A Marathon?

You hear the phrase "it's a marathon not a sprint" applied to many situations, and due to one thing and another this week , over Monday to Friday I have recorded over 100K steps which is about forty four miles, which for me is impressive.

Yesterday I wanted to better 26K steps , then I decided to hit 30K then 33K then 15 miles and finished on 35K. The fact I had done 15 miles got me thinking I could do 26 miles in a day, not as a continuous run , but just to hit twenty six miles in a day. Here's the details of the original and it is just over twenty six miles, but at my general speed of 2.5 miles an hour that would be eleven hours walking, so it is improbable that I will do it , but with a week off next week the thought is very much in my head.

Being on an effective staycation gives me a lot of potential routes that would serve my purpose but the amount of time it will take will probably mean that I don't do it.

Also Snickers chocolate bars used to be called Marathon and I think the new name is rubbish , Marathon was far better.

So to soundtrack this Edwin Starr's "25 Miles" is close enough for me.

Contact

I was touched by the comments on Facebook on my first post ban post, although I think a few might just like but not bother reading the blog post. The biggest lesson out of this is not not rely of a Facebook as a single means of contact. Facebook does allow to share an email or phone number. My phone contact list is very big , and my blog gets updated regularly. So if you're worried about me you can email or text me or even phone me (I might not answer but leave a message and I'll get back to you).

This is just talking about me, but also think about how people would contact you if they were worried about you, do you have at least an alternate email of Facebook. My ban included messenger so when people contacted me by Messenger I could see their message but could not answer, luckily one of those friends had an alternate email contact which they also used so I could answer that way.

Last night I watched the film "Buried" 90 minutes of Ryan Reynolds in a coffin with a couple of mobile phones with which he tries to contact various people to try and facilitate his escape. An amazing and intense film. It reminds a little of Tom Hardy in Locke, except this ramps up the claustrophobia whereas Tom Hardy is in a car and not about to run out of power or air. This is the tagline:

"Imagine waking up in the dark and realising that you've been buried alive for reasons unknown to you, with nothing but a lighter, a mobile phone and only 90 minutes of oxygen left. Ryan Reynolds delivers an utterly compelling performance as everyman, Paul Conroy that is filled with fear, frustration, emotion and even a couple of dark laughs along the way."

So this morning we have bright sunshine and the Women's World Cup semi-final between England and the World Champions , the USA to look forward to, so that is tonight sorted for me.

So going with the title of this post we have to go with Edwin Starr's "Contact" don't we?

Pleasant Surprises

One of the nicest things is actually unexpectedly meeting up with a friend you haven't seen for too long. Too often we put off social contact because it's easier to just be home, watch catch up TV and not socialise. Today I was walking back to work with my free decaf latte from Patisserie Valerie and ran into my great friend Sophia who I haveb't she for ages. She is working at a tattoo studio and we had a quick ten minute catch up about music and what we had been up to and she triggered an idea for me to try Audacity on the new computer, and the first try seems to have created some noise which is good.

This si what friends do for me, and this year I am going to try and resume social contact with lots of people. I do know so many lovely people that I really do need to redouble my efforts to get out more. There is a Reginald D Hunter gig in February which a few friends will be at so, that is one thing to look forward to, plus meeting up with Mark and Helen who I have not seen for probably twelve months or more.

The thing is contact is good for us, and I know this is just a short post so I will include Edwin Starr's "Contact" which I think is just a brilliant song. Enjoy my friends , and get out and reconnect with someone you haven't seen in a while, you never know what it my inspire you to do.

Edinburgh 2017 #3 - Vinyl Villains

The final new shop I visited in Edinburgh was Vinyl Villains, just a bit closer to the centre and down the road from Elvis Shakespeare. It opens around 10:30 on Saturday and again the uy who runs it is very helpful and very knowledgeable about his stock.

On Friday night on BBC4 Danny Baker was presenting a seventies show with a rock slant including Brian Eno's "Seven Deadly Finns" the clip you can see here is from a Dutch pop program, but later in the show was Frankie Goes To Hollywood's "Two Tribes" , one of the most vicious and agressively brilliant dance tunes you will ever hear. I loved the video featuring "Boris Yeltsin" and "Ronald Reagan" in a fighting pit , and really that's the way any war should be fought but we all know what cowards politicians really are, they always get someone else to fight for them.

Anyway back in Vinyl Villains  (they are on Facebook too) they had a lot of albums suspended from the ceiling and I noticed a picture disc of "Two Tribes" and thought "That has my name on it". The guy said he thought it was an interview disc but he got his ladder out and brought the disc down to check, It turned out it was "Two Tribes" backed with their take on Edwin Starr's "War" so I parted with a fiver for an excelent slice of vinyl.

Again this place is not too far from Edinburgh centre and will be on my list when I am next there.

I revisited Coda who are just off the Royal Mile and came across Underground Solu'shn next to The Malt Shovel when we were out with Maureen and Scott , but that's one for the next visit to Edinburgh.

Forced March

Well not exactly. Today when I got home I had done 9.7K steps. This was enough to keep me ahead of the game, I need to average just under 10.9K a day to hit the million i three months but I wanted to be far enough ahead so that if I lie in bed all day tomorrow I'll be still ahead, so I went for another walk and finished up with just over 12.5K meaning that even if I don't walk tomorrow I would still be 800 steps ahead of my target (more because I am basing it on 11K a day).

Anyway all is good. The title is stolen from an author called Sven Hassel , a schoolboy favourite because of the bloodthirsty graphic violence that the books contained apparently. I never read any but he was certainly prolific and had some great titles lifted by metal bands for song and album titles. I've just looked and  "Forced March" was by Leo Kessler who had the same modus operandi as Hassel. Kessler also wrote "March or Die" lifted by Motorhead for their 2003 album.

While I am a horror fan, I am not a fan of war or gratuitous graphic violence, hence my boyhood and adulthood avoidance of authors like Kessler and Hassel.

So what song to we go with, I think Edwin Starr's War is as good a one as any. It's time for bed now. Sleep soundly my lovelies.

Pearl Harbour ... with a chance of snow

Art of War

Seventy three years ago today the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbour , although the Americans insist on calling it Pearl Harbor, which caused the Americans to enter the war. It's ironic that the media now push the attitude of  "attack someone before he even thinks of going for you" these days which is roughly what the Japanese did, and there's probably something in Sun Tzu's Art of War which was the first book I read end to end on my phone. The thing is war and destruction is a terrible thing and should be avoided. The people who cause it are seldom involved in the fighting , and those who are sent to fight are really just seen as cannon fodder for the perpetrators.



Actually I wanted this post to be positive, but following those thoughts with anything is just going to dissipate any fun , and you can't talk about war , hate and destruction and then follow it up with a smile. So I'll just choose an appropriate song then start a new post. So War by Edwin Starr it is.