Somewhere near bridgend...

There's at least one robin in Wales which has no fear.
Hence probably the best wildlife shot I've ever taken so far...

For-Ethiopia

A fund raising event for For-Ethiopia went ahead on Saturday and was a great success, combining Ethiopian food, information about the charity, 'Irish Bingo' and a charity auction. Also had the inaugural speech from the charity patron, Dr Alice Roberts who is sometimes seen on BBC TV.

I was somehow roped into giving a 5 minute presentation about what the charity is doing during the evening too. In actual fact, it took about 9 minutes... :-)

At the end of the day, the event raised nearly £4000. Partly helped by some great auction items - including a week's holiday in a holiday cottage just inside Dartmoor National Park, sleeping 8 people (to be taken anytime except July & August). And all the proceeds from the auction go directly to For-Ethiopia projects. There are some generous people out there. Even in a recession!

Bristol Half Marathon

Me at 9 miles...

Bristol Half Marathon

It's done! The training paid off and I did a Personal Best (PB) for a half marathon - 1hr 37mins and 9 secs.
Just for fun, I quickly did a spreadsheet to calculate my split times and so graphically, you can see how I did. Generally a poor start and slowed up at the finish (mainly because that's where the course went uphill and downhill and also where the cobbled sections started...


It's amazing how you can quickly make a blog boring by the addition of graphs!
OK, for some amusement here's some video footage of the morris dancers who morris danced 13.1 miles!

Training run

Went running today... Apparently there's an iPhone app which uses the phone GPS to track your movements. Just waiting for the iPhone app which actually burns the calories for you.
I plotted my route today manually. 2 laps of the Downs in Bristol is apparently about 9 miles.
I got passed by someone while running, but then tweaked my running style and passed him again. I think I run a better when I've got some competition...

Running (again)

Well, I'm running in the Bristol Half Marathon on 6th September.

Been training fairly solidly for the past couple of months.

Raising money for a charity that I'm a trustee of: For-Ethiopia

GROPOs

I've been doing a lot of GROund POunding these past few weeks as I train for the Bristol Half Marathon. I'm up to around 6-7 miles now and running a rather circuitous route home.

My flagging motivation levels were boosted this week by the arrival of a fresh pair of trainers and free socks. Apparently these socks are part of an 'Integrated Shoe and Sock System', with a Y-Heel construction to provide superior fit and 2x2 mesh ventilation provides added ventilation. Apart from the issue of using 'ventilation' in a sentence twice, I'm not sure whether I've got socks or the latest Sports Utility Vehicle. Well, if it doesn't make me run faster by 10% I'll demand my money back. Oh, wait a sec, they were free. Darn...

In between running, went to see Ice Age 3. I know a lot of people panned Simon Pegg's character, but me and the missus loved it. Not entirely sure what substances he'd been ingesting the night before doing the voice overs, but we thought it was worth watching just to see what would happen if you made a cartoon version of Jack Sparrow and crossed it with a raving rabbid and plonked right in the middle of Jurassic Park. We went to see it in 3-D too, which was the first time I'd donned 3D glasses in the cinema since going to see 'Starchaser, The Legend of Orion' when I was about 10. I found it particularly ironic given the Simon Pegg character has no depth perception. Yet can still pilot a But the music for the chase sequence was quite reminiscent of Star Wars...

It was our wedding anniversary last weekend. Feels kinda like it was only yesterday, yet at the same time feels a long time ago because of everything that's happened in-between. We even got cards. Which makes me feel bad, because I never remember to send out anniversary cards. It's bad enough trying to keep track of birthdays.


Anyway, as the photo shows, flowers were purchased, I remembered to buy an anniversary card AND remember to give it to the missus on the day. We then went off for a photo shoot (which we'd won a £99 discount off by filling in a form at their stand in Cabot Circus shopping centre). That was a laugh and a year on, Ally found herself having her hair done and wearing makeup. Unlike last year though, I got some makeup to cover my shiny nose and even out my skin tone. Well, we'll see if it was worth it when we get the pictures in 6-8 weeks time...

Avebury Henge

I've worked out how to post blogs from my phone now. So here's a picture from the stone circle at Avebury where we've also been today! Gutted the Lions lost though. Was a good first half.

2020 Cricket

Had an enjoyable if somewhat deafening experience at the cricket 2 wks ago, followed by another wknd in London last week! Currently watching the Lions in a pub in Devizes...

Ordering Pictures

550 pictures came in the post yesterday. We're going to do a scrapbook which will include snaps such as:And, imagine a weird parallel universe where everyone forgot to dress up for the wedding...