Home comforts

I'm flying to Thailand tomorrow and will be there for less than 24hours before moving on to Vietnam on Saturday. Now anyone who follows my blog with any regularity will know I love Asian food but you cannot beat a bit of home comfort before setting off (or after arriving home again)!

What so never the dance

Seminal early single from Bootsy Collins. You can hear all kinds of wonderful primordial funky badness going on here

Thieves like us

I guess just like a lot of folk I have musical fads that last for a while, then pass. In the past there have been times when I've listened to a lot of Van Morrison, James Brown or Dusty Springfield. At the moment it's Big Star and New Order. My friend Bryan posted the track Krafty by New Order on the FRA forum 'Tonight's Music' thread a few weeks ago and he is to blame!

Keep on truckin'

Predictable? Moi?

1100 miles

No not a new ultra-running event but my mileage over the weekend. On Friday afternoon I drove to Stef's in our work van in the hope (and expectation) one load would bring her stuff up to Yorkshire but it was soon clear that wouldn't be the case. I therefore drove back up North on Saturday with the first load, and back down to Southampton and then home again yesterday. Dave helped me unload at mine this morning and (and yesterday morning) and was a massive help along with Stef's folks and her colleague Tony loading on Saturday morning

I've just eaten a massive meat and potato pie with a liberal helping of baked beans and whilst I was pretending to be Desperate Dan it dawned on me that it was my first proper meal since Friday night in Stef's (old!) local. I am very much looking forward to an early night tonight because I'm absolutely shattered but the job is done

Roadrunner

Not the best version on YouTube but one of the better ones without a wretched advert at the start

Seals and Crofts

Steve Wright played this on Radio 2 yesterday afternoon. Needless to say he didn't say what it was at the end of the record. I'd always assumed the Isley Brothers wrote this song, but I was wrong. I'm not sure if it's a 'guilty pleasure' or not but I love it!

A delightful weekend in the country

Stef and I met up in Great Longstone last weekend and had a really nice weekend in the White Peak. On Saturday we went to Chatsworth to see the Christmas lights and Christmas market before calling in at Bakewell for a mooch round. A pair of pints from the local Thornbridge Brewery were taken in the Packhorse in Little Longstone before dinner. On Sunday we did one of my favourite walks, from Monyash down Lathkill Dale, on to Bradford Dale, then back via Youlgreave and the Limestone Way We went into the church in Youlgreave to see the stained glass window designed by Burne-Jones. I heard about it in a Mike Harding book but it's the first time I'd seen it. It is really wonderful! The bull in the photo was in a field beside Moor Lane on the way out of Youlgreave and he was working the barbed wire and dry-stone wall very nicely

Movin' on up

I spent the weekend with Stef in the Peak District (more to follow). We've decided it was about time we got together properly (it's two years since we first met, in Kettlewell for a long run out in the Dales), and stopped traipsing from one end of the country to the next. The outcome is Stef's moving up to Yorkshire to live with me. She's already handed her notice in with her work and I'm sorting out a van to bring her stuff up this weekend. All change and all go at the moment because I'm going to Asia next week for my work!

L.O.V.E

This came into my head driving across the M62 today on the way home from the Peak District. I'd not heard it for a very long time!

Nab End

We had a night race last night from Silsden.  It followed the start of the old Rivock Edge race route up to the top of Nab End and back the same way, to give around 3.5miles and 700feet of climb at a guess. It was a lovely night to be out and the 38 starters (a record, I think) gave the evening the feel of a 'real race'. I ran quite well apart from falling on my backside when my feet slipped from under me. Oh, and twisting my ankle a bit at one point, and I finished in around 34minutes. After the race a good hour or so was spent in the Kings Arms catching up with loads of friends including Graham Breeze the FRA chairman. Results and a brief report from Graham from Wharfedale Harriers, who was the summit marshal are here

James Brown

A juicy slice of Friday funk

Timmy Thomas

I've been listening to New Order's Singles collection the last couple of days. For some reason it's reminded me of this ground-breaking electronic soul record from the early 70s

Another Wednesday night

There seemed to be a few less folk out for our Wednesday night headtorcher but we had a good hour or so run anyway. The ground was very dry and my New Balance 101 trail shoes coped much better than last week. Afterwards the White Lion staff provided us with very tasty Coronation chicken sandwiches and chips, both of which went well with the Landlord beer

In the pub I sat next to Peter, one of our club runners who has a degenerative fault with his eyesight. Peter hasn't been running much for months but was in good spirits and is hoping to register for next year's Fellsman I gave him some advice on training runs he could do and said he was more than welcome to have a walk round the short Hebden course with Stef and I in January

There was some BG chat too because the club's plans to have a go at the Billy Bland Challenge are taking shape now. We have a meeting to discuss things more formally next Wednesday following a lot of interest and banter on the club's web-site and one or two folk asked if they could run with me (presumably because they think I might know where I'm going!)

King Tubby

I was listening to Andrew Wetherall and Death in Vegas frontman Richard Fearless on 6Music on Sunday evening. They are both big reggae fans and in particular keen on King Tubby. I'm not sure which track they played on the radio but this is a big favourite of mine. Watch your speakers because this is heavy stuff!

Buzzcocks

Back in Lakeland

Becca and I did our planned run from Langdale on Saturday. The weather was a bit hit and miss but we were treated to occasional breaks in the clag. We met Simon from Otley AC on Pike O' Stickle and spent a couple of hours passing and then being passed by a group of lads doing a recce from Borrowdale

My legs were quite sore on Sunday but I managed a six mile walk on the Dales Way, from Barden Tower up to Burnsall and back. I called in at Wharfe View tea room for chocolate cake and tea and was delighted to see several dippers, four or five goosander including one very smart male plus at least four flocks of long tailed tits during my walk. LTTs are a great favourite of mine and they seem to around be in good numbers in spite of two brutal winters, which must make life extremely hard for them!

Stef is in limbo with her job application but is hoping to hear something maybe next week. There's a decent chance we will meet up down in Derbyshire next weekend. It's quite rare for me to go back to my home county nowadays and two trips in three weeks is highly unusual!

Arab Strap

I'm saving 'Packs of Three' for another time

Last night and tomorrow

Last night a group of us from K&C met at Whetstone Gate for our run on Ilkley Moor as planned. I left the New Balance trail shoes at home and ran in Walshes, which was a good idea because there are now quite a few 'flagged' paths on the route we took. The moon only really came out as we were getting changed but it was a lovely way to spend an hour or so and great to see several club-mates I haven't met for ages. The Saltaire Blonde in the Busfield Arms in East Morton was excellent too

Tomorrow I'm meeting Becca to recce part of leg 3 of the Bob Graham from Langdale. We're doing a route Geoff and I did in the spring, which equates to around 15miles and 6000ft of climb. Apart from Steve Brock's BG it will be my first run in Lakeland since my round and I'm looking forward to it greatly!

Flying!

I went flying into a hedge last night after loosing my footing on some wet rock in my new New Balance MT101 trail shoes. It's rare I run in anything other than Walsh PBs or Inov-8 Roclite 285 but I've been reading some good things about the 101s and fancied them after trying some on at Accelerate at the weekend. My initial impression was they are extremely comfortable and I wore them for our Carsington walk on Saturday afternoon. They felt comfortable again last night for running but the heels are much more built-up than Walsh fell shoes, or even the Roclite 285 (the drop is 10mm, which isn't really minimalist in my book). We have another headtorcher tonight (on Ilkley Moor) to coincide with the full moon so I'll give them another run out then

Charles Webster

Not so much deep house as subterranean

The Smiths

Morrissey's quiff has always fascinated me. A proper man's haircut. Monty Clift or Morrissey? No a lot between them in the iconic barnet stakes I'd say

A busy weekend

This was Stef's last weekend with me before returning to Southampton and going back to work today. We had a terrific and relatively busy weekend. On Friday afternoon Stef had a job interview, which she felt went well. In the evening we went to the Swan and had their tapas; very tasty and good value was our verdict (the deal includes a free bottle of wine)

We called in at Accelerate in Sheffield to buy new running shoes on Saturday morning. What we thought wouldn't take long did(!) but we were both very impressed with the service offered by the staff in the very well stocked shop. After shoe shopping we went down to see my brother at his new home in Derbyshire and managed a walk around Carsington Water near Wirksworth too

Yesterday we drove down to Southampton and in the afternoon had a couple of very enjoyable hours bird watching around Lymmington. Twelve species of wader were noted along with our first Brent geese of the winter and about six or seven very smart Pintail drakes

Police and Thieves

Massive tune

Boy child

Wonderful. I've been bingeing on Scott's solo albums this week, singing along in the car on the way to and from work. What I lack in talent I make up for with enthusiasm: a bit like with my running really! 

Mixed news

Stef and I went for a jog round the village last night. We did a couple of miles and it was Stef's first run post operation. We're going down to Southampton tomorrow via my brother's in the Midlands and we'll do another run on Sunday morning. Hopefully this will be the start of Stef getting back into some regular training

I went to the doctor's today for a health-check after registering recently. Apparently my blood pressure was high and I will have to go back for more tests including I suspect ultimately a 24hour monitoring. I went through a similar process around 10 to 15years ago after moving house and I am fitter and healthier now than then. It'll be interesting to see what happens over the next few weeks. The nurse, who runs with Ilkley Harriers, was very impressed when I said I'd done the Bob Graham! My weight isn't bad, I don't smoke (and never have) and I do exercise; maybe less beer will be the answer if I have a problem and it wasn't simply 'white-coat hypertension'

Runnin' away

Good to be back

I'm really enjoying running at night with my headtorch at the moment. We had another good Wednesday night run last night from the White Lion and it was great to have Camille and her new fell lurcher Rufus out with us. My post-BG blues seem to be disappearing at last and there's a decent chance I'll be in the Lakes the weekend after next recceing a section of leg 3 from Langdale with Becca. It's months since I enjoyed getting out as much as I am now

King Curtis

Lee Perry

Trick or trot!

We had a K&C Halloween run out last night from the King's Arms in Silsden up to Nab End and back via the Doubler Stones There were about eight of us running including Paul's dog Galileo, and it made for a good start to the week. As is traditional with our club runs beer was taken afterwards and Stef walked over from Addingham to the King's and was therefore also in need of refreshment. When we got home pies were consumed. The apple pie was a thing of wonder!