive growth of tourism on the Canary Islands. They are calling for a halt to the construction of a hotel and a beach resort in the south of the island and a moratorium on all tourism development projects.

The move is part of a wider protest movement across the islands, calling itself Canarias Se Agota, or ‘The Canaries Have Had Enough’.

Run (x3), gym, plus sporting clarity, lunar time, conservation and dirty money

I felt pretty good on Monday after Sunday’s long run – the stiffening of my back had come to nothing and all muscles reported for duty in relatively good shape. I could have run but was happy not to – and no swim doctor session in the evening either because of the Bank Holiday. We gardened before the inevitable rain set in.

Tuesday saw a slow 2.6k run with my wife, testing her troublesome knee – the question is whether it’s muscular and will need a second physio session. Our son (Alex) ran 10k. More gardening and diy later, followed by more rain.

Rest on Wednesday (it rained) before a trip to the local waste disposal site and then a run with Alex on Thursday. He wanted to do the run scheduled for next Sunday (the longest remaining run) to get it out of the way and maximise recovery time.

We were aiming for something close to 1h 45min and about 15k. By immaculate pace judgement (or complete fluke), we hit both targets within a minute of each other. Faster than Sunday but it felt much easier right from the start – average heart rate 118bpm. Remind me what happened in the afternoon … oh yes, it rained.

Short of time for the gym on Friday but I got through most of my usual routines much faster than usual – clearly, I don’t normally work hard enough in the gym. Bike shop volunteering after that and then a walk to the nearby woods where the bluebells are coming out, but are not yet in all their glory (above a reminder of how they do look).

I ordered a delivery of logs for the wood burner back in September. After 6 months, and a lot of being messed around, they arrived late Friday afternoon. Luckily, Alex was here to help stack them but the jury is out on what that might have done to my back.

The jury returned its verdict on Saturday morning and the logs were found not guilty of ABH to my back. I ran with Alex again – a bit over 11k at a very comfortable 6.45/km (117bpm average) on a very pleasant, but windy, morning. It was really enjoyable running with him. I clocked 52k in 7 days (the most since the 100k ultra in July 2022) while he ran 66k. With the second week of his Easter holiday coming up (he’s a teacher) he’s now in a good place to finish his preparation.

Later I drove him to catch a coach back to London (his preferred and secondary train routes not operating because of a strike). A treat to have him here for the week and help him with his marathon training.

Sunday was extremely windy so I stayed put. Very best wishes to Amy running the London Landmarks half and my friend and training partner running the Brighton Marathon – may their runs go wonderfully well.

Interesting stuff this week

1. African wise words: He who earns calamity, eats it with his family

2. BBC News website: Now, let’s be very clear and decisive on this …

Two Irish basketball teams have been ordered to replay the final 0.3 seconds of a quarter-final match. The second-tier game finished with the winning points coming from free throws awarded on the final buzzer. The losers appealed on the grounds the free throws should not have been allowed as the clock had expired at the same time the foul was called.

They were initially told by the National League Committee (NLC) that the result would stand as a referee’s decision cannot be retrospectively overturned but they were given the option to appeal to the National Appeals Committee (NAC).

The NAC ruled the match should be replayed in its entirety, but Basketball Ireland has since said the option to appeal was “granted in error”. The NLC then ruled the fixture would not be replayed in full, but that the remaining 0.3 seconds should be played.

3. BBC News website: I’ll see you on the dark side of the moon (but when?)

The White House wants US space agency Nasa to develop a new time zone for the Moon – Coordinated Lunar Time (CLT).

Because of the different gravitational field strength on the Moon, time moves quicker there relative to Earth – 58.7 microseconds every day and this can have a significant impact when trying to synchronise spacecraft.

The US government hopes the new time will help keep national and private efforts to reach the moon co-ordinated.

4. BBC News website: When conservation conserves too well?

The president of Botswana has threatened to send 20,000 elephants to Germany in a dispute over conservation.

Earlier this year, Germany’s environment ministry suggested there should be stricter limits on importing trophies from hunting animals but Botswana’s President told German media this would only impoverish people in his country. He said elephant numbers had exploded as a result of conservation efforts, and hunting helped keep them in check.

Botswana is home to about a third of the world’s elephant population – over 130,000 – more than it has space for. Herds are said to be causing damage to property, eating crops and trampling residents.

5. BBC News website: Filthy lucre

One of Nigeria’s best-known celebrities, a transgender woman known as Bobrisky, has been arrested on charges of abusing banknotes. She, allegedly, abused and mutilated banknotes by “spraying” them during a film premiere in Lagos.

“Spraying” (throwing them in the air in a sign of appreciation) is commonly done at Nigerian weddings and celebrations but it is technically an offence as the notes then fall to the ground where they can be trodden on. Prosecutions are rare.

6. BBC News website: At least cannabis is vegetarian

Sierra Leone’s president has declared a national emergency over rampant drug abuse. Kush, a psychoactive blend of addictive substances, has been prevalent in the country for years. One of the drug’s many ingredients is human bones and security has been tightened in cemeteries to stop addicts digging up skeletons from graves.