Category Archives: summer

152. Running on Roman Road 1 – The Devil’s Highway, Bracknell Forest Five

Posted on 20 June, 2007 by | 7 comments

the-devils-highway-copyright-microsoft-live-earth-2007.jpg

(updated and completed 26.06.2007 …
… banner image © Microsoft Virtual Earth)

bracknell-forest-five-rhododendrons.jpgThe straightest line on any map.

In southern England, as in much of Europe, straight lines most often record the course of a Roman road.

2,000 years later, Roman roads form an important part of our transport network, even today. Their arrow-straight trajectories define the traces of many of the modern roads which radiate out of London.

Even in this wildest and most remote colony of the Roman world (and perhaps especially here), the Roman legions had to travel. Trade needed to flow. The effective linking of the farthest outposts of Empire was necessary not just for military protection, but also fundamental to the process of Romanisation.

bracknell-forest-five-runners-on-the-heath.jpgThe traveller passing from Dover to London along the A2 and continuing northwestwards on the A5 from Marble Arch to St Alban’s is following Watling Street, all the way.
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Posted in 2007, history, London, racing, summer

151. Our secret space – Epsom and Ashtead Common

Posted on 10 June, 2007 by | 9 comments

When the worrying starts to hurt
And the world feels like graves of dirt
Just close your eyes until
You can imagine this place – yeah
Our secret space, at will
Snow Patrol – May 2006

New job. New town. New colleagues. New commute.

Less time to write. More time to worry.

It’s a sunny week in early June, when Epsom hosts the Derby. The biggest event in the flat-racing calendar. The original article, the horse race founded by Lord Derby, after which so many imitations are named, all around the globe.

A few weeks have passed, and it may be summer at last, but here in Epsom a new and unfamiliar mould is pressing all around me. The sun is high outside, and today I need to escape the stuffy office, the grim shopping mall and the choking traffic, and to remind myself of who I am. Just for an hour, I need to run.

On this day, of all days, I turn my back on the ladies in posh hats and the dusty punters with their champagne-soaked shoes and shredded betting tickets. I head out of Epsom the other way.

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Posted in 2007, life and times, music, summer, Surrey and Sussex, training

150. Chapel of Garioch, Inverurie – another Aberdeenshire morning

Posted on 23 May, 2007 by | 6 comments

aberdeen-harbour-at-night-pamelaadam-flickrcomThere was still a faint glow of dark blue on the horizon above the hills, but the taxi clock was fast closing on midnight, and the numbers on the meter were clicking even faster.

The driver wasn’t sure of his bearings, and neither was I. All I knew was that the town hotels were full, and my old favourite The Udny Arms in Newburgh was booked out, too. I’d been consigned to a far corner of Aberdeenshire to stay the night.

We pulled up onto the gravel drive, and I fell out of the taxi, suddenly rueing that last farewell port consumed in sumptuous Hazlehead, half an hour ago. I shook my head through the still night air, unpeeled an alarmingly thick roll of Scottish twenties, and headed inside.

The massive gothic oak door creaked open into an ancient hallway, long and chill. High vaulted ceiling, grandfather clock, ceremonial swords fixed to the walls. Somewhere nearby would surely hide a hunting rifle and the head of some unfortunate stag, I thought, as those famous words from Simon Callow sounded to me from somewhere long ago and far away: “It’s bloody Brigadoon !”
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Posted in 2007, Scotland, summer, training

149. In at the deep end – Stratford 220 Sprint Triathlon

Posted on 16 May, 2007 by | 11 comments

It’s not even 9 on Sunday morning, and already I’m out of my depth.

Looking out of my new goggles and through a bubble-strewn maelstrom of churning waters, I can see the floor of the pool falling away far beneath me, and just for a moment, I consider drowning.

The truth is, I’m into new territory here. Way out of my comfort zone.

stratford-220-sprint-tri-swimI’d thought it only in concentration camps that arrivals were routinely branded, until the ruthlessly efficient blonde by the desk had smilingly scrawled numbers onto my flesh.

And a few minutes later, fearfully lined up in numerical order beside the pool, we’d all edged nervously forwards towards our fate. This was something different. We weren’t just starting a race – we were being processed.
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Posted in 2007, racing, Shakespeare Country, summer, triathlon

142. South Bank spring – Tate Modern, London

Posted on 28 March, 2007 by | 13 comments

london-south-bank-and-st-pauls-cathedral.jpgIt’s spring. The sun is out. The clocks have changed. And so have I.

I left my old job three weeks ago. It was time for change, and so for a few weeks my time’s my own. My days are brighter now, and I feel refreshed, revitalised and renewed.

The sun shone all the way into London. I stepped out of the train into an unfamiliar crystal haze as a cool spring day stretched all along the South Bank. The river walk was empty in the early morning, and yet through the silence I could hear the echo of running shoes on tarmac, all around me. I was only walking, but I could feel that exhilaration.

It took me just a quarter of an hour from Waterloo Station to reach my meeting at Tate Modern. Fifteen minutes to gaze across the Thames, at the city shining back at me across the water. Pale blue pastel sky above the distant dome of St Paul’s Cathedral, a vision of glinting white limestone pillars growing ever nearer.
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Posted in 2007, history, life and times, London, summer

128. October is a summer month

Posted on 30 October, 2006 by | 14 comments

october1981.jpgOctober
And the trees are stripped bare
Of all they wear
What do I care ?

Words and music by U2, October 1981.

guildford_29oct2006.jpg

A lot can change in just twentyfive years. And this year, the trees aren’t bare, or even brown.

This October is different, because all the trees are green.

independent_31oct2006.jpgWho knows what the world will be like in another twentyfive years ?

But we know that answer already: October will be just another summer month.

As it already is in England, right now. Today.

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Related articles:
133. Tomorrow – Avril Lavigne and global warming
69. Running low on fuel
105. A crisis of energy
110. The hands that built America – Houston skylines
43. A sense of time – Earth history and the London Marathon
75. The Cruel Sea – the Indian Ocean tsunami

14 Comments

Posted in 2006, environment, global warming, music, science, summer