20 miles, Nazi Super Weapons, and cultural vulturing...

I've had a week off... Off the paid work anyway...

Being me, that week off did include one formal meeting representing CHF, couple of meetings in London;  2 shows, 2 exhibitions, 6 museums or galleries, an OU tutorial and a 20 mile run...

The Nazi super weapon was at U534, a salvaged WWII U-Boat now cut into 4 pieces and on display at one terminal of the Mersey Ferry... Yes my life, and Liverpool, can be that surreal.  The weapon was the "Shazaam" torpedo (my name) basically it could be programmed to hunt down specific sounds, rather than just the noisiest... This was 1945; no microchips remember.  Now why this Uboat had 3 of the 12 (yup only 12) ever made is still a mystery...

The shows - The Ladykillers, hilarious, brilliant, excellent acting and superb set... If you love the original (not that travesty that Hollywood produced) then if you can see this...

Classical Spectacular at the Royal Albert Hall - it was cheesy, it was so jingoistic it was cheesetastic!  I even felt sorry for the French in the audience... After mentioning the rugby... and before the Can-Can girls... If you like your Union Jacks large, lasers eye popping, your dancing girls pretty and El Marchi guitar playing plinky then this could be the show for you.  As for me, I've done it once it made me smile and that'll do.

The exhibitions - the Antarctic shows at the Royal Geographic Society and the Natural History Museum - the RGS is free, the NHM is based around a recreation of Scott's main hut for that ill fated mission.

Throw in the John Soane Museum (barking, worth it for the Hogarth's alone), the Huntarian (gory, brilliant, induces slight nasuea), the Horniman, the British Library and the Wellcome Galleries (do lunch there - the sausage rolls are to die for) and it was a damn good week off:-)

Unfortunately, the trip back took 7 hours instead of 2... Grrrrrrr... I will be taking whatever "recompense" Virgin offer... and asking for some more!

Tutorial was a tutorial, and today's 20 miler was great up to 16 miles... Then the keep the fuel intake minimal approach went off the rails... Legs wouldn't function as they're meant to, that wibbly wobbly run you see those at the end of marathons do, well I wasn't that bad but the camber of the towpath did direct me worryingly close to the edge...

However, I didn't get wet... I did do 20 miles, not my fastest, but this run was mainly about rebuilding my confidence (if you've not caught up recently ACHA Blog fills you in).

So this is the run...


And now my aching limbs have had radox and a rest, its time for tea... Goats Cheese & Red Onion Bruschetta followed by pasta... Just what I need before a day back at work...

TTFN

Paul

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Something a little bit political...

Well the legs still don't want to run, walk and climb is fine, run makes them feel a bit leary ... Probably the two most contentious words in the congenital heart world (UK branch) are "safe and sustainable", a quick trawl of the support websites or facebook will show many a group being set up to save a hospital or a ward. I won't be joining any of them. Not because I don't care, but because I care too much. The origins of Safe and Sustainable go back to the Bristol Hospital Enquiry, and quite simply this is designed to ensure that the surgery that heart kids get is the the most appropriate, done by well trained and supported surgeons who are used to doing the operations and are in a surgical setting which are designed around the needs of the child going through the surgery and their family. Is that too much to ask? I don't think so. I want every heart kid to get the best surgery available to them, I want their parents to be given the best advice, support...
Read more

12% of a plan…

  It’s been a month.     A month since the new heart valve was inserted… the chaffing has died down, I’ve been sensible and built my walking up, restarted my apple fitness plus bits and bobs (boy has it been a long time since I bent like that, or cycled/spun like that) and I’ve been for two runs – a gentle 3k which worked as a prelude to my return to my local parkrun… I finished, my tally went up 1, and I remembered just how tough it is to run the first mile on so soft, dry sand… In hindsight I would’ve been better to walk the first third and conserve my energy (and pool of fitness) to the prom and the grass thirds…   Relive 'Return to Parkrun!' Yes, it does look the first bit is out to sea…  Monday was a random day off work to get out and do something, so with a bit of head scratch and some nifty plotting on the OS Mapping app I wandered along the canal, and then down the Transpennine Trail & “loop line”… Almost pancake flat, I know...
Read more

It’s a kind of magic (the science kind)…

  Well, operation done – I have a funky new valve and a bit of a sore groin.     I was in hospital for 28, sleepless, hot, hours and unconscious for about 4 of them.     While the insertion points for the three catheters I had in me in at the same time heal it’s a case of taking it easy, let my body get over the various manipulations (sore throat, the impact of the still there frozen shoulder) and the simple lack of sleep from stress and some noisy neighbours on the day ward I was on.  There’s really not a lot else to say… I went in, did the usual pre-op checks, had a chat with the interventionist, had a chat with the anaesthetist, signed the all-important consent forms (kids – that’s when you know you’re an adult; parents, that’s when you know your kid is in charge), was wheeled across to a hybrid cath lab… laid down, bit of banter with the team and the next thing I knew I was waking up, sore and not actually knowing whether the funky valve had fitted me…...
Read more