My brother came on to cheer me on at last year’s Loch Ness marathon.  And found the whole camaraderie, and the event itself, quite inspiring.  So he decided to do the London Marathon this year.  Roles were reversed, as this time I was going to be the spectator.

The first place I made my way to was Greenwich, just round the corner from the Cutty Sark.  Now sunny weather might be nice for a day out with your friends.  But it doesn’t make for a nice time whilst you’re running.  I wasn’t to quite realise at the time, just how bad conditions were.  According to one of my fellow runners at my local running club, it was the worst conditions she had run in the London Marathon….and this was her 20th on the trot!

In Greenwich I saw the elite women running past, then the wheelchair racers (which looked incredibly tough), then the elite men.  How they all keep up their pace whilst covering just over 26 miles is truly extraordinary.  And not something I will ever hope to do.

The main body of runners then came through, including many people wearing fancy dress; I saw fancy dress rhinos, a guy kicking a football around, a guy juggling and 2 nutters carrying a fancy dress bus on their shoulders.  I didn’t realise just how long it would take for my brother to cross the start line (40 mins!), so I made my way to the next viewing point, not having seen him.  I went to Canary Wharf which was noisy and really buzzing.  The bit I was stood by was after 19 miles, where many runners would have hit ‘the wall’ and start to struggle.  But I was truly impressed on how many kept on going.

The final point I went to was round the corner from Westminster, at the 25 mile point.  Again, I was truly impressed by the number of runners who kept going, in boiling hot conditions.  I finally got to see my brother at this point and especially as this was his first marathon, was delighted to see him run past.  Like everyone else, his race time predictions had gone out the window, and the objective was just to get round.  It was just hot watching them run past.  So well done to him and to everyone else who completed the run.  Not sure I’ll be entering for next years!

One of the reasons I got a camera for Xmas a couple of years ago, was that I wanted to go around locally and take some photos of the local sites.  Well, a couple of weeks ago, I decided to go to Crystal Palace Park on a Saturday morning and put it to good use.

The site has got such a lot of history and interest.  It takes it’s name from the Crystal Palace that was built from cast-iron and glass and was an enormous building designed to house the Great Exhibition of 1851.  If you go online, then you can see some photos of the original building.  Unfortunately, a fire in 1936 meant that the building was destroyed; save for the foundations, which are still there.  The photos taken above show some of the foundations/steps/walls that are still there and by looking at them, you can get some idea of the size of the building.

Looking in the museum was fascinating, and really brought home just how extraordinary a site it was.  It still is interesting today.  It also houses the National Sports Centre, including the athletics track (where I saw Brendan Foster break a world record once – that’s how old I am!), and the olympic sized swimming pool (where I once saw Duncan Goodhew – again, that’ s how old I am!).

But all of this is housed in a lovely park.  It’s a nice size and has several ponds/lakes which are pretty to look at.  And the kids love the dinosaur statues in one section of the park (no idea whose idea it was to put them there, but they look hilarious).  One of the ponds is the site of the old Bowl, where bands used to play.  Bob Marley once played there.  And several other big names.  The bowl has been replaced with another structure now, but it seems a really cool, quirky place to watch a band.

But I would recommend to anyone that they go down to the Park and take a look.  And venture into the museum.  It’s easy sometimes to miss the history you have on your own doorstep.

I’ve been to all of the England home games since the 2010 World Cup.  And enjoyed each one, to be honest.  I’ve got no expectations as to how we’ll do.  I don’t expect us to win anything.  But I never expected a friendly against Ghana to be the game that gave me most pleasure.

I knew something was going to be different about this one, when I heard that 20,000 Ghanaians would be making the trip.  Some from Ghana, some from Europe and some living locally in London.  I didn’t realise how much fun they would be!  Right from the start, when I got off the tube at Wembley, they were making a great noise.  Guys on drums, fans all wearing Ghana scarfs and…dare I say it…..not sure this allowed in England……but they had fans who were just happy to be at the game.  Whatever the result, they were going to enjoy themselves.  Which I found refreshing, to say the least.

The game itself was an entertaining one, and England played some good stuff.  But right at the end, Asamoah Gyan equalised for Ghana.  And I’ve never seen a set of fans go so bananas!  But secretly, I was actually pleased for them.  I hope they come back again soon.

Yesterday I tried pottery for the first time.  Judging by the quizzical reactions I got of the few people I mentioned it to, I’m not the only one who was new to pottery.  Using a pottery wheel certainly wasn’t something I tried at school.  But as part of my try it and see if I like it, I thought I would give it a go….and what fun it was.

The only time I’d really seen people use pottery wheels was on The Generation Game, during the 80′s.  Accompanied by raucous laughter from the audience.  But this time I was all on my own.  With my tutor Margaret.

I have to say it was trickier than I expected.  Despite Margaret’s expert tuition, I didn’t really feel that I had a great deal of know how on what I was producing.  I couldn’t seem to grip the clay properly half the time!  But that said, the time flew past.  I was there for about an hour and a quarter, and it was well worth making a slight mess of myself, to produce a lovely bowl at the end.  With considerable help from Margaret.

She’ll stick the thing in her kiln and will give me a call in a few weeks, when it’s ready.  Then I’ll be able to post up a picture of the finished product.  And decide what to do with the thing.

The guest of honour was Derek Malcolm, renowned film critic, who now works for The Observer and The Evening Standard.  His Q & A session preceded the film, The White Ribbon, and it was a delight.  It was a shame that he had to stop as most of us could have listened all night.  He had great stories to tell and fascinating background information and what the requirements are to be a film critic.  He has an obvious enthusiasm for film, but listening to him speak, I appreciated just how huge his knowledge is of films and arts in general.  He seemed to enjoy the occasion as well and I hope he makes another trip to the club.

The film itself was fantastic.  At approximately 2 hours 20 mins, you certainly have time to get engrossed in it.  It’s set in pre-First World War Germany, and it keeps you guessing as to what happens all the way through.  I won’t give a full review of it here, as you will be able to read much better reviews of it elsewhere on the internet.  But I would recommend you go watch it.

On a cold, in fact freezing, winter’s night, I went to see the awesomely silly Matt Berry at King’s College, London Uni.

I wasn’t quite sure what to expect.  I didn’t think it was going to be a night of stand up, because I knew he would be playing with a band.  But how much would be songs (stupid ones) and how much banter (silly banter)?  Watching the 2 support acts (can’t remember their names, but they were good fun), made me wonder even more.  If it was a night of comedy, wouldn’t the support acts be comedians?

Well it turned out to 90% songs, 10% hilarious banter.  With some cheesy keyboard playing thrown in.  The songs weren’t ‘comedy’ songs, the type done by people like Tim Minchin.  Instead they were comedy pastiches of styles like Jesus Christ Superstar.

“Turn the lights down.  I like it dark blue…and sexy!”.  The banter was suitably stupid as well.

I enjoyed the evening.  It wasn’t quite like anything I’d seen before…..and when he tours again, I’ll definitely go watch him.

Turning up on Thursday last week, I was not disappointed.  The films are projected onto a decent sized screen (I was wondering if it would just be a big, widescreen tv, but it was a proper cinema like screen), in a back room of the pub.  It was just like being in a cinema, except everyone had pints.  Although I was wary of my loose bladder, so I was careful with my pre-film alcohol intake.  The people organising it were friendly and once you paid a fiver for your ticket, you got a proper cinema ticket (with the name of the film on it!) and an A4 printout giving you an idea of the film and also a little biography of the director.

What I didn’t expect was the short film, Spoiler, which we saw first.  This was a British short and was funny.  It was basically about someone who enjoyed spoiling the end of films for others.  But I won’t give you any more info, in case I spoil that fun short for you.

The main film was called ‘Nine Queens’ and was a sub-titled Argentinean film.  It was great fun.  Full of conmen and conwomen, you changed your mind from scene to scene as to who you could trust.  It was just under 2 hours long, but I thought it moved along at a good pace and the 2 lead characters were excellent.  Although one of them (to me anyway), looked a little like Bruno off Strictly Come Dancing.

I’m hoping to get involved with the film group and volunteer for any work they need a hand with, and/or any festivals they have coming up.  I really enjoyed the evening, and not just because of the film.  I get a feeling that I’ll enjoy being part of the group.

A good friend of mine, Steve, is a West Brom fan.  They’ve been a bit of a yo-yo team over the years, and so when they gained promotion to the Premiership for this season, it was the 4th time they’d done so in the last few years.  Each previous time we had said, “we must go see our teams play each other”.   But due to the difficulty of getting tickets at United (it would have had to have been via the expensive Black Market), we didn’t go.  But this time, thanks to the ruinous financial regime of the Glazers, tickets were easy to obtain.

My photo above shows was excellent seats we had.  Low down, near the half way line.  Pretty much perfect.

United were firm favourites to win this game.  I had expected to have to be nice, without condescending, to Steve in the wake of the expected United victory.  But football is a funny old game as the saying goes.  Although United led 2 – 0 at half time, it was a more even game than the scoreline suggested.  And both goals came from poor mistakes from the Albion defence.

Early in the 2nd half, Albion had a free kick.  I remember literally thinking, “I hope this doesn’t go in, as if they grab a second, I’m not sure whether where a third goal for us would come from”.  Lo and behold, their freekick into the box led to an own goal from Evra.  5 minutes later a routine cross into the box was spilled by Van der Sar and the West Brom striker had the easiest goal he will ever score, simply tapping the ball into the empty net.

The worrying thing from a United point of view, was that this didn’t provoke a reaction from our strikers.  Instead, West Brom looked the likelier to score in the closing stages.

The final score of 2 all ensured honours were even.  Lets hope West Brom stay up, so we can have a return next season.  Although I was disappointed with the result and the performance, going back to Old Trafford always feels like going back home.

2 weeks after doing the Great North Run, I did the Loch Ness Marathon.  It might be twice the length of a half-marathon, but I discovered that it feels about 10 times further to run!  This was my first full marathon and I can easily say that it was the hardest physical thing I have ever done.

We started at 10am in the chilly remote Highlands of Fort Augustus.  But chilly during race is good.  The conditions I fear the most are hot and sunny, or hurricane strength wind.  Being piped off by the local bag pipe crew was a nice touch as well.  The start was complete with the usual local radio DJ shouting out a load of stuff that basically nobody listens to.

Anyway, the first 9 miles were nice-ish countryside.  But between mile 9 and mile 20, we ran alongside the beautiful Loch Ness.   There was no sign of the legendary Nessie.  But after 13 miles (half way through), I could have done with a lift from Nessie or anyone else.  I had run 18 miles in training, but doing 26 miles is a whole different ball game!  Cramp started to kick in after mile 20.

The final mile was in the lovely town of Inverness, where I was staying.  My spirits picked up when I saw my brother and his girlfriend cheering me on by the wobbly bridge (see the pics above).  I managed to run the final mile (running might be a bit over the top to describe my hobbling), but the relief I felt when I finished was indescribable.  Having a McDonalds handed to me at the finish did the job as well.

I finished in 5 hours 42 mins.  Considering it was my first one,  I was just pleased to finish.  But I must have walked at least 10 of the 26 miles, so I don’t consider myself a marathon runner yet.  The next marathon target is to run all the way around, and that should mean I do it in under 5 hours.  I’ll be having a decent break before I take that challenge on!

Sunday 19th September – that was the date of my first go at the Great North Run.  I’ve run a few half marathons before, so normally I could be confident I would easily finish the distance.  But this time I had had a bit of a bug during the week, so I felt a bit more tentative than usual before the race.  Although the fact I was doing it with my brother and his girlfriend certainly helped.

The race starts in Newcastle.  With official race starters Ant and Dec (can never remember which is which),  it took over 25 mins for us to get to the start line!  That’s because approx 50,000 runners take part.  Which makes it the biggest race in the world.  It certainly adds to the occasion and I loved the start of the race, especially running over the Tyne Bridge.

In the end it took me 2 hours 40 mins to finish.  Which involved a lot of walking.  I ran the first 5 miles and then, for the remaining 8 miles, walked and run in equal amounts.  I really liked the finish in South Shields as well.  Despite it absolutely chucking it down – not the best when you run wearing glasses.

That’s another half marathon ticked off my list.  Next time I do one, I’ll be aiming to finish in under 2 hours.