I may have mentioned that I’ve recently lost weight and occasionally experience periods of insomnia. Obviously I need toughening up a lot more…both physically and mentally, to cope with the worst that life dishes out (yes I am being sarcastic!).
Did two runs today, 40 mins round the Heath at lunch with my mate Steve, and a hard 5 mile training session on Moel Famau this evening (see map).
Hopefully some demons will rest, and I’ll sleep tonight!
Last night I dreamt that Gordon Brown secretly programmed in VB by night. He showed me his code and it was pretty good.
I don’t like what work is doing to my brain.
For the last 10 days I’ve been struck down with a nasty cold virus. This had me in bed for a number of days with fever, followed by irritating cough, and now followed by extreme lassitude. Typically this also corresponded with the easter weekend.
I dislike being ill immensely, especially when it stops me doing what I want to do. It seems bearable for the first couple of days, but then the negative thoughts start to creep in and soon the outlook grows gloomy.
I ventured out on my first run since getting sick today, a short but hilly 4 miler. Actually did a new best time, although I felt tired and like I had a sack of bricks on my back.
Also had some news today that sucked, but life goes on for the moment anyway.
Had an excellent run today and did this route to Halton Castle in reverse (6.23 miles). This meant there was a decent hill climb from the canal up to the castle :). The rain was absolutely lashing down from leaving the changing rooms and continued for the entire 47 mins I was out. There’s something about being totally soaked to the skin in water from the sky and buffeted by cold winds, but still feeling warm inside. It also feels great to be outdoors in harsh elements and loving it when you know that everyone else is probably indoors taking shelter.
Today reminded me of when I was living in Glebe Point (Sydney, Australia) and regularly used to do a 4 mile circuit which included the Anzac Bridge. One day I was running over the bridge when an intense tropical downpour started, instantly soaking everything (including me) in seconds. There were some other runners coming the other way, and we gave each other that knowing runners nod which meant, “this is great isn’t it!”
On Sunday evening I went to watch Madama Butterfly at Llandudno’s Venue Cymru, presented by Ellen Kent Productions. This has been the third opera I’ve seen so far and it was certainly as unique and individual as the others.
In brief the story is a tale of a wealthy American sailor, Pinkerton, who marries a beautiful girl, Butterfly, when visiting Nagasaki. From the beginning it is clear he is not really serious about her and soon leaves for America promising to return to her. Butterfly waits for 3 years faithfully, turning down offers of marriage from wealthy men, but still she hears nothing. It is revealed that Butterfly gave birth to a child shortly after Pinkerton’s departure. Eventually Pinkerton returns, but he has remarried an American lady and brought her with him, and they intend to take the child away to America. Butterfly is rightfully distraught and ends her own life with a knife in a dramatic scene.
Like many operas it is a sad story, this one being about a particularly untrustworthy and scandalous man and the sadness and pain he inflicts on a selfless and trusting Butterfly. However, in contrast to the tragic nature of the story, the set and costumes were wonderfully colourful and detailed. I was also very impressed by the lighting effects, as the scenes changed between day to night.
I am getting to like opera more and more now that I am acquainted with it’s many quirks. I cannot confess to being a connoisseur just yet, but I can appreciate what it means to me - the blend of music, singing, acting and visual effects, and the feeling it distills within.
It was very foggy outside when I got up this morning - couldn’t even see past the trees in the field. Thought I’d get back into the swing of things after my holiday and went for a run up Moel Famau. Was expecting it to be completely in the fog, but was pleased to find that upon approaching the car park the fog dissipated and I was in lovely bright sunshine!
Took a new route which ended up being 4.75 miles, and the most direct to the summit and some 800ft of climbing with no breaks… The weather was absolutely gorgeous at the top, and the view from the top was that of a sea of fog with odd hill tops poking through like islands.
Did some of those domestic chores today like washing the car and cleaning up. Spent the afternoon doing extensive research into a place I’m interested in. Also tried to get Gallery2 integrated with iPhoto and Wordpress, and at the same time set up an Ubuntu linux box on RAID1.
Just got back home from Austria and am experiencing that sickly feeling of reality, as it washes me with a sobering wave of melancholic reverie. However, I am still feeling somewhat freed from my regular routine. Just somewhere in my head are some rather inspiring thoughts which I hope I can nurture into something definitive over the remainder of the weekend, before I get caught up and trapped once again in the river of routine and work.
Oh well, it has been good to ski again and my skiing confidence has definitely improved since last time.
To sum the whole week up…
Best points
Worst points
Maybe I’ll try snow boarding next time.
And the pictures… Click the image below to see more.
Today didn’t get off to a great start. I’d left a large piece of paper on the kitchen table with “LUNCH IN FRIDGE” written on it so I’d see it at breakfast and remember to take the spaghetti with me… Somehow I failed to notice this and instead managed to pick up a tin of soup. At least dinner was ready when I got home, but a shame it was the same as yesterday.
This evening I watched “The Golden Compass” having held off for a number of weeks until I’d finished the book upon which it is based - “Northern Lights”, part of a Philip Pullman trilogy named “His Dark Materials“. With the last pages of the book so recently in my head I was at first somewhat disappointed with the movie. As with LOTR, at times it felt very fast moving indeed, where one brief scene had been translated from a few chapters in the book. This was frustrating for me as I’d taken my time over the book and a lot of the best bits seemed to be missed out. Another gripe I have was that they swapped some of the chapters around (very confusing having just read the book) and even missed out the very last part (not saying any more). And where the book seemed to be a darker almost adult-like affair, the movie seemed to be in lighter spirits.
But hold on! This was still a good film. It did manage to encapsulate the ambiance of the parallel world in which the book is set. And the acting was very good too. But the best thing about this movie is that it looks great - excellent computer generated characters, fabulous sets and costumes. I kept wishing they’d slow the thing down so we could appreciate and savour all of this, but it just kept rushing along at 100mph.
Overall, I’d definitely recommend this movie if you’ve not (or not recently) read the book.
Did the rather comically named “Three peaks of Runcorn” run today, which is basically a 6.23 mile route with three hills in it.
It has been an eventful weekend of sorts. On Saturday morning I repeated last weeks fell run up Moel Famau, but this time in reverse, meaning it was a hell of a lot harder! The really steep climbing (1100ft) is done in the first 2 miles then the easy 4 mile descent at the end ;). The route I took can be viewed here (although it should be reversed). There was rather an unpleasant headwind which made going up even harder, but despite this I did the whole thing without stopping, oh yes. I was pleased to see some people on the way to the summit. It’s always nice to give them that knowing wink and a cheery “good morning!”, as though I do this sort of thing every day (then get around the next corner and practically have a cardiac arrest as my lungs are bursting through my chest!). I somehow managed a little sprint up the last vertical section, which was followed by a huge wave of euphoria as I reached the trig-point. There then followed a few moments of standing on the tower before the starting my descent. The descent was actually quite good fun for a while as the ridge drops sharply and then continues up and down for a good mile, before hitting the boring vehicle track and roads all the way back to Cilcain.
Also tried adding ginger (about an inch) to a smoothie yesterday which gave it a nice kick. May do that again, as raw ginger is very good for all sorts of things.
Saturday afternoon wasn’t as good as the morning as I managed to effectively render my 1.6TB Buffalo Terastation useless. At the time I was trying to free up space on its system partition by moving /usr to the larger shared array. I obviously moved something I shouldn’t have, as now it won’t boot. That was essentially the rest of the day wasted and resulting in my lounge floor getting covered in bits of terastation and PC components. I believe the problem can be solved by first mounting the RAID1 partition on a linux box, fixing the problem (or wiping the system partition), then flashing the terastation firmware. This issue is still on going, and the safety of over a terabyte of movies and music is hanging in the balance…
Today I looked around some houses in Chester with a friend who is thinking about buying there. Chester is a nice place with plenty of good shops, pubs and restaurants, and the prices seem to have gone up nearly 15% since I looked there two years ago - not so good news for non home owners or first time buyers. Looking for a home is also something on my vague and crumpled to-do list, but for now I’ll stick with rental and the maximum flexibility in case I want to bail out and leave for distant shores or far off lands sometime soon.
Shortly afterward I found myself walking on Moel Famau again and this time found a new alternative route to return to the Llanferres car park. Its actually signposted “Loggerheads” from the summit but is possible to turn off and follow a forest track (for a few miles) round the side of the hill and back to the starting point. It was well past dark when I got back at 6.30, but a nice warm evening and many stars in the sky to look at.
Felt like watching a movie tonight but then realised the terastation is still in bits all over the lounge floor.
And so with all recent excitement of booking my ski holiday and countless late nights of insomnia, I am feeling exceptionally tired, but tireless, if that makes sense? Today everything seemed rather surreal, and in the shops this evening I thought I may even possibly have been asleep. I was wondering that if I ever was to have children and be kept up late tending to them for weeks/months on end, would it feel like this perhaps?…Well, I may be running myself down with lack of sleep, but I certainly won’t be accused of eating (too) badly. I managed to come home via the supermarket this evening with a trolley full of mostly fresh fruit and have just invented a delicious smoothie containing the following:
This makes approx. 1 pint of smoothie.
All the fresh berries were rather expensive but the difference to frozen fruit in taste…..WOW! The frozen variety is handy though and has its place.
Continuing with the cooking theme… I’ve just finished making a chicken and root vegetable soup which has also turned out rather nicely if I may say so.Have just tested my blender’s “puree” function to finish it off :).
