Spot the difference

Amazing how just standing next to an Anthony Worral Thompson barbecue can make you look exactly like him.

I connected with celebrity today

I say connected - I tweeted that Dave Gorman and Krishnan Guru-Murthy were having an argument, to which they both immediately replied to say there was nothing heated about their discussion and it was all very lovely and friendly. My god, the rush! I've finally been noticed by famous people! As J said, it is probably only a matter of time before they're my actual friends. Of course, the problem with the written word, as my pal Davey G pointed out, is that it's impossible to pick up tone at times. So, for instance, you don't know if I've written this passage with tongue planted in cheek, or if I'm serious.... Come to think of it, neither do I.

Dreaming spires

I was in Oxford for the first time on Sunday. Very pretty but the city centre seems to essentially be the University with a couple of shops filling the gaps. Took an open top bus tour - £11.50 per adult. It involved an hour driving round the centre of town having each college pointed out and...that was about it. Thank god we didn't pay for it. If you ever find yourself in the city at a loss of ...

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Bellissimo

Hard to believe that half of the year has flown past already, and yet here we are, almost at the end of June. This is the period of the year I have been looking forward to since last December - in a week's time we'll be in Palermo, full of pizza and Peroni, looking forward to the next week of driving our Fiat Panda to Enna, Etna and back. At least, it'd better be a Panda. You can't do a road ...

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Isobel Jane Townsend

The Cotswolds have a rightful place in the tourist folklore of this great nation, enticing holiday makers in their thousands each year to marvel at the picture postcard villages and rolling green hills.

It's not just humans, of course, who are not immune to the area's charms - storks, it would appear, are also quite taken with the area and make regular return visits.

That, I can only assume, is ...

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Motivation's what you need

Given my Psychology degree and unfortunate tendency to think I am that little bit better at things than most other people, I'm surprised I haven't thought of a move into motivational speaking sooner. Life down the toilet? Skint? Lonely? Wondering where it all went wrong? For just £50 an hour, I will show you how you, too, can have a life just like mine.

I did my usual running route this evening ...

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When technology catches up with me

I'm going to be renowned as a wit unseen since the days of Wilde. There's gold in my head, see, and I come up with amazing chat in my mind whilst out and about - the only problem is that I forget it by the time I come to type it. All I need is technology to advance to the stage where I can get stuff onto the internet just by thinking about it. Can't be more than 5 years away, surely?

You'll have to trust me about the content, obviously. Gold.

Sponsor me!

I've got my sponsorship page for the Cancer Research 10K set up via Justgiving (although it's actually hosted at run10ksponsorme.org). There's a handy link just to the left of the screen if you've half a mind to shift your eyes sideyways for a second.

Erstwhile training partner Craig has been strutting about our great nation's capital since his last run, shooting his mouth off about how he's a ...

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I've just found my Smashing Pumpkins Greatest Hits CD

I thought someone had nicked it. I didn't expect to be this pleased to find it again.

back to basics

yep, I've reverted to my original blog template. There wasn't really anything wrong with it, except it's perhaps a bit dated. But at least it fills the screen, and it gives me a bit of a warm nostalgic glow as it transports me back to the long hot summer of 2006.... It's coming up on 3 years now since I kicked off this blog, believe it or not. Who would have thought I'd still be clogging up the information superhighway at this point?

Merde

Mon station du jouer est morte.

Coventry City were about to win the Champions League n all.

At least I'm not a bad workman

I’ve been jogging (can’t really call it running and maintain a straight face) for 2 and a half years now, and over that time have accrued quite a bit of kit. Spot me trudging round Brockwell park of an evening, and I will most likely be decked out in my £70 Nike trainers, Nike+ iPod gizmo, armband for said iPod, special sports headphones, trainer socks, running shorts and a special runners ...

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Florence and the Machine

Told you it was sporadic...

My initial uncontrollable spurt of excitement around "bands everyone else except me had probably heard of until last week" continues with Florence and the Machine.

The video is Dog Days - one of those songs that I loved as soon as I heard it. Certainly made trudging along Fenchurch Street surrounded by a paralysed Tube system more bearable this morning.

Casiokids

Starting a sporadic trawl through the bands playing at this year's Bestival who I have checked out and liked... Casiokids. Norwegian 80s-inspired electro? Or, as they describe it, Melodramatic Popular Song.

You read my mind....

I'm running this

The Cancer Research 10K on 27 September.

It's round Hampton Court which should make for a pretty stunning backdrop - reports that the final kilometre is through the maze are as yet unconfirmed. My erstwhile training partner, Craig (tm) and his recent race running exploits have inspired a flurry of activity both on the training front and the race entering side - although I'm not around for the ...

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Spotify

I know I'm late to the party on this one, but oh my God! Spotify! Genius! I thought it sounded a bit rubbish when I heard about it - didn't realise it was extremely minimal on the advertising and full on the breadth and depth of available tunes. For the uninitiated, it's a free music service where you can listen to tracks by just about any artist on an Itunes style application - the only ...

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Officially my healthiest day since 1997

I haven't exercised regularly since my premature retirement from rugby in 1996.

I have been drinking with increasing regularity, if not amount per session, since around the same time.

I started smoking in 1997, and didn't look back until cutting it short abruptly at the end of February this year.

I can therefore say, having been for a 5km run tonight and skipped the lager in favour of a nice cup of tea, that today was the healthiest day of my life for the past 13 years.

I don't know whether to celebrate or cry myself to sleep.

Bestival 2009

This summer is shaping up to be pretty epic. The last couple have been quite poor but as the sun seems determined to hang about for a bit for the first time in 3 years, so the next 4 months are shaping up to be the best since 2006.

Back then it was all about the World Cup, Roskilde and Sweden, with the 10K at the end of it to round things off.

This time it's Sicily in less than a month, Bestiv...

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thoughts are with the passengers and families of the Air France airbus which has disappeared. I am an incredibly nervous flyer and normally only manage to remain calm by convincing myself these things only ever happen to remote internal flights in the likes of Indonesia. The news that there were so many different nationalities, including someone from Northern Ireland, on a flight on a reputable airline between two major world cities scares the shit out of me. Here's hoping for a miracle.

Bubbling Hot

The heatwave continues, and my frazzled scalp knows all about it. I spent most of the weekend baking in the sunshine - in the pub on Saturday and the park on Sunday. It was lovely - it's easy to forget how fantastic some unbroken sunshine can be for the soul.

I had a bit of an odd encounter on the way home on Saturday night, however. I was walking back to the flat alone and was just preparing to ...

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