Not all cats are grey

Manchester

2010-07-13T13:31:00.000+02:00

The last couple of days I spent in Manchester, one of my favourite cities. Like Eric Cantona said, "here, there is an insane love of football, of celebration, of music".

I went to The Quays:

Saw the wrong stadium from a distance...

... went back to the city and saw the right stadium at close range...

This is the civil court building, which Mancunians call "the filing cabinet":

You can just about see the jutting out glass parts on the right that look like open drawers. Apparently, the architects are being sued, because something is not quite right with this building. If this goes to court, the hearing would take place in the building that the dispute is about. How bizarre.

Abraham Lincoln in the back, Manchester bee in the front:

I stayed at the GJS Hotel, which used to be an old school building. It is very stylish, but has one of the unfriendliest receptionists I have ever come across. And a ghost, but that was a no-show. The rooms are all individually styled. Mine was lilac-burgundy:

Before I went home, I had the hottest ever vegetable korma on the Curry Mile. Korma is meant to be mild. MILD. Should I have been warned by the triptych of a red chilli pepper on the wall of the restaurant? So, the search for the perfect vegetable korma continues. So far, the best one was served in 1997 in a place that is now called The Blue Mint. But in 13 years time, the chef has probably changed about 10 times.

Derbyshire

2010-07-13T12:46:00.007+02:00

Walking holiday in Derbyshire (and Staffordshire, really). The White Peaks. Beautiful countryside, quintessentially English, quirky things along the way guaranteed.

The Cat & Fiddle claims to be the second-highest pub in England. We started one of our walks from there.

The water in the reservoir is normally so high it reaches the overfall (roundish building in the back). I guess, it's hosepipe ban time again.

The day off was spent at Chatsworth, home to the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire.

The family loves art. This is the War Horse by Elisabeth Frink:

This computer portrait of Laura Burlington, the future Duchess of Devonshire (if they don't get divorced, that is), is by Michael Craig-Martin. The colours change randomly and there is millions of permutations, so it is unlikely that these combinations will ever show up again:

The Dowager Duchess of Devonshire is the youngest of the Mitford sisters. She celebrates her 90th birthday this year. There is currently an exhibition about her life.

Of course, the estate has beautiful gardens. They even overgrow wooden chairs and tables.

This is the BBC perparing for the filming of the Antique Roadshow the next day.

After the one day off, we were back walking through the countryside.

It seems that all paths lead to Chatsworth. We passed through the grounds, where the deer were resting as far away from the hunting tower as possible.

The white marquees are where the Antiques Roadshow was filmed. There were zillions of visitors there, lots more than the day before.

At the end of the walking holiday I said good-bye to my boots. They weren't comfortable anymore. I guess the sole deteriorated over the years. I have had them for ages. There was no point bringing them back to Germany and bin them here, so they ended their lives on an English dump.

Fruit Orgy

2010-06-05T16:56:00.004+02:00

I am celebrating a fruit orgy this weekend. It didn't look that much in my shopping trolley. I have already eaten half the strawberries. Can you overdose on vitamins? We will know tomorrow evening.

He is not going to help eating this. When he sees the camera, he has to get into the picture, the little media whore.

On the balcony there is a new kid in town. His name is Ilex crenata and apparently he is very very robust:

He will need to be tough. His two predecessors died. Bamboo No. 1 did not survive the winter. Bamboo No. 2 was infected with plant lice. The market garden staff recommended spraying him with something that on closer inspection turned out to be Agent Orange's little brother. I didn't really like the idea of spraying that onto anything, especially with Paulchen and Filou around. So, the bamboo (and zillions of lice living on it) bit the dust and ended up in the compost. The rest of the balcony looks nice, too. Somehow the media whore managed to get into the picture again.

All is well

2010-05-16T16:20:00.002+02:00

After the marathon is before the marathon... or rather before the half-marathon.

This week's training:

Specific: 225 min / 3 h 45 min / 32.9k
Unspecific: 60 min

The new shoes are really good. Today I ran 105 min and the foot was fine. No pain at all.

Bye-bye Asics and hello Mizuno

2010-04-30T10:21:00.003+02:00

In order to eliminate all potential source for my Achilles' tendon problems during the marathon I went to a Runners Point shop yesterday. They film you running barefooted on a treadmill and then recommend shoes based on their analysis. Conclusion: my Asics, which I have been buying for years, are no longer ideal for my foot. In fact, the shop assistant thought they were completely wrong. And her criticism made a lot of sense. Which brings us back to "stupid is as stupid does". I should have the fit of my running shoes checked regularly. Running can change the shape of your feet. Especially if you do a lot of mileage.

So what's next? My main goal is to keep running and not fall into a "post marathon motivational hole". Then a couple of half-marathons. I have registered for Amsterdam in October, which is sponsored by Mizuno, the makers of my new shoe. Is that a good omen?

Proof that I got to the start

2010-04-30T10:14:00.003+02:00

(taken by Uli)

London marathon report - part 2

2010-04-29T19:22:00.006+02:00

Sunday. Race day. The bus leaves from the hotel at 06:50 am. There is no satisfactory answer to the nagging question "why am I doing this?"

At the start the ballons seem to get bigger from one year to another:

Our group spills out of several buses and marches to the blue start:

The equivalent to the lounge chair towel reservation in the start area is a flag:

Of course, we have the biggest one clearly marking our territory:

The media's interest is not in us, but the elite runners, who start from the blue start just like the overseas runners do:

We had to wait a couple of hours, but there was entertainment:

Achim doesn't snap shot. This camera means business:

Runners relax in various ways: standing up, sitting, lying down...

The race itself was as already reported: first half went well, second half was painful. But there was at least one happy finisher:

London marathon report - part 1

2010-04-29T18:43:00.010+02:00

Saturday started with a short morning run. Uli guided us:

... through Kensington Gardens, around the Albert Memorial and past the Albert Hall...

... into the heart of Hyde Park...

... and on to the Serpentine, where some hardened (or mad) people were getting into the swimming area (it's not the temperature of the water that makes me shudder, but the thought of diving through tons of duck poo)...

It was meant to be a relaxing run at easy pace, but I was quite out of breath afterwards. I was comforted only be the fact that Frank's face was even redder than mine.

Because it was a beautiful sunny day, Uli and I decided to take the boat from Westminster to Richmond at noon:

If I was rowing, someone following me in a motorboat shouting "row faster" would be a recipe for disaster. I'd end up with blood on my hands.

Fulham F.C.

After two hours we arrived at Richmond:

A few other people had had the same idea:

Stupid is as stupid does

2010-04-27T16:17:00.007+02:00

It's done. Finish time 05:06:15, my worst marathon ever. The splits show that I was doing quite well in the first half:

Split Time
5K - 00:31:08
10K - 01:03:05
15K - 01:35:22
20K - 02:08:45
HALF - 02:16:11
25K - 02:44:30
30K - 03:23:42
35K - 04:08:34
40K - 04:48:11

So what happened in the second half? Well, my Achilles' tendon "happened". It started hurting, so I slowed down considerably. Eventually I had to swallow my pride and walk for some minutes, then I ran again and walked and ran and walked and... you get the picture. I am not kidding myself, I would have had to slow down anyway. But not that much overall, I believe.

Today I went to see my physiotherapist for a massage and to get everything fixed that I messed up on Sunday. I love that man... in a platonic way, of course. His hands should be insured like some supermodels insure their legs. When I told him about the Achilles' tendon he immediately said that the tendon was probably not the real problem since I did not have any problems before. He twisted and turned me, massaged and stretched. I could hear a couple of "plops" coming from my spine, just where he predicted they would. So he was probably right. Could all of this have been caused by the fact that I travelled to London by train carrying a very (VERY) heavy rucksack? Stupid is as stupid does.

Travel report and more pictures will follow.

Next stop: London marathon

2010-04-18T17:59:00.002+02:00

The sun is shining, it's been a lovely weekend. The forest is full of butterflies; I haven't seen that many for ages. The final long training run has been run. Next week my training schedule will be very tapered (apart from the marathon on Sunday, of course). Three runs of 30 to 45 minutes, mostly in "regenerating" (i.e. snail) pace. Today's three hour run went quite well; at the end I felt that I could have soldiered on for a while. The problem is the pace. I should have run today with an average of 8:38 mins/k (that's VERY slow), but instead I did 7:40 mins/k. That is faster than I should have gone, but still considerably slower than what I am supposed to run next weekend. And right now I just can't imagine going any faster than what I did today, at least not for 42k. It means, I will probably need more than 5 hours next Sunday. I wasn't hoping for a personal best, but at least wanted to be under 5 hours.

This week's total effort:

specific - 528 mins, 68k (longest run: 3 hours)
unspecific - 60 mins

I am not your lunch!

2010-04-11T18:31:00.003+02:00

Training done this week:

Specific: 510 mins, 65.6k (longest run: 21.3k)
Unspecific: 60 mins

Today in the forest I was circled by a bird of prey flying at low altitude. It was so low, I could have touched it if I'd reached out with my arm. I am not sure exactly, but I believe it was a common buzzard. It circled over my head twice, probably pondering if I'd make a tasty lunch. It must have decided to stick with mice and headed over to a nearby meadow to do some more low altitude circling. Wise decision! It would have had to work through several layers of sportswear and functional underwear to get to my more nutritious parts. Not really worth the effort, I think.

13 days to go.

The M25 has moved to my forest

2010-04-05T17:31:00.003+02:00

Yesterday, nobody but little me was out there on the forest tracks. Today the sun shines et voilà... there is more traffic than on the M25 on a working day morning.

Pounding the streets...

2010-04-04T19:12:00.003+02:00

...or rather forest tracks. Three more weeks to go. Why am I doing this again???

This week I completed a 29.5k run on Easter Friday. The run has 4 laps and you take short breaks inbetween to eat and drink a little something. Usually the run is a bit shorter although it is officially advertised as a "30k run". But the recent bad weather had caused a landslide in the forest and we had to run a detour. Of course, they did not tell us that the detour was a steep ascending slope! I joined the slowest group and was the only woman until the last lap, when two ladies fell behind their faster group and joined us. I had already looked forward to being the slowest woman and have the shower all to myself. Well, it was not meant to be. The 5 guys in my group were all older than 60, two were even older than 70. I hope that I will be that fit when I am their age! It was a relief that the run went well, no part of my body hurt and I could have gone on for another 10k. So, the marathon seems doable... fingers crossed.

Training done this week:

Specific = 543 min and 69k
Unspecific = 60 min

A little setback

2010-03-28T17:13:00.003+02:00

Training this week suffered a setback. Another cold meant no training on Tuesday, I probably should have done f*** all, but the marathon is only a few weeks away. Maybe I need to remind myself that it is not worth dying for? At least I didn't run the half-marathon on Saturday. I couldn't have run fast anyway, so I decided to spare myself the drive and instead just did my normal local run. In snail pace.

Specific: 385 min, approx. 46k (longest run 155 min)
Non-specific: none (my Pilates coach is on holiday, bless her)

Last week: 470 min, approx. 60k
Non-specific: 60 min

More training done

2010-03-14T19:36:00.002+01:00

Specific: 455 minutes, 58km
Unspecific: 60 minutes

Feeling tired, very very tired.

Another weeks work is done

2010-03-07T17:44:00.002+01:00

Specific training: 315 min, approx. 40k (this includes a 10k race this weekend)
Unspecific training: 60 min

My calves could do with a massage. Maybe I should do more stretching.

Does my bum look big in this?

2010-02-28T18:02:00.003+01:00

Yes, Filou. It does a bit. But just a bit.

This week 440 minutes of specific training, approx. 51k run. Plus 60 minutes of unspecific training. I feel tired. Next weekend I will run a 10k race as a fitness test. Right now it feels like I will only be able to crawl.

Training this week

2010-02-21T18:44:00.003+01:00

2 months and 3 days to go...

This week:

410 min specific (i.e. running in some shape or form), approx. 37k
60 min unspecific

Shed some more of that excess baggage.

New camera

2010-02-17T21:57:00.003+01:00

Brilliant new camera, Canon G11. Will take me ages to figure out all the things you can do with it. (Don't click on the pictures, they are HUGE.)

Older again...

2010-02-15T14:31:00.002+01:00

but still not wiser. By now I have given up hope, that will ever happen.

I am running and so is my nose. I have caught a cold. No surprise, given the recent weather conditions. It's not too bad, though. I can still go out and run; snail pace, but at least I am moving. It's slippery in the forest, there is ice underneath the new snow. Fortunately, no-one has a camera to film me wobble around! I do not want to see that on youtube (or anywhere else for that matter). Do they sell spiked running shoes?

Since my training schedule has gone into full marathon throttle 10 days ago, I have lost a little over 1kg. Hopefully, I can shed some more extra weight before the race. Unfortunately, I am currently quite partial to nuts. Especially cashews. Counterproductive, that is.

run4haiti

2010-01-27T21:11:00.002+01:00

This Sunday you can combine your training with a good cause. Go to run4haiti and register. Then on Sunday run anywhere, any distance in any time you like or can manage. Afterwards go to Aktion Deutschland Hilft e.V. and donate one Euro for every kilometer you have run. If you don't trust the website, just always just run without registering and donate to a charity of your choice afterwards.

New favourite places

2010-01-26T21:39:00.002+01:00

Filou thinks even scratching posts need a hug from time to time:

Paulchen is a fan of consumer electronics:

Run, Forest, run

2010-01-26T21:25:00.004+01:00

Lots of work last week meant little time for training. I didn't eat properly and skipped lunch a couple of days. Unsurprisingly, I dind't fell like doing much, when I came home in the evenings. So it added up to only 3.5 hours of running and 1 hour Pilates. Pilates counts double, because it is personal training and if you are alone, you are observed by the trainer every single second. She has eagle eyes and sees every minimal attempt to cheat.

But it's a new week and a new training schedule. The programme has intensified with faster intervalls and longer runs. So it's "run, Forest, run".

Now I am off to watch Blackjack on BBC Entertainment. That Ausstralian accent is quite sexy.

Mad cat?

2010-01-02T16:14:00.003+01:00

The year has started well... not. One of the cats has gone mad. I blame it on the new year's fireworks. Since yesterday morning Paulchen has been sitting in the hall, staring up the wall and howling like a wolf. Either he is seeing things I cannot see or he is has gone mad. I am quite sure he is not ill or in pain, so I have decided to ignore him. If I pay too much attention, he may just feel encouraged to continue, right? It got a little better during the day. He takes breaks from howling to eat and sleep. Fingers crossed he will get bored with it completely, soon. Otherwise I will be going mad.

Cat Ying & Yang

2009-12-31T13:49:00.002+01:00

Why do they like to make life difficult for themselves by walking on the small part of the cushion or climbing onto the highest cupboard in the kitchen?

Winter

2009-12-25T17:40:00.004+01:00

Sadly, all of this has almost completely disappeared again:

All new

2009-12-25T17:38:00.005+01:00

The boys and I have moved. I bought a new couch with a chaise longue attached. It was meant for me to stretch out and relax. I have not sat there once. The boys immediately occupied it.

And we have a new family member. I have "adopted" a horse. She lives in a pet sanctuary and was rescued from bad treatment. She was used as a rodeo horse and has scars all over her body:

It's a miracle!

2009-09-29T21:03:00.002+02:00

After more than two months I am finally back online! Deutsche Telekom thought it very funny to disconnect me from cyberspace when I moved house. They made a big mess of everything and I finally decided to cancel my contract with them and find somebody who could get things fixed. Which happened today. I still can't quite believe it. And not only do I have a connection, it is a much faster one. And I have digital television. Right now I am watching BBC Prime. Excellent.

I wish I really looked like that

2009-02-14T13:27:00.000+01:00

Get away from it all

2009-02-01T09:02:00.004+01:00

I have booked a summer walking holiday. It will take me about 5 hours by train and bus to get to the guesthouse from the airport. The brochure says: "please note that there is no mobile phone coverage [...]. Just to ensure that you really get away from it all [the guesthouse] doesn't have TV or internet access." Oh yes and the showers and toilets are just "down the hall". According to the tour operator apart from the walks all we should do is talk to one another, read a book, or contemplate the meaning of life during this holiday.

Stats of the week - weeks 1 - 3

2009-01-18T19:51:00.002+01:00

Right, stats of the week are back.

Week 1

Total running time: 04:10:29
Total distance run: 37.8 km
Additional workout: 01:30:00 gym plus "walkies"

Week 2

Total running time: 02:08:32
Total distance run: 20.1 km
Additional workout: 02:45:00 gym plus 01:00:00 spinning

Week 3 (only half a week for workout due to a cold)

Total running time: 03:36:34
Total distance run: 33.78 km
Additional workout: "walkies"

The London marathon is 3 months and 7 days away.

Let is snow

2009-01-11T19:34:00.001+01:00

It is quite cold and it snowed. Of course. Why does this never happen at Christmas?

There even is snow on my balcony and someone has left his prints...

I have seen them before... on my ceramic stove top... they match this paw...

I can touch my knee without bending down

2008-12-31T18:32:00.002+01:00

Today it was my turn to walk - or be walked by - Gero. That's his name, so if you ever show up at the shelter and they tell you, that you are taking Gero for a walk, make sure you have your running shoes on. He pulls so strongly, that my right arm is now significantly longer than my left arm. Otherwise he is a lovely fellow. Not interested in bikes or joggers, friendly to all other dogs. I would take him home with me, if I wasn't working full time. The boys have lived with a dog before, so I am sure they wouldn't mind.

It's cold in Germany. We walked for 2 hours and managed 10k. If you take off time to sniff and pee (the dog, not me), you can tell we didn't stroll.

Afterwards I went for the final run this year, another 10k, but in almost half the time. Next year "stats of the week" will be back (my only New Year's resolution).

Who's walking whom?

2008-12-30T18:28:00.000+01:00

After one hour walking (or - depending on your point of view - being walked by) the Dalmatian, dad needed to lie down and sleep. Someone should tell that dog that now he is 12 years old his running days are over.

Who's place is this?

2008-12-29T18:19:00.000+01:00

There are days, when I can print, but scanning is out of the question...

... they have made it clear, they do not want the blue jacket on a hanger...

... and I am not even thinking about using any of the furniture on the balcony...

Call me Hercules

2008-12-23T18:13:00.003+01:00

I was buttering a Neujährchen (as far as I know, they are only called that in the Rhineland and you only get them around New Year)...

... when this happened...

Maybe I should stop working out in the gym?

And just because they looked so cute, I am posting more pictures of the boys:

Power Walkies!

2008-12-22T16:41:00.002+01:00

Twice a day you can walk one of the dogs at our animal shelter. When the weather is fine, there is more than enough volunteers. This morning I was the only one there when they opened. And when I brought the dog back, I could see that only three more people had shown up. Guess what... it was raining. Raining hard. Cissies.

The dog I walked was not actually one of the shelter dogs, but one of the "holiday dogs". (When you go away and do not have anyone to look after your pet, it can stay at the shelter for a fee.) It doesn't matter to me; they all deserve to get out for a bit. This dog was about the size of my cats and had a grey muzzle. So I thought, I was in for a comfortable stroll through the forest. Instead she went straight into top gear and we power walked for two hours.

My legs are so tired tonight, I do not need to go for a run or any other sort of exercise.

Mountain goat

2008-12-14T17:16:00.005+01:00

Today was a cold, but bright day with blue skies. Ideal weather for a long (1h 54min) run. Back in September I ran up a hill to look down into the valley below, but had forgotten my camera. Today I took it along.

It started harmlessly at creek and lake level:

Then I crawled up the hill in snail pace. And after each hill, there was another one. It doesn't look anywhere as steep as it felt like...

Back in the valley, I spotted this beautiful Mandarin duck:

Unfortunately, he and his mates were a bit camera-shy...

They have been digging holes into the road for ages now. This machine is new, though. The redish colour of the stone reminds me of my childhood. If we had no chalk we used to look for those stones, so we could draw hopscotch on the road.

Hey! My feet are cold, do something!

2008-12-07T19:15:00.002+01:00

It's cold, so I have put the heating on...

(He stayed like this for an hour. His feet must have been very very cold indeed.)

Do not disturb

2008-11-23T21:04:00.002+01:00

We are snowed in and the heating is on...

London

2008-11-23T20:58:00.002+01:00

I have been to London to say good-bye to my collegues there, because I will change my job next year. It was a good trip all around. I shall miss them. Most of them anyway.

Still here

2008-11-09T19:02:00.003+01:00

These pictures were taken last Sunday. I found a new, nice route through a different part of the forest and around a different lake.

Evening sky

2008-10-19T19:31:00.000+02:00

Here's looking at you, kid

2008-10-19T19:27:00.002+02:00

It took me a bit to figure out what was so fascinating that they didn't even turn around when I called their names. The neighbour's cat was sitting in the lower window on the right. It was staring back.

Subprime crisis explained

2008-10-12T20:09:00.000+02:00

Already a classic...

Oktoberfest

2008-10-12T17:13:00.017+02:00

It has been my first proper visit to the Oktoberfest in Munich. And it was a lovely sunny day. Actually, way too nice to spend it sitting in a tent drinking beer. So we took a walk around the funfair first. If you want to go on some the rides, do it before you visit a tent, not after.

No way am I going on this ride...

A flea circus...

The oldest ride and the only one with live music...

Eventually, they decided to go on this ride...

I felt dizzy just watching them go round and up and down and round.

Our tables had been reserved from 5:30 pm until the end. You have to be on time otherwise the tables are given to somebody else, so eventually we left the fun fair part behind and headed for our Giant Tent.

This one is for the rich and beautiful I have been told.

Our tent was right next to it, the Armbrustschuetzen tent:

On the inside, people in dirndl or leather trousers outnumbered us "foreigners" dressed in jeans.

This is what it is all about. A "Maß" (one liter) of beer, priced at 8,30€.

I took lots of pictures, but I can't post them here. Instead enjoy a little video that I took. I tried to upload it directly with blogger. After hours (no exageration) it still said "video is being processed". So I canceled and went to youtube instead.

The next day, we had some time to spare and visit the city.

It was an interesting trip. You have to see it all to believe it. But I don't think, I need to go every year.

Mountaineers

2008-10-04T13:12:00.005+02:00

It's cold, the heating is on and Paulchen has a new favourite place:

Mr Cat loved to lie there, too. I am sure, he doesn't mind that Paulchen using it now. It is a faboulos place to sleep after all.

Filou has occupied the newly acquire Ikea IDBYN "stool", which I bought for guests to sit on:

When the boys are not just lying around, they share a hobby and that is climbing. The higher, the better.

The name of the rose

2008-10-04T13:03:00.010+02:00

I have just come back from a business trip to the Rheingau, a beautiful wine region near Frankfurt. We spent two days in a nice conference hotel:

From my room I could see the river (and hear the highway, which kind of destroys the romantic atmosphere):

Because collegues from other countries were participating, afternoon sightseeing had been organised for day 1. The weather was bad, so we couldn't walk through the vineyards. Instead we visited Kloster Eberbach:

The Cistercian monks were excellent wine makers and of course the monestary has a vineyard:

If you recognise this room, but don't know quite where you have seen it before: it served as the monks' dormitory, but it was used as the "Skriptorium", that is the writing room, in the movie "The Name of the Rose":

It looks much bigger than it actually is due to an optical illusion. The pillars are lower at the end than at the front of the hall to repair a mistake the builders made in the lower floor.

Would you like to be called Mr or Mrs Cat's Elbow???

Wine making accessories are everywhere in this monastry:

After centuries of freezing to death (life expectancy of the monks: 30 something years) they finally installed heated and added decoration to one room in the building:

This is a "speaking" emblem: at the top is the cloister (German: Kloster), then a boar (German: Eber) and at the bottom a brook (German: Bach), so all together it is Kloster Eberbach. This meant that illiterate laymen could note down the name of the cloister.

At the end of the tour we tasted some white wines from the region. It was pitch dark, so I cannot actually tell you anything about the colour, but they tasted nice.

This part of the country is full of castles and we had dinner (seven courses, I won't have to eat for at least another week!) in one of them: Auf Schönburg

Haile and me

2008-09-29T15:16:00.002+02:00

I am back from Berlin, where Haile Gebrselassie broke his own world record, Irina Mikitenko won the women's race becoming the first German woman under 2:20 and I... well, I finished. But I am very happy and proud of myself, even if it was not a personal best. My training didn't go well for a long time, my shins hurt and motivation was low. Running all the way through (apart from the stops to drink water, which was handed out in cups not bottles; can't drink out of those running; liquid ends up everywhere, but in my mouth) was an achievement, even if towards the end I turned into a human snail:

Splits
5 k - 00:30:04
10 k - 00:59:41
15 k - 01:29:59
20 k - 02:02:00
Half - 02:09:03
25 k - 02:35:10
30 k - 03:09:03
35 k - 03:43:22
40 k - 04:19:52
42.195 k - 04:35:25

After the marathon is before the marathon - I have a place in the London marathon next April.

Cat fight

2008-09-20T19:23:00.002+02:00

My training schedule for today said "20k". I left a tidy (Saturday is cleaning day) and peaceful home and was gone for just over 2 hours. When I came back, the entrance to the living room looked like this:

Apparently, the boys had a bit of an argument while I was out. There is more brown fur on the floor than black, so it must be Filou, who fights like a girl. Whatever it was about, it had been sorted by the time I got home. This picture was taken a couple of days earlier, but the scenery was identical today:

Can you hear the Beatles singing "I wanna hold your hand..."?

Two more weeks...

2008-09-14T17:43:00.003+02:00

... until the Berlin marathon. Haile Gebrselassie has announced that he wants to improve his own world record. I just want to finish. My travel documents arrived yesterday and I was slightly disappointed that my travel agent does not seem to have an information meeting for all runners. Apparently, they just do that for marathons abroad. But it would have been nice to meet other runners.

Today I went on a longer run (22.57 k in 2:28:32). It was a beautiful route, with a rather challenging altitude difference of 139m over a relatively short section. But the view from up the hill down into the valley is worth it. I will drag everybody who asks me why I do not move into the city up there to see. Next time I will take my camera.

Miscellaneous

2008-08-17T15:30:00.005+02:00

Training is going rather nicely, I am satisfied with the speed I am running. It is not incredibly fast, but after months and months of pain in the shinbones, I am happy to be almost pain free and faster than the Nordic Walkers! The Berlin marathon is a little more than a month away and my greatest problem is psychology. After today's run just the thought of doing the same distance again for 2.5 times made me feel sick. I fear, that I will not manage to run the marathon through just because my head is playing tricks on me. It does not help, that I have done it before. Right now, the distance seems undoable.

Here are the training stats for week 33:

Total running time: 4 h 33 min
Total distance run: 43.71 k

In other news the balconies of our house are currently being done up and I cannot let the boys go outside; don't really want them to drop into my neighbours garden. So to keep them entertained I bought some new toys. One was a big success with both of them, but especially with Filou. If he wasn't neutered, he would have mated with this thing. It smells of catnip and after intensive scratching, licking and rubbing against it, he fell asleep:

Right now the boys have blocked the sofa for an afternoon nap, there is no room for me:

Back at work

2008-08-11T21:17:00.002+02:00

The first day back at work after three weeks hols was not too bad. Another three weeks off would be better. The trip back home was a nightmare. For some reason only known to Deutsche Bahn, the train had just half the number of carriages it normally has. So we were packed like sardines in a tin. And the express train that leaves a couple of minutes earlier and takes the same route, but doesn't stop at all stations, was out of order. The commuters from that train squeezed in with us, too. I am only small and my nose is on a level with the average adult's armpit. This is all you need to know to imagine what my journey was like.

Filou has chewed off the aerial of my clock radio. What was left was too short and I did not receive any stations anymore. So I went and bought a new clock radio last Friday. This is what he did to that one:

Fortunately the aerial is still long enough for radio reception. I have secured it with sellotape. They are not expensive, but I really do not want to buy a new radio clock every two days. I hope, Filou did not swallow parts of the aerial. Mmh... On the other hand I may then be able to receive radio stations if I adjust his ears accordingly.

Changing rooms

2008-08-07T18:50:00.003+02:00

My holidays are almost over, just this week and then I am back in the office. I managed to relax and trained a lot for the Berlin marathon. Only two months to go...

This week was spent doing up the bedroom, which was necessary since the carpet had been approximately 12 years old and Mr Cat had torn big holes into it. This blog is called "Changing Rooms", but I cannot be arsed to DIY and I love my family and friends, but I wouldn't let them do it for me, especially without me knowing what they're up to. So I hired a professional painter to do the job and I restricted my input to chosing a new carpet, a new colour for the walls and new curtains. Of course, I removed all stuff from the bedroom before he started the work and I took the opportunity to clean out the wardrobe. Five big blue bags with clothes are going to charity and one is going to the dump. Paulchen of course is going to neither:

The old carpet was dark blue...

... the new one is much lighter in colour and makes the room look bigger...

They boys were not entirely happy with the refurbishing, even though the painter and his tools intrigued them. Curiosity and the cat, you know. But when he used a very noisy machine to remove the old carpet they cuddled close to each other on the sofa for comfort:

All three of us agreed that project "do up the living room" is postponed indefinitely.

Meet the boys

2008-07-06T16:27:00.003+02:00

While I was sitting at home, miserable and missing my Mr Cat, the boys were sitting in the pet shelter, miserable and missing their owner who had died.

Now they have moved in with me and life is good again. They are called Filou (all black) and Paulchen; they are 5 years old and brothers, very attached to each other, but now and again they have a little fight. I am doing my best to give them a happy home and I hope Mr Cat is happy to see that he trained me well.

My first cruise (part 2)

2008-06-29T09:39:00.000+02:00

This is still Bonifacio or rather the coast it is situated on...

Some movie scene was shot in this mini fort, but I have forgotten the details...

Apparently, these steps were built in one night only. Yeah. Right. If you believe that, you'll believe anything.

I would feel very uncomfortable living in one of those places, wouldn't you?

Then we were off again, heading for our final destination before returning to Nice. I decided to test my nightshot abilities. Doesn't this look pure kitsch?

The morning didn't look to promising, Elba shrouded in clouds...

But there was hope...

The day's shore leave took us to Portofino, which struck me as very "touristy". So I opted for a little walk up the hill to enjoy the view.

Someone claimed this was Paul Allen's yacht, he of Microsoft fame. Can you see the helicopter sitting at the back?

And then it was all over and we were back in Nice. Another walk along the promenade and this time up the hill to investigate that waterfall...

The waterfall is artificial and from what we could see it mainly functions as a bidet for seagulls.

My first cruise (part 1)

2008-06-29T08:59:00.008+02:00

Normally our annual strategy meetings take place in conference centres or big hotels. This year, management decided to do something slightly different and hired a cruise ship for a 3.5-day trip around the Mediteranean. And before you go green with envy... we DID work. Honestly. Ok, not all of the time. But most of it.

Arrival in Nice and it started well... we were at one terminal, our bus at the other. So we waited. And waited.

Before we went on board there was time for a walk along the esplanade:

A waterfall up the hill, with no river in sight...

In the evening we left the harbour of Nice and headed towards Corsica...

The cruise ship was a sailing boat...

Did I mention it was a sailing boat?

Our conference was a dramatic change from the usual cruise clientele and the crew didn't quite manage to adjust. We were most bewildered by the daily "cocktail spectacle" before dinner. This was surely the most bizarre evening of all. Why were they dressed up as brides? And I want the drug the host must have taken every day before the show.

I missed the first days shore leave because of work, so no pictures. But on the second day my boss decided we should all take a break and see Bonifacio...

Some decided to stay on board and play with their mobile phones...

I joined a small group and took the boat trip around Bonifacio...

Just outside the grotto the colour of the water was simply amazing...

The guide claimed that the hole in the ceiling of the grotto has the same shape as Corsica...

Half-marathon

2008-06-08T20:13:00.003+02:00

Without much training I ran a half-marathon in Leverkusen today.

Net time = 2:14:33

Not bad, especially because there was probably some alcohol left in my blood this morning. We had our "undisclosed number of years after leaving school" class reunion yesterday evening. I, of course, know what the "undisclosed number of years" is and it makes me feel incredibly old and depressed; but at least some of my former class mates aged even worse than me.

Cruelty against plants

2008-05-19T20:02:00.002+02:00

A while ago I gave one of my plants to two collegues, so that they could have something green in their office. One of them left the company a while ago (he was the main "plant carer") and today I went to check if the other one looks after the plant properly. I found my poor plant in a state of extreme neglect. I am thinking about sueing! The plant is home with me now and fingers crossed it wasn't too late.

Before:

After:

Goodbye

2008-05-02T18:58:00.001+02:00

He lost his last fight today; I lost my best friend, the reason to get up every morning. I miss him dreadfully.

Third time unlucky

2008-04-16T20:03:00.003+02:00

I went to London last weekend to run the Flora London marathon for the third time. Saturday I woke up with a bad cough, a sore throat and a temperature.

I watched the start on the telly from my hotel bed and used up all the paper tissues crying like a baby. Since I had to hand my champion chip back to the organisers, I joined the other spectators in the group and went to watch the race live for a couple of minutes before making my way to the finish. It's not fun, approaching the finish from the wrong side. Trust me.

I have just registered for the Berlin marathon in September. This means training during the summer. It will take all my will power to get through that. Argh!

Eifgentallauf

2008-03-21T17:49:00.004+01:00

Today I took part in the annual run through the Eifgental passed the city of Altenberg and its cathedral and on to Cologne Dünnwald. It's a fun run and not a race. Time doesn't matter. And today no personal bests were possible due to the weather conditions. The track was pure mud. It rained, it snowed and in the end it even hailed. After 26.6k my legs looked like this:

I was in the group that wanted to run 6:30, but we had to walked a couple of times to avoid falling, so my Garmin said 7:18 in the end. U. did fall, which secured her the pole position in the shower queue.

Munich

2008-03-21T17:42:00.005+01:00

On the 10th I had a day off and went to Munich. It was a beautiful sunny day. Totally enjoyable. I walked around the city without a map, not really knowing where I was going. Hence, I can't really say much about the stuff I photographed. Apart from the Frauenkirche, of course.

Good things come to those who wait

2008-03-02T10:54:00.012+01:00

It took a while, but I have finally managed to upload the pictures from my birthday trip to Berlin a couple of weeks ago.

The main reason for going, was that The Cure were touring and there was no concert really close by. So I decided that, if I have to travel to see them, I might just as well travel quite a bit. The decision between Munich, Hamburg and Berlin was an easy one.

I finally managed to go to Potsdam and visit Sanssouci. It is much smaller than I thought it would be and I will definitely have to return in spring or summer, when everything is in bloom and the vine is not just leafless branches.

When Friedrich II. lived here, the view must have been even better without the modern buildings at the horizon.

The vine...

This is a bit over to top for my taste:

It was very cold and not the ideal weather to spend a lot of time in the park and go for a walk. And then the sky turned dark, so I decided to head back to Berlin.

Back in Berlin I went shopping. The Hackesche Höfe have been beautifully restaured and house a number of small local designer shops, a cinema and a vaudeville.

Saturday evening, the highlight of my trip. The Cure in the Arena. Or so I thought. I arrived at the venue early, but was nevertheless surprised to see hardly anybody there. I had planned some time to have dinner close by - I did not know there isn't that many restaurants you can go to. So to pass the time, I walked to the river and took a look around. Can you see the size of this piece of art? Look a the houses on the other site of the river, which is not very wide. It was huge!

I wandered back to the Arena and noticed a sign in the ticket booth window: "change of venue - The Cure play in the Velodrom". Slight panic set in, but when I checked my watch I was relieved to see that I would have enough time to get to the Velodrom. In fact, when I arrived the doors were still closed and people patiently queueing outside. The average age of someone going to a Cure concert nowadays is about 37, so it was all very civilised and laid back. No pushing and shoving. People our age are not so eager to get to the front row, I guess. We did that in the 80s, no need to repeat it now. Which is exactly why I headed straight for the seating area.

Apparently Robert Smith was recently voted "most beautiful Elizabeth Taylor" by the internet site "Mollygood", beating even the real Elizabeth Taylor. I did not get a close up, but even from a distance you can see that it is a title, he deserved.

They played for almost 3.5 hours! It was way after midnight, when I got on the train to go back to the hotel. Excellent value for money, if - like me - you were hoping for a "best of" mixed with some rarities. They only played a couple of new songs; the new album has not been released yet. But ... I did not really like the last one, so I was very happy that they played Disintegration and older stuff.

Zurich

2008-01-09T20:39:00.000+01:00

I spent almost two days sitting in a dark conference room in Zurich. It's a shame, because it's a lovely city. Still I managed to take some pictures on my way back to the station.

This apparently is a musical instrument...

Stats of the week - week 1

2008-01-06T17:19:00.001+01:00

First of all, happy New Year!

Stats of week 1 are not very impressive. I have been diagnosed with periostitis (my shin is killing me) and the best cure apparently is rest. But that is not good for the morale, so I have run a little and worked out on the cardio machines at the gym instead.

Total running time: 1 h 24 min
Total distance run: 14 k

Additional workout time: 4h 5min - various machines (crosstrainer, bike, the frog,...)

Meanwhile Mr Cat has developed his very own workout programme...

I will enroll him for the next Olypmic games as a gymnast.

Off to Zurich for two days tomorrow. It's work related, but I will take the camera just in case.

Stats of the week - week 52

2007-12-30T15:39:00.000+01:00

Total running time: 3 h 12 min
Total distance run: 30 k

Additional workout this week:

Crosstrainer: 3 h and 9,3 k
Cardio Wave (fondly known as "the frog"): 47 min and 11,4 k

I have also lost some weight, which is good given that this was Christmas week. Not that I feel fat, but for the marathon I would like to be about 5kg lighter than I am at the moment.

Merry Christmas

2007-12-25T16:59:00.000+01:00

Last Friday evening after work I switched off all electronic devices and started to enjoy myself. So far, I have not switched the blackberry back on. It is the longest time without it since I got the darn thing. And I didn't go cold turkey. It didn't hurt at all. Actually, it feels great. I read a book, spent time with the family, waited on Mr Cat (who clearly things this is the way it should be all the time) and ran.

Today in the forest:

This grey heron flew over my head, so low that I could have touched it had I had the nerve to put my hand up. I have rarely seen something more graceful than this bird.

Nothing much on telly today. Can you believe it is Christmas and none of the channels is showing Sissi? I will have to buy the dvd box set in case this happens again. Whatever next? New year's eve without Dinner for One? Thank God, you can watch that is only about 15 minutes and you can watch it on the internet (http://video.google.de/videoplay?docid=9105942950207814319).

Travelling

2007-11-11T12:23:00.000+01:00

Since we last "spoke" I have been to Dallas again, then to Paris and back to Dallas. Now I am home for a couple of days before I am off to Paris and then London. What an exiting life. Not.

I have no pictures of the first two trips. We broke every law regulating labour time that exists to meet the deadline set by Paris. There was no time for sightseeing or pictures. But the last trip to Dallas was different. Whereas the first two had been "disaster operations", unscheduled and with only a day's notice, this had been planned well in advance and comprised a workload that fit into the legal framework. Plus I wasn't on my own, but traveled with a group of 4.

The day we arrived we were immediately whisked off to see the Dallas Mavericks play against the Houston Rockets at the AA Centre:

Yao Ming is 7-6 tall, a giant that makes the others look like dwarfs:

The German interest in the game is of course Dirk Nowitzki, mereley 7-0 tall:

The audience was in rapture...

(I fell asleep during the game several times. It WAS exciting though, but my body thought it still was in time zone 7 hours ahead.)

I thought a maverick is a motherless calf, so why is the mascott a horse?

This is when we left to beat the traffic:

The next day we had lunch at Southfork Ranch, scene of the 80s tv series Dallas). I did not watched it, neither in the 80s nor when it was rerun later (more of a Dynasty viewer myself), but still I know the main characters and it has influenced my pictures of Texas a great deal. I guess, this is why we were taken there (even though I was told later by someone in the office that it had been especially requested by someone in our party - not guilty!).

Apparently this bath tub was used in one episode as an "olympic pool". They do it with mirrors, baby!

And this is what Texas will look like in my head forever...

That's a cool car. I don't want to know how much petrol it needed.

I feel like a stuffed Thanksgiving turkey. We had three full meals every day: breakfast at the hotel, lunch at some location and dinner at a steak house. Dallas has many steak houses. I am vegetarian. They did serve me vegetables, but I can tell you, I am not going to have brocolli for a while.

I have started to run again (have you heard that one before?), but my goal for the London marathon is down to just finishing. Over the next months I will not be able to train much and therefore need to concentrate on making the distance and not getting faster. Maybe some other year.

One more time

2007-10-13T12:56:00.000+02:00

The Flora London Marathon 2008 entry form for overseas runners arrived today. Mr Cat thinks I am mad to attempt it again.

What should I put down as "predicted time"? I would love to be faster than before, but if work continues to be a nightmare, I may not find sufficient time to train. This week I have worked late every day and ran 0 times.

Thanks to everyone who inquired about my brother! He continues to get better and they have allowed him to eat a little, which made him a very happy man. But his main nutritrion still comes in through a vein in his cervix. and will continue to do so for a couple of days more.

Roast chicken with pickled gherkin

2007-10-09T21:19:00.000+02:00

My brother is much better today, but he is still not allowed to eat. He fantasises about roast chicken with pickled gherkin. He must be pregnant.

Dallas suburbia

2007-10-07T16:29:00.001+02:00

I am back from a week in the Texas sun. Or should that say "Texas air condition"? The flight to Dallas took 12 hours (for the record: I watched 4 movies - Shrek the Third, Oceans 13, Miss Potter and Fracture), the flight back 10 hours (no movies; read Queen Camilla by Sue Townsend, author of the Adrian Mole diaries; not particularly good, slightly amusing).

We did not actually stay in Dallas itself, but some rich suburbia. (They even have a polo court there. You should see the homes! What do people do with 20 bedrooms if they are only parents with two children?)

Our hotel was... functional.

Every morning R., who had come from Toronto, and myself waited on the bench at the entrance to be picked up by J. The only thing missing was a box of chocolates and we could have renamed ourselves Mr and Mrs Forest Gump. J. said, we looked cute on the bench.

This is the bench, R., his laptop and my handbag:

I promised you pictures of offices. Here is one:

We didn't do much apart from working. In the evening, R. and myself went for walks to nearby restaurants. We were the only people walking. Nobody seems to walk anywhere. For a distance of 500m they take the car. We got some dirty looks from drivers, who had to stop because we used the traffic lights.

Now I am back home, but I did not run the half-marathon this morning. My brother was taken very ill last week and I visited him in hospital today. He is much better already, but still needs total parenteral nutrition. I was very worried, but he looked good today and even asked for some of his working papers to be brought in. So he is definitely recovering.

Travelling

2007-09-29T16:37:00.001+02:00

I am off to Dallas for a couple of days. No envy, please. It's business, not pleasure. And apparently one of the most boring cities in the whole of the USA.

The trip means, I won't be running the Cologne half-marathon. I'll be jet too legged. But I will take my camera and entertain you with pictures of American offices and highways. If that isn't an incentive to come back in a week, I don't know what is!

G7 is my enemy

2007-09-24T18:54:00.000+02:00

On Saturday, Little Nick Stagg and I boarded a plane to London to take part in a ukulele beginner's workshop run by the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain.

The hotel was not too far from Hampstead Heath and the weather was beautiful, so I left Little Nick at the hotel and went for a walk in the park. Armed with my newly purchased Adam Ant autobiography Stand and Deliver (when I was 12, I had an enormous crush on the man; his posters were all over my wall), I wandered around in search for a bench with a view. There were plenty.

Do you think they were after the swimmers in the mixed bathing pond?

A race course. I should have brought my trainers!

I visited Kenwood House, which hosts a nice collection of art and the entrance is free:

And on to the next beautiful view:

... that is the Isle of Dogs to the left...

... and Saint Paul's to the right...

In the evening, I met Anne Marie to discuss the filming of "Ukulele! The Movie", a film about... well, about the ukulele. It will win Anne Marie and Nick lots of important prices for "best documentary". And they had decided that I should add some cosmopolitan element by saying something in German. We agreed that Anne Marie would do the interview during the tea break of the workshop. That night I dream of Hollywood.

Sunday morning, Cecil Sharp House, home of the English Folk Dance and Song Society.

I found myself in a small room with about 25 other ukulele virgins. The most common reason for being there seemed to be "I got this for my birthday/Christmas/... and don't know how to play it". Hester and George, members of the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain, patiently explained how we should hold and - most importantly - tune our precious littles. That took us about 1 hour and brought a dawing realisation that I am a) stone deaf and b) a talent free zone when string instruments are concerned. But Hester and George are true professionals and Ukulele experts, things like that cannot deter them from their task. They taught us all the necessary technical terms, like "the thingy at the bottom" or "the bits at the top".

And then we were ready to play our first tune, "He's got the whole word in his hands", which thankfully only has two chords: C and G7. Looked easy enough on the chord sheet, but I just could not get my fingers to move quickly from one chord to the other. C was easy enough (it involves only one finger), but G7 drove me crazy! Hester and George managed to say "you are all doing very well" without being struck by lightning and on we moved to "She'll be coming round the mountain" and to a new chord: F joined C and G7 in this song. At the end of it, I had come to the firm conclusion that G7 is my enemy. Why it does not like me, I don't know.

In the tea break Anne Marie arrived to film my contribution to "Ukulele!" It could have been an Oscar performance, had I not giggled my way through it. I fear, that we lost a bit in the credibility department due to that. I tried to keep a straight face and told myself to think "Academy Awards... George Clooney handing me the golden statue..." Ah well... never mind. I cannot tell you too much about it, you will have to go and see the movie. But it involved a ukulele (surprise, surprise), antlers and science. I will be expelled from the actuarial society for the things I said.

After the break we learned three more chords and ended the course playing "Wild thing". My finger tips were hurting, but I had thoroughly enjoyed myself. G7 and I have not exactly become friends, but we are in a "live and let live" state.

I had a couple of hours before my plane left for Germany, so I wandered around London. There was a bike race going on...

I picked up the tickets for The Lilac Time concert at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in November and watched the boats on the river Thames.

Then it was time to go home.

Viral marketing

2007-09-14T21:52:00.000+02:00

This is by far the funniest thing I have seen on youtube. It's in German. Well, sort of.

I wish, I could sing like that

2007-09-09T16:32:00.000+02:00

Go and check out Richard Mailey; it must be the most amazing voice I have heard in a long time. And the guy looks like he has just turned 18. "Paris or Timbuktu" is my favourite.

Not bad

2007-09-09T16:23:00.000+02:00

Back from the Brückenlauf and it went rather well. I enjoyed the race, did not exhaust myself (yes Jens, that means I could have run faster but did not want to... is that the sound of Jens banging his head against a wall?).

My time was 01:30:09, but the total distance run varies even to official sources. The website where you could enlist for the race said 15.2k. The announcer just before the race said 15.15k and the result lists after the race said 15.3k. My Garmin had problems with the Lufthansa underbridge and lost its satellite connection, so in the end it said 14.67k. Never mind, the average speed was something around the 6:00 min/k mark, which was what I had in mind before I started.

Visit to the v...e...t

2007-09-08T16:16:00.000+02:00

Mr Cat is watching me, I have to be careful what I type. We went to the v...e...t this morning for his vaccination and check-up. He has lost weight, which good. He is still a big boy, but since he is about twice as big as a normal cat, that's not surprising. The morning turned bad for him, when the v...e...t started to cut his claws. One had started to grow in a curve and looked like it would soon grow into his paw. It is really like cutting our finger or toe nails, it doesn't hurt. But he put up such a fight, she had to put on thick leather gloves to protect herself. Thankfully, he has a short memory and is my friend again. But for a couple of minutes he wasn't on friendly terms with me.

Tomorrow I will run the Brückenlauf (15k) and it will be just for fun. There wasn't much time to train and I am not motivated to exhaust myself. Must be the weather.

While it is raining outside, I am listening to the excellent Brothernature

and reading Michael Palin's diaries 1969 - 1979, which had mixed reviews. I haven't come far enough to tell you what I think.

metube

2007-08-26T19:03:00.000+02:00

I just spotted myself on youtube. You may remember I mentioned Findlay Brown got off the stage and played right in front of me. Someone filmed it. If you know what to look for, you can see me sitting in the audience and later standing. And if you listen closely, you may even hear me singing along at the end. My 15 minutes of fame, at last!

Stats of the week - week 34

2007-08-26T18:15:00.000+02:00

Total running time: 4 h 16 min
Total distance run: 40.33 k
Total weight loss: 1.5 kg

I have lost some weight. Finally. I am not highly motivated to run at the moment. It's summer. I feel lazy. Still I managed to do what Jens had asked me to do, apart from yesterday when I did not feel well after 5k and stopped after 8k.

After strumming my little ukulele for a couple of days now without really knowing what I am doing (and producing nothing that could be called "a tune"), I have booked a place in a beginners workshop organised by the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britian. Me and precious little will take part in September in London. One of the benefits of being a frequent flyer is that you can use up airmails for indulgences like this.

Precious little

2007-08-24T15:37:00.000+02:00

My precious little has arrived: a gorgeous soprano ukulele.

I think, I will call him "little Nick", because it is more or less Nick Duffy's fault, that I am now the proud owner of this instrument. I was surfing the internet for information to put on duffypedia, when I found a comment from Nick in the guestbook of The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain. I checked the rest of their website and fell in love with their sound. I own a couple of CDs now and their latest one - "Precious Little" - is playing while I type this. You just have to listen to their versions of "Smells Like Teen Spirit", "Theme from Shaft" and especially "Psycho Killer"!

London Marathon 2008

2007-08-23T13:31:00.000+02:00

I have booked a trip to the Flora London Marathon 2008 with Interair. At least I think I have. The only annoying thing about Interair is that you do not get email confirmation if you have booked the trip online. But it worked last time, so I am hoping it worked again this time.

The marathon takes places on 13h April 2008, so I have roughly 7 months and 20 days to get into shape. Jens already has ambitions to see me run it "speedily and beaming". I can see some tough training coming my way over the next months.

I am still on holiday this week, so I can get started immediately. If I am not entirely mistaken, I have enrolled for two more runs this year: the DKV Brückenlauf and the half-marathon that is part of the Köln Marathon.

Green Man Festival

2007-08-22T16:55:00.000+02:00

Hello everyone, I am back from a short trip to Wales where I visited the The Green Man festival. Yes, Ms "if it does not have at least 4 stars I am not staying in it" has been roughing it. In a tent. No bathroom, no shower. Just portaloos, shared with thousands of other music enthusiasts. Why? The Lilac Time were playing their first gig since 2003 there and had organised a small warm up gig the night before in Hereford.

So I flew to Birminigham

where I only spent one hour before I boarded the train to Hereford. It was like a school reunion: C., M. & M., G., D., N. and many more were there too. A couple of us met before the gig for a drink in a pub and a curry. It must have been at the restaurant were I lost my ticket to the concert. Can you imagine that? I come all the way from Germany, just to lose my ticket hours before the gig. I am sure I still had it when I met M. & M. earlier, because it came with a map and we checked the location of the venue. But when we were at the door, it was nowhere to be found. Luckily, L. was at the door and she recognised me and put me on her guest list. Phew!

My camera did not cope well with the light and the indoor setting, so the picture I post was actually taken by M. His camera was far bigger than mine, with an impressive zoom.

The whole event had a very relaxed and friendly atmosphere. Lyrics were forgotten, instruments had to be retuned, children (and grown ups) were dancing, dogs behaving well. A really wonderful evening and well worth coming all the way for.

The next day I took a train to Abergavenny in Wales and from there the bus shuttle to the festival site at Glanusk Estate in the Brecon Beacons.

I had booked a tent with Tangerine Fields. Luxury camping. When you arrive, the tent is hitched and the airbed inflated. All you have to do is move in. I did and my tent looked like a bomb exploded inside of it only minutes later. Somebody should have told me tents do not have wardrobes.

The festival had several stages and all had performances from 12pm until 12:30am. Lots of music and most of it was very good. Findlay Brown unplugged his guitar and stepped off the stage for his final song:

And then of course there was The Lilac Time on the main stage Friday night:

They were much more focused than the night before, less lyrics were forgotten and instuments only had to be retuned once. An excellent performance, but way too short. Nobody was allowed to do encores, so they had to get off the stage after 45 minutes. I had met up with D. to see them play and afterwards we agreed that we probably stood too close to the stage. We would have had a better view from further away.

The next day it started to rain. And it didn't stop. So the Green Man turned into a mini-Glastonbury. Mud developed everywhere. Wellingtons were the thing to wear.

The Folkey Dokey tent...

The main stage (not the enormous soap bubble on the left side)...

My muddy feet...

When it turned dark, you could no longer see the mud and the scenery was beautifully illuminated...

Fire lanterns flew into the sky. Quite romantic.

Sunday morning all portaloos were overflowing and toilet paper had become a rare as a dodo. My airbed had gone flat... again (I had already pumped it up once before). I took a look at the programme and decided to evacuate the site and find myself a nice little guest house in Abergavenny. With my own shower and a soft bed. Wimp? Sissy? Champagne Socialist? Yes, maybe. But Abergavenny is actually worth a visit, if only for a day. They have a castle...

... and you can go for some really nice walks...

Monday morning I was back on my way to Birmingham. This time I had some more time to spend in the city and my main impression is that it is one large shopping mall. You leave one just to enter the next. And there were so many people around, it was unbelievable. I know, I am probably doing the city injustice and there is much more to it, but all I saw in a couple of hours was shops.

Stats of the week - week 32... and "Das Wunder im Wald"

2007-08-12T15:19:00.000+02:00

Total running time: 4 h 54 min
Total distance run: 45.12 k
Total weight loss: 0

Still no weight lost. On Wednesday morning I had 0.5 kg less, but Thursday I went to the pub with A. & S., who felt they needed a drink after some not so good news, and the next day I was back to the old weight. Still, I don't understand why nothing much happens. I eat ever so sensibly (with the exception of that one night out) and I run a lot. Ideas anyone?

This morning I decided to run in Cologne again. I hadn't been for a long time and my scheduled said 18-20k (I did 19.32k, just for the record), which is a bit too long to do it without lots of repetition here at home. It was a beautiful morning and I thought that at 7:30 am I would be alone, but I wasn't. Many people had got up early, maybe like me afraid that it would get too warm for excersise during the day.

So, there I was running... ok jogging along (but still fast enough so that none of those terrorists with sticks, als known as the Nordic Walker, could overtake me). And then a miracle happened, "das Wunder im Wald". In front of me I spied one of the dreaded stick swingers of the very senior class (you know the type: closing in on 80, small, lean, brawny). His weapons moved vigorously from back to front and back. While I was still contemplating how to best beam him out of my track, he did the most amazing thing. He picked up his sticks and... began to run! Yes, he RAN! I think what I felt that moment can only be compared to the feeling of young parents watching their first child take its first steps. Or maybe God felt this way, when he saw the human amphibian leave the ocean to develop legs and feet. Of course, this moment of joy did not last very long. After about 100m he stopped and walked again. But hey! There is hope. He did it once, he may do it again.

Sadly, they paved paradise and put up a parking lot. Was that really necessary?

World cat day

2007-08-08T20:12:00.000+02:00

Today is "world cat day". Three cheers for all moggies great and small!

I allowed Mr Cat to move in with me (in his point of view: he has bestowed the honour of his permanent presence upon me) and have not regretted it ever. And I would love to have more of them around, but Mr Cat is not very sociable. So all I could do was to adopted Tom & Jerry, who live in an animal shelter. I hope, they will find someone to take them home eventually.

Stats of the week - week 31

2007-08-06T18:54:00.001+02:00

Total running time: 5 h 7 min
Total distance run: 45.16 k
Total weight loss: 0

It's not going well this weight loss thing. I have stuck to the plan, but I am still carrying excess baggage. I watch what I eat and the two cocktails at the concert Friday evening (went to see Seeed with A. in B., really good concert, groovey baby) cannot have made the difference, can they? Do I need more patience? Maybe. I will give it another week.

The weather has been great this weekend and I went to the local outdoor swimming pool, stayed in the shade covered in sun protection creme factor 50 (yes, 50) and got sunburned nevertheless. The sun is quite aggressive. I cannot understand the people who have the colour of lime and nevertheless plant themselves directly in the sun for hours. How must they be feeling today?

Still here

2007-07-22T15:59:00.000+02:00

I have been here all the time, but due to work overload I did not feel like blogging. Long days in the office were ended on the couch with Mr Cat instead of at the PC with you. Sorry, but my priorities are clear.

Lots of work meant no time to run. But now that the work is done, I have started again. Yesterday and today - despite of the hot hot weather - I trained. But I have a new goal: bust the fat! Over the last couple of weeks I have put on a total of 5 kg. Bad bad fat, sitting mainly on certain parts of the lower half of my body. Jens new challenge is to help get my weight back. After that we can concentrate on getting faster again. I am interest to see what my training schedule for the next couple of weeks will look like.

Just after my blog silence started I went on two weekend trips that I had won. I am not sure if I will blog about them; it's such a long time ago now that it hardly seems relevant. But then, not much I write about is. So maybe I will publish some more later tonight. We'll see.

Wales

2007-06-24T12:55:00.001+02:00

Hay-on-Wye is a small, picturesque town on the Welsh side of the English Welsh border. It's only claim to fame is the astonishing amount of 36 secondhand and antiquarian bookshops in or near Hay. Once a year they have a festival festival in cooperation with The Guardian. The books were only one reason for me, self-confessed bookworm, to come to this remote place. The other reason was the proximity of the Black Mountains and the Brecon Beacons National Park. I had come to walk with a group of like-minded people, I had never met before in my life.

The hotel was not in Hay itself, but on the other side of the river Wye in a small village called Clyro. It's an interesting place, called Baskerville Hall. Arthur Conan Doyle, a friend of the family, stayed in the house many times and developed the plot for the hounds of the Baskerville novel there. The family had asked him not to set the novel in Wales "to ward off tourists".

If you are not interested in books or maps, Hay will not hold your attention for very long. It has a clocktower...

The picture is misleading reading the weather condidions, so here is another one:

... a ruined castle...

... and that's it.

The real beauty is in the surrounding countryside. The following pictures were taken on the first two of our walks. I have lost the itenary, so I cannot say exactly were we went. If I find it again, I will add information. It has to be somewhere, don't think I binned it. But you never know. I do many stupid things these days. On the third day, it was pouring down (I am now 100% sure that my jacket is waterproof and that my trousers aren't; I might just as well have jumped into the pool fully dressed) and I didn't feel like taking any pictures.

Wales has many many sheep...

This little church sits in the middle of fields, no village is close by. You can get to it only by walking over the meadows and scaring the sheep. It is still used at harvest time for thanksgiving.

The guide called this a roundabout. There are stone benches in the middle, so we had lunch.

Day 2 was a Wye valley walk, longer than day 1 but without acclivity.

According to our guide's map, this is another country hotel:

A baby robbin robin, very trusting or very curious. Its parents could be heard chirping frantically in the bushes. They clearly felt that it was getting too close to this herd of humans.

I learned Welsh for library, but missed the live rugby...

Apart from the sheep, there are many other creatures great and small living in these mountains:

My fellow English walkers called this lamb's skin, which is the translation of Arnica. And once you have touched it, you know it is a very fitting name. But isn't it supposed to have yellow flowers???

As I said, no pictures from day 3. We actually cut the route short, because of the rain.

I spent the last day in London and visited the summer exhibition at the Royal Academy. I could have bought a number of the pieces on display, but champagne taste, beer money. So I left empty handed. Celebrity spotting of the day: Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen standing right next to me, both of us checking our blackberries, a bizarre modern still life.

Drinks with collegues in the evening and one last try to have dinner at Govinda's. Closed again. I will give up. If Krishna does not want me to enjoy veggie delights cooked in his name, I will go elsewhere. Well, I did. I came back home.

Swindon and Hereford

2007-06-24T12:24:00.000+02:00

I am back, which of course means I eventually made it to the UK. To start this blog with "I am back" kills the suspense, doesn't it? Did she make it? Was the Sunday morning flight cancelled too? Mmmh... I don't think any of you reading this blog more or less regularly have been chewing down their nails over the last couple of days wondering about these things. So I may just as well give it away immediately.

Sunday morning I got up early, took a taxi to the airport (paid by Lufthansa, who pointed out they were not obliged to pay, because the cause of the cancellation had been the weather, but they would anyway, because they are lovely caring people and service orientated) and boarded a plane to London. So far, so good. At Paddington I proceded to the ticket counter to buy a train ticket to Swindon. A really nice man (honestly, he was) smiled at me and said "Did you know, there are no trains to Swindon today? There are rail works and from Reading on there will be a bus service." Argh! Is it just me or do you also get the feeling that this trip wasn't going very well? Reading is about half way to Swindon and I had no other option than to take the train/bus connection. So I spent 1 hour squeezed in between the bus heating that was on full throttle (why?) and a rather large man. Had I been a steak, I would have been well done by the time I arrived in Swindon.

This is all I saw of the place:

C very quickly came to pick me up and we drove to Herefordshire in his rather posh and very comfortable car.

Lunch at "The Kettle Sings"...

... and a short climb up the surrounding hills...

My foot still in England but already facing towards Wales (I think):

Some sort of fair was going on in the valley below. We could hear loudspeaker announcements, but I didn't make out what it was exactly:

We climbed back down and drove on to a place where houses have names instead of numbers to see N & J. It was lovely to sit outside in their beautiful garden and enjoy freshly homemade scones and tea. Well, I did. C is on a diet and very bravely faced all the goodies, but only drank water.

In the evening, C dropped me off at my B&B in Hereford and I went for an evening walk through town, which has a cathedral and some nice half-timber houses:

The next morning I took the bus to Wales.

Argh!

2007-06-16T18:14:00.000+02:00

I am home. What's so special about that? Well, earlier today I thought that right now I'd be in London enjoying a curry. But all flights to Heathrow this afternoon were cancelled due to bad weather conditions in England. I will be on the first flight tomorrow morning, which means that I will have to get up in the middle of the night. I am NOT happy!

Official time and splits

2007-06-10T18:52:00.000+02:00

My official results for today's half-marathon have been published:

0-5k ~ 00:30:29
5-10k ~ 00:29:03
10-15k ~ 00:31:11
15-20k ~ 00:32:00
HM ~ 02:09:24

Half-marathon

2007-06-10T16:12:00.000+02:00

I ran a half-marathon today. The target time was 2:06:35, my Garmin Forerunner said 2:08:35 when I crossed the finish line. It was complaining about the battery going flat during the last 2k or so, so that may be slightly wrong, but the official time and splits have not been published yet. Anyway, the greatest achievement was that I made it to the start at all. I really did not feel like running and wanted to stay in bed. I have not trained for a week. Work is no fun at the moment and when I am in a bad mood, all I want to do is sit on the couch and cuddle the cat.

Talking about the cat... he is fine again. The vet called him a phenomena on Saturday. She clearly did not expect him to get well again. But he carries on regardless.

Another one

2007-06-02T14:17:00.000+02:00

Mr Cat has decided to add yet another illness to the list of diseases he has or has had. This morning at 4:30 am he woke me up to inform me that he was not feeling well. By 5 am I was panicking, because he started to pass blood with his urine. At 5:30 am we arrived at the emergency vet's clinic. She was still half asleep (Mr Cat and myself were wide awake by then), but her diagnose was clear: cystitis. He got two shots, one against the infection, the other against the pain and burning sensation while peeing. Plus pills that he has to take for a week.

He seems to be doing better now, but is still not himself again. He has eaten, but only little. Mainly cheese. We will have a nap now to make up for the early start into the day. I hope the painkiller works for the rest of the day.

Whatever next?

Stats of the week - week 19

2007-05-13T19:41:00.000+02:00

Total running time: 3 h 47 min
Total distance run: 36.4 k

It didn't go too well this week. The weather has changed from hot and sunny to cold and rainy. My body is confused. Monday on the treadmill my pulse raced after only 5 minutes. I carried on for another 1o, then decided to stop. Tuesday and Wednesday were a bit better, but yesterday I could not do what Jens had asked me to (10k fast). Today again was better (11k in 1h 7min).

Mr Cat is snoring on the coach again. Bless him, a cat's life is exhausting. He gets up at 6.50 am and hits me in the face with his paw to wake me (no kidding, he really does; no claws, just paw). He spents the next 5 minutes dodging my hand that tries to stop him. After that he eats, cleans his fur, scratches the red carpet in the hall and then sleeps until the evening. When I get home, same procedure: eat, clean fur, scratch carpet, sleep. I want to be reborn as a cat.

Friday I went to the record store and bought some new cds. I especially like the new one by Amy Winehouse "Back to Black" and Snow Patrol's "Eyes Open". Feists new album "The Reminder" was the most expensive one I bought, but is really good, too.

Stats of the week - week 18

2007-05-06T14:35:00.000+02:00

I know, I know... it's confusing if I keep changing the numbering of my "stats of the week". But I don't really feel like counting down to the next race. The London marathon was the big running event of the year and deserved a special "stats of the week countdown". The rest of the year is 10k, 15k and half-marathon races. Nothing too spectacular. So from now on it's the week of the year in the title.

Total running time: 3 h 16 min 18 sec
Total distance run: 33.4 k

Given that it is only two weeks since the marathon, that's already quiet a lot. Four training days in total. Not bad.

The next race is a 10.5k night run. I have no ambitions for this one, I just want to have fun and enjoy the atmosphere at night. The start is at 9:15 pm. This particular race can get very crowded and the runners have to run up and down steps and cross bridges, so there are many opportunities for human traffic jams. My next big goal is to do well in the Leverkusen half marathon. What exactly "do well" means is still a matter of negotiations with my coach.

Fora London marathon 2007 - the day after

2007-04-26T20:50:00.000+02:00

The day after. I felt almost like a human being again. Just a slight muscle ache in the legs. But soemthing else had not been so lucky the day before. There was a casualty, my poor Polar watch. The wrist band tore after years of absorbing sweat.

As a marathon survival treat I will get myself the Bentley of heart rate watches, the Garmin Forerunner 305. It has a GPS receiver, so I will never get lost again running around in the forest. It is frightfully expensive, so it will have to be the Christmas/birthday/Eastern/... present to myself for at least a couple of years to come.

After breakfast I decided to visit the Victory and Albert Museum. It is just down the road from the hotel and always worth a visit. As you can see, the weather had turned colder and rainy again. (Why? Why not the day before?)

I hadn't been to the museum for a couple of years, so it was about time I went again. The collection of art and design is huge and you can spend days in there. I only had a couple of hours, so I concentrated on the fashion & jewlery exhibition. I may not look like it, but I am a fashion victim.

In this way inspired, I visited Harvey Nichols and bought a jacket. The British economy is booming just because of my visit.

Flora London marathon 2007 - race day

2007-04-25T21:03:00.000+02:00

And then it is Sunday morning. It doesn't start well. When I try to attach my runners number to the Unicef t-shirt I tear a hole into it (the t-shirt AND the runners number). I am starting to have a premonition about the problems ahead of me (my nan was very superstitious, it has rubbed off on me a bit).

Then it's time to go and we get on the bus that will take us to the starting line:

To my great surprise the bus took us to the blue start this year, which is also the start of the elite race. Last year we started from the red start together with all the costumed runners. I hadn't paid notice when I picked up my runners number and didn't see that the number was printed on in blue, which would have been a clue. Uli claims he wrote about it in his newsletter, but that I too hadn't noticed. Apparently the organisers are experimenting with the different starts (three in total: green, red and blue) and are thinking about abandoning the green one next year.

Balloons, balloons, balloons...

We arrived early to beat the traffic and have plenty of time to rest, put on sunscreen and be nervous.

Based on last year finish time, I have been allocated to pen 6, so when there is only about 25 minutes to go I follow the signs...

There is not much to tell about the race itself, but... it was very hard indeed. I have plenty of excuses for not doing as well as last year: I didn't have sufficient time for training (about 6 weeks instead of the "prescribed" 12), I had been ill only two weeks before the race, it was a very warm day ("hot" in my world).

The first 5k I ran too fast. If you look at my splits it doesn't seem like that, but shortly after the start there was a congestion and we had to walk for a couple of minutes (4 according to my watch). It seems that the "experiment" with the blue start failed. After 10k I was already starting to feel the heat. After 15k I knew, I wouldn't be able to continue at the pace I was running. After 20k I knew, it wasn't a question of keeping up the pace, but finishing at all. I don't look bad though on Tower Bridge, which is exactly at 20k (the pictures are small, because I am not willing to pay 75 GBP for one print to the official photographer for a better resolution!):

I have to admit that I started to walk after about 23k. I had drunken too much cold water and was having stomach cramps. But running for Unicef and thinking about the sponsors' money kept me going. I spent the second half of the race, walking running walking running. Finish time didn't matter at all. And suddenly there it was... the finish line!

At the meeting point, Uli and B. have already recovered from their race. They were trying to run 3.45, but the heat had taken it's toll on them too and they finished in very respectable 4:04.

In the evening we all meet in a pub for inter air's after marathon party. Achim took pictures, but they aren't online yet:

Uli and B. have recovered even more and look pratically radiant:

It may not have been a brilliant race for me, but I was lucky and won a price at the tombola. A weekend marathon running course with Herbert Steffny! (You may remember that last year after the marathon I wanted to book this seminar, but it was fully booked.) The only embarrasing thing about it was, that Achim had asked me to be the Good Luck Fairy and draw the winning numbers out of a hat. But since I hadn't cheated, he insisted I was the winner. (I have asked my trainer Jens if I am allowed to go and he replied "absolutely not" :-)).

I did have my picture taken wearing my Brittlestar t-shirt and my medal (marathon tradition no. 5). But I am not posting it here, it's censored. I asked Uli to ensure that I have only one chin and he managed to do that. Unfortunately that came at a price. I look like Jay Leno. Let me get this clear: it is not at all Uli's fault, but entirely due to my stupid face. I did send the picture to Stewart, but it's for private use only.

Mark asked if I enjoyed the marathon. Yes and no. But more yes than no, so I will be back next year.

Flora London marathon 2007 - the final two days

2007-04-24T20:45:00.000+02:00

I had decided to start a couple of London marathon traditions (I know that doing something two years in a row is not a tradition worth mentioning, but you have to start somewere, right?):

Visit the Wildlife photographer of the year exhibition at the Natural History Museum
Buy a London marathon mug at the marathon expo
Join Uli and the other runners in our group for a last training run on Saturday morning.
Finish the London marathon (obviously)
Have my picture taken afterwards wearing my Brittlestar t-shirt and my medal

Traditions 1 to 3 are easy to achive, but 4 and subsequently 5 are a challenge.

So, easy ones first and Friday morning I visit the wildlife photography exhibition at the Natural History Museum:

The exhibition was again fascinating and I would have loved to take home all of the pictures to put them on my wall. If you happen to be in London in April, go and see it. It's worth it.

Next up, the London marathon expo and that mug. More important than the mug is of course to pick up the runners number and the Champion chip used to take the time.

I spent way too much money at the expo. In addition to the mug I bought some clothes and energy bars and gels for the race. I had pasta, order the newspaper with the results (they send it to each runners home address) and got red laces.

Then it's Saturday morning and we go on our final run before the race. It has no training effect, it's simply to calm the nerves and do some sightseeing.

This is where it will all end the next day:

Saturday was a lovely, warm and sunny day. So in the afternoon I went to Hyde Park armed with a book to have a nap in the sun and watch the swans:

Two times lucky

2007-04-23T23:57:00.000+02:00

It's done. It was hard, much harder than last year, but I made it to the finish line:

Position (overall) 20923
Position (gender) 4776
Position (age group) 914
Finish time 4:49:38

Pictures of the race day and time off in London will be posted soon.

Off to London

2007-04-19T21:01:00.000+02:00

That's it, I am off to London tomorrow morning. No further training to be done apart from a Saturday morning slow run to Buckingham Palace with Uli. I am 2 days and 12 hours away from the second marathon of my life.

Stats of the week so far:

Total running time: 2 h 18 min
Total distance run: 21.2 k

I hope that on Sunday afternoon I will be able to add another 42.195k to the total distance. Thanks to everyone who is sponsoring me and thanks also for all the messages and well wishes! I will report back on Tuesday next week.