GBH online rant

first run of 2009 and its 2 days late ( i nomally enjoy a run on new years day for the last few years i have either run or cycled on NYD )

being as i really have not done any distance or exercise since October really i thought i would make a plan
2 miles running today and 4 mile ride tomorrow and upp it each weekend by 2 miles
so by Toughguy i should be well on pace

so this is how i did

Min HR = 112  Ave HR =  173  Peak HR = 210

its quite scary and sows how lazy i have been normally i have to do a lot to get my heart up that high
well thats why i take the stats

its gonna be a tough year so i should warm up quite quickly ..

Hello - If your reading this , then we all made it to another year - 2009
and i started this blog in Dec 2004 wow..

This will be my 43rd on the planet
my 21st knowing Suzy and our 19th year of marriage together ( she is one tough lady to put up with that )
Lucy will be 17 and ready to learn to drive
and I will be starting my second year as a OU student wow that was quick.

So what for the new year ….
well i wish everyone the best
and as i believe you get out of life all that you put in to it, I hope you are all busy enough to be challenged and get to reap the rewards that the challenges contain and have some great experiences and stories to tell afterwards

For me I am aiming at 8 or 9 events this year if i get them all organised
2 x half marathons
2 x toughguys
2 x triathlons
1 x 10k
1 x full marathon
and maybe something different

also i would like to try free-running or parkour i think they do it on the southbank i saw them there at the end of last year
i must get out with them atleast once.

Happy New Year and rise to the challenge.

I love the internet
it just gives me a lot of what i want and quickly
of course you can not trust most of it and even some bogus stories get populated so quickly that if you try and cross reference them they look real and some lazy professional bodies have also been caught out by this
so
i always take a large pinch of salt with most web stuff

however

i was doing some digging as part of my OU Studies and came across an interesting site
HERE
talking about how social websites can be harmful to your career which is a no brainer really
but …

anyway the thing that i learned was not about social networking but about Google
unless your a major Google fan or frequently click on the advanced or more sections on the Google homepage
you may have missed it

they offer Google alerts HERE
this is they will search the web or blogs or news for your specified string
this means you can get daily mails from Google on either any topic you like or when a certain phrase is used in blogs
this was mentioned on the website i discovered as a way to monitor for your name being used be it positive or negative in other sites

well i will let you know if it is any good as of course i have subscribed to one just to see

Tonight we went to see the Mighty Boosh at Wembley Arena and we took Ryan & Lucy with us

the merchandising was quite expensive with hoody sweats at £50 and t-shirts at £18 each but the programs were only £12 which is better than most

the mighty boosh give a great show
the first half of the show was a slow warm up with lots of silly banter between Vince and Howard where they did the chat like they did in the 3rd series in the shop talking behind the till or in the flat on the second series
then the had some guest appearances with the MOON and Bob Fossil
Naboo and Bollo, Tony Harrison, the Crack Fox and The Hitcher and a finale of EELS.

The Second half was
mainly a play thing with music including Nannageddon ,
including CRIMPS and general sillyness

all in all a great show

We went to see another ballet back in sadlers wells

Another Matthew Bourne production http://www.edwardscissorhands.co.uk

very good actually
it was interesting to see how they used the lighting and the stage to give the effects
and then the stage sets were brill and the dancers well they are very athletic people
very good show
really recommend it and well anything by MB we have seen 3 ( edwardscissor , Dorian Grey and Nuctcracker ) or so and Suzy has seen about 4 ( car man ) or more
she loves his stuff

anyway if you get the chance go for the cheap front row upper circle they are very good seats and half price of the ground floor
and when there is snow and special effects you dont get covered but you still get to see everything
Win Win….

Thats a Tony Hancock and not the bad super hero
so i finally got around to giving blood

it was no big deal just something i had never done
not quite up there with bungee jumping but still a significant event for me and maybe some poor bleeder ( sorry could not resist )

anyway

i tried to do it in my lunch hour and they said as it was my first time it would take approx 45 mins to an hour

well i did not have that time in my lunch break so i went after work

joined a queue
answered a whole load of questions that made me think
hang on have i been missing out
should i by this age done or contracted atleast some of these
just through you know … living a little

well i passed the test i did not have any of the nasties listed
had not done anything exotic and dangerous
and had not been anywhere interesting enough to put my life in danger

by this time i was starting to evaluate my life in different terms

anyway

in to see a doc for a minor blood test to see if i had enough iron in my blood so i was not anaemic
and then it was join a little queue to the VP which i turns out is not a Vampire Practitioner
but a venus puncturer much the same thing

it turns out most of the nurses who help in these traveling blood banks are not trained to actually Jab you and suck i mean drain take about 750 ml of blood from you
they can only help once the VP ( no not even Vincent Price ) has put the big draining needle in you
and then they attach the bag and take a few ( 3) vials from you to be tested

if they find anything nasty they throw away your blood and it never gets used
if they like the taste sorry sample then they will put you on there lists and every quarter they will want you to bleed for them donate.

so what was my experience like

no problems actually

as these people do it all the time they were very good
i had only a little red dot after the day and a day later it had gone

they did warn me that if i did any sports i would be a bit rubbish for a month
it appears that although the Blood Volume recovers very quick most of that is just plasma
ie blood water and stuff
the actual haemoglobin the stuff that holds the oxygen in your blood to transport it where it does good your muscles etc
can take up to a few weeks depending on your bone marrow and body’s replenishing ability

so all in all a good job i did it now and not within a month before a race

okay another thing ticked off my list whats next ..

Saturday is play out night

tonight i went out to see motorhead and Saxon at the hammersmith apollo or what ever it is called now
but more importantly i met up with the lads
this bunch of mates some i met when i met Suzy in 1988 and others that have joined along the way
so 6 of us hit a pub or 2 and enjoyed some falling down water and then to the gig
we got there for 8 although the doors open at 7
i bought a sweatshirt-hoody thing
then we went into see saxon
came out had a beer went back to see motorhead
who still rock admitedly they never run around the stage or anything
but thats not there thing
and for us they had an additional vocalist on who was linked to zepplin or something
and they had old wurzzle from a previous line up for bomber i think
but other than that and some semi clad female fire breathing ladies prancing about the stage
the gig was pretty much as the following review cept they also played 1916

http://www.hardrockhouse.com/gigreviews/Motorhead2.htm

Its very nice to have sometime and remember who you are and why you are with someone
we try and do this every 6 months but some times it does not work out and this year
we have managed to get away 2 times

our wedding anniv in brighton
and this little break in cambridge here
and very nice it was

Friday and Sat night in the Royal Cambridge and wandering around the old town and very good quality grub and great company

ahhh

Well having had my results from my First paper in this new course the T175 my TMA01 was a measly 79% i am studying a little harder , this paper is only weighted at 10% of the marks for this course but the next TMA is worth 25% so i really need to get the marks in on those
and in doing so and reading others comments in the forums i came across this link
OFCOM SITEFINDER
you put your postcode in and step out a little and see all the basestations or in english HIGH POWERED Transmitters for the Phone Networks etc in your area
they transmit on these frequencies

380-385 MHz TETRA
390-395 MHz TETRA

876-915 MHz GSM
921-960 MHz GSM
1710-1871 MHz GSM
1805-1876 MHz GSM

1900 – 1980 MHz 3G
2110 – 2170 MHz 3G

and we have a cluster of 5 towers but 7 transmitters in all honesty i think there may be only 2-3 towers and they all share but then again maybe risk of competition accidentally knocking your transceiver as they install theirs must be a problem.

still i thought the information provided was interesting and also that you can get to it
i mean we all drive around these damned towers and we all moan and groan about them
but like a toilet and sewer pipes we all need them no matter how unattractive eh!

same as monday

25 x 2 pressups

35 situps
35 x 2 oblique situps
35 x 2 crunchy situps

35 leg raises

( actually when i say 25 and 35 i actually always do 1 extra but don’t count it )