An article on the radio this week said that 24th January was officially the most miserable day of the year. Apparently the combination of bad weather, dark nights, post-Christmas debt and broken New Year’s resolutions serves to make this the depressive lowpoint in our calendar.
The fact that it was a Monday can’t have helped much either.
Posted in 2005, life and times, winter
Amongst bizarrely balanced nutritional regimes, this particular Dr Feelgood diet must score almost as highly as Eric Clapton’s lyrical blend of peaches and diesel. But it’s a much more innovative non-runner’s recipe which I’ve been following this week, my own newly-patented formula of Champagne-and-Ibuprofen.
Posted in 2004, life and times, London, music
He’d been walking thoughtfully behind, but now his playing partners parted deferentially as he joined them. A brief flash of a film-star smile, a swish of a copper bracelet, and the ball soared into a blue Alpine sky. The finest player of a generation turned modestly to this lone spectator, nodding acknowledgement of the necessarily thin applause as another drive split the fairway.
The 16th hole in the last round, watching the defending champion come down the stretch at the Swiss Open and European Masters. And even though the double US Masters and triple British Open winner was only one stroke off the lead, and a smallish crowd was waiting in the single grandstand around the final green, with three holes left it still seemed there were only a handful of us actually out there on the course.
The European Tour has changed since then. By the time Luke Donald celebrated his Ryder Cup place with a victory in the same tournament at Crans-sur-Sierre in 2004, the crowds were massive. Just one event was responsible for raising the profile of the sport across the continent, and that was the Ryder Cup. And the one man who made it happen undoubtedly was that same Severiano Ballesteros.
Posted in 2004, divided by an ocean, golf, heroes, life and times
As a schoolboy, I was amazed and impressed to read that Henry VIII had died of ‘consumption’. Had he really eaten so much that it had actually killed him ?
Now, of course, I realise that the description actually refers to tuberculosis, but also that there was likely still an element of truth to my post-mortem interpretation.
Consumption is a life-long pastime, and in these more leisurely weeks after the Blackpool Marathon, it has once again made its presence felt.
Posted in 2004, life and times
Priorities shift like the tide, and this summer it seems high time to rediscover my golf game.
This is the real sport of my life, and the one where I can actually compete on a reasonable level. If I could run like I golf, maybe I’d even be a 2:30 marathoner.
Continue reading
Posted in 2004, golf, life and times
Today is the fiftieth anniversary of the first sub-4 minute mile. With some help from Chris Chataway and Chris Brasher, Roger Bannister circled the Oxford University track four times on his way to a world record time of 3:59.4.
I used to cycle past the Iffley Road track each day on my way to geology lectures. My girlfriend then lived in Oxford’s nearby Parker Street, the same street where Jack Lovelock, mile world record holder and 1500 m Olympic Champion in Berlin, had lived many years before.
Continue reading
Posted in 2004, heroes, life and times
 | Roads on 198. This bank and shoal of ti… |
| Roads on 144. East of Eden – evol… |
 | Christine Miller on 144. East of Eden – evol… |
 | heavenhappens on 198. This bank and shoal of ti… |
 | (A-)SocialClimber on 223. Cycling on Surrey and Sus… |
roads of stone 