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Pipped at the post

Pic of the week 13/5/18

Going in to the final day of the season I was sat in fourth place in the predictor league, with a slim 35 point lead over 5th place.

As the games unfolded I looked in a strong position, until about 10 mins from time Palace got a second goal to beat WBA 2-0 giving “Beanabennet” a  90 pointer as he had that exact score on his banker, and pipping me to the money places at the death.

Not sure I shall “stat” next season – do get the sense I’ve just been going through the motions a bit.  Who knows, maybe come August …

Anyway, on a more positive note, the better weather has returned, had some lovely red skies last night, enjoy the pics below.

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First Run Back

Its been a long time – over two months (4th March) – since I last ran. My tooth, then my knee, have taken their toll.

Yesterday afternoon, I set out rather gingerly to see if I could run again. It felt slow, it was slow, but my knee held up.  I ran 5K (down to the levels and back) in just over 25 mins, averaging about 5:04 per Km. The endorphins that kicked in on my return reminded me why I do it.

Its now the following morning – I am “aware” of my knee, it doesn’t hurt but I can feel it, although not necessarily in the place it hurt when I damaged it. Off spinning this morning.  Will continue to monitor the knee, but hopefully I can begin the build up to proper running again.

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Little white box of happiness

Pic of the week 6/5/18

Perhaps not the most artistic of photos but the little white box pictured above has bought unbridled joy this week. I have even caught myself giving it a loving caress on the odd occasion this week.

We had a new boiler fitted on Tuesday. A Logic + 30W, cost £16000 installed, and once again we have hot water on tap. Bliss.

Our wonderful plumber/heating engineer (Kes Tidball) will come back in a month or so and fit zone valves so that the kitchen underfloor heating and the rest of the house are in desperate zones, and can be controlled separately – that will be worth the extra cost to have that done, too.

A couple of bonus pics this week.

The week started cold and wet, but has ended hot and sunny. Wonderful.

Other news: the knee continues to improve, I can walk normally, am tempted to run, but a tentative plod left me in doubt, so no running yet, still just spinning and swimming.

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1,000th length

Swam my 1,000th length of the year so far today, 1/5/18.

1002 lengths, 33.4 Km, in 12 hours 36 mins 9 secs.

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Duel – Propaganda


Track of the week 29/4/18

I think I first encountered this track one Friday evening on “The Tube” (I could be completely wrong) and I have always been drawn to it, and the video.

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Where did that go?

Pic of the week 29/4/18

Well, where did that week go?

It seems like only moments that I was sat here writing last week’s blog post.

So this week, I have gone back to school, the weather has gone from hot, hot, hot to chuffing cold, my knee has made a slow improvement – still not full working order yet, but now walking with a “just” a limp and not the full Herr Flick (as I was described by a colleague on Monday.)  Went spinning on Friday and today – great to do some exercise and also felt good for the knee , “loosening” it up. It also felt a lot better after yoga on Wednesday. Have a physio appointment on Tuesday.

Boiler gave up the ghost on Friday evening, now producing no hot water, no matter what you do. Have a man coming on Tuesday to install and fit a new boiler.

In fact, now I think of it, Tuesday should be an important day, the start of a new era: new boiler, new mortgage (Yorkshire bank offset) and new me (I hope!) after the physio sorts out my knee.

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Maximum Jeff

Same T-shirt, two Jeff’s

Pic of the week 22/4/18

I had plenty to write about today, but (probably I’ve got plenty to write about because I’ve been busy) today’s post will be reduced to a series of bullet points for brevity.

  • What a difference a day five years makes!  Same T-shirt, two different me’s. The first picture was taken in the summer of 2013, the right hand shot yesterday. Becky & I went to see “The Band” at the Bristol Hippodrome and the pic was taken after lunch, en-route to the show, which included my favourite line:
  • “You are looking at maximum Jeff.”  Show was great, but it did continue the tendency to stereotype “Jeff’s” as middle aged, boring, old men. Couldn’t be further from the truth!
  • As this post is, in part, dedicated to my vanity, it is only appropriate that I record my first “waxing” – on Thursday I had my back done, not as painful as I feared!
  • The weather has, at last, been fantastic. From Tuesday we’ve had wall to wall sunshine and, apparently, the hottest April day since the ’70s. After the cold wet Spring we’ve had, the good weather was long overdue.
  • Garden notes: planted up some lobelia, geraniums, hostas.  Gave everywhere a good tidy.  Over seeded the (barren looking) lawn.
  • Boiler – on Friday the boiler annoyingly started playing up, only giving hot water intermittently.  Can trick it into action (turn hot tap on, turn boiler off and then on) and it will (usually) stabilise and maintain hot water. But a pain. My money is on the PCB …
  • My knee continues to improve, but still not able to walk normally.  A lot less painful than it was and I have been able to swim on Friday and today.  Not sure if I’ve just forgotten how to walk!
  • Back to school tomorrow, holidays are over.  Still, the summer term is always the best (and the shortest. Are the two related, I wonder?)
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Retro Fun Planet – Soundroll

My wife just doesn’t understand.

A common enough complaint from the downtrodden male, but I think perhaps it is only in this area Becky & I diverge.

She will describe this as “elevator music” failing to see (or, more accurately, hear) it for what it is: funky, groovy, acidy, poppy jazz.

I discovered “Soundroll” via Spotify (there we go again – somehow magically knowing what I will like) and have fallen in love with it.