Cats in love

Jaffa and Popcorn have been with us for, what, 3 or 4 weeks now and yet it seems like they've been here forever. From settling in so quickly to becoming best friends to learning all about the garden (and becoming blase about it) they're doing it all! Right now they're on the floor play-fighting (which maybe takes up a quarter of the day) rather than sleeping (twelve hours a day at least) or eating (an hour at least); such is the busy timetable for your average kitten.

The great part of all this though is that they've become truly the best of friends - inseparable playmates, dinner dates, companions in exploration and grooming consultants:

Who us? We didn't do it!

There's something in your ear. No wait - it's your ear.

What's also great is that they're both real people cats. From the moment that we rise in the morning they're under our feet looking for attention - if not clawing their way up our trouser leg. Popcorn likes nothing better than to snuggle up close, and fall asleep, little caring whether he's lying on your arm or your head or your neck; human concerns are not his problem. Jaffa also likes to get close but that's only so that he can sink his teeth into some exposed flesh or tickle you with his outstretched claws. Believe you me I no longer sleep with my feet hanging over the edge of the bed! Still we wouldn't be without the little darlings.

Coppetts Wood and environs

Annoyingly for most of the past week I've been suffering from a low-grade cold - reaching a mind-clouding peak on Friday - and this has put a serious dent into any sporting efforts on my part. However this morning I felt that I just had to get out for a run whether I wanted to or not; especially as it wasn't raining no matter how hard I looked towards the heavens! So I figured that I'd head north to the Glebelands by the North Circular since I haven't been that way for a while and there are lots of free-living fruit trees in Coppetts Wood. It's almost a community orchard up there and with a bit of overnight drizzle a primordial air hangs over the close-growing vegetation:

Autumnal, misty and solitary

Luckily there weren't any 'terrible lizards' around; just an over-attentive pooch and he was soon dealt with. After this I started to feel like I should keep going, at the very least, rather than break off for home and so a south-westerly leaning took me towards Finchley Central and along Squires Lane. In the spirit of exploration I ducked down some side-roads and alleyways (which probably surprised a few householders given that these passageways all terminated at the end of their garden and provided no conceivable utility to anyone else!) but none proved practical. In the end though I popped up by Long Lane Pastures and I wouldn't mind dropping in there again:

Doesn't look like a hive of diversity does it?

Once again though I was too early and so from here it was a direct run back down East End Road to home - or it would have been had I not messed about trying to locate the path through the Stanley Road Playing Fields. The funny thing is that the way in was at the end of Stanley Road; hardly a surprise eh? Sometimes I wonder why I bother getting out of bed you know! At least the way was clear beyond this moment of confusion and I even manged a spot of time barefoot - a style that I reckon will appeal to Joshua given how much time he spends splashing about in the mud without any shoes!

Distance: 7.6 miles
Time: 1h 05m 48s

Sugru - Hack it!

A while back I was searching for something interesting for Joshua to learn and play with; a modelling material perhaps but not something as prosaic as clay. What I wanted was something a bit more, well, technical than that. Sounds a bit geeky doesn't it! Anyway firstly I came across a commercial polymer called Polymorph and this looked to be just the ticket; a plastic material that becomes workable with less than boiling water and yet hardens to a 'true' plastic. When the bag arrived Joshua and I were very excited and we put the kettle on immediately! However it turns out that the polymer isn't all that malleable and so after a bit of experimentation I decided that my search should continue.

Shortly afterwards I came across a new product called Sugru and I don't mind admitting that I was pretty geeked-out by this stuff! It looked like you could form pretty much anything out of this wonder material and that once cured it's flexible, waterproof and resistant to both heat and cold. Even better the inventors celebrate the endless variety of hacks that Sugru facilitates on their blog and this is worth the price of admission to the club by itself. So I ordered myself a bag of multi-colour minipacks and waited eagerly for the postman (why do they come in little foil packs? Because the silicone cures in 24 hours and a big pack wouldn't last once opened).

When the Sugru arrived I was a little bit awed though and just a teeny bit cautious; what if I messed up and made a mess of my hack? I'm no sculptor you know! Still I knew where I wanted to start and that was with my bike; there are some headset bolts that stick out and I'm forever scraping my leg on them when I'm out of the saddle and powering up Swains Lane. So these were the first 'problems' in my life to receive the Sugru treatment:

No more scratches and scrapes here

What a revelation! Since this little hack I've barely given these sharp little bolts a second thought and Lenore doesn't keep asking me about these strange little scratches! Then, a week or two later, I noticed that my Garmin watch strap had developed a little nick and might prove troublesome. How true. By the end of my run one half of the strap had split completely and I didn't hold out much hope for the other half. However Sugru rode to my rescue once again with a total repair of the strap:

Don't hide your light away!

What a success. The watch feels just as comfortable to wear as it ever did and I didn't have to send it anywhere near a Garmin repair centre. A great result and just another example of Sugru coming up trumps. Now I just have to see how well it copes with repairing a broken sun visor - since Joshua 'accidentally' snapped the one in my car! Oops.

When did you last run to work?

I'm almost embarrassed to say that I last ran to work in June - so long ago that I can remember nothing about the journey (which just goes to show how useful it is to blog these things!). In some ways it seems that the weather was quite similar to today with a bit of sun and a sensible temperature. The big difference of course is that back in June we were all eyeing up the summer in expectation while all we're eyeing up now is a well-stuffed turkey. This river of time malarkey is a real pain sometimes.

Anyway I had to run in this morning, whether I wanted to or not, because my wheels were at work and the tube is no fun when it's commuting time. Suffice to say that I didn't feel like putting on my running shoes and when I got outside I didn't feel like putting one foot in front of the other. Still a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do and so I just kept on rolling through the woods and over the Heath. Oddly enough by the time I descended down towards Kentish Town I began to feel in a bit of a groove and I couldn't help noticing that I sounded quieter than usual. Yes, that's right, it was the sound that caught my attention and the lack of clip-clopping; maybe this barefoot stuff is making a difference?

Oh I like this - a set of stairs it is!

From here I kept on listening and keeping to what I thought was a steady pace; the only reward for sprinting in your commute is a whole lot more sweating in the office and that's not good for anyone! However despite this my pace kept picking up and I felt quite fine about it.

So a total contrast to my race on Sunday and a welcome reminder of how it feels to run well. Sure I know that this is just a mid-week jog and of no real consequence but even so it's pleasing to actually derive some enjoyment out of running at the moment (or indeed any form of exercise it seems). Generally speaking my high points at the moment all revolve around bombing up Swains Lane and while I just love nailing this climb there aren't enough races up its steep flanks!

Distance: 7.5 miles
Time: 58m 21s

Basic DIY - Week One

In common with oh so many people (everyone?) I've picked up my share of offers from group-buying site Groupon with some deals being better than others. Why most of their current deals seem to revolve around facials and dental surgery I don't know. Anyway sometimes a really good offer comes along - like the chance to enjoy a cut-price course at The Goodlife Centre. Now I didn't know these people from Adam but I liked the eclectic nature of their courses and the fact that I could potentially walk to them from work if I chose wisely. So I played my hand and signed up for a 4-week Basic DIY course.

Now like any other red-blooded male I do have my share of power tools and some of them have, believe it or not, been used in anger. So it's fair to say that I know my way around a toolbox. On the other hand I'm always willing to learn, and make a fool of myself, if that's what it takes and with the global apocalypse around the corner a few practical skills might come in handy. Sure you might say that if this is the future then I'd be better off learning how to skin a rabbit and build a lean-to from twigs but I've done both of these once already and once was enough!

Hopefully not the outcome!

So what did we do this evening in this first week? Well we got off to a leisurely start by getting to know each other and our home improvement experiences - however limited they might be! At first it seemed that I was to be the token bloke but as it turned out all this indicated was that the women were more likely to arrive on time! In the end the group was split pretty evenly and we got down to banging in some nails, experimenting with a nail punch and generally trying a few things out.

After this it was on to the various types of saw with the promise of getting our hands on the cordless jigsaw at the front of the class; it made my 'el cheapo' jigsaw look like a poor relation I can tell you. On the hand-saw front though I don't mind saying that I quite liked the look of the Gentleman's saw (a type of backsaw it is) and in practice it felt easy in my hand. I can almost see why 'dads' end up with a shed full of tools, you know, and yet still can't cut square through a plastic pipe! It seems that there's no 'secret' way to do this properly either just lots of practice. Darn it.

A pretty good start then; I'm looking forward to next week already.

Swimming and tumble turns

Even though I do a lot of running these days I don't consider myself to be primarily a runner because I only really picked it up this century; in contrast I've been cycling for 25 years and swimming regularly for over 20 years. So for sure running has a lot of catching up to do and personally I don't think that it'll ever make the grade - but don't tell my running shoes that!

Anyway my point is that I've been swimming for an awful long time and yet I've never managed to pin down the art of tumble-turning. I've tried on and off over the years but I've never been able to achieve any consistency or even a sense that I could keep it going length after length. However the other day I stumbled across a video of Chris MacCormack swimming on Tasmin Lewis's Facebook page. Now the funny thing is that he's not a great swimmer, in the Michael Phelps league that is, but for no good reason something clicked in my brain when I saw him tumble-turning:

What I noticed was that coming into the turn he quite casually placed both hands on this thighs, bent down from  the waist and did a little flick with his feet. Then, as if by magic, he just flipped over and set off in the opposite direction. Seems simple doesn't it but in the past I've always tried to use my hands and arms to lever my turn while at the same time bending and twisting round - and yet it seems that your hands really aren't part of the equation here!

So at lunchtime today I decided that I'd use my regular swim in the Oasis swimming pool as a bit of a practice session - just to see what happened. The funny thing is that when I went at it the first time, and placed my hands in the right position, then I nailed it just like that! Astonishing! After that there was no stopping me and I kept going back for more; okay some of my later turns were a bit ropey and I missed a few out but nevertheless what a revelation! If I can keep this up then I'll be a very content swimmer. Thanks Chris!

Regents Park 10K - October

Against my better instincts I put in my entry to the winter series a month or so ago and so it was no surprise when my race pack arrived - although this year there is no timing tag to wrap around your shoelaces. Now it's all done via a transponder on your race number and that's very neat and tidy. Also this will be my fifth successive year at the winter series at least (my Garmin records don't go any further back) and it is quite nice to maintain something of a tradition.

On the other hand maintaining anything wasn't my primary thought when I set off for my usual warm-up run around the course. For some reason my legs felt very much out of sorts and I couldn't get my breathing right at all; it was really quite odd feeling so maladjusted and I cut my loop short just to be done with it. So I wasn't in a great frame of mind when Anthony turned up, fresh from the World Championships in Beijing, but it's always nice to have someone to talk to given how rarely my family turn up to witness me compete/suffer. In no time at all we were being put under starter's orders and then we were off.

Buoyed up by the enthusiasm all around I started a little too quickly and it soon became obvious that today wasn't going to be my moment in the sun - metaphorically speaking. My only hope soon became that slow and steady would win the day but realistically it seemed unlikely that everyone in front of me would get caught out by the heat and fall apart. Oh well; attrition is never that great a race strategy anyway. So I plowed on and in a way things did settle down. After a while I began catching a few stragglers purely because I was keeping to a steady pace and not engaging in any fireworks. In fact even when a late-charging athlete caught me in the final 100m I didn't bother to change my pace - by that point there was very little to run for.

Slow and steady alright

So today was rather a disappointment to be honest. I didn't run well, turning in a poor 42:25 and a pedestrian 36th place, and never really felt in the race for once. In fact I barely even started, let alone finished, a warm-down run and that's unusual for me; normally I'll force myself to do something because I know that it makes a difference but today I felt beyond caring. I don't know if this is just a symptom of lacking base fitness or something else but I'll be happy if I'm in a different place next month that's for sure!

Distance: 8.7 miles
Time: 1h 03m 06s