5 years on...

Exactly five years ago today I was knocked of my bicycle in a hit 'n run accident. I am still suffering with a swollen and sore ankle, which is affecting how much I can exercise. Finally, however, I have some good news - I have progressed far enough down the NHS system to be having an MRI next week, with a view to it being operated on!
What seems to have transpired is that the impact caused some crush injuries to several of the bones in my ankle/foot which have responded by developing bony lumps. These are now sufficiently large to be pushing on such important structures as my achilles tendon, and generally getting in the way. (Note about image - this is not my ankle, but the pink blobs indicate location of problem bony growths)
Last week I saw Mr Thomas - an orthopedic surgeon at the Charing Cross Hospital (confusingly in Hammersmith!) who very swiftly diagnosed the problem and even showed me the x-rays of the area. Luckily for me, it is the hospital I was taken to straight after the accident, so they have the x-rays from the day with which to compare. Depending on the exact outcome of the MRI, Mr Thomas has suggested he will remove the painful nubbins and may also look at doing some work on damaged tendons and ligaments. With a bit of luck I will soon be up and running and on better form than for a number of years!!

On another note, let us not forget that this is the 90th anniversary of WWI armistace. Perhaps a somewhat more worthy subject of a post...

Curiouser and curiouser

So, following on from my last entry, I have not received any more odd notes in the post, but I did get woken up at 0300 this morning with an egg smashing into my bedroom window. Whoever did it drove away straight afterwards, so I am rather mystified. Someone must really suffer from insomnia if they are driving around at 0300 throwing eggs at windows.

To be fair, I think it's highly unlikely that it's linked with the note - I'm sure that person lives much closer. This was just an opportunist with insomnia, a car and an egg.I suspect that having my windows fully open at night (it's very warm in my flat in summer) made me a target - I suspect s/he was hoping to get it into my room. Fortunately only a little 'splatter' and shell made it in, and that was stopped by the net curtains.

On the plus side, I have had an excuse/reason to clean my windows and give my net
curtain a wash, so it's all looking much nicer...

My own personal stalker!

I got back from a run this evening, had a stretch and then checked my letter box. In it was a note - it seems I have a stalker!
Now, in fairness, my new running shorts are a little, errm, revealing but this is the first time I have received any attention and I'm not really sure what to make of it.
My first thoughts are that this is a randomly posted note by some local kids for a joke. My second, and less appealing, is that it's some dirty old man who twitches his curtains every time someone goes past!
Either way I'm not currently too concerned, but I can see how it could get uncomfortable.

I shall keep you posted...

Ills and spills

After nearly landing a role working at Maclaren F1 and with the Abu Dhabi Police force, I have ended up working for Castrol in .... Swindon. So I am now living out of a suitcase for most of a week at a time, with just the weekend to sort out my 'life', which doesn't leave much down time at all! The unfortunate downside of this is that my immune system has taken a hit and I have come down with the mother of all colds. Normally I barely catch a cold, so falling ill is a bit of a surprise. On top of that, this is a minger! I've been struggling with it for a week and am still croaky and snotty (what a lovely image!), for what ever reason I just can't shake the bugger off. I'm putting it down to the sedentary life in an air conditioned box.
I've been trying to get into the hotel gym 3 times a week, but last week was a wash-out. This week I have to start seriously upping my activity levels as I'm rather madly taking part in a 'virtual' run of Africa - 11780Km from Cairo to Cape Town - in 5 months. Fortunately not all on my own - it's as a team of 10, which still works out at 35 miles per person per week for 5 months. If nothing else that should knock a few pounds off! Fortunately my calf is much better now - no aches or twinges, so I should be good for the distance so long as I take it carefully to start with... which with this cold, I have no alternative other than to take it easy! That said I cracked out 2o miles on my bike at the weekend - to and from New Malden so that's a start...

Well, that's torn it...

I've been training quite a lot recently for a race at the end of the month - Offa's Orror - and for once, actually following some vague training schedule with the view to not only getting around the course, but also putting in a good time.
Things have been going well and I've been getting some serious mileage (well, serious for me!) done. So, all was looking good for a 17k run on Sunday afternoon. Indeed I covered off the first 5km of the run averaging a very comfortable and sustainable 5m 15 per km. Nothing outstandingly good, but it's a pace I'm happy with. Then, as I rounded the corner up onto Chiswick Bridge my calf/achilles went tight, very tight and then 'pop' in under 5 paces. And yes, I do mean 'pop'. It was a very peculiar sensation, which was then replaced by a deep and intense flash of pain.
So, there I was, at the furthest point that my route takes me from home, unable to run, in a light running top and shorts... and then the wind picked up and it started to rain. Things weren't looking good. Fortunately I could atleast hobble, so long as I didn't try to put any power through my right foot and so started the hour-long walk home, and damn, did I feel miserable.
Once home I put my leg up and used firstly my newly re-aquired (long story involving helping my ex move flat on the saturday) ice pack and then a hot water bottle to treat the area. Today I managed to hobble into the office, but I suspect that 2 weeks is not enough time for it to heal enough to be put into a 20k cross country race in Wales.

Anyone want to take my place on the race? Ticket, transport and accomodation organised...

The Eagles have landed...

At the weekend I went to my second ever gig - yes, sad isn't it that at over 30 I've only been to two gigs, but the first was the U2 Vertigo tour and the second was The Eagles, Long Road Out Of Eden so I've done pretty well!
I'm no pop aficionado so I'll refrain from writing a review and let you Google those yourself. However, I will say that if you are an Eagles fan, you would love it... And if you don't like the Eagles, then you've just saved yourself a lot of money!

I will, however, pass on some of my pet annoyances, again highlighting why I dislike the 'general public' -
I don't mind people tapping along, or singing to the songs - in fact, it's positively expected. But I do really get pissed off when the person next to me has no sense of rhythm and is determined to use my seat for his own personal tympani section. Oh, and he couldn't sing, but boy, did he have gusto! When he wasn't playing a 300 piece drum kit, he was doing air guitar - to all the guitars simultaneously! I think I've just identified the first ever case of musical tourettes!
Well, it was entertaining I guess, and didn't distract from the occasion too much...

Denmark, Christmas & New Year, I've been published!, F1 & Bernie Eccleston...

Blimey, I forget to write anything for a couple of weeks, and suddenly a quater of a year has passed! So, what's been happening?

Well, just before Christmas I spent a few days out in Copenhagen. The main reason was to deliver some training that I'd been working on for a client, but I thought since I'd never been I may as well take a few extra days to explore the place. Copenhagen is rated as one of the most desirable cities to live in, so I was looking forward to it. However when we got there (My boss decided to join me on my adventures) it was cold, grey and *very* expensive. A small beer cost over £5, damnit! Being the tourists we were, we hunted out the 'Little Mermaid' which was a great dissapointment - too small, colourless and it's backdrop is an ugly container port. Ho hum. The highlight of the trip, however, was the visit to the Carlsberg brewery. It cost £4 to get in, and with that you got 2 free beers! We'd found somewhere cheap to drink, at last!!

Christmas was spent at home with my family. I was looking forward to a very relaxing break, which by and large it was, except I noticed that rather a large section of guttering had fallen down and needed repairing. So dutifully, I spent a couple of days in the freezing cold, sleet and rain abound, up a ladder doing DIY. On the plus side, I was very well repaid with food and drink!

It seems that people do actually look at my pics on flickr - an image I took of a glass of beer in a pub called Abbaye is now being used by a travel guide company on their website!



So, into the new year and as one project finishes, so another one starts - this time with Formula 1. It's an interesting company that doesn't seem to run along the lines of most modern companies - in fact it's almost entirely subject to the whims of it's boss, Mr E. That said, he's obviously done a pretty good job as it's worth a small fortune.. as is he!
Anyway, it was a very short interrim project management role that seemed to go pretty well. Yesterday I met up with F1's head of Legal to talk through how the project was going and see how things were going, only for Bernie to walk in on the meeting. It was immediately obvious that he thought I was someone else, as after staring at me for a couple of seconds he told me how much smarter I was looking today! Once it was clarified that we were not who we thought we were, he then told me he didn't like my sort - IT Consultants, that is; He would much rather things were still done with a notepad and pencil.
Well, I guess you can get away with that when you are 77 and worth a few billion!