No blogging, little running and tons of spending. It's the Summer Hols. Have kids must travel. First stop England. Itinerary of the past 3 weeks has included 2 shows in West End (Matilda and Wicked), trips to Legoland, the British Museum, Hamleys and Hampton Court. We have visited with aunts, uncles, Godmothers and Godfathers. We have picnicked in forests and on beaches. And I have shopped....
So far an idyllic trip: the sun shone, a Brit won Wimbledon and a new Prince has been born. We arrived in Paris the same day as Chris Broome rode to Tour de France Victory. And now we are in Sancerre on the pretext of learning French. That will be the Sancerre next to the village of Pouilly famed for its fume.
Would love to blog that the children have been models of gratitude and obedience throughout our Grand tour, but they have quite enjoyed their transformation into spoilt brats. There were a few moments of awe inspiring childish wonder: the arrival of the ice cream truck to my aunt and uncle's cul de sac; the five floors of Hamleys; and my sons obsession with crossing the Thames in as many ways as possible (rail bridge, foot bridge, Gravesend ferry, QE2 bridge). My more cerebral daughter enjoyed seeing Pocahontas statue and observing the live performances of Henry viii and Anne Boleyn at Hampton Court. England really is a beautiful place to holiday, even though its very crowded.
But now we are enjoying the sights of medieval France and are stuffing ourselves stupid with glaces, pain au chocolat, and stinky fromage all washed down with a couple of gallons of wine. Sante....
Monday, 22 July 2013
Wednesday, 19 June 2013
Six not out
Yippee, yippee! Today I ran 6 miles. In just under an hour. Just in case you missed this...
I...RAN...6,...YES...SIX,....MILES IN LESS THAN AN HOUR.
Me, for whom my dad's pet name was Pudding. Me, who couldn't get 1 point for my House during the athletics season at high school. Me, who was cast as the minotaur in the tales of Odysseus because I was so big. Excuse my smug, self-satisfied expression but I've waited a long time for some kind of athletic glory. I've trained hard too. And I've just worn out my first pair of trainers. They had holes and everything because I'd done proper sporty things in them.
I'm getting closer to my goal of running an aggregate marathon in a week.
I...RAN...6,...YES...SIX,....MILES IN LESS THAN AN HOUR.
Me, for whom my dad's pet name was Pudding. Me, who couldn't get 1 point for my House during the athletics season at high school. Me, who was cast as the minotaur in the tales of Odysseus because I was so big. Excuse my smug, self-satisfied expression but I've waited a long time for some kind of athletic glory. I've trained hard too. And I've just worn out my first pair of trainers. They had holes and everything because I'd done proper sporty things in them.
I'm getting closer to my goal of running an aggregate marathon in a week.
Running in my sleep
I've been feeling tired recently. Running has been hard. I'm not getting puffed out but my legs are tired. I am tired. I can sleep for England. I can sleep for the USA too. If pushed I can be caught napping for Zambia. I don't understand it...I'm fitter than I've ever been in my life, I'm taking my thyroid pills what is the matter with me?
After a day of tests, I discover that my pulse, blood pressure and heart rate are that of someone asleep. Apparently my newly found athleticism has sent my vital signs into freefall. The Doctor reassures me that this is incredible for someone my age - he can hardly believe it. And then he looks at his notes and back at me a few times....
"How old are you?, he asks.
"Forty-one", I reply.
"Oh", he says, "your notes say 50, but you're still in great shape", he backtracks...
And then my thyroid dose is raised and I'm put on mega-ultra-massive doses of calcium which he has discovered is non-existent in my blood.
With luck one pill or the other will keep me awake.
After a day of tests, I discover that my pulse, blood pressure and heart rate are that of someone asleep. Apparently my newly found athleticism has sent my vital signs into freefall. The Doctor reassures me that this is incredible for someone my age - he can hardly believe it. And then he looks at his notes and back at me a few times....
"How old are you?, he asks.
"Forty-one", I reply.
"Oh", he says, "your notes say 50, but you're still in great shape", he backtracks...
And then my thyroid dose is raised and I'm put on mega-ultra-massive doses of calcium which he has discovered is non-existent in my blood.
With luck one pill or the other will keep me awake.
Wednesday, 5 June 2013
Happy US Runners Day
Today is national running day in the USA. Don't know what you're supposed to do to celebrate, so I took the obvious option and went for a run. I am now up to 5.5 miles three times a week. But my running is slow: it takes me an hour. Assuming I could keep this tortoise-like rate going throughout a marathon, I would still be at the back with the person dressed as an Ostrich.
So, my resolution for national runners' day is to revamp my running goals. I am going to strive to run a marathon each week by aggregating my miles. A bit like air miles but for feet. And I'm going to try to run more than 5 miles in less than an hour. Blimey, doesn't sound like much of a celebration this runners day thing...does it?
Ok, ok. Let's try again. I am going to drink one glass of wine for each weekly mile...a much more enjoyable goal. And following the spirit of the air miles thing, for every 10 miles I can have a bonus cocktail. Given my talent at marathon drinking, I just need to align my running goals with my consumption of alcoholic beverages. There we go...Happy Happy Runners Day to you all!
By the way, if this all sounds too much, Friday is National Donut Day...
So, my resolution for national runners' day is to revamp my running goals. I am going to strive to run a marathon each week by aggregating my miles. A bit like air miles but for feet. And I'm going to try to run more than 5 miles in less than an hour. Blimey, doesn't sound like much of a celebration this runners day thing...does it?
Ok, ok. Let's try again. I am going to drink one glass of wine for each weekly mile...a much more enjoyable goal. And following the spirit of the air miles thing, for every 10 miles I can have a bonus cocktail. Given my talent at marathon drinking, I just need to align my running goals with my consumption of alcoholic beverages. There we go...Happy Happy Runners Day to you all!
By the way, if this all sounds too much, Friday is National Donut Day...
Tuesday, 21 May 2013
Twister
Just heard the news about the devastating tornado close to Oklahoma City. Although, I haven't lived in the USA for a year, merely hearing the word 'tornado' gives me palpitations... This one may have been bigger than the one that hit Joplin, Missouri a couple of years ago.
I had no idea about US weather extremes until I moved there....and I was in for a baptism of fire. Our first night in our US house, I woke up in the wee hours to discover no electricity. Having watched way too many Scream movies, I assumed some sophisticated night prowler had disconnected our power and was lurking outside ready to strike. Not so. A tornado had ripped through a few blocks away and had lifted a house with a young child inside. The house was flattened. The child didn't survive.
I thought this must be a freak event. I didn't live in tornado alley. And according to the movies, tornadoes just rip up cornfields, right? Wrong. Tornado 'watches' were fairly frequent in North Carolina. My children had tornado 'training'. I had to designate a place in the house where we would move in the event of a 'warning'. We were advised to purchase a weather alarm which sounds when a 'watch' is issued.
Now the thing about tornadoes is that they happen due to clashing weather fronts which occur over large tracts of flat land. The USA being so hugely enormous, means that the conditions are often ripe. And even when tornadoes don't develop, wind storms are frequent. I have experienced temperature drops of 10-20 degrees in as many minutes as weather fronts hit each other. It is petrifying. Nowhere is safe.
In 2011, we had what was termed a once-in-a-decade storm in North Carolina. A line of tornadoes made their way up the state. It wasn't a case of 'if' but 'when' and 'what' would be hit. I took the children to the movies hoping that the noise would drown out the sounds of the tornadoes. We saw the Easter movie 'Hop'. But the storm was loud. I could hear it coming over the Dolby Surround Sound and the cinema's sound proofing. There was a bang. The movie went off. We were moved into the auditorium's tunnel and told not to leave.
An off-duty fireman was with us in the tunnel who was receiving messages on his radio. He could track the tornadoes as they were moving and where they were 'touching down'. We knew there was one close. It hit to the side of the cinema twisting the tops of the trees, but we were safe.
I believe that the people in the cinema in Moore, Oklahoma have not been so lucky.
I had no idea about US weather extremes until I moved there....and I was in for a baptism of fire. Our first night in our US house, I woke up in the wee hours to discover no electricity. Having watched way too many Scream movies, I assumed some sophisticated night prowler had disconnected our power and was lurking outside ready to strike. Not so. A tornado had ripped through a few blocks away and had lifted a house with a young child inside. The house was flattened. The child didn't survive.
I thought this must be a freak event. I didn't live in tornado alley. And according to the movies, tornadoes just rip up cornfields, right? Wrong. Tornado 'watches' were fairly frequent in North Carolina. My children had tornado 'training'. I had to designate a place in the house where we would move in the event of a 'warning'. We were advised to purchase a weather alarm which sounds when a 'watch' is issued.
Now the thing about tornadoes is that they happen due to clashing weather fronts which occur over large tracts of flat land. The USA being so hugely enormous, means that the conditions are often ripe. And even when tornadoes don't develop, wind storms are frequent. I have experienced temperature drops of 10-20 degrees in as many minutes as weather fronts hit each other. It is petrifying. Nowhere is safe.
In 2011, we had what was termed a once-in-a-decade storm in North Carolina. A line of tornadoes made their way up the state. It wasn't a case of 'if' but 'when' and 'what' would be hit. I took the children to the movies hoping that the noise would drown out the sounds of the tornadoes. We saw the Easter movie 'Hop'. But the storm was loud. I could hear it coming over the Dolby Surround Sound and the cinema's sound proofing. There was a bang. The movie went off. We were moved into the auditorium's tunnel and told not to leave.
An off-duty fireman was with us in the tunnel who was receiving messages on his radio. He could track the tornadoes as they were moving and where they were 'touching down'. We knew there was one close. It hit to the side of the cinema twisting the tops of the trees, but we were safe.
I believe that the people in the cinema in Moore, Oklahoma have not been so lucky.
Friday, 17 May 2013
Cinderella is a loser
I listened to British Radio 4's Woman's Hour today on a podcast whilst running. It's been a while since I tuned in (or downloaded in this case), but it didn't disappoint. If you've never listened to Woman's Hour, you should. It is probably the most empowering, interesting and insightful programme that exists for us today.
Yesterday's programme was no exception. A discussion of the 'Disney Princessification' of Merida (Brave) ensued. Finally, the backlash to the Disney Princesses may have become too loud for Disney to ignore. A petition against the new imagery has gained over 200,000 signatures in a few days. Feelings against are strong. I agree. I am raising a daughter. I hate the Disney Princesses, especially Cinderella.
I think we forget how old some of these Disney images are. Snow White was made in 1937, Cinderella in 1950, Sleeping Beauty in 1959. Each of the stories are re-interpretations of what the Brothers Grimm had written or recounted a century before. These are not happy stories, they are a mixture of morality, warning and horror. But they were 'Disneyfied' for a mass audience born 60-80 years ago. The films have been digitized but not re-made. They belong to an era when the role of women was very different and should be saved for courses in popular feminism not held up as icons to our young girls.
It was easy to get my daughter to question the intelligence of the 'Princesses' as my early life reads a bit like Cinderella....mum died, father with someone else, chooses her, I get adopted. This makes me more (over?) sensitive to the Cinderella story. First she's a victim of fate, then her father's marital choices, then her step family and then the Prince. But essentially by most modern criteria, Cinderella is a loser...unable to do anything for herself. She is not able to convince her father, find a lawyer or anyone in her mother's family to help her. By the time we meet her she has completely submitted to her step family's enslavement and her only hope is that the Prince will save her. LOSER!
Being saved by the 'Prince' is, of course, at the heart of all of the Disney Princess's stories. But the traditional Princesses are neither lucid, pro-active in their misfortunes or capable of fighting back. Thankfully the modern Princesses are better (a bit). Belle, for example, can read (hallelujah), she consciously exchanges herself for her father, she rejects the local hunk and saves the Beast (who, of course turns out to be a Prince - it is still Disney). But at least she has a personality.
I think Disney is finally going to have to re-think its imagery of girls. The stupid Princesses are replaced by those spoilt, ill-mannered, pig-headed and generally disgusting, albeit thin and well-made-up, creatures which grace our TV screens on the Disney channel 24 hours a day. One reason I haven't bought a TV since we moved is that I can't stand them. No TV, no arguments.... I also know lots of parents who are changing their cable subscriptions to get rid of the Disney channel or have put parental controls in place to restrict viewing. I realize I sound like my mother here. But here's the thing.... I could accept my child watching half an hour of this turgid, non-sensical, rubbish a couple of times a week. It's the constant bombardment I object so passionately to.
Disney should have a re-think. Appealing to children who constantly whine at their parents for whichever Princess doll (and the billions of Princess products that exist) or to watch 'whatever' pulp they are currently broadcasting is one way. But at some point, parents put their collective 'foot' down. Perhaps this is the start...I hope so....
You can sign a petition against the 'princessification' of Merida at:
https://www.change.org/petitions/disney-say-no-to-the-merida-makeover-keep-our-hero-brave
Yesterday's programme was no exception. A discussion of the 'Disney Princessification' of Merida (Brave) ensued. Finally, the backlash to the Disney Princesses may have become too loud for Disney to ignore. A petition against the new imagery has gained over 200,000 signatures in a few days. Feelings against are strong. I agree. I am raising a daughter. I hate the Disney Princesses, especially Cinderella.
I think we forget how old some of these Disney images are. Snow White was made in 1937, Cinderella in 1950, Sleeping Beauty in 1959. Each of the stories are re-interpretations of what the Brothers Grimm had written or recounted a century before. These are not happy stories, they are a mixture of morality, warning and horror. But they were 'Disneyfied' for a mass audience born 60-80 years ago. The films have been digitized but not re-made. They belong to an era when the role of women was very different and should be saved for courses in popular feminism not held up as icons to our young girls.
It was easy to get my daughter to question the intelligence of the 'Princesses' as my early life reads a bit like Cinderella....mum died, father with someone else, chooses her, I get adopted. This makes me more (over?) sensitive to the Cinderella story. First she's a victim of fate, then her father's marital choices, then her step family and then the Prince. But essentially by most modern criteria, Cinderella is a loser...unable to do anything for herself. She is not able to convince her father, find a lawyer or anyone in her mother's family to help her. By the time we meet her she has completely submitted to her step family's enslavement and her only hope is that the Prince will save her. LOSER!
Being saved by the 'Prince' is, of course, at the heart of all of the Disney Princess's stories. But the traditional Princesses are neither lucid, pro-active in their misfortunes or capable of fighting back. Thankfully the modern Princesses are better (a bit). Belle, for example, can read (hallelujah), she consciously exchanges herself for her father, she rejects the local hunk and saves the Beast (who, of course turns out to be a Prince - it is still Disney). But at least she has a personality.
I think Disney is finally going to have to re-think its imagery of girls. The stupid Princesses are replaced by those spoilt, ill-mannered, pig-headed and generally disgusting, albeit thin and well-made-up, creatures which grace our TV screens on the Disney channel 24 hours a day. One reason I haven't bought a TV since we moved is that I can't stand them. No TV, no arguments.... I also know lots of parents who are changing their cable subscriptions to get rid of the Disney channel or have put parental controls in place to restrict viewing. I realize I sound like my mother here. But here's the thing.... I could accept my child watching half an hour of this turgid, non-sensical, rubbish a couple of times a week. It's the constant bombardment I object so passionately to.
Disney should have a re-think. Appealing to children who constantly whine at their parents for whichever Princess doll (and the billions of Princess products that exist) or to watch 'whatever' pulp they are currently broadcasting is one way. But at some point, parents put their collective 'foot' down. Perhaps this is the start...I hope so....
You can sign a petition against the 'princessification' of Merida at:
https://www.change.org/petitions/disney-say-no-to-the-merida-makeover-keep-our-hero-brave
Wednesday, 15 May 2013
Running to time
About time I actually posted something about running on this running blog of mine. But if truth be told, I'm kind of bored. Track running has had this pointless feel recently of just going round and round in circles. Of course, that is actually all I'm doing. I go round and round and round....I've tried all kinds of permutations of lap accounting. Counting backwards from 30, counting in 5 sets of 6, 6 sets of 5, 3 sets of 10, et cetera, et cetera, yawn, et cetera.... Time for something different.
I bought a running watch in the USA. It was cheap and is technologically speaking a dinosaur. It can only measure my distance in miles, approximate calorie burn and numbers of steps taken. There are no satellites involved and I don't think anyone in the space station can watch my plod by tuning into Telstar (if it's even still in orbit).
But its supposed to give me an added oomph and spring to my step. For mathematical simplicity, I decided to run 5 miles and stop counting laps. Instead I have started to count songs. I should strive to run 2.5 laps per song: the permutations of which are far too boring to go into...but suffice to say this depends on how long the song is. I can run 5 laps to Faithless (the really famous song that everyone knows about not sleeping), but only 2 laps to The Clash's 'London Calling'. Clearly the hypothesis is that anything originally released on a 45rpm is going to be, on average, shorter. How old and boring am I?
Don't answer...more interestingly about wearing this watch is that it shows how lazy I am when I am NOT running. I don't do anything. I don't walk anywhere. I am truly sedentary. I know this because once I have run my five miles, I am lucky if I add another mile by just going about my daily business. If I go food shopping and vacuum the house, I can add 2 miles. But hardly anything. Quite a revelation for someone who feels constantly 'busy'. I actually do sweet FA...
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