Tories!

The photo is another from the Biathlon, as you can see it was a very pleasant course. 

Danielle is away addressing a fringe meeting at the Tory party conference trying to get them to adopt good policies on poverty etc, which is all a bit odd. My friend Victor is also there - what is the world coming to.

Lost Weekend

Ted and I went a quick bike ride on Saturday morning, persuading the cafe at Bolton Percy to open early, have mercy upon us, and serve us some tea. Then Rowan had to swim in a relay race event to celebrate 100 years of the local pool: as you sit in the grubby old building celebrate is not really the word that comes to mind. Patrick and Julia came round for dinner, great to catch up with them after the summer. Danielle had been busy at school all day introducing the new head to parents and staff.

Then today Rowan ran / swam in a biathlon at Escrick which she won. Oh, and we watched Nicole Cooke win the World Championships on TV, screaming for her all the way in a fantastic race - brilliant.

Sly Stone

This photo is growing on me. It is of the Barbican in London, a concrete extravaganza.

There is no denying it, I have the male categorisation gene: lists of things abound in my life. So here I am categorising my 3000 bits of music into handy “genres” and “sub genres”. A pretty private obsession but strangely satisfying. So out of all my music there is just one artist that I cannot classify at all. It is not soul, it is not funk, it is not really pop, it is not rock. I struggled and in the end he had a category to himself – the one and only. Quite an honour. Step forward Sly and the Family Stone.

Profile

Here is the map of the ride I did yesterday. The total distance comes in at a disapointing 30 odd miles, but the profile looks like a real Tour de France stage.

Bike Ride

Cycling, like most things, can be a voyage of personal discovery. Today I went a ride up into the North York Moors. It was a beautiful day, but on the way out I was into a ferocious northerly head-wing. Every stroke seemed a strain. Thoughts turned to age, fitness, "was I right to buy that racing bike" etc. At the top of the ride, in Barnsdale, I suddenly got the full benefit of the howling tail-wind. Suddenly thoughts turned away from despair and excuses towards exhilaration as I hurtled off the moors at high speed, "I feel good now, maybe I could do the White Rose Classic again after all". It was a good day to be out there.

Autumn

Autumn has coincided with the best weather of the summer. This has led to the strange mix of autumn jobs in the garden [me emptying the nests from the nest boxes, Rowan and Rhianna selling our apples to people down the street, extracting the honey from the frames [a poor crop this year]] all in lovely warm sunshine.

The photo is of the River Ouse in York

Netball Victory

The Tregelles year 6 Netball Team [which had up to now been tarred with the "too soft Quaker School" brush] are made of tougher stuff. After drawing with a frankly obsessive school earlier this week, yesterday they beat another school 8-5. It was a great game to watch.

Busy

Back in London one day a week, Doncaster two days a week, life is busy. Then another offer of work comes in - all getting a bit busy. I shall probably have to say "non" which is never a good thing for a self-employed person to do...

The photo is from the beach at Aldebrough. It is quite hard to stop beach shots from getting clichéd but I quite like this one

Igloo

Here is another shot from the Life centre in Newcastle. It's an igloo by the way. This all seems a long way off now that we are in full swing of Rowan's school and sports maelstrom. Netball today [an 8 - 8 draw with local rivals St Olavs, Rowan scored 4] swimming tommorow etc etc.

The Running Men

You never know where a photo will turn up. This was the shadows of the trophies awaiting the award ceremony yesterday at the Athletics Meet.

Booty Harvest

Rowan collected two awards at the York Swimming annual meeting, then got second in the athletics league [this is based on 3 events]. There is no doubt about it, the giving of trophies spurs on young children like nothing else. 

Bike Ride

Went on a great bike ride today. The rain kept off and I tackled some good hills as well as tackling a good bowl of soup at Castle Howard

Sputnik Sweetheart

In our book group we discussed Sputnik Sweetheart by Haruki Murakami . I quite liked it, others loved it, others did not like it at all: in other words the perfect recipe for a really good discussion. As it is a Japanese book this was an excuse for a warming bottle of Saki, and John brought his usual good bottle of red wine. Good evening.

This is the Martello Tower at Aldeburgh.

Africa

I am reading a fantastic book at the moment, The State Of Africa
 by Martin Meredith. I saw a man reading it on the tube, asked him if it was good, and took it from there. [I know speaking to people on the tube can get you into trouble, but I felt it was a risk worth taking] It is a very straight history of Africa from the 50s onwards, but really well told. I am learning a lot.

The photo is another from the Newcastle trip. Someone did point out to me that water does feature a lot in my photographs - I think it is the contrast between the solid [the steel bridge in this case] and the fluid.

Newcastle 2

We found this archway clad in steel and glass in Newcastle. I assume it is a piece of modern art, but it might just be an archway clad in steel and glass. Either way we liked it.

More Life

Not quite sure what the point of these dinosaur gloves at Life was: but every child seemed to like putting them on and looking like a monster.

A Sunday

Danielle did a twelve mile run [training for the Great North Run half marathon] whilst Rowan and I had a lie-in [well, until 8] Then we all went to Quaker meeting, had a treat-lunch at Cafe Uno then made our way to the athletics track for an Open Meeting. There were more competitors than usual and Rowan got a bit anxious about it all, but still managed to win the 600metres. There were medals this time which pleased her.

Year 6

Here is how Rowan looked as she started Year 6. Her friend next door has started in secondary school, so it's all change.

First Day

First Day Back for Rowan who is now in her last year of primary school - year 6. First day back in London for me too. Went well, met up with Mark Cath and Rob after work for a drink at the Commonwealth: always good to see them all.

Have installed Google Chrome for my browser - it is great [really quick to download and much quicker than Firefox in operation.] 

That was the first and possibly / hopefully the last tech-talk on this blog.

What's Life

Last day trip of the holidays - free train tickets to Newcastle where we visited the Life centre http://www.life.org.uk/ This is the usual lottery funded interactive thing, but it is really good. Rowan really liked it, and it was well worth the trip. The big thing that we found out was that cinamon has no taste: here is how you prove it.
1 put some cinamon powder in a bowl
2 dip a piece of apple in it, hold your nose and eat the apple and cinamon. [you will taste no cinamon, just feel the texture with your tongue]
3 un-hold your nose. The cinamon "flavor" will come rushing in.

12 years

It is our twelfth wedding anniversary today. Last night we went for a meal at the Hotel du Vin in York http://www.hotelduvin.com/hotellanding.aspx?HotelId=20 a real treat and a very nice meal [including blue wensleydale fondue] . Have since found out that it is our Silk Wedding anniversary - which sounds like a bit of a missed opportunity.

The photo is of the two of us and mother at Aldebrough