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Bluebottle Posted May 10, 2018
Walk the Wight should be good training – the only downside is leaving home at 4:45am in order to get to the start line on time, oh and I picked up a few blisters last weekend when doing the Randonnee, so hopefully they won't get worse… Should be scenic and the current forecast is dry until around 6pm, so hopefully we'll be fine.
Part of me suspects that any attempt to get decent waterproofs is doomed to fail and any I get will end up getting soaked through, so I may as well just wear the theme park poncho I got from Orlando, which is reasonably light and I could just put it over the top of my bag too.
I've only seen the first episode of the new series of 'Taskmaster' – I've recorded them but am still finishing watching the new series of 'Twin Peaks'. It is far more bizarre and less soap-like than the first two series, but still very enjoyable. I'd say that out of 40 or more episodes there are only a few instances of pure horror, a lot of weirdness and an awful lot of wondering whether Ed will get together with Norma.
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SQ and BB
SashaQ - happysad Posted May 11, 2018
That is an early start, but yes, you should enjoy it when you get there. I hope the blisters have improved.
Good idea about the Orlando Poncho - simple but effective Kept me and my wheelchair dry each day there when it rained at 3pm so that will be good for you and your bag
Interesting that the new series of Twin Peaks is different from the first two, but still up to the good standard of weirdness rather than horror The second episode of Taskmaster was also up to standard
The new programme 'Ultimate Worrier' sounds intriguing, so I'll see what that is like next week
I hope you get good times for your events at the weekend
SQ and BB
Bluebottle Posted May 14, 2018
It was indeed a long day – up at 4am, out of the house at 4:45am and not back home until after 9pm – walking is definitely much more tiring than cycling and the effects last longer too. Still, I've walked 27 hilly miles now, and have no idea how I'll be able to manage 62… The good news is that I haven't acquired any new blisters; my prevention plan seems to have worked perfectly as I was free from blisters and chafing.
With 'Twin Peaks' 2 series were made in the 1990s, which ended on a number of cliff-hangers regarding many of the characters. This was followed by a prequel film 'Fire Walk with Me' – which, being a prequel, was set before the series began and so didn't answer any of the cliff-hangers, with the audience wanting to know what happened next. The main 'Twin Peaks' star, Kyle Maclachlan, also wasn't in it much, as were other characters whose actors were unavailable. It also introduced numerous plot points that weren't mentioned in the original series at all, which left the fans wondering why the film was about irrelevancies. Now the third series has taken the story in completely unpredictable directions but has tied 'Fire Walk with Me' in with the original series so that its relevance has finally been revealed.
Have you seen many films by David Lynch? He isn't interested so much in making his audience jump as to push the boundaries of human understanding through the medium of cinema – though if the way to do this involves making his audience jump or film a man driving thousands of miles on a lawnmower, he will do so. He isn't afraid to be a visionary whose audience doesn't have a clue what he's showing them, so it really keeps you on your toes.
At parkrun on Saturday my son ran too, and though it is the first time he's run for a while he got his 2nd fastest ever time. With regards Walk the Wight, the official start time is 7am and we started a little later at 8:10am, however there were still a large number of others still starting at that time and a steady stream of walkers all the way along. I think we finished at around the same time I finished last year, so I must have been 30-60 minutes faster than last year.
Didn't see or hear the booming Brading Bittern, though: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-44093258
So did you have a good weekend?
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SQ and BB
SashaQ - happysad Posted May 15, 2018
Well done for completing Walk the Wight - will stand you in good stead for the next challenge Good that you seem to have been faster, too - will you be sent your precise time, or is that the one where you were never quite sure how you did?
Shame you didn't encounter the famous birds, though - I've heard about bitterns, but not heard them in real life, and that is good news that they're finding a home on the Island
Good news about parkrun too - well done to your son for getting a great time!
No, I'm not familiar with David Lynch's films. I like your description of them! Intriguing Aha, I hadn't heard of Fire Walk With Me, but that is a cunning plan to continue the TV series while integrating the film so all is revealed in the end
I did have a good weekend as the weather was good - a pleasant walk round A87831778 was just the thing after the excitement of the h2g2 Eurovision Party the night before
SQ and BB
Bluebottle Posted May 15, 2018
When doing 'Walk the Wight' you're given a card that you can take to the checkpoints for official start and end times, so my official time this year was Start: 8:10am, Finish 5:47pm. I can't remember my exact time from last year, however I believe it was roughly 5:30pm and though we got there at 7am we officially started at 7:05am I believe. (Unless I'm wrong, which isn't unlikely as it was a year ago).
When we arrived at the halfway point at Carisbrooke Castle they were playing lots of Eurovision songs – which was disappointing as we'd had a 'guess which song about walking they'll be playing when we get to Carisbrooke' competition… I must admit I didn't see Eurovision – it hasn't been the same since Terry Wogan stopped hosting.
David Lynch is probably best known for films like 'The Elephant Man' or 'Blue Velvet' but my favourite remains 'Dune', which he made instead of 'Return of the Jedi' which he'd been asked if he'd like to direct but turned down. His film 'The Straight Story' tells of an old man who learns his estranged brother has had a stroke. As his eyesight is so bad he can no longer drive a car, but determined to see him he drives about 250 miles on his old lawnmower which has a 5mph top speed. There's lots of breath-taking scenery and a lawnmower moving unbelievably slowly from one side of the screen to the other.
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SashaQ - happysad Posted May 15, 2018
Wow, that is rather epic over 9 hours... Well done indeed
Ah, so you are a TOG? I didn't mind Terry Wogan hosting it, but he definitely got tired of the whole thing a couple of years before he gave up so I found Graham Norton a breath of fresh air (although maybe I'm biased as me and D used to watch The Graham Norton Show together so I'm a bit of a fan). He was brilliant this year because he enjoyed some of the songs so much (certainly more than I did ), they brought him to tears! Ahhh
Yes, I've heard of The Elephant Man (with John Hurt) but not seen it. The Straight Story sounds a fascinating concept!
SQ and BB
Bluebottle Posted May 16, 2018
Am I a TOG? I was never sure if I was old enough to be a TOG, or young enough to be a TYG. So I just went for the enjoying listening to the radio without worrying about the label approach That said, I was on the TOG's mailing list…
I do quite like Graham Norton, he also has a really expressive voice for Radio and sometimes watch his show but it is often on late and has many of the same guests. Alan Carr was someone else who had a great radio voice but I thought his television show was quite disappointing. I must confess I really dislike Paul O'Grady on radio as he has a very monotonous voice and only seems to talk about dogs.
Off to an RR10 tonight.
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SQ and BB
Bluebottle Posted May 17, 2018
On Monday we had our club meeting for 'The Trouble with Lichen' and as part of the meeting we were asked to suggest some book club ideas. I made three suggestions, 'The Heir of Redclyffe' by Charlotte Yonge, 'Pure' by Andrew Miller 'cos I bought it for a book club and want to discuss it at a book club, and 'The Lefthand of Darkness' by Ursula Le Guin. Only one of the three suggestions was seconded, but which one?
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SQ and BB
SashaQ - happysad Posted May 17, 2018
"That said, I was on the TOG's mailing list…"
Aha!
Yes, that is true that Graham Norton has an expressive voice (as did Terry Wogan), hence he is good when doing voiceovers during Eurovision Yeah, I found the Alan Carr TV show disappointing too, but I've not heard him on radio. I don't watch any of Paul O'Grady's TV programmes these days as they are mostly about dogs too but I can imagine he doesn't come across well on radio, as he does have a distinctive flat scouse accent!
I hope the RR10 went well for you - I hope the mud situation has improved as it has been warmer this week...
Hmm... re the book club, the balance of probabilities says it is the Andrew Miller book, so that's my guess...
SQ and BB
Bluebottle Posted May 18, 2018
What's the 'Aha! ' for, eh? Being on a mailing list means nothing - I kept being advised of the latest Terry Wogan calendar, but never bought one. (Never quite understood why, if you like hearing someone talk on the radio, you would want a picture. Radios don't have pictures).
For the last few months I've been on the spam mailing list of someone wanting me to give them money immediately or they'll disclose non-existent embarrassing photos of me to everyone on my mailing list. I have had two e-mails from them this week. They're still unsure of whether or not they're from China or Siriya [sic] and the amount they want in bitcoins has fluctuated between €400 and €300 Euros. I keep waiting for them to send a 'Because the General Data Protection Regulation law is changing, you need to opt in and agree for us to send these threatening e-mails in order for me to keep attempting to blackmail you' e-mail…
The chosen was 'The Left Hand of Darkness', but not for a couple of months. Give it a few months and I'll probably suggest the other two again and see if they get seconded then.
Have you ever wondered why food gets associated with characteristics? For example, a fruitcake is a harmless eccentric, but a coach potato is someone lazy. Why? How is an actual more athletic than a potato? Animals associated with characteristics I can understand – for example a sloth moves slowly, so it makes more sense for that to mean lazy than potato, and 'batty' means eccentric, but bats sleep upside-down, which is eccentric behaviour for most animals.
But if you call someone 'a peach' it means something completely different from calling them 'bananas'. Calling someone 'nuts' is a step beyond calling them a fruitcake – is that because walnuts look like brains? And is calling someone 'crackers' because you use crackers to open nuts, or after the dry food?
Alas I had to pull out of the RR10 - hopefully I'll be able to complete a 10k run on Sunday, though.
Had a great time seeing my daughter singing in 'Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat' last night. She had been unsure whether she wanted to do it or not and we didn't want to push her into doing it if she didn't want to. (I know perceived wisdom is that children should be pushed and that this benefits them and helps their confidence, but both my wife and I remember examples of when we were forced into doing things we didn't want to which had the opposite effect and caused us to resent our parents for weeks after). But she chose to do it and was brilliant at singing along, even though the show was quite long. She – and most of her class mates - gave a huge while singing 'And in the east, the dawn was breaking and the world was waking, any dream will do'
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SQ and BB
SashaQ - happysad Posted May 18, 2018
I've never been on the TOG mailing list, so that counts as something in my book
Watching the recordings of radio shows on iPlayer, where you just see the presenter sitting at the desk, does seem strange to me, but photos are quite nice to prove that presenters aren't just talking heads (although it can be a disappointment if someone's voice evokes a different picture, I suppose). I treasure my picture of Tony and Julie on the Late Show, though
" I keep waiting for them to send a 'Because the General Data Protection Regulation law is changing, you need to opt in and agree for us to send these threatening e-mails in order for me to keep attempting to blackmail you' e-mail"
Yes indeed!!!
Ah, I am pleased that the group chose Left Hand of Darkness - I hope you all enjoy it and discuss it well (unlike my group did...)
I hope all's well and you do manage to run well at the weekend.
That does sound like you both have a good philosophy for your children... It must be hard to judge, but I too have examples of being forced to do stuff that had the opposite effect and did cause lasting resentment... (I even once had to sign a document to certify that I would not resent them if they agreed to me not doing something I didn't want to do, and I certainly didn't regret that decision as it gave me so much more time to do what I did want to do...) However there were things which I did want to do after considering the options and which my parents were able to help me to achieve so that was good.
That is rather apt to when singing about dreams! Glad you all had a good evening.
I can't say I have thought about associations of food with characteristics, but now you mention it it is rather strange!
SQ and BB
Bluebottle Posted May 18, 2018
Not wanting you to feel you're missing out I've sent you the last TOG e-mail I've received I could find.;-P I don't think the competition is still open, though.
In case you're wondering, this month we were all told to update our e-mail signatures to a new format, and then told to revert back to the previous look, and then told to update to the new look and then revert back to the old again. So I've created a special e-mail signature that combines everything I've ever had to have as part of my e-mail signature over the years.
The person who seconded 'The Left Hand of Darkness' is currently reading through her work so I know that there will be at least one person there who has/will enjoy(ed) it. I'm still reading the work of Edgar Rice Burroughs, fortunately I'm not going to write about the last book of his I read, 'The Lad and the Lion', about the young heir to a kingdom that had had a revolution being raised feral in a jungle by a lion.
I suppose with all parenting all we can do is try and hope we get things right more often than we get things wrong, or at least try to only get things slightly wrong and very right.
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SQ and BB
SashaQ - happysad Posted May 21, 2018
Thank you Yes, I see the competition has now closed
I did wonder about the e-mail signature, as there was an impressive variety of different logos in there! A rather odd task, though, as the powers that be should perhaps have better things to do...
Yeah, it is one thing to do something for a child, but then two siblings could have different experiences from the same events in the same household, so there are loads of variables... Your philosophy sounds good, and I think you're a good role model, too, so I think you stand an excellent chance of achieving the best possible goal of only getting things slightly wrong and very right
Well done on achieving parkrun bingo at last You were rather busy on Sunday, I see, but glad you got through it all successfully
I had an excellent Sunday, too - added a couple of birds to my year list and took some surprisingly successful photos of ones I'd seen before
Taskmaster was excellent this week again - Greg Davies being so tall makes everyone else look like his children indeed! I did watch the Ultimate Worrier programme, but wasn't too sure about it as it contained a bit of boring 'fake news' filler material as well as having a tendency to increase rather than decrease the level of worry, so I can only imagine how Jon Richardson felt after all that, never mind the audience...
SQ and BB
Bluebottle Posted May 21, 2018
Yep, every child is different – and of course want different things at different times, which always keeps you on your toes…
Yes, parkrun bingo was a complete surprise – I'd planned on doing the First Timers' briefing to get another volunteer (blue) badge, as I'm trying to volunteer in most of the roles I can that mean I can still run, but getting my final time (31 seconds, the minutes don't count) left me pleasantly flabbergasted.
The next parkrun challenges are the weird and wacky ones (Pirate, Stayin' Alive, Full Ponty and Compass) or frankly impossible (A-Z, Gold-level obsessive and regionnaire).
Sunday was quite busy, but still the most relaxing Sunday I've had for a while. I had a nice lie-in and didn't have to leave home before 8:20am. The Netley 10k which was at Royal Victoria Country Park was at 10am, the running club picnic started there around 11:15am, the sports day began at 12:15pm, although sadly my family didn't arrive until about 1:15pm, when the games had finished and many members of the club had headed home. We had our nammet and then I took the kids for a ride on the miniature railway and they played in the park, which has expanded the wheelchair users' play trail since the last time we were there a few years ago.
I'll have to catch up on 'Taskmaster', although I hope to watch a film tonight… I do have them recorded which is good as I can skip the adverts, despite what Greg says
Glad you got to see more birds and add to your list – how long is it now? I saw the photos you sent into I was also surprised to see that my Post submission was renamed from 'It's a Sign! Road Rodents' to 'Squirrel Kindness'.
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SQ and BB
SashaQ - happysad Posted May 22, 2018
Ah! Yes, that is the way, that numbers appear when you least expect them - good plan to volunteer first and then the bingo just happened
What's Gold-level obsessive? Is that something to do with the Age Grade?
Wow that is a lie in for you, to not have to leave the house before 8am! Glad you all had a good day
I hope you enjoyed the film. I need to keep catching up with the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Radio Show - I'm up to the Tertiary Phase so far and there's a couple of weeks left to watch it on the iPlayer so it's going well
I'm not quite sure how long my list is as I still haven't managed to sort out all my photos from the Wildlife and Wetlands Trust a couple of months ago, but it is definitely more than 100 different birds I've seen already
It is funny with - I sent a caption challenge a while ago that was turned into a Create Entry by surprise All part of the fun - Dmitri does a grand job (I think one of my Entries has got lost in the ether, though, as Signs of Spring II has appeared, but I don't think I've seen Signs of Spring I yet...)
I didn't understand your It's a Sign question "Is it just me, or does this Isle of Wight road sign represent a fundamental difference between the UK and US?" but it is good to see in the comments that Caiman raptor elk asked whether the squirrels slow down or not!
SQ and BB
Bluebottle Posted May 22, 2018
The parkrun obsessive counter is how many parkruns you do in a year. If you do 30+ you qualify for Bronze-level obsessive, 40+ qualifies as Silver-level and doing 50 parkruns in the same year is Gold-level. The most parkruns I've done in a year is 49 – so near and yet so far.
I remember when I first heard 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Tertiary Phase' – I think I still have the audio cassettes I recorded it off the radio and onto somewhere, but I soon bought the CD when it came out.
The question, 'Is it just me, or does this Isle of Wight road sign represent a fundamental difference between the UK and US?' came from the e-mail I sent Dmitri accompanying the image. You see, a few weeks ago we'd both been in a conversation (can't remember which one) in which the topic of conversation drifted onto shooting squirrels, which apparently is quite a common thing to do in the US (in rural areas, presumably…?). Each side of the Atlantic has completely different outlooks on guns, animal welfare and so forth.
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SQ and BB
SashaQ - happysad Posted May 23, 2018
Ah, yes - you'd mentioned the number of parkruns in a year before. Yeah, 50 out of 52 is a challenge, but 49 is tantalisingly close... Difficult for people from your area to do that challenge this year, though, because of all the mud...
Ah, I see about the squirrels... I glanced at the other conversation, but didn't contribute. More country as in rural, perhaps (a former neighbour of mine enjoys that grey squirrel-related hobby) but yes there are differences in outlook overall re various issues...
My lost Entry has been found, so all's well for I managed to do some work on my 200birdyear list so it's looking a bit tidier (and my FaceB photo portfolio is looking fuller) but it is challenging to try to work out what some of the birds were so I've not finished yet!
I enjoyed listening to the Bistromathics episode of Hitchhiker's last night Ah, those were the days, recording stuff on to cassettes I did like a good homemade mix tape in the mid-1990s!
SQ and BB
Bluebottle Posted May 23, 2018
Happy 400th Anniversary of the Defenestration of Prague!
Alas, I don't think I'll be able to get Gold obsessive this year simply because of that one week where everywhere was cancelled due to snow Gives me something to look forward to for future years, I suppose. I do know someone who has Gold, though. (Incidentally, the green badges are related to running and the blue to volunteering).
There were lots of s around when I cycled to work this morning – over a dozen ducklings and I saw three baby moorhens too. Is this an exciting time to be bird spotting?
I'll be heading to your neck of the woods at the weekend, somewhere. Not entirely sure where I'm going, to be honest, but I think it is somewhere near Chester. Or possibly near Manchester. My wife's uni friends are having a reunion, you see, so she's got the details and I'll be tagging along with the kids. We're not going until after parkrun, though.
How's your work going? Here the person whose idea it was to merge Student Records and Assessments into a big team and move everyone into a giant open-plan office has announced he's leaving the uni to go to the Asian University for Women in Bangladesh. So many far-ranging decisions seem to be made by people who turn up, chuck everything up in the air and then -off rather than stay around long enough to see the impact that their ignorant decisions have…
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SQ and BB
SashaQ - happysad Posted May 23, 2018
Happy Anniversary! Have you defenestrated anything today?
Ah, yes - snow as well as mud - not a good year for Gold-level obsessives indeed... Sadly I can only see the t-shirt symbols on your parkrun page, not the circles, but it was good to see the screenshot you put on FaceB
Wow, that was impressive for you this morning with the s. It is rather an exciting time for birdwatching, as the chicks are cute - at the nature reserve I went to at the weekend I saw 6 ducklings and one baby coot, plus a nesting Great Crested Grebe
I hope you have a good day somewhere in the middle of Cheshire/Lancashire at the weekend There is a newish parkrun in Chester, I see, but yes that is impossibly ambitious to get there for 9am on the same day!
Yes, that is rather interesting that people who make the most disruptive change tend to move on rather than see the impact of their decisions... The micromanager here ed off after a surprisingly short time too... I'm still getting on well with the macromanager, though, and enjoying the job title you used to have. Much more interesting work as I enjoy a good spreadsheet and I enjoy the networking too I did have to put some effort in to getting that work, but I do feel very lucky to have some job satisfaction for the moment, as not everyone does, I know
SQ and BB
Bluebottle Posted May 23, 2018
There's a definite defenestration defeasance and deficiency to the degree that demonstrations are defunct. I blame indefensible digression, degeneration and defects.
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