Where is the year going? A difficult six months. First off the election. Tories back in, on their own. Who would have thought that? And then there is my wife's redundancy. End of September so not long to go.
Music wise, saw Placebo. They were good but too much from their latest album which isn't my favourite.
I have a new puppy, I missed my last dog too much and eventually gave in to the wife and daughter. Another Patterdale but a black and tan one who isn't as vicious as his predecessor.
Work wise it's tedious, I am hanging around for redundancy now.
I ran the Prague Marathon in May in 5:15 but made good friends with a guy who lives near me who was running as well. I did Gateshead 10k last Sunday in a very disappointing 60:54, over
3 minutes slower than 2013.
Football wise I didn't see Posh at all last season will do better this season coming.
I'll also try and post some more
Tuesday, 14 July 2015
Wednesday, 21 January 2015
First Aid Kit
Hello and a belated Happy New Year.
After a pretty barren 2014 music wise I have decided that this year I will go to a few gigs.Last night,accompanied by my daughter I saw First Aid Kit at Newcastle City Hall.
It was an excellent gig, good venue for the vocal harmony soft country rock they play.The light show was impressive.Support was from Kimberley Anne who wad good in a Joan Armatrading, Tracy Chapman way. The audience was a mix of young bearded hipsters, old uns like me and young professionals.What you'd expect really.
They played their cover of Simon and Garfunkel's America and my own favourite, their own song Emmy Lou.
All in all I had a great time. No new ground was being broken but to hear good honest well played and sung music is always a joy. Next up for me ,unless something else catches my eye, is Placebo at O2 Academy
After a pretty barren 2014 music wise I have decided that this year I will go to a few gigs.Last night,accompanied by my daughter I saw First Aid Kit at Newcastle City Hall.
It was an excellent gig, good venue for the vocal harmony soft country rock they play.The light show was impressive.Support was from Kimberley Anne who wad good in a Joan Armatrading, Tracy Chapman way. The audience was a mix of young bearded hipsters, old uns like me and young professionals.What you'd expect really.
They played their cover of Simon and Garfunkel's America and my own favourite, their own song Emmy Lou.
All in all I had a great time. No new ground was being broken but to hear good honest well played and sung music is always a joy. Next up for me ,unless something else catches my eye, is Placebo at O2 Academy
Monday, 17 November 2014
The Parent Trap
It has been a funny old year in terms of both the kids and music (not so much the wife).
Both my son and daughter are now back at home. Having one of them back is not so bad but the two of them together is not a situation I wanted and it has met my ( low) expectations of being quite difficult. It’s difficult because neither me nor my wife is quite sure how to treat them. They are both adults and have lived independently but they are both still our children and the natural tendency is to parent them. These attempts to advise and guide them in their life choices (ha!) is classed as interference and any questions and suggestions are met with sullen and hostile answers and an air of why are they asking me this. Funnily enough this is how they reacted as teenagers to our attempts to parent them and thus perpetuates, at least in our eyes, the feeling that they are still children and need to be parented. In addition to this they don’t really get on with each other, which again is a continuation of how it was when they were growing up, so we end up intervening when they argue. See its complicated isn’t it.
We have a cooking rota and cleaning rota so in another sense it’s like a house share. Neither the parent approach nor the house share approach is satisfactory for me or my wife. I love both my son and daughter to bits but me and the wife had a nice quiet easy routine which has been turned on its head by them moving back and if I’m honest we wish they would both leave.
We don’t understand why they want to live at home anyway after being away at Uni. We didn’t go back home and lived in shit expensive rented accommodation rather than go back home. All we get is we can’t afford it it’s different now not like your day when it was easy to get jobs and places to live. Our retort is there were 3 million people unemployed when we graduated and we lived in cockroach and mice infested council and private rented shitholes and still survived.
Have we made it too easy for them?
My relationship with music has shifted this year. I passed up the opportunity to go and see two of my favourite bands this year and I’m not sure why. It wasn’t as if I would have had to travel to get to the gigs. They were both in my town in easily accessible venues. I even had tickets for one of the gigs but on the night I just couldn’t summon up any enthusiasm to go.
I’ve been thinking about it because although it is a cliché , music was my first love and has meant so much to me over the years and the bands I love have influenced and defined me as a person for such a long time, this change is a big deal in my life.
Perhaps I’ve finally grown up? I don’t know.
Both my son and daughter are now back at home. Having one of them back is not so bad but the two of them together is not a situation I wanted and it has met my ( low) expectations of being quite difficult. It’s difficult because neither me nor my wife is quite sure how to treat them. They are both adults and have lived independently but they are both still our children and the natural tendency is to parent them. These attempts to advise and guide them in their life choices (ha!) is classed as interference and any questions and suggestions are met with sullen and hostile answers and an air of why are they asking me this. Funnily enough this is how they reacted as teenagers to our attempts to parent them and thus perpetuates, at least in our eyes, the feeling that they are still children and need to be parented. In addition to this they don’t really get on with each other, which again is a continuation of how it was when they were growing up, so we end up intervening when they argue. See its complicated isn’t it.
We have a cooking rota and cleaning rota so in another sense it’s like a house share. Neither the parent approach nor the house share approach is satisfactory for me or my wife. I love both my son and daughter to bits but me and the wife had a nice quiet easy routine which has been turned on its head by them moving back and if I’m honest we wish they would both leave.
We don’t understand why they want to live at home anyway after being away at Uni. We didn’t go back home and lived in shit expensive rented accommodation rather than go back home. All we get is we can’t afford it it’s different now not like your day when it was easy to get jobs and places to live. Our retort is there were 3 million people unemployed when we graduated and we lived in cockroach and mice infested council and private rented shitholes and still survived.
Have we made it too easy for them?
My relationship with music has shifted this year. I passed up the opportunity to go and see two of my favourite bands this year and I’m not sure why. It wasn’t as if I would have had to travel to get to the gigs. They were both in my town in easily accessible venues. I even had tickets for one of the gigs but on the night I just couldn’t summon up any enthusiasm to go.
I’ve been thinking about it because although it is a cliché , music was my first love and has meant so much to me over the years and the bands I love have influenced and defined me as a person for such a long time, this change is a big deal in my life.
Perhaps I’ve finally grown up? I don’t know.
Tuesday, 28 October 2014
Round Up
Well here we are. The clocks have gone back bringing the months of darkness.
I did Kielder 10k in 59.38. I was pleased with this time it is a bastard of a course. My Amsterdam Marathon time was a bit of a disappointment at 4:56:01. I finished in good physical condition, no pain but I had no energy from mile 23.
Outside of this my son is back at home and has a job on a local business park. It's hard having the house full again . We aren't quite sure how to treat them. As children or as adults?
Sadly we had to have our dog put down. He had cancer. He died in my arms. I miss him
I did Kielder 10k in 59.38. I was pleased with this time it is a bastard of a course. My Amsterdam Marathon time was a bit of a disappointment at 4:56:01. I finished in good physical condition, no pain but I had no energy from mile 23.
Outside of this my son is back at home and has a job on a local business park. It's hard having the house full again . We aren't quite sure how to treat them. As children or as adults?
Sadly we had to have our dog put down. He had cancer. He died in my arms. I miss him
Monday, 8 September 2014
GNR Blues
Did my 16th Great North Run yesterday. I put in a disappointing 2:14:02.And to make it worse, I wasn't even the Millionth Finisher.
I'm not sure what went wrong I've trained and I was well up for it. It was hot though and I don't like running in the heat. Miles 5 to 10 were hard.
This year my disappointment at my time was made worse by a guy in my new much bigger office who, having just turned 50, did it in 1:40. To be fair he didn't crow about it. So today has been a bit flat for me.
My next challenge is the Kielder 10k in 4 weeks time. I signed up for this in in a flush of excitement earlier in the Summer. Now I'm not so sure that doing a bastard hilly run in a wet and cold North Northumberland two weeks before the Amsterdam Marathon was a good idea.
I'm not sure what went wrong I've trained and I was well up for it. It was hot though and I don't like running in the heat. Miles 5 to 10 were hard.
This year my disappointment at my time was made worse by a guy in my new much bigger office who, having just turned 50, did it in 1:40. To be fair he didn't crow about it. So today has been a bit flat for me.
My next challenge is the Kielder 10k in 4 weeks time. I signed up for this in in a flush of excitement earlier in the Summer. Now I'm not so sure that doing a bastard hilly run in a wet and cold North Northumberland two weeks before the Amsterdam Marathon was a good idea.
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