Anyone for tennis?

So I suppose I should start this by pointing out that I’m not a tennis nut.  It may seem like that from what I say, but I know worse.  I have friends who take 2 weeks annual leave during Wimbledon so they can see as much of it as possible and go several times both weeks.  I don’t fall into that category, I believe.  Some of you may wish to differ, that’s fine.

Wimbledon is one of my favourite sporting experiences.  Part of comes from being a tennis player.  Another comes from the place.  A long time ago (now) I got Wimbledon fever, watching it on tele.  Suspect it was before I went to senior school as I must have had the time to watch it a lot.  For a lot of that summer I spent lots of time hitting a ball against the house wall in the back garden.  Possibly fed up with the ‘thump thump thump’ continuously going on from that, or fear of a window going ‘crash’ instead, I was packed off to the local tennis club where my dad was a member, and things stuck.  I was half reasonable, no great shakes, but it was something I enjoyed as well.  Football had never been my thing, but this was different, and I could play singles and only have myself to blame or congratulate.  I would spend hours at the club, either hitting with others or hitting against their practice wall (back of a garage).  I was lucky with the club.  It had 6 grass courts.  Now-a-days that is a rarity, but it suited my game to a tee. 

I actually got to go to Wimbledon a few years later when my dad got some tickets through work.  I was lucky that he could get them most years and while he still worked there, I got to go most years.  The atmosphere was great.  A certain formality, but also a wonderful buzz.  Having got the fever from the tele a few years previous, the reality didn’t disappoint.   Since 1984 I’ve been more years than not.  I’ve been lucky in the ballots and even managed to see some finals and some corking matches as well.  I love going back to see what they have changed.  I can remember when the food and drink was served in white marquees with wooden boards due to the mud.  It’s more stylish now J.  I love taking friends there, I almost see it as a chance for me to act as tour guide.  Even though the action is on the courts, having a walk around always helps get a good vibe for the place.  You can also tell a lot about the players when they have to get to the outside courts, but that’s a different story.  There are certain things I will always buy when I’m there.  A programme is a must and I’ve managed (somehow) to get one for every year since I first went, even if I wasn’t there in person.  A keyring of a tennis ball is always on the list and has been since I first went.  In more recent years I’ve added the towel as well as they have the year on them as well.  I don’t use the towels, maybe I should!

For anyone who ever has a chance of going, I’d recommend it.  The place isn’t perfect, but it is unique and in many respects beautiful.  Everything is in the right colours, and to give you an idea of how important that is, I’ll finish with this little story.  A few years back, due to terror threats, it was decided to put concrete crash barriers across the unused gates to the club.  This was the right thing to do, there was no argument about that.  However after one day, it was felt they weren’t quite right.  Overnight the concrete was painted so that it matched the green and purple of the club.  The permanent replacements are in the club colours.  There is something very English about that, however it is certainly very Wimbledon.

I’m going again this year and looking forward to it.  Camera will be charged, I’ll try to remember to post some photos when I get the chance.  However given there’s going to be a lot of tennis on the tele over the next two weeks I might not post much till it’s over!

Greensleeves

Like many people I have no training in gardening.  I have a garden, I have a few books and I do my best.  However it is something that I find very enjoyable and rewarding, and if there are tasks to do, I will quite happily ‘plug myself in’ and while away the hours.  I managed to spend 3 hours yesterday after work doing stuff.  I probably overdid it a little, not finishing till about 10pm (just about enough light) but am pleased with the results.  I like the idea of planning stuff out and seeing how they turn out in the months and years to come.  I’ve even taking to offering suggestions to others in terms of what they can do with their gardens.  Maybe I’m giving lousy advice or maybe I have an eye for this sort of thing, but I’d like to hope my ideas are half decent.

 

I reckon that it probably took about 5 years to get it to the state I wanted, and I’ve since changed certain areas.  I still have a few plans I’d like to carry through, but much of that depends on the ability to get hold of what I want, and sometimes that is down to the local garden centres.  I know that when I was growing up, the family garden was regularly changed.  I often wonder if there’s an element of the George Lucas quote about films never being finished when it comes to gardens.  

I have made some discoveries along the way.  The most amusing one is the story I was told about my patio.  The garden (tiered) was originally 3 levels of grass with a wall around each level and steps down the side.  According to the neighbours, on one day they came back to find that the top level, nearest the house, was now a patio.  From what they can make out the patio was laid more or less straight onto the grass.  I’ve not had grass come through, so how true that is I don’t know, but it’ll be interesting to see what is there if I ever redesign that area.

Some of you might like to know what I have done with the garden, well a summary is as follows.  Patio level is a range of pots with a variety of season and perennial plants.  The middle level is mainly lawn with a border consisting of bulbs that flower at differing times of the years, some ground cover plants and a selection of shrubs for regular colour and more height.  The lower level is a selection of raised vegetable patches, fruit trees and a self-seeding wild bed.

I Want To Ride My Bicycle

Too long a gap between postings again, but at least it’s a new one now!

New topic for me to post on, and it’s cycling.

Why pick this as a new topic, well I have a bit of an interest in it.  In my previous job I used to cycle to work each day.  I’ve also cycled in for my current job on a number of occasions.  Finally I’m looking at moving on from marathons and possibly the next challenge will be Triathlons.  I won’t be posting on the latter of these just yet, but will do in time, but it’s the work commute that I want to focus on.

Now I know that a lot of posts have been made on cycling to work, there have been lots of news stories as well.  I doubt that I will cast any new light on the issue, nor am I going to suddenly  find the solution to everyone’s gripes.

Cycling in Brighton and Hove can be a mixed blessing.  There have been lots of cycle lane work by the council.  Some good, some less so.  Cycle lanes on a major road that are so wide they take out a lane of traffic in both directions is possibly overkill.  I know that it’s caused a lot of aggravation for drivers, most of which gets taken out on the cyclists rather than the council.  However cycle lanes that go ‘behind’ bus stops so that busses aren’t cutting across cyclists to pull over and stop are quite a good idea in my mind.  We’re also lucky that we have a seafront that can have a cycle lane along it, taking cyclists off of the road.
Returning to the bike last week in what will probably be our short summer window, it didn’t take long (2 days) for me to be yelled at but someone.  (Happened to be driving a white van, but I’m sure that was just chance!).  What had upset them.  The fact that I was moving across a lane (in line with another car) and I had held him up for all of about 10 seconds.  He probably wasted more time slowing down to yell at me.  I happily ignored him and carried on my way.  This is not uncommon in town, though I think in 2 years of cycling I’ve only been yelled at 4 times.  I consider myself quite a responsible cyclist and know that each time I was in the right.  (I will happily list why in another post if I need to).  However it is interesting that with some drivers the default position is that the cyclist is in the wrong.

Chatting to a colleague at work, they pointed out that it’s a size thing and that the ‘conflict’ always works in terms of the next size up on the road, or at least that is where the conflict normally exists. Pedestrians v Cyclists, Cyclists v Cars, Cars v Busses and so on.  Often I feel that cyclists actually get it from both sides.  I’ve been challenged to a fight by a pedestrian who felt I should have stopped because they wanted to cross the road (no formal crossing area), and by a bus driver who felt that I should have come to a complete standstill despite being ahead of him and let him go past and then resume my cycle to work.  As far as the highway code is concerned I don’t believe I was in the wrong in either situation, but am willing to be pointed to a bit that says otherwise.

So this brings me onto the last bit for now and that’s my top 5 dislikes as a cyclist.  Maybe some will be surprising, and hopefully some will show that I’m one of the more responsible cyclists out there.

1)      Cyclists going through red lights.  This happens often and I’ve lost count of the times I’ve been waiting and someone else goes past.  I often feel like trying to point out that I’ve not stopped just to have a rest.  (I’d also include cyclists who ‘pavement hop’ while still on the bike to avoid lights.  If you’re on the pavement you should be off the bike and walking it)

2)      Cyclist who ignore one way signs.  This goes back to when I was driving and went to turn up a one way street and I nearly hit a cyclist speeding down the road in the wrong direction.  No apology from them, just a grin!

3)      ‘Squeeze’ drivers.  These are the drivers who believe that the right course of action when they see cyclists coming up to lights will purposefully (when they don’t have to) move over as close to the curb as possible.  While unlike the other two there is nothing illegal in it, it really is quite childish.

4)      ‘I’m Right’ drivers.  These are the ones who assume they are correct in their road usage and that everyone else is correct.  Normally it’s from lack of knowledge of the highway code or even something as simple as the local area where they don’t know how the traffic signals are working.  Just because there is a red light in once direction it doesn’t mean it’s the same in the opposite one!

5)      MP3/Mobile Zombies.  These are the ones who pay no attention to the outside world.  They will be listening for traffic rather than looking for it and most bikes tend to be quiet.  When electric cars become the norm, things could be dangerous for this group.  (As a sub group here there are the drivers who are listening to their MP3s/mobiles with headphones when they are driving and therefore totally unaware of what is going on even inside their own car rather than the outside world).

Hopefully those 5 show that I’m quite even handed with the good and bad on the road of all users.  I trust this doesn’t seem like too much of a rant, but it is meant to be quite serious.

Whatever mode of transport you use though, may it be safe and considerate to all!

The London Marathon

So, the big day, the biggest marathon in the UK and I was in the line-up.  I had no illusions that I was going to set a fast time, or that the majority of the field would beat me, but I was there!

The atmosphere was wonderful.  However I need to back up a bit for the whole experience.  So back we go to Saturday.  The expo was big, but not as big as the Excel.  I nearly went into the wrong ‘hall’!   Thankfully I realised before setting foot inside that a hall with banners advertising several home sales websites was probably not where I needed to be.  Readjusting I found the right hall.  To be honest with the big red banners advertising the marathon, I should have been able to spot it.  

I was lucky from the word go with there being no queue for the registration area for my number.  Others were not so lucky with queues into double figures.  Registration was nice and easy, and I soon had my race number, a lot of drawing pins and a load of other bits and bobs.

The expo itself is mainly a big sales area; I bought a few things, tried a few things, but was struggling to spend more than 90 mins there without feeling that I was wasting time.

On the way to my overnight accommodation there were a number of people from the expo on the train, obvious from the bags that they had.  There was however someone who seemed to be a naysayer.  Hopefully I misheard the conversation but they seemed upset (to the point of writing to official channels) about the ‘disruption’ that the marathon was going to cause.  Never mind, some people can’t be pleased.

So, fast forward onto the day itself.  The free transport had a couple of false starts with various London Transport people blissfully unaware of the offer of a free journey for those about to put themselves through the paces.  Eventually everything got sorted out.  I met Spiderman at this point.  Nice chat about the hassles of training this year.  I just hoped that he had a suit that undid easily!

Arriving at London Bridge it was clear that the majority of people travelling were marathon connected.  Barriers were all open and there was a noticeable presence of steward to help people, though most were just following the crowd.  Thankfully the crowd did know where they were going!

Once in the runners enclosure there was a sense of calm anticipation.  Many had clearly run a marathon before, but there were also lots of first timers as well.  Given how slow I tend to run, I was with a lot of them, but that was fine, I wasn’t the only one.  

One of the nice things about marathons is the sense of kinship that everyone has.  We all know what is coming!  This is something that carries on through the race itself, but I’ll come to that later.

The race starts and everyone slowly makes their way through the park and to the start line.  The photos of the masses on TV don’t do it justice.  Finally the start line is there, we all have chips on our shoes, but we start our watches.  The course is lined all the way, in some places more than 10 deep.  There is encouragement at every point, even coming in as late as I ended up finishing, there were still plenty of people there.  It is estimated that there were about 700,000 people on the streets supporting, nearly 50% more than there usually are.  

For me, the ‘race’ ended about mile 9 with my left calf going.  It had caused problems during training, so in some respect I’m not surprised, but one always hopes that these things won’t reoccur during the run itself.  I had a go trying to stretch it out for a few miles, but every time I thought I was about to get there, it went again.  These things happen and I can still walk and I can walk at a good speed.  In fact, from deciding that I needed to run across Tower Bridge, it is clear that walking is going to be quicker.  Slowly I join up with others who are walking and in the end spend most of the marathon walking and talking with someone who has been suffering with lateral tendinitis from mile 3.  Knowing how much normal tendinitis is personally, I can appreciate how much pain they are in but they are determined to get around, so I keep them company and hopefully take their mind off of some of the pain.  We finish in a very slow time, but we finish and get our medals and say our farewells.  Such is the kinship though that you quickly end up chatting to others, almost as if you’ve known each other for ages.

Thankfully I have a friend at the end, well needed because I am exhausted both mentally and physically.  The last 10 miles I’ve done with bad blisters and getting the weight off my feet is important.  In a few hours they will hurt so much that I won’t be able to walk up the stairs as they can’t take the pressure, but for now I can limp from the finish to the train home.

The pain is such that I know I’m going to ache for a while, but the exhilaration from finishing is overcoming it.  A week later I find that I have put myself into the ballot for next year.  The hope is that training will be easier (less snow and rain) and that I won’t be injured in the same way.  For a while though I won’t be running, but I am looking at other runs to keep things going so I’m better prepared for next year if I’m one of the one in three that gets in by ballot!

One thing I do know is that this year I can at least say #ibeatmo Next year might be a different story!

An echo of things to come!

OK, so it’s been nearly a month since my last post.

In my defense I have been somewhat busy with pounding the streets in preparation for that 26.2 round London the other weekend.

However I wanted to reassure all my loyal followers (yes both of you ) that the blog will be coming back to life in the next few days and to give some hints at what my next posts will be.

Topics will include the marathon (rather obviously as I don’t think I couldn’t post about that), the garden, honesty and truth (could be a bit of an over warm spud), tennis and hopefully lots more.

If I get things in gear, the first of these will be done before the end of the week.

Best of times and the worst of times

Today is one of those days that for a lot of people, especially those in the UK, will, in years to come, be able to remember what they were doing when they heard the news.  Today is the day that Baroness Thatcher passed away.

A lot can and has been said about her.  As with all people, she did things that many found wrong, and things that many found right.  However discussion on at side of things isn’t what I’m looking to focus on.  Instead I’m looking at social media again (and I would include blogs like this in the term).

The title I have chosen for this sums up what I have seen on social media in the 6 hours or so it has been since the news was broken that her death had occurred.  In that 6 hour spell I have seen public postings that have demonstrated how social media can be used in a positive, constructive way, but also many demonstrations of how social media can be used in a negative and destructive way.

One thing that does make me pause for thought is a quote from a podcast host that I always remember when it comes to the internet.  ” ‘Inset name of search engine’ never forgets”.  While said in jest, there is an element of truth behind it, not specifically for a search engine, but for the internet in general.  Once something is out there on the internet it is very hard to ensure it’s permanent deletion.  Even deleted posts can still exist somewhere (as some people have discovered) and we know from news stories the issues that can arise with photographs.  Days, maybe months or years, down the line, will people be embarrassed by what they have posted in haste?  What would their extended family think about how negatively they use social media?  Whereas these arguments used to be raised in relation to certain types of ‘artistic work’, with the age of the internet and expansion of social media, is this another area where people should be encouraged more to think before they act, not just for the benefit of others, but for themselves as well.

Off Piste

So I have recently returned from the second of two ski trips.  (I know that sounds extravagant, but it is totally true that if you want to improve you have to ski more than once a year, but that’s not the point of the post).  I wanted to put something out there about something that happened on the first trip.

It was the last day (a Friday) and me and a couple of friends were preparing to do our last ‘run’ of the day.  It involved having a hot chocolate at a place on the mountains that is one of the last places to get the sun.  You then wait for the lifts to stop, and then ski all the way down to the hotel.  There’s nothing very dangerous in that, the slopes back down aren’t difficult for a half competent skier.

The hot chocolates were drunk, the lifts stopped, and off we went.  The slope started nice and easy, but when we got to the first steep part, we came across someone clambering back up the slope to their skis.  In this situation the usual ‘form’ is to help out and make sure the person is ok.  I collected the skis, a friend collected the pole he’d dropped and we gave them back.  It was then that we discovered there was a problem.  The person was as drunk as a skunk (no offense to any skunks that are reading this).

We did, eventually, with the help of a ski restaurant, get him to safety, but the whole situation left me with a few challenges in terms of what is an isn’t acceptable on the slopes.

So the question being posed is whether it is acceptable to drink on the slopes.  The chap we found would and should never be allowed to drive given how much he had drunk, yet, there were no restrictions in terms of skiing.  He was a risk to himself, and had it been earlier in the day would have been a risk to others.  At -15C at night if he’d skied off the piste and collapsed, he wouldn’t have survived.

So, should there be no alcohol allowed on the slopes at all.  I was shocked to see that there were a number of places happily selling high %vol miniatures to people on the slopes, with no concern over if they were to be shared or all consumed by one person.  That sort of consumption is something that I believe would be unacceptable.  So, at first look an alcohol ban would seem logical.  However it’s when you move to other drinks that things possibly become a bit more difficult.  I’ll freely admit that I have, on occasion, had a gluhwien or a beer with a meal when skiing, but would limit it to that.

Now I like to believe that I’m quite a responsible skier and make sure that I am in control of what I am doing.  Some may argue that I’m not being so by having a gluhwien, and I’m willing to accept that some may view it that way.  I would though argue there is a difference between that and ‘sinking’ a load of miniatures before skiing.

I’m yet to be convinced that a total ban should be enforced, but having met someone who was a risk to themselves, a ban on alcohol over a certain % would get my support.  The person I found on the slopes would certainly have been drinking that rather than a beer or gluhwein given the state he was in.