Book and Beer

In The Old Ways Macfarlane examines the routes that mark - and in many cases lie submerged within or beneath - the British landscape. And not just the British landscape, but Spain and Palestine too. He draws out the connections between pathways and stories, reflecting on the different kinds of thinking and writing there have been inspired by travelling on foot.

Macfarlane is a lyrical, eloquent writer, whose portfolio of interests encompasses art, geology, map-making, poetry, environmentalism and adventure. As he goes about this he is guided by the spirits of many who have gone before him; perhaps the most significant of these is the poet Edward Thomas, with the artist Eric Ravilious another.

This is both a book about journeys and a journey in its own right - into the past, but also into the self. It is scholarly, informative, moving and thought-provoking. All I can say really is wow, what a beautiful and inspiring book, makes me want to get off my arse and go for a walk. The beer was good too :)

A Day at the Races

Beachin

Well after a hectic set of shifts it was nice to finish work on Saturday morning knowing I was heading to my girl and our caravan at the seaside.

A 45 minute bike ride in the fresh morning air (although not quite enjoyable after a 12 hour night shift) wasn’t too bad and the early morning countryside wildlife was nice, spotted plenty of rabbits, 3 pheasants and a deer on my journey to our seaside retreat.

After getting up at lunch time I was in the mood for a beer and my gorgeous lady had a few drinks in ready for my arrival. A few beers later and I was feeling like my weekend had begun. Later we drank some lovely wine, a French Muscadat and watched National Treasure (a personal favourite of mine) before going to bed after a cosy evening in front of the TV.

After getting up to a cup of tea and a fantastic Bacon sandwich courtesy of Caron, we headed to the beach for a long walk with the dogs, a very windy day but satisfying nontheless.  We walked maybe just 15 minutes up the beach before heading back, wrapped up warm against the wind, all the while Bob and Dottie scampered about our feet and played chase with each other, often with brief interruptions in play to investigate a foreign object and/or smell. I meandered along with Caron eyes firmly set on the sand with childlike excitement at the thought of finding a fossil amongst the many pebbles and rocks, sadly the only discovery was made by the dogs as they came upon the grim remains of a Seal carcass, Caron and I both feeling a pang of sadness at the poor creatures demise.

Later I cycled back home where Caron met me later for a few more drinks and another chilled night in front of tv before Caron headed home to prepare to get up for work in the morning. 

(Photo is of the same beach but taken a few weeks previous)

Book and Beer

I found the first half of this book quite hard going but later in the book it really gets going and I did look forward to reading the other two parts of the trilogy but my desire for reading fantasy has gone at the moment and I fancy a change so will read the other two books when I'm in the mood!

Characterisation is the key to good story-telling and that is where this book succeeds and keeps the reader engaged. By keeping the backdrop tightly contained the author has allowed the characters to come to the fore, and as a result they and their battles are the key drivers to the story.

The world building aspect of this book was very standard and straightforward, not particularly exciting but the real winner here is the plot. The writing style is also straightforward and accessible, an easy read!

I'd recommend this book if you like your fantasy stuff!

Great beer too! :)

SkyRide and Sports Day

Feeling sore and achy today after yesterday's SkyRide and charity sports day event! I got up at 6:30am and headed down to East Coast Bicycles to help them set up a display for the passing cyclists as it would be great publicity for ECB. I had the pleasure of riding a few bikes from the shop to the event including the beautiful Electra Mullholland.
I then returned home to get my bike and together with Fruitfingers and my brother we rode into the city center and joined the mass of people (5500) to cycle the route around the city center and 'The Deep' and after a couple of laps we then had to head home and go out again for a charity sports day that Fruitfingers had organised to raise money for the 'Great North Run' she's doing in a few weeks.
The sports day was great fun and featured all the classics....egg and spoon, sack race, skipping etc. Of which I won the skipping of all things! I also got second in the egg and spoon and 3 legged race and got third in another event.
The day ended in exhaustion and sunburn but the Chinese we had from the takeaway made up for that!

Hangovers and a Race for Life

Well the weekend is over! It started with a visit to our friends Mark and Sarah on Friday evening for Sarahs birthday. It was a good and enjoyable night but Fruitfingers and I, along with most of the other people there, got very drunk and therefore we paid for it on the saturday with a massive hangover.
On the Saturday we had a visit from my brother and father but other then that, it was a wasted and un-eventful day of sitting on the couch watching episodes of 'The IT Crowd' and a couple of films.

Sunday was slightly more eventful, we got up at a reasonable time and got a lift to the Costello athletics stadium so Fruitfingers could take part in the 'Race for Life' and although she was still recovering from a foot' injury, she was in better shape then last year when she had to do it with a rather large hangover.
This year our friend Sarah was taking part with friends and family as part of "Team Justice" and it was more fun then last year, having more people to talk to during the race build up and Mark was there which was good, having some one to hang out with during the race, compared to last year when I was stood on my own for 40 minutes!
I have to say it was a little annoying though, last year when Fruitfingers ran it, some people in attendance at this years race sponsored her but never actually gave her the money, but since then a relative of theirs has had cancer and luckily come through it OK. But because it had hit a little closer to home, it was suddenly more important to them to raise money for such a cause, when Fruitfingers has been doing this for a number of years and they wern't interested!

We also registered for 'Shine' last night, Shine is a charity based event for Cancer Research UK in which we are going to walk a marathon (26 miles) through the night, on the streets of London, and after paying £50 to travel down there and to participate and to lose a full nights sleep, I hope we can raise a couple of hundred pounds for such a worthy cause! Our sponsorship page can be found at www.sponsormetoshine.org/kevandamy

Another Ride Another Run

I took another ride out with my fellow ECB Knights on Tuesday evening! Once again we met up at the shop just before 19:00 and then we were off. The ride was a lot faster then the previous week and I could really feel the strain from Monday nights 10k run on my legs as we sped along at the faster pace, with my thighs feeling like they were on fire.
We cut through the avenues, then up towards Orchard Park, through to Cottingham and then back down Priory Road. We then cut through onto a cycle path and followed it to Anlaby Road, we had a cycle around the KC Stadium then back to East Coast Bicycles to collect baggage before riding a hundred yards up the road to Pave for a relaxing couple of beers.
I was delighted to find they served Brooklyn Lager, my favorite beer, which I hadn't been able to find for a couple of years (apart from the bottle I had in London last year) and after chatting for an hour, I headed home! A very enjoyable evening.

I came home from work today with the intention of running another 10k in preparation for the 'Jane Tomlinson Run For All' in a couple of weeks. I popped to the shop for a Boost chocolate bar to charge my batteries before I set off. 20 minutes later I left the house and immediately found it a struggle due to my legs being stiff from Monday nights run, the first 2k was horrendous and not very enjoyable at all, but eventually my legs loosened off and I picked up the pace and was really enjoying the run until about 3k from the end when I could feel my legs start to tighten, managed to keep going until I was just 1k from home and then they totally seized, I halted running and walked a hundred yards to see if a short rest would help but much to my anguish , when I tried to run again they had completely locked up and I had to stop my timer and walk the last bit home. I was on track to beat Mondays time by a minute despite running slowly at the beginning and towards the end so at least that was a good sign. I'll now rest my legs until either Sunday or Monday and see how they are feeling then!

Now I await the imminent arrival of Fruitfingers with a Chinese takeaway for tea...yum!!!