Another Stupid Blog UK

Visited Tenerife in the Canary Islands in late September. One of the highlights was taking a drive up to Mount Teide the 13,000ft Volcano that dominates the island. One of the most bizarre and beautiful landscaped ive ever encountered.

Mount Teide Volcano, Tenerife

Gad - seems like years since ive been round these parts…anyway, here’s some of the reasons why i haven’t made any time to post, in no particular order - with bonus crappy mobile phone photography! (please leave some comments if you care).

• Ran a 10k in 55.09 minutes - quite disappointed with my performance on the day, hope to do better next year
• Went to the lovely Island of Arran for a short break

Glen Rosa Arran, a pleasant walk

Shiskine Golf Course, Isle of Arran

• Went to see the much heralded ‘Indie’ Sci-Fi flick ‘Moon’ - a nice antidote to Michael ‘Explosions’ Bay and Terminator
• Watched the last three minutes of Top Gear and was strangely moved
• Contemplated whether or not i should plump for an iPhone
• Went to see AC/DC at Hampden Park - a stunning, energetic and hilarious night, Angus - I Salute You
• Finished Reading ‘A Game Of Thrones’ by George RR Martin - loved it, massive and hugely complex - need a bit of a break before starting the next in the series…………
• Also, finished ‘Homicide’ - a must for fans of The Wire
• Booked tickets to see the current greatest band in the world Phoenix in October
• Went to see the Nocturn Cycle Race around Edinburghs’ Grassmarket
• Spent a week in the stunning Medieval Town of Barga in Northern Tuscany

Barga, Italy - May 2009

• Went to Berlin and was very impressed, cool city

Alexanderplatz, Berlin - One of the coolest cities in Europe

• Ate a superb fish supper at the Anstruther Fish Bar - the best chippie in Britain

Inside the Anstruther Fish Bar - queued for over an hour to get in!

• Oh yeah, ive been working as well

There’s probably a whole lot more but it’s all a blur, thanks for sticking around.

Ive been trying to get into running a bit recently, mainly in an attempt to get prepared for a mens 10k that ive been forced into partaking in at the end of June (i can barely manage 3k). Don’t get me wrong, i love a bit of physical activity, especially Tennis or 5-a-side football - ive just never been much of a runner. Too often ive been passed in the street by a red-faced, wheezing and sweat-ridden middle aged man in a flourescent cagoule and Ron Hill trackpants and thought to myself - ‘what a joyless activity that looks like!’ - well, now i have had to join those disheveled and pain-ridden ranks in pounding the local pavements.

All this would be rather grim if it wasn’t for a rather nifty wee gadget that ive been using to prod me along - the Nike + sensor for iPod Nano. Id heard about the thing from a few friends and thought, ‘pah, gimmick!’, but i have to say ive been proved wrong - the Nike+ is a great wee bit of kit.

Is the Nike + sensor any good?

Essentially - you stick a sensor in your Nano and attach another to your left trainer (you don’t need the official Nike shoes) - you can either buy a dongle or make your own (i used this method - works fine). Once you’re up and running simply calibrate the device to your pace and away you go. The accuracy of the Nike + has been questioned in some quarters, but in my experience it’s pretty much spot on (see HowStuffWorks guide to nike +). Whilst out on your run the Nike + guy talks to you, to remind you of what distance you have left - and, when when you beat your best distance look out for a sporting legend congratulating you - nice touch.

Community humiliation

What’s great about the Nike+ is that the fun doesn’t end after your run. Plug in your Nano or iPhone (has Nike + inbuilt-you only need the shoe sensor) to iTunes and your run data is uploaded to nikeplus.com. Here you can see a graph depicting the peaks and troughs of you performance, as well as the major details from your run i.e. - distance, time, calories burned.

One of my Nike + run graphs - a little unstable!

Nikeplus.com also acts as a running social-network, you can share your runs with friends, and indeed compete against them in set goals. 

So, there we go - at least the Nike + iPod is making physical failure fun!

This week ive had the (dis)pleasure of doing my public service and attending Jury Duty at my local Sheriff Court (the busiest in Europe, if anyone would like to guess where). This would have been partially acceptable had it not been for the fact that i spent no time at all actually dispensing justice and instead spent the majority of the week in oppresively hot waiting rooms with inconcievably low ceilings (why?). Each trial that came up collapsed at the last minute due to some legal technicality or other, and the one trial that actually did get going (for what i consider a pretty minor offence) my name didn’t come out the hat. So, there we go - four prescious days of my life down the pan.

One saving grace of the week was that i managed to get through a fair chunk of ‘Homicide’ by ‘The Wire’ supremo David Simon. A superb read so far, ill give more in-depth thoughts when i finish it - suffice it to say that it’s essential stuff for any fans of The Wire.

Baltimore Street-Crime Epic: 'Homicide' by David Simon

Another highlight was having a fit of the giggles in court one day - what if my trial ended up to be something like this? ………… sadly it wasn’t to be.

Yes that’s right - ive set up yet another stupid blog in order to ………. well, why does anyone blog? - I guess im going to use this to vent randomly at the crazy world that we currently inhabit. Obviously, with things the way they are these days we need a bit of light relief and i aim to provide that in bucketfulls! Ill be updating as much as possible with my potentially opinion-defining musings.

In the meantime, here’s a picture of a Keeshond called Dennis ……….

Dennis the Keeshond

See you soon!