Remain in light

I have broken another kindle (see Icons passim) by cracking the screen. This time it was in a soft kit bag in an overcrowded car boot.

Once again, I have no option but to replace it so a Kindle Paperwhite is on its way.

Anna Kashfi

From Babyon Wales:

This school picture taken in 1948 shows Form 5 of St Joseph's Convent School, North Road, Cardiff. In the back row, second from the right, is Joanna O'Callaghan. She lived in Newfoundland Road, Gabalfa. Just a few years after this photograph was taken she became an actress and changed her name to Anna Kashfi. Moving to Hollywood she starred in films opposite the likes of Spencer Tracy and Rock Hudson. But more significantly she would marry the hottest male star of the era, Marlon Brando. Unfortunately their marriage was short-lived but the tortuous custody battle over their ill-starred son Christian went on for years. All that torment was still to come when this picture was taken - here she is just an ordinary and reasonably happy teenager living in Cardiff.

I went to St Joseph's Convent School in North Road myself. Just like Marlon Brando's wife. Who'd a thunk it?

Prodnose: I remember you were in trouble all the time.
Myself: Now you got me. Boy, the way those Sisters used to whack me, I don't know what. They thought they was gonna beat an education into me, but I foxed 'em.

Come to think of it, I remember my Mum telling me she know Bosco O'Callaghan; Anna's brother.

Farleigh Wallop

The Bomber and I are away camping with friends this weekend in a martial forest that exists alongside the real world, full of wandering sword fighters, medicine men, defrocked priests, poets, sorcerers and Shaolin renegades Basingstoke.

result

When I got a text from the Bomber informing me that his school came third in the Merton Secondary Schools Track and Field Championships, but not volunteering any more details I thought that perhaps he hadn't done so well himself in his events. As it turns out he won the 200m and came second in the 100m and 4x100m relay. He slipped at the start of the 100m, so maybe if his feet hadn't outgrown last year's spikes he might have won that. Who knows? A gold and two silvers is a good haul.

The photo above is from the Burnham on Sea Rugby Festival; nothing to do with athletics but it arrived in the post yesterday so I thought I'd share it. He is fourth from the right on the back row.

the tail that wagged the dog

Crossrail 2, in which Wimbledon and Tooting Broadway become the centre of the world. I just hope I'm still alive to see it.

When the levee breaks

Not yet a fortnight on from the end of the season rugby tour and athletics is back with a vengeance. The Bomber and pals had their first Herne Hill Harriers training session of the year last night at the Tooting Bec track.

My God, it was cold, wet and miserable. An issue compounded by my misreading of the times and expecting it to finish at eight rather than eighty thirty, the boys having gone up an age group attend different sessions to last year.

I stood sulking on the sidelines blasting a soundtrack through my headphones:

If it keeps on rainin', levee's goin' to break, If it keeps on rainin', levee's goin' to break, When The Levee Breaks I'll have no place to stay.

That said, the kids - though sodden - seemed happy enough.

Himself is in the Merton Secondary Schools Track and Field Championships 2013 today. The times to be nervous are 11:40 for the 100m, 12:40 for the 200m and 2:30 for the 4x100m relay.

Nothing to do but loaf after that until training again ............ tomorrow.

Dukkha

I came out of the house this morning only to discover that some S.O.B. had keyed my car (and three others) all along the driver's side.

Nobody's dead or injured I suppose, but it has taken the spring out of my step this a.m.

Not that I hold grudges you understand but I still brood and entertain revenge fantasies concerning the bottom feeder who threw paint over it in 2006 (see Icons passim).

Since then the main theme of late night attacks on my motor has been wing mirror snapping. I've lost count. Only one this year though, touch wood.

"String 'em all up. Hanging's too good for 'em. I had that Melanie Phillips in the back of the cab once ......."

floating round my tin can

A revised version of David Bowie's Space Oddity, recorded by Commander Chris Hadfield on board the International Space Station.

To be followed, I trust, by covers of "Unwashed and Somewhat Slightly Dazed", "Don't Sit Down", "Letter to Hermione", "Cygnet Committee", "Janine", "An Occasional Dream", "Wild Eyed Boy from Freecloud", "God Knows I'm Good" and "Memory of a Free Festival". All of which I know by heart.

 ....... sings 

We scanned the skies with rainbow eyes and saw machines of every shape and size
We talked with tall Venusians passing through
And Peter tried to climb aboard but the Captain shook his head
And away they soared
Climbing through
the ivory vibrant cloud
Someone passed some bliss among the crowd
And We walked back to the road, unchained

The Sun Machine is Coming Down, and We're Gonna Have a Party
The Sun Machine is Coming Down, and We're Gonna Have a Party

..... repeat to fade in blatant (even unto the chord progression) Hey Jude rip off.

Anyone who can listen to that without laughing must have a heart of stone.

This time it's personal

I had my first session with a personal trainer for a long, long time this morning. I signed up for it because, when I was invited, I was told it was free. Perhaps it is a way for a trainer who is new to Virgin Active to drum up business?

Thus, I bowled up without any particular ambition or agenda just thinking it would add a bit of variety to my sessions but I was extremely impressed.

We discussed my recent mountain biking crash and he has given me a set of exercises to rehabilitate my rotator cuff (having had a similar shoulder injury himself). It became very clear as I worked at them that it is the specific mechanism or muscle that is used in external rotation that is my problem area. I am going to shorten my cardio sessions by, say, five minutes and do these exercises (they are all light) as a kind of warm up. He recommended the cross trainer and breast stroke swimming to loosen my shoulders so i will try them as well. I've also got variations of seated dumb bell curls and flies that should support shoulder health as well as working my biceps and chest.

On another topic, when I told him how embarrassingly inflexible I am in front folds, he got me to touch my toes for 30 seconds on the vibrating PowerPlate - apparatus at which I had previously sneered from afar. To my astonishment it worked a treat and gave me a good couple of inches in reach. I will try and do that every time I go now.

I don't need someone beasting me in the gym to make sure I work, but I may well see this guy for an hour once a month to evaluate progress and keep me on the straight and narrow.

Hot Stuff

Access Denied

The owner of this website (www.rapps.co.uk) does not allow hotlinking to that resource (/images/igallery/resized/7001-7100/039_Gul13_on_Sea_0868-7013-800-600-80.jpg). (Ref. 1011)

• Timestamp: Sat, 11 May 2013 03:20:22 -0700

I see (Icons passim) that the action pictures I posted of Ben didn't work because the owner of the site does not allow hotlinking. I'll fix the post when I get five minutes, but I wasn't aware such a feature could be implemented.

Noodling around I see that URL Rewrite would let us do it programmatically in IIS.

IIS URL Rewrite 2.0 enables Web administrators to create powerful rules to implement URLs that are easier for users to remember and easier for search engines to find. By using rule templates, rewrite maps, .NET providers, and other functionality integrated into IIS Manager, Web administrators can easily set up rules to define URL rewriting behavior based on HTTP headers, HTTP response or request headers, IIS server variables, and even complex programmatic rules. In addition, Web administrators can perform redirects, send custom responses, or stop HTTP requests based on the logic expressed in the rewrite rules.

I had also never heard of URL Rewrite. I will forward it to the Burglar as I imagine there are all sorts of things we could do with it.

Prodnose: Why are you telling me this?

Myself: Chicks dig it.

Calling Fergie Time

Before Jonnie played for Wimbledon AFC, so this must be when he was very young, Andy used to take him to football training at some set up over towards the A3. Over the months he got chatting to, and vaguely to know, one of the other fathers on the touchline. One day this Dad couldn't seem to find his son, but then announced in a relieved tone, "it's OK, he's there he is was Granddad".

Andy looked round, only to see this kid walking up hand-in-hand with Sir Alex Ferguson (#ATrueStory).

Bugatti Veyron

Looking at the website of the official photographer of the Gullivers Burnham-on-Sea Festival 2013 which we attended last weekend, I found an action sequence of Ben making a break from a line out in the game against Dartfordians. I'd like to think he is scoring one of the brace of tries he got in that match in the last shot but I'm not sure he is. Looking at photo 2 though, I can see that Louie, who was playing number eight and stayed out of the line out, is in support just behind him so I am pretty confident we would have retained possession.

Note to self

I was driving down to Somerset on Friday night so I didn't get to the The Martin Lewis Money Show episode that mentioned the auction system.

The Burglar says that it was quite a brief reference towards the end. That said it certainly did the business in ramping the traffic up.

I have 25 days to catch up with it on the itvPLAYER at https://www.itv.com/itvplayer/the-martin-lewis-money-show/series-2/episode-7

2.1.7.1

Good morning, I am writing this on the new iOS version 2.1.7.1 of the Blogger app as I am waiting at home for the gas man to turn up and service the boiler. 2.1.7.1 was released today and has RTF support plus WYSIWYG editing for new and existing posts. It also boasts in-place image editing and minor bug fixes.

Life on the edge, eh?